Books and breakfast

I highly recommend reading Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen and Her Mother's Hope by Francine Rivers.

Water for Elephants is a book about Jacob, who lost his parents in a car crash just before he was to take his final exams and graduate from Vet school.  Since Jacobs dad took out a mortgage to pay for his schooling and accepted chicken eggs as payment for his veterinarian services (his dad was a vet as well), after the crash the bank got everything.  So he just took off and ended up joining the circus

The story jumps between Jacob as a 93 year old man at a nursing home, and his memories of working for the circus.  This book was funny, entertaining, sometimes sad, always honest, and overall a very good read.

Her Mother's Hope is the newest book by Francine Rivers and if you know me at all, you know I love Francine Rivers books.  Having read all of her books (except the Lineage of Grace and Sons of Encouragement series, i read one of each, but wasn't a fan) I was looking forward to this one.  Her books are engaging, thought provoking and challenging.  Overall one of my favorite authors.

Her Mother's Hope is about Marta, a girl who struggles with a crappy dad throughout childhood and then through many different service jobs as a teenager learning all she can so that one day she can open her own hotel.  She later raises a family while fighting the ghosts of her past.  The story later focuses on her second child and oldest daughter who is close to the exact opposite of Marta.  This is the first of a two book series, lets hope the second is written quickly so we can see how it all ends.

I was also shown an awesome little breakfast restaurant this last weekend.  Tucked between two 10 story buildings, this 15 ft wide by 40 ft long building was easy to miss and had room for maybe 16 people at a time, but it was good.  I had the Monte Cristo sandwich, and it was great.  I'm likely to start eating there once a week given the great quality of the food, and pretty cheap prices.