On Jodi Picoult...

I have said before that Jodi Picoult is my favorite author, and I've read more of her books than I have read any other author. I've also said before that sometimes while reading her novels it feels a bit predictable in that it will deal with a controversial issue and the law. There seems to always be a trial in her novels, which is part of the reason I like them - the drama and the legal talk is interesting, most of the time. But this article about Picoult's novels really said it well. In the New York Times article, the author writes that Picoult has found success as a writer of "literature of children in peril."

I do have to agree with the above statement - while it never seems that Picoult is trying to blame parents, or make them out to be unfit parents, she seems to write about topics that deal with the hard stuff. It's more or less that the parents are raising their kids they best they can. (Which is all you can ever expect of parents - that they will do the best they can.)

This makes me think of my own relationship with my family, and that while my sister and I had the same parents (duh), we turned out to be 2 extremely different people. And I see some traits of Picoult's characters in my sister and me, and it makes the books a little too personal sometimes.

Another part of the article I found very interesting was about Picoult's belief that what we remember vividly from childhood are often the moments that gave us the most humiliation or harm, and that she remembers a bully smashing her fingers into a locker. I really agree with this statement - at this very moment thinking about childhood the first thoughts that come to mind are my parents' divorce, the anxiety of starting a new school, some of the idiots who were rude to me in middle and high school, and the years that my sister and I couldn't get along for anything.

This is a great article for Picoult lovers, as it tells a little more about her choice to write these types of novels, and how it affects her life with her 3 teenagers. If you haven't read the article, you can read it here. Be sure to come back and discuss :)

Vanishing Acts - Jodi Picoult

Picoult so rarely disappoints. I absolutely love her storytelling from multiple viewpoints. This book follows Delia, her father Andrew, her financee Eric, her friend Fitz and her mother Elise as Delia's sketchy childhood is unraveled, sending her from the only life she knew in New Hampshire to Arizona, where she spent the childhood she can't remember much about.

Delia doesn't remember her life in Arizona, because as it turns out, her father "kidnapped" her when she was 4 and moved her from Arizona to New Hampshire because her mother was an alcoholic. He changed both their identities and they made a new life together - the only life Delia has ever known. When her father is arrested for the kidnapping, Delia's world is turned upside down as everyone treks across the country for her father's trial. It is in Arizona where Delia realizes Eric is not who she thought he was, she meets her mother for the first time, and realizes what her father did to protect her. As always, the legal part enthralled me and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.

Much is made of the concept of memory in this book, and the fact that Delia cannot remember things she thinks she should remember about her childhood. Throughout the book I just kep thinking to myself, she's just burying what she remembers so she doesn't have to face the music. Although I don't condone what she did near the end of the book, I can understand why the book ended the way it did. The most appealing thing to me was the way Delia looked at her own daughter and her own relationship differently after learning about her mother and father's relationship.

I definitely recommend this book, especially for Picoult lovers.

Slow moving

I started out the year really great on the reading front, finishing 2 books by January 4. Alas, work started again and well, so did life! I'm about 60 pages into In Search of Eden by Linda Nichols. Too early to tell how I like it.

I've also been reading a little bit of The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby. Trying to learn a bit about how to use my new camera. Tonight I am catching up on magazines - I'm a couple months behind on InStyle and Glamour - and blogs - I'm over 150 deep in my Google Reader.

I can't remember where I first saw a blurb about Jodi Picoult's new book, but I checked her website for details. Handle With Care will be released March 3, 2009, and it looks deep. I can't wait to read it! From Jodi's website:

When Charlotte and Sean O’Keefe’s daughter, Willow, is born with severe osteogenesis imperfecta, they are devastated – she will suffer hundreds of broken bones as she grows, a lifetime of pain. As the family struggles to make ends meet to cover Willow’s medical expenses, Charlotte thinks she has found an answer. If she files a wrongful birth lawsuit against her ob/gyn for not telling her in advance that her child would be born severely disabled, the monetary payouts might ensure a lifetime of care for Willow. But it means that Charlotte has to get up in a court of law and say in public that she would have terminated the pregnancy if she’d known about the disability in advance – words that her husband can’t abide, that Willow will hear, and that Charlotte cannot reconcile. And the ob/gyn she’s suing isn’t just her physician – it’s her best friend.

Handle With Care explores the knotty tangle of medical ethics and personal morality. When faced with the reality of a fetus who will be disabled, at which point should an OB counsel termination? Should a parent have the right to make that choice? How disabled is TOO disabled? And as a parent, how far would you go to take care of someone you love? Would you alienate the rest of your family? Would you be willing to lie to your friends, to your spouse, to a court? And perhaps most difficult of all - would you admit to yourself that you might not actually be lying?

Change of Heart - Jodi Picoult

Wow! I always look forward to her work, and she rarely disappoints. Change of Heart was by far one of my favorite Jodi Picoult novels, for so many reasons. Firstly, I love the law and reading about it. I loved Maggie's character and her determination to fight for what is right, regardless of the client and his offenses. (And I'm glad she finally found love, too!)

One of my favorite things about her work is the story telling. I just love the multiple points of view, and this time the inmate's perspective was incredible. I commend her for her research and details in the account of death row inmates. I cannot fathom being incarcerated for eleven years, knowing that death is inevitable and in the mean time trying to use my creativity to pass the time. Another element that really hooked me was the religion. I'm not a religious person, but I found the history very interesting and enlightening. I found myself reading some parts over again in order to fully grasp the concepts, but for me to be fully engaged in religious dialogue says a lot for her writing.

Jodi Picoult's books never fail to surprise, and I knew there was a twist somewhere, but it was hard to swallow when it came out that Kurt could have been sexually abusing his step-daughter. I think it only made sense when I started to see that maybe Shay Bourne did not really commit the double murder.

I still have a few books of hers on my shelf that I've yet to read, so I will settle for those while she pens her next masterpiece.

Favorite Reads

I'm currently reading Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin, and I will probably finish it in the next couple of days. Until then, I wanted to share some of my favorite books from the past.

Jodi Picoult - She is by far my favorite author, and my all-time fave of hers is My Sister's Keeper, followed closely by Harvesting the Heart, Nineteen Minutes, Salem Falls, Plain Truth, Perfect Match and Mercy. Vanishing Acts, The Pact, and Change of Heart (to be released early March 2008) are all on my TBR pile.

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my all-time favorites as well. While I loved this book when we were forced to read it in high school, it took a few years for me to really appreciate Lee's work.

I loved Cammie MacGovern's Eye Contact. It was a quick read, a book I surprisingly couldn't put down. I can't even say what exactly hooked me right off the bat, but it's truly a worthy read.

Anna Quindlen's One True Thing - by far one of the best books I've ever read. It's probably not a book I would have picked out to read, but a friend loaned it to me and I loved it. I recently gave a copy to my best friend back home in Michigan, and I'm dying to hear what she has to say about it.

I also love memoirs - some of the favorites that stick out in my mind are Mary Karr's The Liars Club, Jeanette Walls' The Glass Castle and Michael J. Fox's Lucky Man. Another one that I loved was Stephanie Klein's Straight Up and Dirty...and while I really recommend this book, I must warn you it is NOT a clean read. But that's partly what makes it so good!

I'm getting back to my book now...happy reading to all!