Book Review: Water For Elephants

I have only ever been to one circus in my lifetime, on a school field trip many years ago. And although the majority of the memories of that event are now lost in the three decades plus that followed, I can still recall wondering where all the performers went after the show was over, I imagined them in my young mind sleeping in rows in the middle of the sawdust circle and atop the benches that served as seats for the patrons.

Decades later I have my answer after reading Water For Elephants, a book that really touched my heart on many levels. Not only is it a fine record of some of the conditions and lifestyles of circus performers and workers during the great depression, but it also a love story and a final chapter of a man's life that is brimming with emotional and exciting content that keeps you turning the pages to see what happens next to the crew of the Benzini Bros Circus.

Book Review: Stephen King's Cell

Fear and terror comes in many guises and forms, it's sheer force is hard wired into our animal bodies of old. But rather then getting our fix of fright through the danger our ancestors faced in daily life or listening to the legends of ghosts and monstrosity's passed down throughout time, modern man is forced to seek out his desire to be frightened in movies and books.

And no name says horror like Stephen King.

Ideal storyteller's have versatility and King has always had a knack for attacking various angles and genres, the better to keep us on our toes and sleeping with the bedroom lights on. Cell is a novel by King that almost seems like it would feel more at home in a darkened movie theater as it's visually gory style and graphic nature are the tricks employed by films of the horror genre, giving us a mixture of plot and visual madness that serve each other well, never making the other side of the coin seem too contrived or well tread.