Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Average Customer Rating:

"Let's give you something to tell your grandkids about. Or great grandkids. Or great-great grandkids."

Customer Rating:

I must say that when I first saw this book, I was a little skeptical of whether or not it would be worthy of buying or reading. I am pretty picky about what I read, because I get sick of reading books with the same type of love theme or crime theme, and etc. over and over again; you get the picture. I took a chance and bought the book, and found the plot to be a definite page turner in terms of the suspense that subtly builds and makes one want to know what was happening in each of the two major time eras of the characters' lives. I think that "Water for Elephants" was written in a unique style and gives the reader better insight into the characters' lives and it definitely paints a vivid picture of Depression-era circuses by mixing some facts with the fictional storyline without sounding like a history textbook.

Historical fiction meets Cirque du Soleil !!!	Customer Rating:
Amazing book!! Starts of slowly and snowballs into a fabulous tale... you won't be disappointed!!

What a book!!!	Customer Rating:
I read this book and am doing a book review for my book club for same. I bought this audio version to listen to the book and refresh my memory. It was great! The readers were great and the book is terrific.

What a winner!

Customer Rating:

This is one of my all-time favorites! For some reason, I put off reading this book for months. I tried to convince myself that it didn't look interesting. Was I ever wrong! This will stay in my house, I will not trade or sell it, or loan it out. It's that good! Reading the author's notes, I discovered it was based on the the Biblical story of Jacob. Then I had to read it all over again! And I still loved it!

solid 4 out of 5

Customer Rating:

I read this book in one day. Not necessarily because it was a "can't put it down page-turner", but more because I had a Sunday with nothing else to do. I am always a fan of well-researched work, and Gruen has definitely done her work here. I was somewhat disappointed in the lack of details in character development and/or setting, but that's just a personal preference. I have read some other reviews that say the book was drawn out and too lengthy, but I disagree. I feel that it moved rather well and flowed. My biggest problem with the book was the last chapter. It seemed to be a bit too fanciful and didn't really match the tone of the rest of the book. Still definitely worth reading though.