Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

This is our latest book club selection and I just sat down and read it in about 5 hours today... all 335 pages of it. So, either it was an interesting read that wouldn't let me put it down, or I was bored and had nothing better to do. I think it was mostly the first, although I was thrilled to not have anything else that I absolutely had to do.

This is a novel about a circus veterinarian back in the days when circuses traveled around by train from town to town. It gives a very interesting look into an insider's life and the politics to be dealt with when part of a train circus.

Catch up time...

So, I'm a little behind here. Since there's no way I could write something about each of the books I've read since I last blogged, I will list them as many of them as I can remember below in no particular order, since I can't remember the order I read them in!

The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette by Carolly Erickson (an interesting version of the story of Marie Antoinette, from her perspective)

Confessions of a Pagan Nun by Kate Horsley (Book Club choice - I loved this book... quick read and a good one to think about)

A River Runs Through It and Other Stories by Norman Maclean (Book Club choice - interesting, but not really my type of book)

The Boleyn Inheritance by Phillipa Gregory (the latest from this author, and very good)

I think that's all of them (except the latest, which I'll write a separate blog about)... busy season at work got in the way of reading much more.

Duchess: A Novel of Sarah Churchill by Susan Holloway Scott

I really enjoyed this book. Not necessarily because it was well written, but because the main character was so determined.

This book, as the title suggests, is about the life of Sarah Churchill, a woman who lived in the late 1600's and early 1700's in England. She grew up at court and was determined to become far more than just a duke's mistress. So she set her eyes on John Churchill, a "dashing young military hero". Both of them had started their lives with nothing, as common folk. But neither of them stayed that way for long. John won his political and military battles over and over, while Sarah won the lifetime (nearly) friendship of Princess Anne, who eventually became queen. Over time they continuously moved up in the ranks, until eventually they gained a dukedom. Even after attaining this rank, Sarah was still not satisfied with sitting still and just enjoying it. She became very outspoken politically, despite the challenges of being a woman, and managed to make many friends and enemies. But she was always true to what she believed, and in the end, it all worked in her favor.

Avalon by Anya Seton

This book has nothing to do with Avalon, as you would think of it from books like The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, but it is still a pretty good book. It's set in the dark ages in England, when the Vikings were exploring and/or pillaging anything and anywhere. There are kind of two main characters, a prince named Rumon and a beautiful girl named Merewyn. It's not exactly a typical romance, as they manage to keep missing each other when it comes to love. The author seemed to be more interested in focusing on what really happened in that part of history, rather than changing history to make it a typical love story, which I greatly appreciate.

The Borgia Bride by Jeanne Kalogridis

I'm not sure there's anything particularly interesting to say about this book, other than it was a good read. I am very partial to historical novels though, so if I ever find a historical novel I don't like, you will be sure to know. I had to put this book down at about 3/4ths of the way through it so I could read The Freedom Writers' Diary (see previous blog entry), which of course made it a little more difficult to remember where I was and what was going on when I did get back to this one, but it wasn't too difficult. Overall, good book, intriguing and hard to put down.

The Freedom Writers Diary by The Freedom Writers with Erin Gruwell

This book is basically a compiled diary of the journal entries of 150 inner city students over the course of 4 years of inner city high school english class with their teacher, Erin Gruwell. The entries talk about the lives of these teenagers, such as dealing with drive by shootings, drugs, gangs, abusive parents, and the list goes on. The entries also help tell the story of how they grew over the 4 years and the different events and accomplishments they made, both group and individual.

Overall it tells a story of learning tolerance in a very intolerant culture. It does a pretty good job of this. It's very choppy though, since the whole thing is journal entries by many different students. You don't get a very smooth telling of the current events that happen through the book. But it is amazing to read how this one teacher was able to motivate so much change in so many students.

This was our book club book for this month, but I was only able to finish half of the book before the meeting. There were only two others who had actually finished the book, and one who had read about 5 pages. No one else had read it. So our discussion about the book itself was rather brief, however it did lead into many other interesting topics. We discussed education, writing, family issues, and much more. As for the book though, no one was very impressed by it, although they generally thought it could have been a lot better (i.e. it had a good premise) if it had been written or organized differently.

Zipporah Wife of Moses by Marek Halter

This book is about Zipporah (from the biblical story). She is a black woman in a white world, loved by her adopted father, hated by one of her adopted sisters, and loved by Moses, the man she loves. She is demanding, in what is probably a good way, by refusing to marry Moses until he agrees to fulfill his destiny of leading the children of Israel out of Egypt.

I liked her determination to get Moses on the right track and help him in any way she felt she could. Otherwise, overall it was pretty good, but not something I would likely read again.

I should explain. I am a rereader. If I loved a book the first time, I will totally want to go back and read it again, and again, and again. The series I've probably read the most times is The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. If I had to guess how many times I've read those seven books... well, probably at least 8 to 10 times all the way through. So, if I say I probably wouldn't want to read a book again later, it doesn't mean it's a bad book, it's just not a really great book.

The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman

This is a book about relationships and how to love. Melissa recommended it to me and I thought it was very good. I was able to determine that my love language is Quality Time. Basically that means that I need John to spend time with me when we're not distracted by other things. Since we're in a long distance relationship right now, that is kind of hard, but even a phone call every day or two where I can tell he's actually paying attention to me only and not his homework or the tv or whatever else. Unfortunately I'm not actually getting quite that kind of attention right now, but hopefully John will also read this book, like I suggested to him, and he'll figure out what it is I need. Don't get me wrong... I have asked for this kind of attention, many times. But sometimes guys just don't get it.

I'd also like to find out what John's love language is. I think part of the problem with a long distance relationship is that I don't know him as well as I'd like to, so I can't figure it out as easily as I might be able to if he were actually around a lot of the time.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is in a relationship or might want to be in a relationship someday. Heck, anyone else too. I saw some things that made my reactions at work make a lot more sense too.

The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory

The Constant Princess tells the story of Katherine of Aragon, Queen of England, Henry VIII's first wife. It tells her story from her point of view, starting at age 5 in a siege encampment outside of Granada with her parents, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain. She has been betrothed to Prince Arthur of England since the age of 3 and is called the Princess of Wales. Her destiny is to become Queen of England and even at the tender age of 5, she knows it and is determined to hold it. At the age of 15 she sets sail to England and to her wedding. Things get off to a rocky start, but she soon falls madly in love with her new husband and they begin planning what they will do when they are made king and queen. Unfortunately, Arthur dies only 5 months into their marriage, but he extracts a promise from Katherine that she will marry his brother and become queen anyways. She never breaks this promise, although it is many years before she finally succeeds in keeping it. She eventually marries Arthur's brother Henry, who was a spoiled child and turns into a very spoiled man and king, and she pretty much singlehandedly keeps her husband in line (for awhile at least) and the kingdom safe from the Scots and running smoothly.

I loved her determination in a male dominated world to become the woman her mother was, to be a Queen Militant and not just the woman who does whatever her husband says. I also loved how she learned that not everything her mother believed was right and how she chose to not make the same mistakes her mother had made.

The Elegant Gathering of White Snows by Kris Radish

This book is about a group of women who have been meeting together every week for a few years, sharing their lives and bonding with each other. Suddenly, one evening they decide to just start walking. They walk right out the door of the house they were meeting in, taking nothing with them except some old tennis and a few jackest and pretty much don't stop walking for about a week straight. Throughout their walk they tell each other about all their deepest and darkest secrets and it becomes a sort of learning and healing process for each of them. It also becomes a national headliner which makes many other women stop and think about their lives.

I'm not sure I was able to really identify with any of the women in this book individually, but I did understand the general concepts of needing friends and needing to stop and really think about your life. If it's not making you happy, you should change it. I cried a bit during this book; sometimes because the story was sad, but more often because it made me think of something I'm not happy with in my own life.


Book Club comments:

There were only four of us at book club this time, so we didn't end up discussing the book for very long, but overall we seemed to agree that the book was interesting for the most part, made us think about our own lives, but wasn't one of the best books ever written.