Back in 2008 I listened to Water for Elephants and thought it was a great story.
I always get excited when they make a movie from one of the books I've read.  I'm anxious to see who they pick to play each part and I must say I did not expect these two actors to be the choices.  When I listened to the book I expected them to be closer in age, and I'm sorry, I am NOT a big Robert Pattinson fan.  I didn't get into the Twilight series (even thought that author wrote one of my favorite books). 

I do love Reece Witherspoon.  She was also in Just Like Heaven which was based on another book I read, "If Only It Were True" by Marc Levy.  The book was cute but I haven't seen the movie to compare yet.  Honestly I read the book around 2001 so I couldn't compare the two unless I re-read it. 

Have you been to see the Water For Elephants?  Did you like it?  Are you one of the few who have read it and can compare them?  I would love to hear from you.

Edgar Sawtelle

I tried reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski at first, but it was hard to get into. Even so, I heard a lot of great things about this book, so I got the cd's so I could listen to it.

This story starts with a mysterious exchange between two men, who exchange antibiotics for a potion that kills with one drop. A life for a life. We then span back two generations, in the life of the Sawtelles. We learn how they acquired their land and build the house and barn on their property. How they started raising a special breed of dogs and trained them. We learned how it was handed down to the next generation, and finally how it came to be Edgar's father's, Gar. Gar and Trudy try desperately to have children and suffer through a miscarriage and a still born child. They finally have Edgar and worry that even though he can hear, he cannot talk. Almondine, their dog, realizes that Edgar is her purpose in life, since she is the one who can talk to him and truly understand him.

Mr. Wroblewski does a decent job of telling a story. I was taken in by the story, for the most part. There were things and scenes that were thrown into the story that lead to nowhere and seemed out of place, though. And sometimes the characters did things that seem out of place for how he developed them.

Overall I would give this book a 2 out of 5.

To learn more about the story, you can read on...but be warned...

**spoilers **

Edgar, Trudy and Gar have it all it seems, until Gar's brother, Claude, comes back to the farm to stay for a while. Claude is a troubled soul and not quite trustworthy. He stays to help until one night the brothers get into a fight and Claude storms off. Soon after, Gar dies unexpectedly and under curious circumstances. Trudy and Edgar suffer greatly and fall into depression. They lean on each other and become very close, until Trudy becomes very sick. Unable to take care of the dogs and the chores, Edgar calls on Claude. Claude worms his way into the family. Edgar is visited by his father's spirit and realized that maybe Claude had something to do with his untimely death. Trudy and Almondine both seem oblivious to Claude's dark side. Edgar has a plan to expose Clause, but it all goes wrong and Edgar is forced to run away with three of the dogs, leaving Almondine behind, feeling she had betrayed him by getting close to Claude. At age 14 Edgar travels through the wilderness where he happens upon a lonely man. Henry invites them into his house and here Edgar is visited by another ghost. At some point Edgar feels he must return home, leaving behind two of the dogs. He returns home, determined to expose the true killer. It all goes wrong and this book ends with the most depressing scene e-v-e-r.

I felt like I wasted 18 hours of my life when I got to the end. I think I should have read the dust cover before I went through this. It is compared to a Shakespeare tragedy. I know all stories do not have happy endings and I hate it when an author forces a "happy" ending when it doesn't ring true to the plot; however, to have a tragic ending just for tragedy's sake sucks! There wasn't any reason, no deep reflection or morals to consider.

I don't understand why David wrote Edgar to be a very intellectual person yet had him come across as crazy when he was trying to tell his mother that Claude was bad. There were a lot of disconnects like this. He also introduced a story line about the dogs they were breeding and a certain special dog they may have been descendants of. He steered the story into a direction where this could have been a driving force as to why Claude may want to get rid of Gar, or that this was a special breed capable of something special, but he completely dropped it. It was like he had so many ideas for this book and put them all in there. I could go on and on about scenes and events that didn't have any place in the story and how I was confused by actions of the characters that were so out of place, only put there to force the story into a direction that seemed too far fetched.

Did anyone read this??? Share your thoughts.

The Lake That Stole Children

I just read The Lake That Stole Children by Douglas Glenn Clark. This is a wonderful story told along the vein of a Grimm's fairy tale. I loved that is was set here in Michigan too!.

It is set in a small fishing town and is centered around a fisherman, his wife, his son and his daughter. His boy wants to be a great fisherman and he longs to use the great lures and the pole his father uses so he can cast out far into the lake. The fisherman is a very stern father and scolds his son when he doesn't listen.

Children from this small town have gone missing. The parent don't know where to turn. One night the fisherman's boy is drawn to the lake, and he cast's out into the middle of the lake. When he gets a bite on the line, it is too strong and he is pulled into the lake and taken hostage by the big glass fish that lives in the lake.

This is a wonderful fable with colorful descriptions. It is a young adult/adult book and I checked out the reviews that it got on Amazon and was a little surprised. Some said they wouldn't read this book to children because of some of the messages. For example, the wife blamed the father for her missing son. I disagree with the reviews. I think this is a book that could bring about some wonderful teaching moments for children. Sometimes parents get upset with each other, it is normal. Relationships take work. Sometimes we think we want something without stepping back and wondering if we are ready for it. Is there something the father could have done different? Maybe the son should have sat down and explained to his father that he wanted to be great like him. The teacher in me found many great conversations that could be had when this book is shared, and I found that when I sat back and thought about the story it was much deeper than I even realized when I was reading it.

I give this book a 5 out of 5.