My Favorite Posts and Series of 2011

Hello, dear readers,

For fear of appearing to self-promote, I initially decided against writing this post. As you can tell from the title, this is a list of my favorite posts. Emphasis on the word "my." Don't get me wrong; I subscribe to a zillion blogs with better picture quality, writing, and/or post ideas. The reason I'm rattling off the names of the posts I wrote is for no other reason than how proud of them I am. During one of my personal worst years, I was able to get this blog going. Hence, I feel no shame in naming the posts or series that I consider my personal best, found the most fun to write, etc. I know we're well into January now, but if you don't mind, I don't mind. You don't have to click the links to any of them; they're just there so that if you do want to have a look, you don't spend time searching for them.

In no particular order, here we go:

Top 3 Posts

1. Pop Culture Favorites of 2011

This was one of the most fun posts for me to write. Anyone who knows me is aware that I love pop culture. Movies, books, music, websites: You name it; I can name a current favorite. I'm especially fond of movies and books, so it was a great deal of fun to write the most concise summaries I've ever written about all of my favorites. This post also took quite some time to come up with, write, and find pictures for. I'm very happy with the way it turned out, and I think it's also fairly original, as compared to other favorites posts that I've done.

2. Skincare Tips Parts 1 and 2

Skincare is somewhat of a scientific hobby for me. What I mean by that is that I research ingredients to the best of my ability, compare articles, and go with science in the end. There may be conflicting ideas on different beauty blogs or magazines, but it's ultimately down to chemistry as far as products go, and science as far as following skincare rules goes. Technically, these are two posts, but they were really meant to be written as one. That post was far too long, so I split it in two. These were quite labor intensive in the most entertaining of ways. I loved writing everything I know about skincare, and I do believe that at least most of it is correct!

3. Best 11 of 2011

Ah, finally a post in which I use my own pictures, shot in pretty decent daylight. I'm pretty happy about the way these pictures came out, and how short the descriptions were on each product. This took a long time, too, but mostly because I needed to decide which products to choose. The picture-taking and editing didn't actually take too long. I got lucky with the lighting.

Top 3 Series

1. Let's Do...A Book Review 

It all started after I read Water for Elephants. The movie had either just come out or was about to come out, so I frantically rushed to read the book, and I fell in love with the story. That review started the series. I also realize that after this series I began to use the ellipses a lot more. I really enjoy reading, and this series encourages me to keep reading books so I can find more to review. The most rewarding part is when the reviews make people want to read the books afterwards.

2. Awards Show Fashion Series

I have always been an Oscars fanatic, far before my friends found out about it, but I never fail to watch the red carpet interviews for the half hour before the show. I absolutely love hearing stars answer the "Who are you wearing?" question with the names of famous designers casually slipping off their lips. Half the fun of awards shows is seeing the fashion, and reading about it in the paper the next day. So I thought: I'm watching the Oscars; why not do a review myself? That started my series of awards show fashion favorites posts.

3. Lately I've Been Loving... Series

This is just something I started to remind myself of the good things going on at the time. I know beauty bloggers tend to write about favorite makeup and hair products, and I figured it would be nice to write about all the other wonderful things I happened to appreciate at the time. The series has helped me focus on the positive, even if just for a short time after each post.


Those are all my favorite posts and series. What posts did you write that you liked the best this year?

Have a wonderful weekend.

xEsther

Let's Do...A Book Review: The Beach House

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Same title, different covers!

Hello, dear readers,

I'm proud to say that yesterday I finished my first book of 2012! This one is, as you may know from the title, The Beach House, by Jane Green. She happens to be my favorite author of adult chick lit, and one of my favorite writers in general. I've also read Promises to Keep, Swapping Lives, The Other Woman, Babyville, and Bookends. Needless to say, I'm a fan. Some of these titles have different names in the UK, but, lucky for us, The Beach House is The Beach House wherever you go to read it.

Here's what the website has to say:

Known in Nantucket as the crazy woman who lives in the rambling house atop the bluff, Nan doesn’t care what people think. At sixty-five-years old, her husband died twenty years ago, her beauty has faded, and her family has flown. If her neighbors are away, why shouldn’t she skinny dip in their swimming pools and help herself to their flowers? But when she discovers the money she thought would last forever is dwindling and she could lose her beloved house, Nan knows she has to make drastic changes.


The above summary really describes the premise of the book, and not the rich intertwining of stories within. Besides Nan, the main characters include married, but troubled couple Daniel and Bee; divorced mom Daff and her daughter; Nan's son Michael; Daff's ex-husband Richard and his girlfriend Carrie. For reference, most of the characters are in their upper-30s to 40s.


If you're familiar with the movie Love Actually, or even Valentine's Day, you can more easily understand the style in which this book is written. It bounces seamlessly among the characters and their separate lives, gradually sewing them all together into one storyline. Most of the characters decide to take a break from their lives, or try to repair their lives, by visiting Nantucket. That's where they meet Nan, and things get very interesting.


Before they reach Nantucket, a good half of the book goes into their character development. The author is third-person omniscient, so each section jumps into what the character is doing and thinking, eventually delving into each of their pasts. There's no rush to get to know the characters, even as the reader is introduced to them in the middle of their lives, because for some reason Green paces the story in a reassuring manner; it's easy to see that you'll find out everything you need to know by the end.


I can't say that this is a completely unpredictable book, but everything unwinds in a way that doesn't cause eye-rolling. Nothing is ever too cliché, and there are certainly some surprises as the characters meet in unexpected ways. 


The novel is bittersweet; not every ending is completely happy, but it's still deeply satisfying. I find The Beach House extremely moving and touching, and I highly recommend it if you like more intelligent chick lit with a lot of reality to it.


I hope you enjoyed this book review. I know it's pretty darn short for one of my reviews, but I can't imagine describing more of it without giving away the entire plot sequence.


I guess you'll just have to read it for yourself to discover the wonderful stories within.


xEsther

Let's Do...A Book Review: The Boleyn Inheritance

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Hello, dear readers,

It's been a while since my last book review, so I think I'll continue the tradition of Phillipa Gregory reviews, this time on The Boleyn Inheritance. If you didn't get a chance to read them, here are my reviews for The Other Boleyn Girl and The Constant Princess, also by Gregory. [Side note: the links on my previous posts to the Phillipa Gregory website no longer work, as she seems to have updated the site. Her website is now here]

The Boleyn Inheritance centers around two wives of King Henry VII, Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard, as well as one of the most famous ladies at the Tudor court, Jane Boleyn.

Here is the official description from Gregory's new website:

The Boleyn Inheritance

From the bestselling author of ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’ comes a wonderfully atmospheric evocation of the court of Henry VIII, and the one woman who destroyed two of his queens. The year is 1539 and the court of Henry VIII is increasingly fearful at the moods of the ageing sick king. With only a baby in the cradle for an heir, Henry has to take another wife and the dangerous prize of the crown of England is won by Anne of Cleves.

She has her own good reasons for agreeing to marry a man old enough to be her father, in a country where to her both language and habits are foreign.

Although fascinated by the glamour of her new surroundings, she senses a trap closing around her. Katherine is confident that she can follow in the steps of her cousin Anne Boleyn to dazzle her way to the throne but her kinswoman Jane Boleyn, haunted by the past, knows that Anne’s path led to Tower Green and to an adulterer’s death.

The story of these three young women, trying to make their own way through the most volatile court in Europe at a time of religious upheaval and political uncertainty, is Philippa Gregory’s most compelling novel yet.

This novel is disturbing in many ways, and rightly so. Anne of Cleves is a young woman who speaks only German and is chosen by the king and his advisors to be the newest queen of England, following the death of Jane Seymour. The king dislikes her instantly, and the Duke of Norfolk conspires to push Katherine Howard, his 14-year-old niece, at Henry in the hopes that the Boleyn family will once again have one of its girls on the throne. Katherine is beautiful and charming, but despises the old, sickly, king, and doesn't understand the danger she is in until it is too late.

Jane Boleyn is the sick and twisted lady of the Tudor court whose testimony put Anne Boleyn and her brother George, Jane's husband, to death. She expertly schemes with the Duke of Norfolk to help Anne of Cleves, and just as easily pushes Katherine towards the king when the opportunity arises. It's made quite clear from the narration that she is not in her right mind.

The best thing about this novel, for me, is that Gregory writes it in first person, alternating among Anne, Jane, and Katherine. Their personalities are really strongly developed as the novel advances, and their differences emerge with great clarity. Gregory masters the art of getting into the heads of historical figures about whom we know very little. Katherine Howard and Anne of Cleves were, in fact, the wives of Henry VIII about whom historians have the least information. 

The novel is around 500 pages, and it took me perhaps four or five days to get through it. Considering I'm not the fastest reader, that's lightning speed for me. It reads very quickly and the descriptions of court are very vivid. Most poignant, as I said before, is the way we can see the thoughts turn in the minds of the characters and wonder the same things they're wondering. Even if you're a history buff and know all about what happened, you will probably still feel the suspense and tension experienced by the characters as they're lives are played out for them by those in higher positions.

The only problem I have with this novel, and I may have mentioned this in my other reviews, is that Gregory has a really annoying habit of inserting the title of her novel several times throughout. We get it. Anne of Cleves says that her fate is her "Boleyn inheritance." In case you forget the title 20 pages later, Jane Boleyn is here to remind you that current events must be her "Boleyn inheritance." Oh, and Katherine Howard? She mentions that she has a "Boleyn inheritance," too. It's fine once or twice, clever even, but since I've seen this pattern in each of the three Gregory novels I've read, and the titles are repeated around eight to ten times per novel, it's way too much.

Besides that one irritating authorial habit, I have to say that I enjoyed this book just as much as The Other Boleyn Girl. It was a much quicker read than The Constant Princess, which is probably to be expected, keeping in mind the time it took for Katherine of Aragon to oficially become princess.

This is probably marketed as a young adult book, but I think any historical fiction aficionado will love it. I'll definitely be picking up more of Gregory's novels in the future.

That wraps up the review, so I hope it helped you decide whether to read this book, or you at least didn't fall asleep reading this.

Let me know what books you're loving at the moment, or even what you think of this one!

Hope your weekend is going well!

xEsther

Let's Do...A Book Review: The Constant Princess

Hello, dear readers,

It's been a bit of a while since my last book review. Considering my monumental goals for summer reading, I can't say I've actually made a huge dent. Just being honest. I'd really like to read more; truly, I would. The problem is that I'm so tired after work that it's easier to just paint my nails, read a magazine, or watch a video before working out showering and going to sleep. That's my general routine on the evenings during which I don't see my friends.

I've only fully read four books since May, which is really quite sad. Part of the problem is I always have five or six books going, so it takes forever to finish one of them. Such is my current situation.

I'm into The Other Woman, by Jane Green, at the moment. Green is my favorite adult chick lit author, and I'll be done soon with another book review up and running.

I suppose I should get into the review of the book I've actually just finished: The Constant Princess, by Philippa Gregory.

This is the prequel to The Other Boleyn Girl, reviewed here, which was actually written afterwards, I believe. This novel tells the story of Katherine of Aragon, the first wife of King Henry VIII.

Here's what the website has to say:

Splendid and sumptuous historical novel from this internationally bestselling author, telling of the early life of Katherine of Aragon.

We think of her as the barren wife of a notorious king; but behind this legacy lies a fascinating story. Katherine of Aragon is born Catalina, the Spanish Infanta, to parents who are both rulers and warriors. Aged four, she is betrothed to Arthur, Prince of Wales, and is raised to be Queen of England. She is never in doubt that it is her destiny to rule that far-off, wet, cold land. Her faith is tested when her prospective father-in-law greets her arrival in her new country with a great insult; Arthur seems little better than a boy; the food is strange and the customs coarse.

Slowly she adapts to the first Tudor court, and life as Arthur’s wife grows ever more bearable. But when the studious young man dies, she is left to make her own future: how can she now be queen, and found a dynasty? Only by marrying Arthur’s young brother, the sunny but spoilt Henry.

His father and grandmother are against it; her powerful parents prove little use. Yet Katherine is her mother’s daughter and her fighting spirit is strong. She will do anything to achieve her aim; even if it means telling the greatest lie, and holding to it.

Philippa Gregory proves yet again that behind the apparently familiar face of history lies an astonishing story: of women warriors influencing the future of Europe, of revered heroes making deep mistakes, and of an untold love story which changes the fate of a nation.

I knew very little about Katherine of Aragon going into this book, and I came out knowing her better and understanding her as more than the quiet, strong-willed queen that appeared in The Other Boleyn Girl.


In this novel, she's fearless and extremely determined, convinced she has God's "especial favor," and almost annoying at times in her conviction. This novel is written alternatively in first and third person. The sections in italics are written in first person, and I found them immensely more interesting to read than the third person sections.

Much more is known about Katherine of Aragon than of Mary Boleyn, so the only real fiction is the personality given to Katherine and the hypothesis that she must certainly have lied about never consummating her marriage to Arthur, her first husband. I suppose their relationship is fictionalized greatly as well, but I felt like that was just another facet of the issue of consummation. By now, most historians agree the marriage was consummated.

Katherine is born Infanta of Spain and Princess of Wales, betrothed to Arthur since birth. Initially she hates him, and he her, but they slowly but surely become passionate in their love for each other. Arthur tragically falls ill at a young age, somewhere around a year after his marriage to Katherine, and he makes Katherine promise to marry his brother Henry and to name their children Mary and Arthur.

And then Katherine waits. For seven years, precisely. I felt like I was reading the book for seven years until she finally became princess of England, and, subsequently, queen. It went much faster once she became princess and queen. Even after marrying Henry, she had to wait longer and longer until King Henry VII died.

I was unaware before reading this book that King Henry VII, father of her infamous second husband, actually proposed to Katherine and took his revenge by making her wait when she instead agreed to marry his son.

I suppose it was only fitting that it felt like seven years reading this novel, as I suppose that's what Katherine went through, but I didn't find it as immensely enjoyable as The Other Boleyn Girl. The writing was rather repetitive, and I think it was clear enough from the beginning why the novel is called The Constant Princess. It really wasn't necessary for the word "constant" to appear 7,000,212,323 times. Seriously.

The writing in this book was not as interesting, though I could see that it was consistent with the tone of the novel. I just don't think the language needed to be that redundant, and it was a little bit of a sluggish read.

Am I glad I read it? Yes. Do I think it's a good way to get a historical account of Katherine with her personality injected into it? Yes. Is it my favorite historical fiction novel? No. And it was really hard to get to at times. We can only read so much about waiting without being bored to tears.

Philippa's writing was much better in the first person sections, as I mentioned before, and this is where I think she excels. The characters in her books are so much more personal and vivid in these sections than in third person.

I will continue to read the rest of the Tudor history, as documented and fictionalized by Gregory, but so far I prefer The Other Boleyn Girl. I still do recommend this if you'd like to get a full picture of the Tudor history, but I'd advise reading it first so you can fully appreciate the improvements in writing and storytelling in The Other Boleyn Girl.


I hope you got something out of this review, longwinded as usual.

Hope you're having a lovely day/evening!


xEsther


Image from http://coffeecrackers.blogspot.com/2011/04/review-constant-princess-by-philippa.html

Let's Do...A Book Review: The Other Boleyn Girl

Hello, dear readers,

I am at it again with the book reviews. My summer job doesn't start until next week, so I've had plenty of time to read. The latest book in my summer reading is The Other Boleyn Girl, by Philippa Gregory. I've been wanting to read this for a while and only picked this up at the library last week. Gregory has a whole host of historical fiction novels based on royalty, and I'm actually about to start The Constant Princess, a tale about Katherine of Aragon.

I digress. Besides being over 600 pages long, The Other Boleyn Girl is the tale of the Boleyn family's rise and fall in the court of King Henry VIII. It is told from Mary Boleyn's point of view, being that she is, indeed, the other, the often overlooked, Boleyn girl.

Here's what the website has to say about the novel:

Mary Boleyn catches the eye of Henry VIII when she comes to court as a girl of fourteen.

Dazzled by the golden prince, Mary’s joy is cut short when she discovers that she is a pawn in the dynastic plots of her family. When the capricious king’s interest wanes, Mary is ordered to pass on her knowledge of how to please him to her friend and rival: her sister Anne.

Anne soon becomes irresistable to Henry, and Mary can do nothing but watch her sister’s rise. Anne stops at nothing to achieve her own ambition. From now on, Mary will be no more than the other Boleyn girl.

But beyond the court is a man who dares to challenge the power of her family to offer Mary a life of freedom and passion. If only she has the courage to break away – before the Boleyn enemies turn on the Boleyn girls…

This is a story of a family entirely driven by determination and greed for power. The women do what they are told, bed who they are instructed to bed, and may not complain. The novel breathes life into historical figures we can only dream of, and therefore the dialogues that take place are, as the historical fiction genre suggests, purely fiction. However, Gregory uses the facts that we do know about the Boleyn family, and what little we know of Mary to create a world as it may have been in the 16th century.

Mary is a sweet girl, and very obedient, and Anne is introduced as a wily and clever girl who is rather cold towards her sister. The dynamic between them is really interesting to read, and it makes me question whether they really do love each other even as they are vying for the attention of their family and pushing the other aside for each one's own gain. We cannot say what the dynamic was in real life, but the one presented in this book is fitting in the context of all the betrayals and pushing forward of Boleyn girls into the king's bed that went on.

Gregory takes theories about the Boleyn siblings, Mary, Anne, and brother George, and weaves them into a story sweeping over a decade, always making sure they fall in line with the facts that create the backbone of the novel. Each chapter is a different season, and so you are led at a rather leisurely pace through the lives of the Boleyn family, the politics of Henry's court, and the eventual demise of Queen Katherine of Aragon in the English monarchy, and of Anne herself.

It took me about a week to read this novel, give or take a day, which is quite quick for me. It is not a fast paced book by any means, so you don't realize just how much information you're being fed as you turn the pages. A bonus to the novel's narration by Mary is that she is a self-confessed slow learner, and not quick to understand the goings-on at court. Therefore the reader is treated to dialogue in which other characters explain to Mary the significance of events. This way, in case you don't catch on right away, you will discover along with Mary.

Mary, as the central figure, seems to be the only Boleyn who truly believes in compassion and love by the end, and she learns to be happy to just live with the man she loves, away from court. I don't consider this a spoiler because it's fact. She learns that for her ambition can never be as important as love for her husband and children, and she survives because of it.

If you'd like to know what is fact and what is fiction, the back of some of the copies of the novel have an interview with Gregory herself and she answers a bit of that. However, for more in-depth information, go to her website here, where she explains how she chose which bits of theory to incorporate and how much is actually fact.

[Side note: Then there's the movie based on it, which I haven't seen, and probably takes advantage of the more raunchy side of the story. It stars Scarlet Johansson as Mary, Natalie Portman as Anne, and Eric Bana as Henry.]

I highly recommend this to those of you interested in historical fiction, the lives of the royals, and those with a passion for history in general. It's great fun to get inside the head of a member of the gentry and to grow up with her for fifteen years within these 661 pages.

Happy reading!

xEsther

Let's Do...A Book Review: Twenties Girl

Hello, dear readers,

I'm at it again, quite soon, with another book review. On Wednesday night, I reviewed Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen. I so enjoyed writing a book review that I thought I'd do another. Who knows? Maybe I'll write a book review for every book I read this summer. That would be jolly good fun.

I finished Twenties Girl, by Sophie Kinsella, author of the well-known Shopaholic series, in two days flat. It's somewhere around 400 pages, and I'm a rather slow reader, so that says a bit about how much I liked it. But first, the synopsis from Kinsella's website:

Lara has always had an overactive imagination. Now she wonders if she is losing her mind. Normal twenty-something girls just don’t get visited by ghosts! But inexplicably, the spirit of Lara’s great aunt Sadie – in the form of a bold, demanding Charleston-dancing girl – has appeared to make one last request: Lara must track down a missing necklace Sadie simply can’t rest without.

Lara’s got enough problems of her own. Her start-up company is floundering, her best friend and business partner has run off to Goa, and she’s just been dumped by the love of her life.

But as Lara spends time with Sadie, life becomes more glamorous and their treasure hunt turns into something intriguing and romantic. Could Sadie’s ghost be the answer to Lara’s problems and can two girls from different times end up learning something special from each other?


I have to say, straight off, that I much prefer Kinsella's stand-alone novels to her famous series. I quite enjoyed Twenties Girl because it was about much more than Lara looking for a man to complete her. Along the way, Lara befriends Sadie and uncovers much about her past that affects her living family's future. Now, I don't actually like anything to do with the supernatural, and was quite skeptical of a chick lit book incorporating a ghost, but this is a fun, flirty ghost with a penchant for changing Lara's style and helping her be more carefree.


Girl and ghost learn a lot from each other about true love, the importance of family, and moving onward with life. Of course there is a love story throughout; it's chick lit, therefore that's the law, and I certainly don't begrudge it one. The real backbone of the story, though, doesn't seem to be the love story so much as learning what love is as well as what it isn't. 


The initial plot sets off when Sadie tells Lara to recover her special dragonfly necklace, but the importance of it is unclear until towards the very end of the novel, when things get quite interesting. Details of a long life that Sadie mentions in passing become extremely important towards the end of the novel, integral, in fact. The dynamic between Sadie and Lara is sarcastic and rude on the outside, but quite touchingly loving on the inside. Lara learns to relax and discovers who she can trust, while Sadie learns to open up emotionally. 


The most difficult part of this novel is the mere fact that Sadie is a ghost and Lara must pretend she's constantly on the phone. It could have gotten annoying that Lara talks to a ghost whom no one else can hear, and never tries to explain it, but it doesn't. Often I am left feeling unsatisfied when things are left unresolved in novels, but I think it is appropriate that Kinsella leaves the reader to imagine the other characters' reactions when they find out about the ghost.


Intertwined throughout the novel is the dynamic between Lara's immediate family and the family of their famous Uncle Bill Lington of Lingtons Coffee. It's really interesting to discover with Lara and her family the betrayals and broken loyalties in their family history. Really, it's quite a fun and light read, but with a bit of a deeper message than most chick lit novels. This one is warmer and with a bit more heart to it, but with the same Kinsella humor and her recurrent theme of heroines in crap jobs trying to work their way up in the world.


All in all, I'd say this is definitely worth a read if you like chick lit with a little more substance hidden between the lines. It doesn't feel deep while you read it, really, but the messages within are worth reflection when you've finished. Even if you don't like the Shopaholic series, and I must admit I never could quite finish it [the main character got too annoying for my taste], you may find yourself loving this book.


That's it for my review today. I realize these have been quite scattered and stream of consciousness, or maybe that's in my imagination, but I'll work on them. If you'd like to see more, let me know. If not, I'll probably do them anyway [muahahahahaha!]!


I'm currently juggling four books, one of which I'm unable to get out of the library right now: The Other Boleyn Girl, by Phillipa Gregory; The Color of Magic, by Terry Pratchett; The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman; Harry Potter y la orden del fénix, by JK Rowling; I can't remember who translated it, but that's the one I can't get out from the library at the moment. I think it's actually physically and mentally impossible for me to read one book at a time. I've found myself reading four to five books during middle school, and possibly even elementary school. It's not even an attention problem; I just like books so much that if I get to a point where I want to put down one book I need to have another at hand, and so on. It's so pleasant to go back and forth, like revisiting an old friend and prolonging the stay. I quite like that simile, actually.


Time for me to go to sleep.


Good night/morning/afternoon wherever you are in the world, dear readers!


xEsther

Let's Do...A Book Review: Water for Elephants

Hello, dear readers,


I recently promised you more regular posts, but I neglected to tell you what they would be about. I'll let you in on a little secret: I had no idea what to write about! I think the problem is that recently I've been struggling with personal issues that have made me feel less than beautiful, therefore avoiding the camera and mention of all things cosmetic within the world wide web. This doesn't mean I won't be returning to fun beauty and/or fashion related posts at all, but it does mean there probably won't be pictures of me or much of an explanation until I feel ready. Now, on to the book review:


As you may have read in this post here, I'm very much looking forward to getting some good leisure reading in this summer. I think it would be fun to review the books I read, as I love to read and I love to talk about books.


Strictly speaking, I started Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen, on the ride back to university after spring break. I finished it on the ride home from my mini vacation, which you may have read about in my last post here. You may also have heard about the book because it was made into a movie starring Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon, and Christoph Waltz. I'll be very interested in seeing the movie now.


If you're even still reading, you'd probably like me to get to the review, yes? Ok, ok, I'll stop rambling. Here's what the back of the book says, which you can also read at Sara Gruen's website:

As a young man, Jacob Jankowski was tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. It was the early part of the great Depression, and for Jacob, now ninety, the circus world he remembers was both his salvation and a living hell. A veterinary student just shy of a degree, he was put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie.

It was there that he met Marlena, the beautiful equestrian star married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. And he met Rosie, an untrainable elephant who was the great gray hope for this third-rate traveling show. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust, and, ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.

Rather than repeat the summary, I'd like to say that this is about a young man learning how to grow up rather quickly when he decides he can't sit his exams for veterinary school, for reasons I'd rather not spoil for you, and joins a circus. This is not just a love story, as is projected by the giant and rather moody movie posters. It gets into the gritty details of Depression era circus politics, which sounds ridiculous but is quite fascinating.

It draws you in with Jacob Jankowski's compelling story of loss and rash decision-making, and sweeps you right along with him through the hierarchy of the circus, where workers, performers, and roustabouts must sit at separate tables for meals. The circus owner may withhold several weeks' pay on a whim, or blackmail someone into getting what he wants. The circus owner, Uncle Al, is deathly jealous of Ringling Brothers Circus, and is constantly trying to keep up with it, through a combination of blackmail, deceit, selfishness, and dirty dealing. 

There are also issues of race and religion, which I haven't yet discovered in the movie, as I've yet to see it. Conflicts between Jews and Poles and Americans play a subtle but very important role in this book. The evil August has a severe personality disorder, which makes him more complicated than your average sociopathic villain. At times, it's even possible to sympathize with him, at least for a short time.

This book is also told in hindsight, as Jacob is now around ninety and in a nursing home, remembering the past in daydreams and semi-conscious conversations. It opens with a scene from near the end of the book, which makes me even more anxious to read all the way through. Once I got to the end, I was flipping back and forth between the prologue and that scene to see if all the words matched up. [They don't, by the way, so as to keep you in suspense].

One hint for me that this is a fantastic book is that I didn't automatically flip to the end once I read about thirty pages. I often do this with girly books because they are so predictable, and I often get tired of the relationship clichés that go on before the girl gets the guy. This book is gripping enough that I actually wanted to muck through all the dark times in the middle before getting to the ending. I wanted to savor the emotions running through Jacob's head.

The ending of the story, and I mean ninety-something year-old Jacob's story, not twentyish Jacob's story, comes as a bit of a shock, or at least it did to me. It's compelling until the very last sentence. 

In all, if you're still reading my never ending post, and I find that I do apologize for long posts quite often [and my written apology probably takes up even more of your precious time, so maybe I should stop that!], then I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in historical fiction and won't be devastated by a book that has true love in it, but isn't focused on it. It's about a man finding his purpose in life and learning how to go from merely surviving to truly living.

Have a good read if you decide to pick it up! Let me know what you think!

To bright weather and great reads.

xEsther