Sam Reviews "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen

I know a lot of people who put this book on the short list of their favorites, and personally I don't get it.  It's not a bad story, and it's written well, but it's not all that interesting.  Part of my distaste for this book might have to do with my lack of interests in circuses, and the poor treatment of people and animals they are notorious for.  I remember when I watched the movie I thought it was a more boring version of "Big Fish", where I would rather just wash "Big Fish".  I felt pretty much the same after reading this, it was a well told story but it was mostly sad and pretty predictable.  There was only a few twists at the end that took me by surprise.  I'm giving this book three stars because it is not a book I'd read twice, and I don't see myself recommending it to anyone else.

"Even out of costume they [the performers]  are glamorous. The drab workmen scuttle all around,  occupying the same universe but seemingly on a different dimension."

"And so I leave, although every bone in my body screams against it."

Sam Reviews "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult

I really did enjoy this book.  I think the only reason it took me a while to finish is because I had seen the move first so parts of the story weren't surprises.  I put off reading this book for a long time because people told me it was "hard to read" but, personally, I didn't find the content any more difficult to read than any other book where a character is sick or dying.  I regret not reading this book sooner.  I do think it's kind of a one time read, for me at least, but it was a worthwhile one.

"In the end,  though, I did not kill my sister. She did it all on her own. Or at least that is what I tell myself." 

"I sometimes wonder if it is just me,  or if there are other women who figure out where they are supposed to be by going nowhere." 

"... seeing her sitting there unresponsive makes me realize that silence has a sound." 

"It is so easy to think that the world revolves around you,  but all you have to do is stare up at the sky to realize it isn't that way at all." 

"I don't have expectations,  and this way she beats them all." 

"Supernovas,  they're brighter than the brightest galaxies. They die but everyone watches them go." 

"She slaps my face hard enough to make my head snap backward.  She leaves a print that stains me long after it's faded. Just so you know:  shame is five fingered." 

"A real friend isn't capeable of feeling sorry for you." 

"There's nothing worse than silence,  strung like heavy beads on too delicate a conversation."

"Reason number 106 why dogs are smarter than humans:  once you leave the litter,  you server contact with your mothers".

"Love has all the lasting performance of a rainbow - beautiful while it's there, and  just as likely to have disappeared by the time you blink." 

"Growing up, Izzy was the Goody-Two-Shoes and I was the one who came up fighting - swinging my fists or shaving my head to get a rise out of my parents or wearing combat boots with my high school uniform.  Yet now that we're thirty-two, I'm a card-carrying member of the Rat Race; while Izzy is a lesbian who builds jewelry out of paper clips and bolts.  Go figure."

"Nothing is worth having so much as something unattainable."

"Timelines bracket her mouth, parentheses around a lifetime of words I was not around to hear."

"'I used to have pink hair.' I told Seven.
"'I used to have a real job,' he answered.
"'What happened?'
"He shrugged.  'I dyed my hair pink.  What happened to you?'
"'I let mine grow out.'  I answered.
"'Nobody ever wants what they've got,' he said."

"We're unnaturally quiet, as if they've taken all possible words with them and left us with nothing."

"'How do you get along with hem [your sisters]?'
"'They survive me, like everyone else.'"

"No one in this family ever covers up their mistakes."

"From that point of view, I realized that my hole was not miles deep after all.  My father, in fact, could stand on the bottom and it only reached up to his chest.  Darkness, you know, is relative."

"They [children] outgrow us so much faster than we outgrow them."

"The human capacity for burden is ... far more flexible than you'd ever believe at first glance."

"Shooting stars are not stars at all.  They're just rocks that enter the atmosphere and catch fire under friction.  What we wish on when we see one, is only a trail of debris."

"Do all the wonderful things happen when we are not aware of them?" 

"There are some nights when you just want to know there's someone else besides you in this wide world."

"The Pawnee Indians say the star deities populated the world:  Evening Star and Morning Star honed up and gave birth to the first female. The first boy came from the Sun and the Moon.  Humans rode in on the back of a tornado." 

"The really amazing thing about all this is no matter what you believe, it took some doing to get from a point where there was nothing,  to a point where all the right neurons fire and pop so that we can make decisions.  More amazing is how even though that's become second nature, we all still manage to screw it up." 

"Kids think with their brains cracked wide open;  becoming an adult,  I've decided,  is only a slow sewing shut."

"I can't answer a single one of these [questions], which is how I know that whether I'm ready or not,  I'm growing up." 

"Even if we win,  we don't." 

"The people you love can surprise you every day.  That maybe who we are isn't so much about what we do,  but rather what we're capable of when we least expect it."

"Time is an optical illusion - never quite as solid or strong as we think it is." 

"I cannot begin to tell you the words I use;  none of them are big enough to bear the weight behind them." 

"Kate as a toddler being tossed into the air by Brian,  her hair flying behind her,  her arms and legs starfish-splayed, certain beyond a doubt that when she fell to earth again,  there would be a safe landing,  sure that she deserved nothing less." 

"It doesn't take a whole long life to realize that what we deserve to have, we rarely get."

"This is not how I thought our lives would go; and maybe we cannot find our way out of this alley.  But there is no one I'd rather be lost with." 

"Life sometimes gets so bogged down in the details,  you forget you are living it.  There is always another appointment to be met,  another bill to pay,  another symptom presenting,  another uneventful day to be notched onto the wooden wall. We have synchronized our watches,  studied our calendars,  existed in minutes, and  completely forgotten to step back and see what we've accomplished." 

"There are just as many stories to be told in the dark spots as there are in the bright ones." 

"There are stars in the night sky that look brighter than the others, and  when you look at them through a telescope you realize you are looking at twins. ... the first one shines so bright,  by the time you notice the second one,  it's really to late." 

"As her heart stops beating beneath my palm - that tiny loss of rhythm,  that hollow calm,  that utter loss."
--

This book was published in 2004, what kind if question is "What kind of person can afford a cell phone but not their own washer and dryer?"  Even then, those two items were very different prices.