Water for Elephants  by Sara Gruen

Jacob Jankowski is old . How old…well he doesn’t exactly know himself he thinks he must be 90 something. Jacob knows three things for sure thou. First what ever he is being fed at the nursing home is not actually food and Secondly the circus was coming to town. Thirdly was that  Joseph McGuinty was a LIAR! He said he carried water for elephants in a traveling circus. Jacob knew this wan’t true , he was outraged! Jacob knew how they had done things in the circus and he damned well knew you couldn’t carry water for elephants. How did he know this? Well it’s because Jacob had been a veterinarian for a traveling circus, but he wasn’t going to go around talking about it.

Jacob Jankowski is is just a normal 23 year old boy trying to earn a degree s a veterinarian and follow in his fathers footsteps. His only problems are his final exams and the fact that he was one of the few virgin on campus. His life was pretty simple all in all. That is until he finds out his parents  died in a car crash . Jacob has nowhere to go. He was kicked out of school and had no money because his father, the local vet had taken pretty much anything he could get as payment. Having nowhere  he decides to just walk. He walked for what seemed like forever. Jacob jumps onto a train he came along and meets a four men named Camel, Grady , Billy  and Blackie. Blackie wasn’t happy to see  that was for sure. He had tried to throw Jacob out of the speeding train , and he would have if Camel hadn’t stopped him. Jacob soon finds out that he is on a circus train of the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular show on earth! Camel takes Jacob under his wing and shows him the ropes of working on a circus. On his first day Jacob discovers the oddities in the show like Lucinda- the worlds most beautiful fat lady as well as the human ostrich and frank otto the worlds most tattooed man. Later that evening Jacob meets Barbra. She is rather “special”. She had her own show for the men. Jacobs favorite act was the girl wearing the pink sequins and the horses. Camel get’s Jacob a meeting of sorts with the RingMater Uncle Al. He soon learns that the girl with the horse was called Marlena and that she was married to the animal trainer August. Jacob is hired as the veterinarian and forced to bunk with Kinko , a dwarf clown who has an attitude problem, and his dog Queenie. As Jacob gets closer to August he discovers that he has a split personality. One second he is fine but the net he is a violent mad man, which isn’t good for Jacob since he is falling in love with his wife. Soon the circus gets a new attraction. Rosie the Elephant. August is to train the elephant and turn out to do so in a violent way and starts to treat Marlena violently as well. The longer Jacob stays on the circus the more dark secrets he learns. The Benzini Brothers may have the most Spectacular show on earth but it is definitely NOT the most spectacular place on earth.

Many people recommended Water for Elephants to me and told me how it was their “Favorite” or that the just couldn’t put it down. I for one didn’t think it was as good as people told me. It did not live up to what I was imagining it to be like. That doesn’t mean I didn’t like the book . I just couldn’t really get in to it. I definitely didn’t like the whole going back and forth between Old and young Jacob. Parts of the book were just gross and kind of pointless. The book was good but had a lot of down falls. I would recommend this book for at least high school and up because of the sexually descriptive material and well the animal abuse. The writing was good but it didn’t really catch my attention. It almost felt like a chore to read this book because it didn’t really flow . Another thing is that the characters just felt flat to me I couldn’t really connect to them.  The main reason I didn’t Love the book is because I had such high expectations for it. It is a interesting read though especially if you like books that take place in the Great Depression era. When and if you pick this book up to read I suggest you forget how awesome and amazing people told you it is and go into it like you don’t know anything about it.Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen may not be my favorite but I recommend you give it a try anyways. Who knows it might be your new favorite!

shyandcourageous: ( I made it though :p)

So, I’m in a relationship now, and my more experienced friend, Erika, gave me some rules I should follow.

• 1. While in a relationship think of both of your feelings (you and your boyfriends) before others. You deserve to be happy with the person you like! Don’t break up with them or feel ashamed because someone else isn’t happy with your relationship it is YOURS!
• 2. Do things at your own pace if they do something you are uncomfortable about tell them don’t hide it
• 3. Don’t back out because you are scared or nervous that’s what it’s like in the beginning
• 4. Make time for them
• 5. Communicate tell them how you feel about certain things don’t be afraid to speak up
• 6. Have fun! Don’t be afraid to be yourself! that’s the reason they like you!!
• 7. Remember important things about them
• 8. Be a lil flirty ;D
• 9. Don’t be afraid to hug them take their hand or arm or even kiss them
• 10. Compliment them make sure they know you like them, but not too much just say little things here and there. Again #2 do things at your own pace
• 11. Don’t hold things against them the past is the past
• 12. Even thou you may not like everything about them doesn’t mean you should break up with them ! No one is perfect!
• 13. Accept them for who they really are and don’t put them down for that
• 14. Don’t talk about former crushes or boyfriends
• 15. Don’t stalk or obsess over them. Let them have their space.
• 16. Don;t get paranoid because they are talking to another friend that is their friend. Not all boys are as bad as people say!
• 17. Keep that bitch who is talking to/after your boyfriend in place!!!!!!!!!
• 18. Don’t look for a fight just because you have one doesn’t mean things should be over.
• 19. Don’t talk politics and religion at first or if you do don’t jam it down their thoughts. just because you have different beliefs doesn’t mean you cant be together accept their beliefs.
• 20. Don’t lie to them tell them the truth
• 21. (goes with #2 and #20) Don’t feel forced to tell them you love them even if they already said it.Do it when you truly do love them !
• 22. Boyfriends are NOT toys don’t play with their emotions.
• 23. Don’t overthink
• 24. Don’t sabotage your self
• 25. Don’t set your self up for failure
• 26. Don’t be too serious
• 27. Don’t feel like you have to do everything to please them
• 28. Make important decisions together and ask their opinions on things
• 29. Don’t be a jerk to the rule maker >:p (I was kind of questioning some of her rules at this point.. XD)
• 30. Don’t think that you have to do everything with them you need your space too
• 24. Don’t do things to purposely cause a problem
• 25. Don’t think you are going to fail and the relationship will fail! Stay optimistic about it!

And that’s all, for now!