The Astonishing Elephant
10 May 2023
The Astonishing Elephant by Shana Alexander is the one book I read last year that I haven't reviewed yet. Not sure why I didn't. The book was written in the late nineties and I picked it up used at McKay's back in Tennessee years ago. Tsundoku FTW! Anyway, it was an interesting insider account of the elephant industry's twists and turns over much of the 20th century. Most exciting was the long, eventually successful quest to breed them. Less happy were the tales of trainers various elephants killed and what circuses did to the animals. The book was over two decades old when I read it, though still it was enjoyable.
