From the Bookshelf of 2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge…

Water for Elephants

Sara Gruen

Start date: September 1, 2020

Finish date: September 30, 2020

Discussion: November 2025 Group Read

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November 2025 Group Read

The Travelling Cat Chronicles: Mid-Reading Discussion
By Winter , Group Reads · 3 posts · 21 views

last updated 21 hours, 45 min ago

The Travelling Cat Chronicles: Pre-Reading Discussion
By Winter , Group Reads · 5 posts · 28 views

last updated Nov 02, 2025 10:43AM

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What Members Thought

Apr 23, 2011 Kathy rated it liked it

Overall I gave this novel 3 stars because, despite the few flaws that it has, it was a very entertaining and well-paced novel. If you go into this novel thinking you're going to read a historical depiction of the Depression and Prohibition, then you're going to be a little disappointed. For that, pick up a history book.

(view spoiler) Overall I gave this novel 3 stars because, despite the few flaws that it has, it was a very entertaining and well-paced novel. If you go into this novel thinking you're going to read a historical depiction of the Depression and Prohibition, then you're going to be a little disappointed. For that, pick up a history book.

(view spoiler) ...more

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Jun 27, 2008 AMP rated it really liked it

This book is addicting and so much fun to read. Take it on a trip and you won't regret it, but you'll probably finish it before the airplane ride is over. ...more

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Jan 05, 2011 Tina rated it really liked it

Didn't really know what to expect with this book when I first picked it up since it is quite different than what I normally read; however, I was more than pleasantly surprised upon finishing it. The plot was interesting and wasn't predictable--it was easy to get through and entertaining. The back and forth between present day and earlier in Jacob's life provided me with an good understanding of the main character. There wasn't any part of the plot that I thought was slow or unnecessary. The char ...more

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Jan 25, 2009 Ciara rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: especially-great-novels, read-in-2009

this is the first book that i sought out thanks to goodreads. it was coming up as an also-read for practically every other book i wrote up for this site, & i had somehow managed to never hear of it before, despite the fact that it's about a circus (i like circus stories) & an elephant (i love elephants), so i went to the library & checked it out. i am fortunate that i didn't get swept up in the overwhelmingly glowling reviews for this book, because it kept my expectations middling. truthfully, i this is the first book that i sought out thanks to goodreads. it was coming up as an also-read for practically every other book i wrote up for this site, & i had somehow managed to never hear of it before, despite the fact that it's about a circus (i like circus stories) & an elephant (i love elephants), so i went to the library & checked it out. i am fortunate that i didn't get swept up in the overwhelmingly glowling reviews for this book, because it kept my expectations middling. truthfully, i don't think much of most people's taste in books, & the fact that some people on the goodreads site were upset that this book has sex in it (OMG sex?! in a book for ADULTS?! have these people ever read a book before?) made me even more contemptuous. so i went in with an open mind, wanting nothing more than a circus story & a likeable elephant, both of which i got. the main character is jacob, who drops out of cornell before sitting the exams that would make him a fully-qualified veterinarian after his parents die in a car crash. it's 1931 & he doesn't have a lot of hope of finding work. he's not thinking clearly. he jumps a train because, you know, that's what distraught people did to distract themselves during the 30s (my grandpa did the same thing) & lo & behold! it's a circus train! & he's practically a vet! a match made in heaven! there's even a sick horse that needs immediate attention! he's hired! & even better--the performer associated with the sick horse is marlena, who swiftly becomes jacob's love interest. & this is my primary quibble with the book: what's so effing great about marlena? another review on this site made the excellent point that none of these characters are really fleshed out at all. we get a fair amount of back story on jacob, but all we know about marlena is that she is pretty, she resembles jacob's college girlfriend, she has an affinity for animals, & she is married to the mercurial august, the guy who oversees the menagerie & is therefore jacob's boss. it was a whirlwind marriage & marlena's parents disowned for it, since she's catholic (like jacob) & august is jewish. august also very conveniently happens to be a paranoid schizophrenic who has a history of flipping the fuck out on people. he allowed the circus lion to kill a former menagerie worker for looking at marlena too appreciatively. everyone is scared of him, because, you know, all schizophrenic people are totally violent & unpredictable & terrifying & likely to feed you to a lion. i call bullshit & fucked up mental illness bias on this shit. why couldn't august just be a regular everyday abusive asshole? why dress it up in schizophrenia? i think the author was trying to make his outbursts seem scarier that way, but i think abusive tendencies are scary enough as they are. & fucking marlena...i think she's supposed to be kind of "feisty," because there are all these parts where jacob admires her for, say, snapping at august when he's being a jerk, or tapping her foot impatiently, or yelling at people. sorry, but she just sounds fucking obnoxious to me. you can save your goddamn horses from being subsumed into someone else's menagerie without screaming your head off & pouting. & another thing i didn't like: jacob was only on this circus for like three months, tops, before the big climactic finish. we are supposed to believe that in that time, he fell totally in love with marlena, & rosie the elephant, & felt indebted to walter & camel, & was just too enmeshed in the fabric of the circus to bail the fuck out of there when it looked pretty likely that august might try to kill him. maybe i just have a stronger instinct for self-preservation, but i would have gotten the fuck out of dodge long before. which would have been a less interesting book, granted. but i think asking the reader to suspend her disbelief & go with the plot without giving them any actually compelling reason to believe that the narrator is making the choices he is making for decent reasons is lazy, sloppy writing. don't get me wrong, i enjoyed this book. but i enjoyed it more for the disparate elements it involved than because of its find craftsmanship. give me a smiling elephant & a sparkly outfit & i'm on it like white on rice. but it doesn't mean i am going to be impressed by your narrative abilities. ...more

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Dec 16, 2011 Sarah rated it it was amazing

Sad read, disturbing at times, with a happy ending. 5 stars for pacing and suspense.

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Apr 24, 2011 Jackie rated it liked it

Read the book and watched the movie, liked them both.

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Jul 12, 2008 Danielle rated it really liked it

I was given this book by a friend to read. I wasn't really sure I was going to like it, but I honestly did. I LOVED the ending. I loved the way it was written with flashbacks and flashforwards. It was a beautifully written story. ...more

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