Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Goodreads.com describes this book as follows:

An atmospheric, gritty, and compelling novel of star-crossed lovers, set in the circus world circa 1932, by the bestselling author of Riding Lessons. When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, grifters, and misfits, a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in town after endless town. A veterinary student who almost earned his degree, Jacob is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It is there that he meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act, who is married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. He also meets Rosie, an elephant who seems untrainable until he discovers a way to reach her. Beautifully written, Water for Elephants is illuminated by a wonderful sense of time and place. It tells a story of a love between two people that overcomes incredible odds in a world in which even love is a luxury that few can afford.

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After reading this book, I enjoyed this as a purely fiction novel, but had some irritations with the books story line.

While the narration takes place in the 1930's era of the Great Depression and Prohabition, I felt that some of the character dialog seemed too "21st century". It also left me wondering how much of the fighting, "redlighting", and drunken escapades really happened in a travelling circus.

Also, the female character Marlena seemed dull and predictable. I read several other reviews of this book, and this seems to be a common opinion. I think that in general, women were very non-contriversial and proper in the 1930's, but one would think that have a female "lead" character in a circus, you could make the excuse that she could be more daring. Just me I guess...

Overall, it was a quick read, and entertaining...which is why we read, right?

Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood by Julie Gregory

The website http://www.goodreads.com/ gives the synopsis like this: "From early childhood, Julie Gregory was continually X-rayed, medicated, and operated on; in the vain pursuit of an illness that was created in her mother's mind. Munchausen by proxy (MBP) is the world's most hidden and dangerous form of child abuse, in which the caretaker (almost always the mother) invents or induces symptoms in her child because she craves the attention of medical professionals. Many MBP children die, but Julie Gregory not only survived, she escaped the powerful orbit of her mother's madness and rebuilt her identity as a vibrant, healthy young woman."

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For me, this book was a little disappointing. More than following the issues of Munchausen by Proxy, the author reveals more about the emotional and physical abuse she and her younger brother received from her mother and father. Her parents also deceived the system and fostered children and veterens for extra money. This is the second book that I've read in the last few months that has talked about the very inappropriate placing of foster children in homes. It seems that more investigating needs to be done in this foster homes before children are placed.

I was expecting more detail (and I guess more Munchausen issues) then was given. Her mother had MANY issues (anger management, shopaholoic, etc.) that all played a part in the authors abuse. There were quite a few unanswered questions for me as well.

Overall, I would give this book 2 1/2 stars.

Happy reading!!!

Twilight

Yes, I got sucked into the Twilight phenomenon.

After several recommendations from different book websites, I finally broke down and bought the first book in Stephenie Meyer’s series. My hesitation in reading it had been for two reasons:
1.) The storyline is about a romance between a teen vampire (Edward Cullen) and a high school girl (Isabella Swan)
2.) It was written as a young adult novel.
I have never really been into the vampire thing, and I figured the young adult book would make it juvenile. I thought, if I don’t like it, I can always post it on http://www.paperbackswap.com/ . So, I sat down, opened the book, and expected to be disappointed. Less than 48 hours later, I was done and trying to figure out how to get the next book in the series as soon as possible. I was hooked. A “guilty pleasure” a friend said. I was hooked and ready to see the movie, even if it was months away. I have since read the entire series and recommended the book to a few friends.

The Twilight movie premiered last week, and a few of my friends (who also read the books) and I “Fandango-ed” some tickets and got ready for the excitement. I went it with high expectations and….wasn‘t disappointed. I fully expected to enter the theatre and be sharing it with a bunch of sighing teeny boppers. Rob Pattinson is the actor who plays Edward Cullen, and he’s on his way to being this generations Johnny Depp. I was very pleasantly surprised that we were among very few teens, and mostly adults! J The movie followed the books story line (a major plus for me), and I loved that the characters were relatively unknowns. I was a little disappointed in the casting of characters of Esme and Carlile (Edward’s parents). I thought the actors were a little too young to play the characters. Other than that, I loved the movie and recommend it to anyone who has read the book. Non-readers may enjoy it also, but I think it may be harder to follow the storyline.

The story takes place in Forks, Washington—an actual place Meyer chose to use because of its high annual rainfall. The movie was filmed in several locations Oregon and Washington, many of which you would notice if you see the movie (The Gorge, Multnomah Falls, and much of our great green forests to name a few). There was also a prom scene filmed at the View Point Inn, located in Corbett, Oregon (www.theviewpointinn.com/twilight_movie.html ). I also love the soundtrack to the movie. Incendently, Rob Pattinson sings two songs for the movie, both of which are great, one of which has become a favorite of mine.

On another note, I attended a wedding at The View Point Inn about 10 years ago and it is an absolutely beautiful location. The property is set high on the cliff with a landmark house built in the 1920’s. The wedding took place in the garden area in front of the house that over looks one of the best views of the gorge I have ever seen. The reception took place in the house itself and featured a great dinner with a romantic atmosphere. Unfortunately, it has been so long since I’ve been there, that I can’t give details about the cost of having an event there. I can tell you that the excellent food and gorgeous property are worth checking out for your event (wedding or otherwise). The only downfalls that I remember are the lack of room to have the dining and a dance floor at the same time, and a lack of parking areas. Also, the dining area isn’t too large, so you would be limited to 150 guests or less. Like I stated earlier, it’s been quite a while since I’ve been there, so it very possible these issues have been addressed.

That’s it for me! Let me know what you think of Twilight and if you’ve been to The View Point Inn more recently than I have…I’d love an update!

Check out these websites as well!

http://www.thetwilightsaga.com/

http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/

http://www.twilightthemovie.com/

Why?

Some of you may be wondering why I've chosen to do this type of blog. Why not just use PortlandCitySearch.com? There are a few reasons, one of which became very apparent to me earlier this year.

I belonged to a business that received a very poor (one star) review by a client on PortlandCitySearch.com. This site allows a user to leave a starred rating (one being poor, five being great), as well as a written comment. Unfortunately for the business, it was the ONLY review, and therefore gave them a low overall rating. The client's chief complaint was about the manager/owner degrading her "employees" in the clients presence, when the "employees" were taking care of the client to her satisfaction.

Instead of the business owner asking future clients to post their experiences on Portland City Search (the ethical thing to do) she asked her friends and "employees" to post positive experiences to falsely boost her rating. This got me to thinking...what's stopping other businesses from doing the same thing????

So, what am I looking for? PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE comment on my reviews; good or bad! Just because I have had a bad experience, doesn't mean that one of you hasn't had an equally good experience, and vice versa.

There it is...the Why...I look forward to your future comments! :)

An Idea...

Hello all!

I've been thinking for a while that I'd love to start blogging about my experiences with many things that I've recently (and not so recently) had the opportunity to do, see and/or read. I love offering my friends and family my opinions on great things in the Northwest (Oregon and Southwest Washington) and connecting them with those services or experiences.

My hope in starting this blog is to let others beyond just my friends and family know of great things the Northwest has to offer. Some of the things I want to cover are:
*Weddings (I've been to MANY in the last 5 years) and I don't know of a website that shares "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" (que music here) of the Portland areas options. I want to review everything from venues and dress shops, to catering and D.J.'s.
*Baby and Child friendly places and activities
*Restaurants and Bars/Night Clubs
*Books read in our monthly “Ladies Book Club” as well as those I’ve read on my own.
*The Oregon Coast
*Other miscellaneous services and business

I’m excited about starting this adventure and I look forward to everyone’s feedback and comments!