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Post by Bara on Jun 22, 2007 8:45:49 GMT -5
Thanks, HF - but it wasn't me who recommended it, I loved it, too!
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Post by Deb on Jun 22, 2007 11:52:33 GMT -5
Bara, the books should be here any day now!!!!! I've been waiting with "baited breath" trying to keep my excitement at a low level, but alas and alack I'm 'bout to start "foaming" at the mouth. ;D I may pounce on the mail delivery person today before he/she can get a foot..'er wheels width.. from our mailbox. We have rural delivery here in that our mail persons drive by and most always throw our mail as they go by..'er as in the movie
"Funny Farm".
Harry Potter has been keeping me rather entertained though..I loff him!!!
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Post by Bara on Jun 22, 2007 16:47:33 GMT -5
Oh Deb - Amazon said they should be with you sometime between the 20th and 22nd!! Sorry!
I thought you were probably patrolling the corridors of Hogwarts though, and wouldn't be too worried!
Where have you got to?
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Post by Deb on Jun 23, 2007 6:44:22 GMT -5
THEIR HERE; The mail person brought them yesterday evening!!!! THANK YOU; THANK YOU!! I started "Water the Elephants" this morning.
With Harry Potter I'm half way through the second book. I loff having so much good reading to do!! I've got a ways to go to get caught-up with everyone.
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Post by niaru on Jun 23, 2007 15:22:26 GMT -5
I just finished Water for Elephants and LOVED every page of it. And I loved the ending! How long do you think it'll take the powers that be to make a movie from it, lol! It seems all the good books get turn into movies these days, sigh.
So, would someone enlighten me about the parallel "layer" Jacob in the book / Jacob in the Bible?
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Post by Lynne on Jun 25, 2007 5:45:02 GMT -5
I wondered about that too Niaru...but I'm mostly clueless. I'm glad you liked it though and I loved the ending also. Actually I really liked his character in the home....funny and wise. I learned a lot that I didn't know about the travelling circuses though and the rot gut beverages (what was it called?)
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Post by Deb on Jun 25, 2007 7:33:56 GMT -5
I'm reading "Water For Elephants" now. It is a very good "read". Really difficult to stop reading for very long. Ringling Brothers and Barnam & Bailey were in fact actual circuses back in the time frame the book is set. They did travel by train across the country. I'm really liking the book, a lot.
If I'm not mistaken Jacob in the Bible had two older brothers who were very jealous of him. Their Mother made Jacob a "coat of many colors" and that incensed the brothers even more. I can't figure out a parallel between the two "Jacobs", just yet.
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Post by Bara on Jun 25, 2007 8:51:18 GMT -5
Niaru - duh. I didn't spot any deeper meaning ...  No, Deb, I think you're thinking of Joseph with the coat of many colours. Jacob's Ladder was the Jacobs story, wasn't it? But no. I'm too shallow to have picked that out, Claire. Explain, please??  |
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Post by Bara on Jun 25, 2007 8:54:14 GMT -5
Niaru - duh. I didn't spot any deeper meaning ... No, Deb, I think you're thinking of Joseph with the coat of many colours. Jacob's Ladder was the Jacobs story, wasn't it? But no. I'm too shallow to have picked that out, Claire. Explain, please?? |
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Post by niaru on Jun 25, 2007 8:55:11 GMT -5
Bara, I only know about it because I read the "book discussion questions" that come after the novel in the edition that I have. And I'm not too versed in the Bible (too say the least!) but it's going to annoy me not to know the answer. I was hoping YOU may be able to explain!
Lynne, was that the "jake" beverage, Jamaican rum that was spiked with something so it couldn't be used for consumption during the prohibition years? I guess that thousands of Americans were affected, I never knew anything about it before reading the book.
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Post by Bara on Jun 25, 2007 8:59:27 GMT -5
Oops! Posted twice, then it kicked me out! I'd say 'Operator Error', wouldn't you? Claire - no point in asking a lapsed Catholic about the actual Bible! What did your booknotes say? I'll bet Adcooper knows!  |
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Post by Lynne on Jun 25, 2007 9:10:18 GMT -5
Ann! We need you here.
I wish I'd read it more recently than January.....I forget details so quickly. BUT.....what about the strumpet who truly loved the animals (it seemed) but was in the abusive relationship with the doodee boy. Do you think she was "trapped", playing all sides, deeply sensitive or deeply insensitive?
AND....I'd love to know what the discussion questions are in your edition Niaru.
Also...don't we have an Exracer in Ithaca? I guess the whole story hit me there because since I was wee little (right before I painted the piano) I wanted to go to vet school and to go to vet school there. My father was a doctor when I was a kid and I clearly remember the bartering for bread, vegetables etc. I don't know if any of that goes on anymore? And wasn't it a kind of good idea? Hmmmmm
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Post by Bara on Jun 25, 2007 9:19:27 GMT -5
I'm like you, Lynne - read and read and read, but short term memory ... ?? It's good, in a way. You can re-read and re-read! ;D Gosh - the barter system. Well, Lynne, your childhood is not that long ago (compared to mine!) So I reckon that barter system still exists. Where is Ithaca? (I'm assuming it isn't Greece, otherwise you'd be married to Theseus!) Is it a rural community? I think that this still happens in rural communities all over the world. The 'professional' people, like your dad, are paid in 'kind'. I wanted to be a vet, too, when I was a little girl. But I don't really think I'm suited to 5 a.m. frosty mornings with my arm up a cow's backside. So perhaps just as well that all dreams don't come true .... Yes, we need Ann. A Christian and a scholar. We are floundering in outer darkness, here, Ann!  |
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Post by Deb on Jun 25, 2007 9:24:48 GMT -5
Bara, you got me, it was Joseph with the coat of many colors. The Jacob's Ladder rang a clearer bell, I don't recall the parable of Jacob's Ladder, though. DUH on me!!!!!
Modified to add: Bara, Ithaca is in the state of New York. I wanted to be a Vet when I was younger, too. Never made it though. The "barter system" isn't used very much any more here. To many want cash upfront, in most cases. Unless we're a very regular customer.
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Post by niaru on Jun 25, 2007 12:50:00 GMT -5
Yes, we need Ann! Here's the question that got me thinking in vain:
-Sara Gruen has said that the "backbone" of her novel "parallels the biblical story of Jacob" in the book of Genesis. On the 1st night after his leaving Cornell, for example, Jacob - as did his biblical namesake- lies "back on the bank, resting my head on a flat stone". In what other ways does Water for Elephants parallel the story of the biblical Jacob? How do the names of many of the characters reflect names of characters in the biblical accounts?
*sigh* I guess I could re-read the Book of Genesis, eh? lol
Another of the questions:
In the words of one reviewer, Water for Elephants "explores...the pathetic grandeur of the depression-era circus". In what ways and to what extent do the words "pathetic grandeur" describe the world that Gruen creates in her novel?
And also:
To what extent do the chapters concerning the elderly Jacob enhance the chapters recounting the young Jacob's experiences with the Benzini Brothers circus? In what ways do the chapters about the young Jacob contribute to a deeper understanding of the elderly Jacob's life?
There are 17 discussion questions!
Lynne, do you mean the relationship between Marlena (with the horses at liberty number) and her husband August? She marries him at 17 when the alternative is her parents' choice, a banker 2x her age, and he is charming and funny and very attractive. Then she discovers his true nature (schizophrenic) but decides to cope with it and make the best of it, but she realizes she's fallen in love with Jacob...that's how I understand it, anyway!
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No, Deb, I think you're thinking of Joseph with the coat of many colours. Jacob's Ladder was the Jacobs story, wasn't it?
