Sara Gruen “Water for Elephants”

   In the beginning of Water for Elephants Jacob Jankowski tells us that he is ninety or ninety-three. He's not really sure anymore. His body betrayed him years ago and Jacob now fears that his mind isn’t far, he’s living out his final days in the nursing home and hating every minute of it.  When the circus comes to town, Jacob comes alive and begins to tell us his life’s story. Water for Elephants transported me to a time of the great depression. I learned a lot about the old traveling circuses and life with them. That was really interesting. Water for Elephants is a wonderfully entertaining and well-written story that I think everyone should read. This novel is a delightful with unexpected and wonderful ending.

Olga

L. Frank Baum "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz"

   Well, friends – it is time for the fairy-tale to come! Today it will be the bewitching tale of Dorothy’s adventures in the magical Land of Oz. The name of the book – The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and for sure it’s one of the best loved of the modern fairy-tales. Made into a spectacular film in 1939 it continues to delight adult and child alike.

    The story begins when a cyclone suddenly propels Dorothy and her dog Toto skywards and she finds herself in an unknown land.  She is hailed as a powerful sorceress by the little Munchkins, but her one desire is to return to Kansas, where beloved Aunt Em and Uncle Henry await her. Dorothy’s quest to seek the ‘Great Wizard Oz’ – the only one who can help her – leads her on a perilous journey along the Yellow Brick Road towards the glittering City of Emeralds. On the way she encounters the brainless Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman in search of a heart and the Cowardly Lion, who all join her. At last they reach the castle of Oz – yet in this strange land nothing is ever as it seems…
    So… if you want to have a real rest with the book in the hand – The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is your choice!!!
Yura  

Ernest Hemingway "The Old Man and the Sea"

When The Old Man and the Sea was published in 1952, it was instantly hailed as a classic. The triumphant yet tragic story of an old Cuban fisherman and his supreme ordeal – a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream – it has the simplicity of a fable, the significance of a parable and the drama of an epic. Among the finest in English literature, Hemingway’s description of fishing and the teeming tropical life abounding in the Gulf Stream provide a setting of warmth and shimmering beauty for the struggle between man against sea and man against fate. A story of grace and courage, of heroism and pity, The old Man and the Sea received special recognition in the citation accompanying Hemingway’s Nobel Prize for literature in 1954 and remains one of his most popular works today.

Donald