The book that I am going to talk about is Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. I have seen the movie, (and yes, I read the book first), and I was quite surprised at how closely the movie followed the book. Although they cut out a few parts (which was probably necessary) and made it over a shorter time span, it was a pretty good movie. Anyway, the story of the book goes like this. Jacob Jancowski is a 90 year old man in a nursing home. He used to work on a circus in the 1930's, and he starts to tell his circus tales to a few people in the nursing home. He started the circus in his early 20's, after his parents died in a car accident. It was the day that he was taking his final exams at Cornell for vet school when his parents died, and he left the school and headed for the train tracks, looking for somewhere to go. He hopped on the circus train, and started a new life for himself. He was appealing to keep on the circus, because he was a vet, and they could use someone to take care of the animals. Shortly after joining the team, he met August and Marlena, a couple who were the lead act of the circus performance. Jacob becomes mesmerized by Marlena, and slowly, they fall in love. August has a hot temper, and after a night when he hits Marlena and Jacob, Jacob knows its time for him to leave that circus with Marlena. He is reluctant to leave because he is hiding his friend Camel, who's sick, from being red-lighted. He also doesn't feel comfortable leaving Marlena's elephant, Rosie, with August, who beats her when anything goes wrong. In the end, he and Marlena leave for a few days and come back to the circus to take Rosie, and join Ringling Circus after they get her. In stead, when they go back, the menagerie escapes during a performance, and it causes a tragic event for the circus. Marlena and Jacob lose each other during the chaos, but August finds Marlena and starts attacking her. Rosie, Marlena's elephant, was standing with them while this fight is happening, and with the swift slap in the head with a pole for August from Rosie, he is dead, and Marlena is saved. Jacob quickly finds Marlena, and they leave that circus forever. They get married and have 5 children after they're done working with Ringling. Jacob outlives Marlena, and tells his story only sometimes in his nursing home. In the end of the book, Jacob joins a recent circus, only to tell stories to the crew. The circus was his home, and he was glad to be there. I enjoyed reading this novel, as it is one of my few adult novels that I've read. I couldn't put it down, and finished it in a weekend! I would recommend it, but only for more mature readers.
Now, onto desserts! For spring break, I went to Aruba, and I have a few pictures of desserts that I had there. My favorite dessert that I had while we were there was probably the traditional tres leches cake that I had at a small, local cake shop. It was quite delicious, and the picture is below! We also had the traditional cashew cake, or bolo. It was also delicious...and I can't decide which I liked better!
The first cake is the tres leches, and the second is the cashew cake.
