Two Roads

Based in the depression, this book tells the story of Jacob Jankowski, a young Polish man who lost everything and chose to quite literally, run away with the circus. The plot follows Jacob as he tries to survive through the difficult time, and on his way falls in love, trains an elephant and meets the worlds heaviest lady. Sara Gruen tells the story brilliantly, the plottwists and cliff hangers make the book impossible to put down. The main focus of the book of course, is the elephant- Rosie (clue is in the title). ..read more

I loved Luke Gamble's first book ‘The Vet: My Wild and Wonderful Friends' and his second book ‘The Vet:the Big Wild World' is just brilliant. In the first book we ended with Luke about to propose to his girlfriend Cordelia - now in his second book we meet him trying to feed a seal pup without getting his fingers bitten off - curtsey of his vet friend Sam, who he seems to be able to con into going on pretty much all of his ventures both here in Britain and abroad.

I think it's fair to say that Luke Gamble is a modern day James Herriot with stories a plenty from both here in the U.K. and abroad. He writes with an ease of style that makes his book warm, friendly, fun and informative.

There are the very funny anecdotes such as being bitten by a squirrel - it really is very funny and the heart rending chapter dealing with Foot and Mouth. Luke was one of the very first vets involved with the culling. But here Luke also shows the emotional and physical devastation the farmers go through.