Book Review

I'm a hobby hopper. I tend to get into a hobby, do it with all my free time, and then get tired of it and move on. I usually cycle through various hobbies this way. I'm sure this blog will be no different!

Right now I'm on a reading kick. And I've relied on others' book suggestions to keep me going recently. So maybe this book review is a way of giving back? Anyway, after looking over the books I've read this past month, a few categories emerged. We'll call this installment "Circus and Elephants."

Water for Elephants
I saw the movie trailer a while back and thought, That looks like a book I might like to read. I was right. It was great entertainment reading. Nice little love story. A coming of age tale. True bits of circus history. Unfortunately, it is told flashback style and the narrator is an elderly man in an assisted living center. While I liked his gusto and insider's point of view, I didn't really like being jerked out of the past story to hear about pureed old people food and urine smells. Overall I was entertained and eager to keep reading it, so I'll give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Geek Love
Another historical circus book. (I know, two in just a couple of weeks, like the library is full of historical circus books or something.) This was the first book I read on the Kindle and maybe I didn't like the book because I didn't like the Kindle. Or maybe I didn't like the book because it is weird. Like two headed girls, hunchback dwarves, deformed dead drug babies in jars weird. I couldn't get into the writing style, the story, or the characters. Maybe it was a play on the fact that she was a hunchback, but the main character had no backbone. She was hopelessly devoted to everyone she came in contact with in the book. I was determined to finish it, but I can only give it 2 stars. I kept asking myself how the author could have ever dreamed up such a tale.

The Magician's Elephant
This juvenile fiction book was super cute. It is a heartwarming little tale of a young boy, Peter, hoping to find his sister Adele. I am a huge Kate DiCamillo fan and this book did not disappoint. She has a way of writing that feels magical. And who doesn't love a one-sitting read? I'd recommend it to 4th grade and up, although if I was still teaching 2nd grade, I just know I'd read it aloud. 5 out of 5 stars.