review: Water for Elephants

Hello there,

I'm sorry. I'll admit it, I've been a bad blogger and a bad friend. But there are more pressing issues to talk about today. Namely, an amazing book that I read in six hours today: Water for Elephants.


Life is good for Jacob Jankowski. He's about to graduate from veterinary school and about to bed the girl of his dreams. Then his parents are killed in a car crash, leaving him in the middle of the Great Depression with no home, no family, and no career. Almost by accident, Jacob joins the circus. There he falls in love with the beautiful performer Marlena, who is married to the circus' psychotic animal trainer. He also meets the other love of his life, Rosie the elephant. This lushly romantic novel travels back in forth in time between Jacob's present day in a nursing home and his adventures in the surprisingly harsh world of 1930s circuses. The ending of both stories is a little too cheerful to be believed, but just like a circus, the magic of the story and the writing convince you to suspend your disbelief. The book is partially based on real circus stories and illustrated with historical circus photographs.

So apparently, I am (or was) the only person in the entire world yet to read Water for Elephants. I kid you not. When I started working at the bookstore, I realized how few "Adult Fiction" books I had read, and because everyone was going on about this, I borrowed it from the library.

Basically: Oh my goodness. You know those books that are just so completely honest that you don't even grasp that they're fiction? Yeah, this was one of them. I was about a hundred pages in when I looked at the cover and realized that it was written by Sarah Gruen. Up till that point, I had been completely convinced that it was a real life memoir, or something.

There were parts of this book that were really abrasive. It was one of those books that you can hardly stand to read in a room with other people, in case you start yelling at one of the characters. And they didn't feel like characters--this is the first book I've read in a long time where the people in it felt as real as anyone else in my life.

I noticed something else. The beginning of the book was a big event, sure, but it didn't feel like the beginning. I felt like I was coming in in the middle of something--in the middle of Jacob's life--but in a good way. The story started long before I began reading it, and it will go on long after. I love a book like that, one that never dies.

I would absolutely 11100249348109834% recommend this book. Really, it was just fantastic. It had everything you could look for in a story: love, hate, sex, violence, anger, passion, honesty and tragedy. And I loved every second of it.

Have an amazing New Year, you guys. I'll be better in 2011, I promise.

Erika

***Quick addition: this book is apparently going to come out as a movie in 2011 starring, no way, Robert Pattinson. Urrrrgh, I hope he does it some justice.

three weeks in one post

It's funny, because I blog so sporadically (on a side note, sorry about that), a lot of things change in between my posts.

For example: In case you didn't know, all of my previous posts were brought to you by someone with dirty blond hair. As of yesterday, my hair is now super red. Like, this red:

My hair is actually long and curly, though, and thus looks much less cool than this picture.

Also, it's winter! Who saw that coming? I've decided to spend December doing lots of reading (because apparently I've been living in a book-free cave for the past month--oh right, NaNoWriMo!). I'm currently on the last of the Maximum Ride books, which are completely amazing. Next up: Water for Elephants. Because I like contrast.

ECLIPSE! Did you see it? Once in a lifetime lunar events don't happen every day, you know. We froze our butts off till one in the morning standing outside, watching the moon glow.

CHRISTMAS! Oh right, that whole "major holiday" thing. I personally love Christmas. The tree, the food, the family, the presents... Since I work in a bookstore, oh yes, all of my family members are getting books. And maybe a few other things, we'll see :)

I think that is about everything that has happened to me in the past forever. Hope to see you again, this time with a shorter intermission.

Erika

ya ya ya

I don't know very much about John Lennon. I couldn't tell you his parents names, or the year that he and Yoko met. But I've been listening to his music, and the Beatles, for as long as I can remember.

It's impossible for me to believe that he's been dead for twice as long as I've been alive.

Today, after school, we walked to the old mill. There isn't much to see there, anymore. Just some concrete walls and old oil barrels and stuff. And graffiti. So, naturally it was the perfect place for us to practice our vandalism skills.

Three of my friends and I made a stencil of a hand doing the peace sign, which we spray painted, along with: J.L. IMAGINE 1980

I would show you a picture, but, you know, cops. More like I can't get the memory card in my computer, oh my goodness.

Love,
Erika

if i were a fortune cookie...

Today, we had to research universities and university programs we might consider attending. Which basically means, what do you want to do for the rest of your life (the class is called 'Planning' as in, you have sixty-seven minutes; plan your future).

I was kind of freaking out. The thing is, I want to be a writer. There, I said it. So I suppose the obvious choice would be to study English, journalism or maybe creative writing. But that's not all I'm interested in! I love the sciences, and drawing, and history... And I'm petrified that if I go to school for a certain subject, I'll grow to hate it.

The other part to my two-headed conundrum is that there is really nothing you can do that will guarantee you succeed as or become a writer. It's not like some jobs, where you get a certain education that then qualifies you for a certain job. Bam, pow, shimmy. Just like that.

I feel like getting in a time machine and traveling twenty years into the future, just so I can have some idea of what I chose. So I can tell if I'm happy with it. But that would be cheating.

So I guess I have a question for you, great and vast inter webs: What did you study in university (or any kind of post-secondary education)? And, most importantly, did you enjoy it?

(A picture of Jake Gyllenhaal. Um, yeah, it's relevant.)

See you next time,

Erika

hello december

Oh, hey there.

AHHHHHHHHHHH!

Okay, so, that was basically my November, in an onomatopoeic (spelled that right on the first try, oh my goodness) nutshell.

Over the past thirty days, I did the following:

1. Wrote 51,175 words in seventeen days. Yay!

2. Was in a musical! (...Kind of. I played trumpet in the pit band for On the Town--if you were there, and you were like, hey, that's some snazzy trumpet playing, yes, it was, thanks to the two other, much more skilled trumpet players. So basically, I was not alone.)

3. Bought red hair dye. My hair is kind of dirty-blond-bordering-on-brown, so I'm going to dye it red one of these days. Horrible idea?

So I just thought I'd check in and say hello. Oh, and also mention, if you're a young writer living in BC, check out this site. I went to the writing camp last summer, and it was amazing!

Mmm, okay. Good stuff.

Hello, December.

Erika