User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
a really sweet coming-of-age story that combines american history, animal friends, and a cross-country roadtrip. quite the fun adventure!
whist reading this, i could tell that it was well-researched. i actually learned some things about the dust bowl era, which was unexpected. i think this does a great job at taking true events and presenting them in a way that is quite readable.
the overall vibe of the story reminded me a lot of
'water for elephants,' but i didnt quite find this as emotional or impactful, which is why my rating is pretty average. i was just hoping for a little bit more to make me fall in love with this, and i never got it.
still a really lovely story that i know will find its way to multiple bookclubs.
↠ 3.5 stars
Rating: really liked it
A delightful read, I couldn't put it down. Told through the memory of an aged veteran, the story is set against the background of the Dust Bowl, the Depression and the advent of a World War. This improbable, but fact-based, story of two giraffes transported cross country in what was basically an over-balanced flatbed truck made me laugh, cry. and actually care about the dangers they were experiencing. A touch of unrequited romance, a bit of larceny and a droll sense of humor kept me entranced to the end. This book stays in my library for later rereading.
Rating: really liked it
My great escape This story offered a delightful escape from today's stresses. I devoured it in two
days. One of those books you don't want to put down yet hate to see end. A wild rollicking ride with unique humans in touch with their better selves as they are drawn in by two gentle wild "beasts". For those who
cherish that special bond between animals and humans.
Rating: really liked it
4.5 stars, rounded up
What a gorgeously written and life affirming book! This was my book club read for September and I really enjoyed my reading experience. I listened to it as an audiobook (via KU) and Danny Campbell does a fantastic job of giving voice to Woody as both a young man and as an elderly man.
I have long been enamored by giraffes, I've had the privilege to be up close and personal with them on many occasions and they are magnificent creatures. I was immediately captivated by the story of the cross-country trek to take two giraffes to the San Diego Zoo in 1938. This book is part coming-of-age story, part adventure, part history, and overall just a wonderful read for me. I was glad it was a book club choice because I never would have picked it up otherwise!
Rating: really liked it
I’m going to include a part of the blurb that enticed me to listen to this wonderful audiobook:
“Part adventure, part historical saga, and part coming-of-age love story, 'WEST WITH GIRAFFES' explores what it means to be changed by the grace of animals, the kindness of strangers, the passing of time, and a story told before it’s too late.”
Any time I see a story that involves animals I am always drawn to it. This story was told with great warmth and humor and filled with an incredible tale based on true events.
The novel begins with Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, who begins to write the story he knows he must write before he dies. It takes place mostly in the distant past with some reflections on other parts of his life.
At age 17 Woody had traveled to New York from the “dust bowl” destroyed lands of Texas. He has lost all of his family and like many from all of the states that were affected by the “dust bowl” he was looking for a new life, a chance to start over.
What he found himself in was the hurricane of 1938 which affected the East Coast and destroyed many homes, businesses and lives.
Miraculously, two giraffes who had crossed the Atlantic survived – the female with an injured leg. They were bound for the San Diego zoo.
Woody had nowhere else to go and when he learned that the giraffes were headed for California, he was determined to somehow follow them. Through a succession of incidents, Woody convinces the man who is charged with the safe delivery of the giraffes, that he can drive the specially designed rig across the country.
We follow the giraffes and Woody on a 12 day road trip which will deliver them to the first female run zoo, “Belle Jennings Benchley (August 28, 1882 – December 17, 1973), known as “The Zoo Lady,” was the director of the San Diego Zoo from 1927 to 1953, guiding its expansion from a small collection of animals to an innovative, world-class zoo. “
This is a wonderful adventure story about a young man at a turning point in his life. The narration was very good and made for a great listen!
This was an audiobook from Audible.
Rating: really liked it
From the beginning, this remembrance of a few short weeks of one man’s life captured both my attention and my heart. (At over 100 years old, our elderly narrator is compelled to tell his story before it is too late.)
If you are an animal lover, then you’ll understand why this slightly sentimental and certainly fictional account of the real trip across the US in the late ‘30s to deliver the first giraffes to the San Diego Zoo was such a wonderful read.
But there are other reasons to spend a few hours with the Old Man, Boy, Girl, Red and Woody the least of which was unspoken camaraderie as the story unfolds.
It’s one of the best road trip novels I’ve read— the story also offers a look at Depression era America and not all of the vignettes are charming. It’s certainly an action oriented story but it’s not the action that shines here.
At its heart is Woody and the lasting impact those days on the road had on him personally. One ordinary boy. One extraordinary trip.
Rating: really liked it
Audiobook….read by Danny Campbell
….10 hours and 29 minutes
Great true story …. historical fiction wonderful storytelling…
… two giraffes…[Lofty & Patches]
…a brutal hurricane that killed many ...
…a three thousand mile journey from New York to the San Diego Zoo (fabulous zoo)…
…the dust bowl …
Great Depression era … (poverty sufferings)
…Hitler era …
…a combination of horrors, adventure hardships and hilarious funny moments with a few goofy characters —
Thank you Betsy who first inspired me to seek this book out —
followed by Liz, Karen, … and dozens of friends on Goodreads. I’m glad I took my turn.
The story was great - all of it - but am I the only one who thought it was almost as extraordinary that a 105 year old man was coherent enough to write his memories down?
This past memorial Day weekend we celebrated our friend, Dave’s, 80th birthday (a few days after my 70th).
Dave’s mother died recently ‘on’ her 106th birthday …
And ….
she too… like Woodrow Wilson Nickel, was still coherent at age 105… but not at 106.
With 47,036 ratings, and 5,027 reviews… nobody needs another from me …
other than….
add me to the list of readers who also enjoyed it…..
as in overall
HEARTWARMING! 🦒 🦒
Rating: really liked it
Quite an adventure, indeed! I love historical fiction, especially when it's able to really take me back in time like West with Giraffes did. This is the first book review I've written since High School, but here it goes.
I've never really thought about the lives of the people that lived the Dust Bowl, it was heartbreaking to witness that life through the eyes of 17 year old Woody Nickel. In a time in the US when most people have never seen a giraffe in person, the adventure Woody takes to get these magnificent creatures (and himself) safely to California is captivating and at times, pretty intense. The characters are all interesting with their own stories and the giraffes are impossible not to fall in love with.
I highly recommend this book for a quick but fun blast to the past full of giraffe slobber, dust, dreams and a little bit of romance.
Rating: really liked it
This book has a special place in my heart.
Take time for some exceptional comfort reading to lighten life's burden. Beyond the commercial hype of too many lackluster, frivolous book offerings, this is a true gem. Inspired by true events, this story explores what it means to be changed by the grace of animals, the kindness of strangers, the passing of time, and a story told before it’s too late.
"Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away. But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he finds himself recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave.
'Few true friends have I known and two were giraffes…'"
And so begins his story.
"I could spend what I feel in my bones is my life’s last clear hours to tell you of the Dust Bowl. Or the War. Or the French peonies. Or my wives, so many wives. Or the graves, so many graves. Or the goodbyes, so many goodbyes. Those memories come and go here at the end, if they come at all anymore. But not this memory. This memory is always with me, always alive, always within reach, and always in living technicolor from deadly start to bittersweet finish, no matter how old I keep getting. And—Red, Old Man, sweet Wild Boy and Girl—oh, how I miss you. All I have to do is close my worn-out eyes for the smallest of moments. And it begins."
And what an all consuming story it is. A well crafted story full of wonder and insight, abandonment and tenderness, adventure and jeopardy, betrayal and forgiveness, and much more, that had this twilight being of a reader leaking at both ends. It will likely resonate in my mind through whatever years I have left.
"I can only suppose that when you’re riding with two 'towering creatures of God’s pure Eden,' and you grasp the first rotten proof of your true self, you never quite forget it, no matter what you do later to make it right."
Through the twists and turns of life there are experiences that we relish recalling long after, and there are others we labor to forget or try to make up for. And along the way we are sure to encounter both decent beings and those with no conscience.
“ . . . it always seemed wrong to think an animal’s life isn’t worth as much as a human’s. Life is life . . . no matter who or what is living it, boy—a thing to respect,” he said. “You don’t get that, then you’re just a waste of skin.”
I hope you enjoy this story as much as I did.
Rating: really liked it
The first book I have read by this author and I really enjoyed the topic, the setting and the giraffes!!
This is a novel that is set amongst the true story of two giraffes who are being transported from New York to their new home at the San Diego Zoo back in 1938. The giraffes survive a hurricane, one of them is injured due to the storm, and they need to get across the country in no less than 2 weeks in order to ensure their health.
And while this is a story about giraffes it also is about the two men who drive them across country and the red-headed girl who dogs them trying to get photos for Life Magazine. It is a nice story filled with all the adventure that you would expect from trying to transport 2 giraffes across county in the 1930's and having to encounter all the different people and obstacles that confronted them. The narrator of the story is the 17/18 year old Woody Nickel and this is as much his story as one about the giraffes. Very good work by the author and if you are not a fan of giraffes when you start the book you will be in love with them by last page!
Feel free to read my more in-depth review at www.viewsonbooks.com
Rating: really liked it
Good book! Not a favorite. Good story line well written. Funny in many parts. I can see this made into a movie one day.
Rating: really liked it
My thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for a review e-copy of this one.
West with Giraffes is an endearing, and also heart-rending piece of historical fiction. The story is set around a truly extraordinary real life occurrence that took place in 1938. Two giraffes (later to be called Lofty and Patches) travelled to New York surviving a hurricane at sea. Then they made another journey, a road trip of over 3,000 miles to San Diego Zoo (then under the first female zoo director Belle Benchley), which became their home for the next nearly 30 years.
The story is narrated by Woodrow Wilson Nickel, a fictional character. When the story opens, he is 105, and being the age he is, he wishes to write of the experience of a lifetime, one he had when he was only 17, so that it does not get lost. Woody Nickel, at that young age has survived near poverty in the dust bowl where all his family lie dead, and after an arduous journey to his cousin in New York, must face the devastating hurricane of 1938. Barely surviving this, he comes across the two giraffes being unloaded from the ship the travelled on. They too have survived. Woody (who has a deep feeling for animals) feels an instant connect with them, and decides to follow them on their journey to San Diego, for ‘Californy’ he is sure is a land of opportunity. Circumstances become such that some way down the road, Woody finds himself driving the giraffes with zookeeper Riley Jones (‘Old Man’). Along the way, they keep running into Augusta Red, a reporter documenting the giraffes’ journey in pictures, whom Woody takes to immediately.
The journey is an eventful one with plenty of bumps in the road, and they meet both kind-hearted people and some with rather nefarious plans. Alongside, we also learn the stories of the people we are travelling with—secrets, ambitions, fights for survival. Our characters must also face up to their pasts, but in the company of these graceful animals, this becomes somewhat easier as they experience a comfort like no other.
Like another reviewer has said, I did find myself a little confused at the beginning for from my reading of the description of the story, I somehow was under the impression that Woody was 105 when the events took place, and the story seemed to open in the future. But once I had gotten my head around how it was structured, it began to make more sense and I really began to enjoy it. The journey itself is a great deal of fun, and like all enjoyable roadtrip tales, we meet an assortment of characters, and also witness life in those times, the prejudices that people had and hardships they lived under. Woody’s own life too, we learn about as we go along—reading about life that people in the dust bowl had, what they had to face day after day, with little hope of escape or anything different is truly heart-wrenching, as is the discrimination and prejudices that were far stronger in the period—against women, and people of colour. Measuring what we consider hard alongside this, one realises how minor our own problems feel.
Amidst all this, the giraffes themselves represent peace, for with them, our characters manage to forget their hardships, even perhaps what lies ahead and experience true feeling. They are truly connected with the earth, with life, and our characters feel that with them, as to an extent do we. I loved the sentiment that author keeps at the centre of her story—that of all life having value, human or animal and needing to be respected for that reason. Her love for animals shines through in her characters, and me as an animal lover felt that with them, and also cheered when some of the less savoury characters got their just desserts. I also loved the incorporation of the giraffes’ humming and love of onions, both of which I didn’t know about. In fact, reading about this, I ended up googling giraffe sounds because I honestly hadn’t even considered the sound they make/their call before this.
This was a really lovely and emotion-filled story, a great combination of history, fiction and love for animals, which I enjoyed very much; the only things that I didn’t like were the confusion at the start (a minor complaint) and the fact that at some moments, things felt a little too dramatic. But other than that an excellent tale--4.5 stars!
A couple of lines that I liked;
‘Whenever I locked eyes with an animal, I felt something more soulful than I felt from the humans I knew…’'Life is life, no matter who or what is living it…a thing to respect’.This review is also on my blog here: https://potpourri2015.wordpress.com/2...
Rating: really liked it
I loved this book from the first page to the very last. It's hard to imagine a time when most of the population had never seen a giraffe. It's harder to imagine hauling two of them across the United States during the Dust Bowl. But the author does a magnificent job. The trials and hardships of an old man, a young man, and a dreamy eyed girl are laid out for all to breath in through the action, imagery, and emotion of life during the hardest of times. I would give this book ten stars if possible. I certainly recommend it as a book club read.
Rating: really liked it
This is a good book for the whole family to read. If you liked Water for Elephants you will certainly enjoy this book. Takes place in the same time frame. We talk about Covid-19 and it’s horrors, but read this and it will have you rethinking how bad we have it... we don’t
Grab a box of Kleenex.. and enjoy a great book!
Rating: really liked it
The blurb describes this book so accurately, that I don't want to repeat it. This fictional tale is based on the true story and was so beautifully written that it will be remembered for a long time.
Two giraffes arrived in the NY harbor from West Africa during a hurricane in 1938. Orphaned seventeen-year-old Woodrow Wilson Nickel from Texas, was immediately attracted to the two crates with giraffes during the chaos that reigned everywhere. He was already a skilled thief and pick-pocketter, and he needed to leave the city after his third cousin Cuz was killed in the hurricane. Woody left Texas in a hurry and was grateful to find this cousin to take care of him. He was only six week in New York when the hurricane strike.
Woody: 'Nobody was left to come look for me and nobody was newly dead I'd mourn, Cuz proving himself to be such stone-hearted scum I was already plotting to snatch his cash and run.'As a 105-year old man, in 2025, Woody decided to write down his adventure. The prologue is sad, and sentimental, but sets the emotional trend and ambiance of the story. I went back to read it twice again. I never do that. But this book just kept me wanting more and more.
From the prologue:
I could spend what I feel in my bones is my life’s last clear hours to tell you of the Dust Bowl. Or the War. Or the French peonies. Or my wives, so many wives. Or the graves, so many graves. Or the goodbyes, so many goodbyes. Those memories come and go here at the end, if they come at all anymore. But not this memory. This memory is always with me, always alive, always within reach, and always in living technicolor from deadly start to bittersweet finish, no matter how old I keep getting. And—Red, Old Man, sweet Wild Boy and Girl—oh, how I miss you.
All I have to do is close my worn-out eyes for the smallest of moments.
The 12-day journey from New York to San Diego with a 3-ton truck, with the man who had to deliver the giraffes to the zoo, became an unforgettable trek into manhood, emotional healing, and Woody's first encounter with love.
It's a dark, but warm, cozy read. So well written, and full of southern charm. Woody would develop new friendships with people whom he will remain loyal to for the rest of his life.
The opening paragraph totally caught me off guard. I had to read it three times. It was so striking:
Boats were flying through the air, streets were flowing like rivers, electric lines were exploding like fireworks, and houses of shrieking people were being blown out to sea—the date was September 21, the day of the Great Hurricane of 1938. The entire coast from New York Harbor to Maine got smacked so hard it was the stuff of legend, seven hundred souls gone to their final reward as wet as mackerels.At first I thought I must be reading a apocalyptic novel. But when I finally concentrated, and started over, I was so totally hooked.
The story is atmospheric and filled with historical elements, like racism, the Dust Bowl, Great Depression, women's issues, WWII, and men trying to survive the best they could. The giraffes provide the emotional 'rousing' as the blurb describes it, and is basically the tie that binds the characters, as well as readers, to the story.
Strong female characters are present: “Belle Jennings Benchley (August 28, 1882 – December 17, 1973), known as “The Zoo Lady,” was the first female director of a zoo.(true story) and Augusta Red (fictitious character)who had ambition to become a photographer for
Life magazine. Her husband was a well-known journalist. The couples' lives will take a turn when Red decides to follow the journey of the Old man(Riley Jones) and Woody on this trip.
LOVED IT!
PS. This novel reminded me of another immensely intriguing, riveting, experience in the historical fiction genre:
Inland by Théa Obreht — a camel story based on true historical events in America.
Another camel story, based on the same American historical events is:
Because Of The Camels by Brenda Blair.
