Great Books about Magicians or Circuses

a list by Eric Mueller, airplane and bedtime reader
filed under Miscellaneous

For some reason, recently I've been reading lots of books about magicians... and circuses. I'm not sure why. I'm not even sure why they go together so well, but they do. Here's some books I loved about one or the other:

onClick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/to_amazon/Great_Books_about_Magicians_or_Circuses/Carter_Beats_the_Devil');" onMouseOver="window.status='http://amazon.com/dp/0786886323'; return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow">

onClick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/to_amazon/Great_Books_about_Magicians_or_Circuses/Carter_Beats_the_Devil');" onMouseOver="window.status='http://amazon.com/dp/0786886323'; return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow">Carter Beats the Devil

by Glen David Gold

Amazon says:
Gold's debut novel opens with real-life magician Charles Carter executing a particularly grisly trick, using President Warren G. Harding as a volunteer. Shortly afterwards, Harding dies mysteriously and Carter is forced to flee the country. Or does he? It's only the first of many misdirections in a magical performance by Gold. In the course of subsequent pages, Carter finds himself pursued by the most hapless of FBI agents; falls in love with a beautiful, outspoken blind woman; and confronts an old nemesis bent on destroying him. Throw in countless stunning (and historically accurate) illusions and historical figures like young inventor Philo T. Farnsworth, and you have old-fashioned entertainment executed with a decidedly modern sensibility.

onClick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/to_amazon/Great_Books_about_Magicians_or_Circuses/Carter_Beats_the_Devil');" onMouseOver="window.status='http://amazon.com/dp/0786886323'; return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow">more on Amazon onClick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/to_amazon/Great_Books_about_Magicians_or_Circuses/Carter_Beats_the_Devil');" onMouseOver="window.status='http://amazon.com/dp/0786886323'; return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow"> 496 page paperback |$14.95 |182 reviews

This book also appears on Eric Mueller's Favorite Books
 
 
onClick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/to_amazon/Great_Books_about_Magicians_or_Circuses/Water_for_Elephants');" onMouseOver="window.status='http://amazon.com/dp/1565125606'; return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow">

onClick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/to_amazon/Great_Books_about_Magicians_or_Circuses/Water_for_Elephants');" onMouseOver="window.status='http://amazon.com/dp/1565125606'; return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow">Water for Elephants

by Sara Gruen

Amazon says:
As a young man, Jacob Jankowski was tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. It was the early part of the great Depression, and for Jacob, now ninety, the circus world he remembers was both his salvation and a living hell. A veterinary student put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie, it was there that he met Marlena, the beautiful equestrian star married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. And he met Rosie, an untrainable elephant who was the great gray hope for this third-rate traveling show.

onClick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/to_amazon/Great_Books_about_Magicians_or_Circuses/Water_for_Elephants');" onMouseOver="window.status='http://amazon.com/dp/1565125606'; return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow">more on Amazon onClick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/to_amazon/Great_Books_about_Magicians_or_Circuses/Water_for_Elephants');" onMouseOver="window.status='http://amazon.com/dp/1565125606'; return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow"> 350 page paperback |$8.37 |1,360 reviews

 
 
onClick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/to_amazon/Great_Books_about_Magicians_or_Circuses/The_Prestige');" onMouseOver="window.status='http://amazon.com/dp/0765356171'; return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow">

onClick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/to_amazon/Great_Books_about_Magicians_or_Circuses/The_Prestige');" onMouseOver="window.status='http://amazon.com/dp/0765356171'; return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow">The Prestige

by Christopher Priest

A terrific novel which happened to be made into a big movie (starring Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson and Christian Bale) in 2006. Set in 1878 and the story of two rival magicians, it's fantastic with some great twists. Check out the Amazon reviews-- everyone raves, and so do I.

onClick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/to_amazon/Great_Books_about_Magicians_or_Circuses/The_Prestige');" onMouseOver="window.status='http://amazon.com/dp/0765356171'; return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow">more on Amazon onClick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/to_amazon/Great_Books_about_Magicians_or_Circuses/The_Prestige');" onMouseOver="window.status='http://amazon.com/dp/0765356171'; return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow"> 368 pages |$7.99 |87 reviews

 
 
onClick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/to_amazon/Great_Books_about_Magicians_or_Circuses/Hiding_the_Elephant_How_Magicians_Invented_the_Impossible_and_Learned_to_Disappear');" onMouseOver="window.status='http://amazon.com/dp/0786714018'; return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow">

onClick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/to_amazon/Great_Books_about_Magicians_or_Circuses/Hiding_the_Elephant_How_Magicians_Invented_the_Impossible_and_Learned_to_Disappear');" onMouseOver="window.status='http://amazon.com/dp/0786714018'; return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow">Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear

by Jim Steinmeyer, Teller

Amazon says:
Jim Steinmeyer's astonishing chronicle of half a century of illusionary innovation, backstage chicanery, and keen competition within the world of magicians... a cultural history of the efforts among legendary conjurers to make things materialize, levitate, and disappear. This book unveils the secrets (and life stories of the fascinating personalities) behind optical marvels such as floating ghosts interacting with live actors, disembodied heads, and vanishing ladies. The dramatic mix of science and history, with revealing diagrams, photographs and magicians' portraits by William Stout, provides a glimpse behind the curtain at the backstage story of magic.

onClick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/to_amazon/Great_Books_about_Magicians_or_Circuses/Hiding_the_Elephant_How_Magicians_Invented_the_Impossible_and_Learned_to_Disappear');" onMouseOver="window.status='http://amazon.com/dp/0786714018'; return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow">more on Amazon onClick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/to_amazon/Great_Books_about_Magicians_or_Circuses/Hiding_the_Elephant_How_Magicians_Invented_the_Impossible_and_Learned_to_Disappear');" onMouseOver="window.status='http://amazon.com/dp/0786714018'; return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow"> 384 page paperback |$10.17 |28 reviews

This book also appears on Eric Mueller's Favorite Books
 
 
onClick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/to_amazon/Great_Books_about_Magicians_or_Circuses/Geek_Love');" onMouseOver="window.status='http://amazon.com/dp/0375713344'; return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow">

onClick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/to_amazon/Great_Books_about_Magicians_or_Circuses/Geek_Love');" onMouseOver="window.status='http://amazon.com/dp/0375713344'; return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow">Geek Love

by Katherine Dunn

This is an endearing book about sideshow freaks... but even if you removed all the fascinating, twisted and unforgettable aspects of the characters, you'd still be left with one of the sweetest stories ever.

Amazon says:
A wild, often horrifying, novel about freaks, geeks and other aberrations of the human condition who travel together (a whole family of them) as a circus. It's a solipsistic fun-house world that makes "normal" people seem bland and pitiful. Arturo the Aqua-Boy, who has flippers and an enormous need to be loved. A museum of sacred monsters that didn't make it. An endearing "little beetle" of a heroine.

onClick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/to_amazon/Great_Books_about_Magicians_or_Circuses/Geek_Love');" onMouseOver="window.status='http://amazon.com/dp/0375713344'; return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow">more on Amazon onClick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/to_amazon/Great_Books_about_Magicians_or_Circuses/Geek_Love');" onMouseOver="window.status='http://amazon.com/dp/0375713344'; return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true;" rel="nofollow"> 368 page paperback |$10.17 |243 reviews

 

Know any books we should add to the list above? .

 
Share this list:
 

Curious about the Kindle?

The Kindle: a fundamental change in how you read books? Or just another unnecessary gadget? See what our founders think.