Recording the Reading, 2007, #s 41 & 42
Read during the cruise:
41. Water for Elephants: A Novel by Sara Gruen
I read this for my next out-of-town book club meeting on December 5, and my local book club will be discussing it on April 15. The cruise ship had a (rather nice) library and I borrowed their copy and managed to finish the book while sunning on the two sea days. I think the book is appealing because it’s historical fiction grounded in good research.
The main character, Jacob, is about to graduate from Cornell’s vet school in the early years of the Depression when his parents are killed in a car crash. They were mortgaging the house and his father’s vet practice to pay for Jacob’s schooling, so he is left with nothing. Instead of writing his final exams, Jacob hops a circus train. His background allows him finagle his way into caring for the circus animals, where he works for a psychotic menagerie boss and falls for the boss’ performer wife. Added to the mix is an elephant acquired from a defunct circus that only understands Polish, which Jacob can speak.
There’s a bit of romance and mystery in the book as well, and I was a little surprised by the endings. Gruen alternates between the youthful Jacob (21 when most of the story takes place) and the elderly Jacob (90 or 93), remembering his past while anticipating visiting an old-style circus with a big top that’s come to his retirement home’s town.
Gruen did extensive research for the book, including a couple visits to the Ringling Circus Museum in Sarasota, Florida (which happens to be right next door to my son’s college, so I visited the gift shop). Pictures from their collection (as well as a few others) are used at the beginnings of many of the book’s chapters.
Read before and after the cruise (on the plane, etc.):
42. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
This book recently (November 14) was named the 2007 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. I read a prepub copy I picked up back at the Texas Library Association meeting in April, so I’m not sure if the final book was the same. It was just published in September.
The book is an autobiographical novel, told in first person, with the 14-year-old main character, Arnold Spirit, leaving his Spokane (WA) Indian reservation school to attend a wealthy, all-white school. Arnold deals with many typical modern Native American problems: the alcoholism of his father, the death of his grandmother and sister, poverty, and despair.
Like the 2007 Newbery winner The Higher Power of Lucky, this book will generate some controversy, with its references to the “chronic tribe of masturbators” (page 217) and “boners” (pages 96, 97, 190, and “a metaphorical boner” on page 98). The book is recommended for ages 14 and up, and I think boys in particular will enjoy it.
Alexie, born in 1966, attended Gonzaga and Washington State universities, and now lives in Seattle. It’s the second year in a row that a Seattleite has won a National Book Award. Last year, journalist Tim Egan won the non-fiction award for The Worst Hard Time which my out-of-town book club read early this year.
41. Water for Elephants: A Novel by Sara Gruen
I read this for my next out-of-town book club meeting on December 5, and my local book club will be discussing it on April 15. The cruise ship had a (rather nice) library and I borrowed their copy and managed to finish the book while sunning on the two sea days. I think the book is appealing because it’s historical fiction grounded in good research.
The main character, Jacob, is about to graduate from Cornell’s vet school in the early years of the Depression when his parents are killed in a car crash. They were mortgaging the house and his father’s vet practice to pay for Jacob’s schooling, so he is left with nothing. Instead of writing his final exams, Jacob hops a circus train. His background allows him finagle his way into caring for the circus animals, where he works for a psychotic menagerie boss and falls for the boss’ performer wife. Added to the mix is an elephant acquired from a defunct circus that only understands Polish, which Jacob can speak.
There’s a bit of romance and mystery in the book as well, and I was a little surprised by the endings. Gruen alternates between the youthful Jacob (21 when most of the story takes place) and the elderly Jacob (90 or 93), remembering his past while anticipating visiting an old-style circus with a big top that’s come to his retirement home’s town.
Gruen did extensive research for the book, including a couple visits to the Ringling Circus Museum in Sarasota, Florida (which happens to be right next door to my son’s college, so I visited the gift shop). Pictures from their collection (as well as a few others) are used at the beginnings of many of the book’s chapters.
Read before and after the cruise (on the plane, etc.):
42. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
This book recently (November 14) was named the 2007 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. I read a prepub copy I picked up back at the Texas Library Association meeting in April, so I’m not sure if the final book was the same. It was just published in September.
The book is an autobiographical novel, told in first person, with the 14-year-old main character, Arnold Spirit, leaving his Spokane (WA) Indian reservation school to attend a wealthy, all-white school. Arnold deals with many typical modern Native American problems: the alcoholism of his father, the death of his grandmother and sister, poverty, and despair.
Like the 2007 Newbery winner The Higher Power of Lucky, this book will generate some controversy, with its references to the “chronic tribe of masturbators” (page 217) and “boners” (pages 96, 97, 190, and “a metaphorical boner” on page 98). The book is recommended for ages 14 and up, and I think boys in particular will enjoy it.
Alexie, born in 1966, attended Gonzaga and Washington State universities, and now lives in Seattle. It’s the second year in a row that a Seattleite has won a National Book Award. Last year, journalist Tim Egan won the non-fiction award for The Worst Hard Time which my out-of-town book club read early this year.