Some Short Takes

A good way to talk about a few books at once, that are not really worthy of their own entry, but are still things I read. Here are a couple that have been amusing me.

Water For Elephants, by Sara Gruen. I liked. I liked very much, but I have nothing terribly deep to say about it. I'm a sucker for a circus story, and if you are too, this is a good one. I liked that it wasn't overly romanticized. The circus in the story was a brutal place, where underperformers and troublemakers got "redlighted" off the moving circus train in the middle of the night, but where all manner of cruelty was tolerated from a high performer. I reccomend this one.

The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder, by Rebecca Wells. Also known as the woman who brought you the incredibly successful Ya-Ya franchise. Wells' books are sort of the same thing over and over again. If you like them, you'll like this one. It's the story of a spirited Southern girl who has lots of love and lots of tragedy in her life, and overcomes the latter through the former.

One thing I noticed about Wells' books -- they're always about the Queen Bee. You won't find any misunderstood, unpopular, brainy, geeky heroines at the center of her novels. They're all about the Prom Queen, and those in her orbit. In a way, it's a bit refreshing. But I disliked how little sympathy she had, in Ya-Yas in Bloom, for those on the outside.

But that has nothing to do with this book. It's overall a bit of harmless fun. Like I said, won't change the hearts and minds of haters, but those who can't get enough of this stuff will be well-satisfied with this one.