Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

As of late, there has been a lot of talk regarding Water for Elephants. I finally got my hands on a copy and thoroughly enjoyed it. I enjoyed not just the story -- a wonderful tale that immerses you into circus life during the Depression -- but I loved that structure and devises Gruen used. One flashes between Jacob in his nineties, and his 23 year old self when he first joined the circus. The climax is the opening scene and you spend the rest of the novel trying to figure out what happened and what let to this event. By the time the climax happens in sequential order, you are equally curious about what happened to Jacob in the after math to his present state.

There are many under currents that enrich the novel. For example, Gruen has a sensitivity for the human animal bond and how another dimension of one's personality is exhibited with one's interaction with animals. Similarly, how people tread the aged and frail. The photos are wonderful, too. A truly engaging novel that compels you to read it again and again.

From the publisher:
Orphaned and penniless at the height of the Depression, Jacob Jankowski escapes everything he knows by jumping on a passing train — and inadvertently runs away with the circus. So begins Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen’s darkly beautiful tale about the characters who inhabit the less-than-greatest show on earth.

Jacob finds a place tending the circus animals, including a seemingly untrainable elephant named Rosie. He also comes to know Marlena, the star of the equestrian act—and wife of August, a charismatic but cruel animal trainer. Caught between his love for Marlena and his need to belong in the crazy family of travelling performers, Jacob is freed only by a murderous secret that will bring the big top down.

Water for Elephants is an enchanting page-turner, the kind of book that creates a world that engulfs you from the first page to the last. A national bestseller in Canada and a New York Times bestseller in the United States, this is a book destined to become a beloved fiction classic.

Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys

I wanted to read this when it was first issued, but never got around to it. Recently, I picked it up and fell in love with it. I have no idea why it is non-fiction. The Thames froze 40 tims in recorded historoy and while that may be interesting in itself, Humphreys takes those forty frozen incidents and creates 40 corresponding vignettes that are touching, poetic and enchanting. Some of my favourites involve characters who are in more than one story. This is a delightful that I would share with anyone but especially with someone who likes historical fiction.

It also made me go back and re-read The Lost Garden. I'm waiting to read Coventry -- the story of Harriet, a widow. She stands on the roof of Coventry Cathedral as part of the nightly fire watch, when first the factories and then the church itself are set on fire in air attacks. In the ensuing chaos, Harriet and a young man have to find the way back to his home where he left his mother....

But back to the Frozen Thames: here is the blurb from the Publisher:
In its long history, the River Thames has frozen solid forty times. These are the stories of that frozen river.

And so opens one of the most breathtaking and original works being published this season. The Frozen Thames contains forty vignettes based on events that actually took place each time the river froze between 1142 and 1895. Like a photograph captures a moment, etching it forever on the consciousness, so does Humphreys’ achingly beautiful prose. She deftly draws us into these intimate moments, transporting us through time so that we believe ourselves observers of the events portrayed. Whether it’s Queen Matilda trying to escape her besieged castle in a snowstorm, or lovers meeting on the frozen river in the plague years; whether it’s a simple farmer persuading his oxen the ice is safe, or Queen Bess discovering the rare privacy afforded by the ice-covered Thames, the moments are fleeting and transformative for the characters — and for us, too.

Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

a light and fun read with a surprising ending. Furthermore, it encourages me to expand my own reading...

The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society

This work by Mary Ann Shaffer (and her neice?) has been one of the most engaging reads that I've had in some time. Although it initially appeared to be a light, easy read, it also provided a deeply moving work that affected me deeply. The horrors of occupation and the German concentration camps of World War II were as horrific as anything described in Blindness, yet it also had humor and an intimacy that I enjoyed. In short, I would highly recommend this book. It is the kind of book I would buy for a friend and know that they would enjoy it too.

Here's the summary from the publisher:
January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb…. As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.

Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.

City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

Here is another author that I enjoyed over the summer. City of Ember, like the Young Adult novel, Eclipse is also being made into a movie. I think the City of Ember has a better chance of being a good film than the other, though.

Again, a fun-filled read with strong child characters. The sequel and prequel weren't as engaging but I would recommend all three works by DuPrau to younger readers.

From the Publisher
The city of Ember was built as a last refuge for the human race. Two hundred years later, the great lamps that light the city are beginning to flicker. When Lina finds part of an ancient message, she’s sure it holds a secret that will save the city. She and her friend Doon must decipher the message before the lights go out on Ember forever! This stunning debut novel offers refreshingly clear writing and fascinating, original characters.

Penguin book of Canadian short stories

I'm currently reading The Penguin book of Canadian short stories edited by Jane Urquhart. I have to admit that I haven't purchased a collection of Canadian short stories since university, but all the screaming from the literati made me curious. The misogynistic attacks on Urquhart's selection is quite disconcerting, but I guess to be expected. Academics tend to be insecure and vicious from my limited perspective. My ruling of the collection: so far so good. I'm thoroughly enjoying the selections. I think Penguin was brilliant to select Urquhart. Not only is she a sensitive reader, but she has the star power to get someone like me to pay attention to the publication of such a collection.

My favourite short story so far: Vision by Alistair MacLeod. In this work, MacLeod explores the difference between sight and vision. Characters without sight "see" differently than those with sight. It was particularly thought provoking and of course, made me think of Blindness again... more on that later.

I plan to take this collection to the cottage and immerse myself. But I have already re-discovered the problem (or maybe prize) of a short story: once you finish reading it, you want to read it again!

Blindness

Where did the summer go... Isn't the summer a time for reading all kinds of paper backs and trashy novels? Instead, I seemed to have read throught the full gambit:

At the cottage in July, I finally got around to reading Pillars of the Earth -- what a perfect cottage read... it was easy, interesting and you came to know and care for the characters. With that many pages you had lots of opportunities to come to know them. When I got home, I started to read World without end, but other books (with due dates) pre-empted this other tome Ken Follet.

In August I bought Breaking Dawn. What a disappointment. The list serves' mantra was "don't burn it, return it." I think Stephenie Meyers must have put all her energies into Host. Enough said about this dud.

Towards the end of August, Blindness by Jose Saramago came up on my hold list. OK, let's set the record straight, there is no fluff in this work. I'm not sure if I will ever be the same after reading this work. I'm still feeling somewhat raw. Saramago's novel certainly illustrates just how vulnerable we are, how blind we are and yet, we remain undeniably connected. My only criticism: the inside book jacket told too much.

What next? All I can handle right now is Baking boot camp : five days of basic training at the Culinary Institute of America. I think I need to bake to come to grips with Blindness. I'm sure the mudslide cookies can solve the problems of the world.

I do have a copy of The Penguin book of Canadian Short Stories, selected and introduced by Jane Urquhart. I think I may want to own this one. But I digress, here is the publisher's blurb for Blindness:
A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" which spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations and raping women. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides seven strangers-among them a boy with no mother, a girl with dark glasses, a dog of tears-through the barren streets, and the procession becomes as uncanny as the surroundings are harrowing. A magnificent parable of loss and disorientation and a vivid evocation of the horrors of the twentieth century, Blindness has swept the reading public with its powerful portrayal of man's worst appetites and weaknesses-and man's ultimately exhilarating spirit. The stunningly powerful novel of man's will to survive against all odds, by the winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for Literature