When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, grifters, and misfits, a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in town after endless town. A veterinary student who almost earned his degree, Jacob is put in charge of carin… more »g for the circus menagerie. It is there that he meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act, who is married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. He also meets Rosie, an elephant who seems untrainable until he discovers a way to reach her.

I finished this book days ago, it only took me a day and a half to read, but I wanted to take my time on the review (a cat tried to force me to write it earlier don’t ask) so here goes.
Water for Elephants is soon to be a major motion picture, and I have the complex that even though I know it will make the movie not as good I MUST read all books before I see the movie that is based on it. This one has been in my to read pile in all honesty since it came out in 2008, I can now officially say I regret it sitting in my pile that long unread. This book is perhaps one of the best books I have read. It is the best of 2011, sure I haven’t read a ton yet this year but I do not see its spot changing too much.
The writing style is excellent I love how it flips back and forth between old a Jacob and Young Jacob. Old Jacob really is what you picture as the typical crotchety old man, the one you know is on the porch shaking his cane saying “Dang Kids get off my lawn!”, but somehow you just can’t be mad at him for it. Especially when you see how la his family is with him. Young Jacob is a good kid, he makes mistakes but he earnestly wants to do right by people and he is a spitfire about it.
This book is a MUST read, and I do mean must. For seeing how circuses worked on the inside in the great depression. If the movie manages to get even half the depth of story and character that the book does it will be fantastic. At its core Water for Elephants is a love story, but it’s a life story as much as anything with love just happening as it does in the natural course of life. Good writing, good story, history and love what else can you ask for in a novel?

London, 1660: Ready to throw off a generation of Puritan rule, all England rejoices when Charles Stuart returns to reclaim the throne. Among those welcoming him is young Barbara Villiers Palmer, a breathtaking Royalist beauty whose sensuality and clever wit instantly captivate the handsome, jaded king. Though each is promised to another, Barbara… more » soon becomes Charles’s mistress and closest friend, and the uncrowned queen of his bawdy Restoration court. Rewarded with titles, land, and jewels, she is the most envied and desired woman in England–and the most powerful. But the role of royal mistress is a precarious one, and Barbara’s enemies and rivals are everywhere in the palace.

I will open this review by saying that Charles II of England is perhaps one of my least favorite Monarchs of England. Not that he did anything particularly bad to my tastes but he just does not fit into my Gem pile. That said I could barely put down this book. The story of Charles II and Barbra Villiers is pretty well known among historians, and she is always vilified. Always called any score of names that in my opinion could be laid at any royal mistress’s feet, but she always gets the worst of it.
Susan Holloway Scott did not gloss over any of the things that Barbra Villiers was, she was vain, and wonton and even calculating. However she brought to light a side that is most often over looked by the usual rabble, she was loving and tender and generous to her family and friends. Let’s face it to have remained in the King’s favor as long as she did she had to have more to her than just a nice body.
So if you like historical fiction and you don’t mind a lot of the sexual innuendo and some not innuendo in your book I recommend this one for you. It was a good read and one that thoroughly held my attention to welcome me back into the grips of my book obsession and reviewing. My only regret about this one is going to be selecting one to follow it.