Lone Wolf- Jodi Picoult

Synopsis (from Amazon)

Luke Warren would sleep in the dirt if it meant he could be under the stars.

He lives by the laws of nature, and would surely want to die that way.

But Luke is in a coma, and his family must make an unbearable decision.

As tensions and secrets rise to the surface, the tragic accident which brought them back together against the odds could well tear Luke’s family apart forever.

They know Luke would not want to live like this.
But how can they choose to let him die?

Review

I have a strange compulsion when it comes to Jodi Picoult books that means I have to read them as soon as I get my hands on them, so despite the fact I already had bookmarks in Expose, The Good Angel of Death, and Kavalier and Clay, oh and have only read Part 1 of 1Q84, I still had to start Lone Wolf when I bought it a couple of weeks ago.

Picoult is easy to read though so it doesn’t give that much of an interruption to your reading. In fact it’s part of what I like about her writing, it’s easy to read, and the plot really draws you in, but it still has some substance.

As with all of Picoult’s books the chapters are broken up between different characters. I didn’t really enjoy the Luke chapters so much, maybe because they weren’t a part of the main plot, but I did think they were important. How can you really have an opinion on whether a person would want their life support turned off or not if you only know that person third hand? It was interesting in it’s own way, and I did feel a got to know Luke well enough to think I would know what he wanted. However there was always a part of me waiting for his chapters to end.

I cared more for his kids really, and I couldn’t really decide who I wanted to be able to make the decision, although I did know what I wanted the decision to be. From that I should have been able to pick one of the kids to win but I cared about them both too much to want either of them to loose. It’s not something Picoult has ever really done before and I liked that perspective.

However I did feel in some way that elements of the story were added just to bulk the story out. Sometimes I didn’t really feel they added that much to the main plot, but that the main plot in itself may not have been enough to make a whole story.

I did enjoy Lone Wolf a lot, but it’d not my favourite Picoult.

4/5

Buy it:

Paperback (£3.86)

Kindle (£4.99)

Hardback (£12.72)

Other Reviews:

Sam Still Reading

Bookworm with a View

Top 10 ‘Older’ Books Not to be Forgotten

Top 10 Tuesday is a meme hosted every Tuesday at The Broke and the Bookish where bloggers compile lists of different top 10s. This week it’s

Top Ten “Older” Books You Don’t Want People To Forget About

I’m trying to use books which I think may end up being forgotten. Not sure if I can make it to 10 but I will try my best.

1) Pop Co.- Scarlet Thomas Scarlett Thomas is probably better known as the writer of The End of Mr Y but I preferred this one. Her more recent releases haven’t quite met up to standard so I hope this one doesn’t get lost because of them.

2) Random Acts of Heroic Love- Danny Scheinmann I read this book before I started my blog. It had been very popular for a while but I haven’t seen a review of it in a long time. When I read it I adored it and wanted to share it with everybody.

3) An Equal Music- Vikram Seth This is another one I read in my pre-blog days. I read it when A Suitable Boy (which I have never managed to finish) was at the height of its popularity, and it’s probably overshadowed by A Suitable Boy. The descriptions of music and playing made me want to pick up my violin again.

4) The Historian- Elisabeth Kostova Beware about this vampire novel, it gave me funny dreams! I was in half a mind whether to include this one or not. It still seems to be quite well know, but it didn’t have the greatest amount of hype so I thought I would add it just in case.

5) The Lover’s Dictionary- David Levithan Considering this wonderful little novel is written by a traditionally YA author I worry that it will be drowned out, or will be seen as a book for teenagers, rather than the adult novel it actually is.

6) The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts- Louis de Bernieres: when I read the review which put me onto this book I didn’t even know it existed. Louis de Bernieres is best known for Captain Correli’s Mandolin, and a lot of his work prior to that is given little notice. The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts, however, is the best I have read by him.

Yup 6 is my limit.

Top 10 Books Read in the Lifetime of this Blog

It’s time for another Top 10 Tuesday (which is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish). I only occasionally join in with this meme but I really liked the look of this week’s topic.

Top Ten Books Read in the Lifetime of Your Blog.

Well my blog is almost 3 years old (in fact my blogiversary is at the end of this month) and in that time I’ve red and reviewed almost 200 books. So it’s a bit difficult to pick just 10…I shall see what I can do. In no particular order…

1) Pop Co.- Scarlet Thomas This is the story of a woman who creates spy kits for kids as part of a large toy company- Pop Co. One day she receives a strange coded message, who is it from and what do they want?

I really enjoyed this book. It made me think about things like the morality of corporations, and see more everyday things in a different light.

2) Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism- Natasha Walter. This book is basically feminism for the modern world. It’s one that I recommend all women read, whether you consider yourself a feminist or not.

3) Brooklyn Bites Series- Scott Stabile. These are a series of short stories set in Brooklyn and all have a connection to food. The descriptions are especially good. I’m not usually a reader of short stories but I loved these, plus they show that just because something is self-published doesn’t mean it’s no good!

4) The Lucifer Effect- Phillip Zimbardo: I studied psychology at uni and this means that a large proportion of my non-fiction reading is psychology related. The Lucifer Effect is the book written about Zimbardo’s famous Stanford Prison Experiment which studied how a person’s authority would effect their behaviour. The experiment had to be cancelled because of some of the effects, and it took a long time for Zimbardo to feel he could write this book. This meant he could apply his findings to new world events and actually means it was published at a time when people were looking for answers. It’s a scary book to read because it suggests there are things we could all be capable of but I think it’s important too.

5) Handle with Care- Jodi Picoult: I’m quite a fan of Picoult and this one is my favourite, probably because I connect with it personally. It’s a story about a woman suing her midwife because her daughter was born with severely brittle bones which should have been picked up on her scan. Well really, no, it’s more about her daughter.

6) How to be a Woman- Caitlin Moran: This book is basically Caitlin Moran’s biography, with a bit of a feminist kick. It pretty much made me fall in love with her.

7) The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts- Louis de Bernieres: since reading Captain Correli’s Mandolin I had been looking for a Louis de Bernieres’ book as good. The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts does that and more. It’s basically about a South American country with dodgy politics and the goings on of different groups and people

8) Kafka on the Shore- Haruki Murakami: I discovered Murakami thanks to the bookish community online and Kafka on the Shore is my favourite of his that I have read.  I can’t really adequately describe it, and I had trouble reviewing it, but it is fantastic.

9) Mockingbird- Kathryn Erskien: is the story of Caitlin, a girl with Asperger’s Syndrome whose brother has just died. It is a story about grief but ultimately it’s a story about Asperger’s, and Caitlin is portrayed wonderfully.

10) Middlesex- Jeffery Eugenides: Is the story of Cal, who is a hermaphrodite, about her growing up, and about his family. It’s one of those books that you can’t really tell people why they need to read it, just that they have to.

Book Blogger Hop

It’s Friday, and the Book Blogger Hop started yesterday. I actually have a chance to sit down and write a post so thought I would join in this week (despite to fact I have a couple of reviews waiting to be written…shhh).

This week’s question suits e quite well as I’ve been in a bit of a rut recently- although I seem to be coming out of it now.

Who is your go-to author when you are in a reading rut?

Well I tend to more go for a style than anything else. Most books I can just read through a rut with, but when I’m really struggling I know if I find an easy read I should be okay. For this reason I tend to only read Chick-Lit when I’m in a reading rut, (generally speaking) the writing style is easy to understand, the stories aren’t too complex (although they can often be rather predictable), you never really have t think when you’re reading chick-lit. I also find that Jodi Picoult rarely fails to draw me in- her books do make me think, but the writing style is easy and there tends to be a great need to know what’s going to happen next. The other thing is my Harry Potter books. I know them pretty much off by heart but they still excite me.

Related Reviews:

Harvesting the Heart- Jodi Picoult

Sing you Home- Jodi Picoult

Handle with Care- Jodi Picoult

House Rules- Jodi Picoult

Songs of the Humpback Whale- Jodi Picoult

Picture Perfect- Jodi Picoult

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

Harvesting the Heart- Jodi Picoult

Image from Amazon

Synopsis

Paige has only a few vivid memories of her mother, who abandoned her when she was five. Now, having left home and her father for dreams of art school and marriage to an ambitious young doctor, Paige finds herself with a child of her own. Emotionally and physically exhausted, overwhelmed by the demands of her family, Paige cannot forget her mother’s absence or the shameful memories from her own past. Her next step would have been unthinkable before her doubts about her maternal ability crept into her mind. Is it possible Paige’s baby would be better off without her?

Review

As far as Jodi Picoult novels go this one was emotionally pretty easy going. It’s not that it’s nice to think of mothers leaving their children but it’s a bit more ever day than most of the issues that Picoult usually writes about.

That’s not to say I didn’t like it, or it didn’t draw me in. I can’t say I felt a particular connection to the characters for the majority of the book. I couldn’t really get my head around Paige and although I didn’t dislike her I didn’t really like her either, but at least that gives her a chance to change my mind! I did feel a little sorry for her in the way she was feeling and for not really having an outlet for those feelings but she seemed kind of stubborn and unwilling to find help, right up to the point where she cracked. By that point I didn’t really feel sympathetic so much anymore because of the way she was dealing with her feelings.

At first I really didn’t like Nicholas, he didn’t seem right for Paige at all and I found him more than a little self-centred. However by the end of the book he managed to change my mind.

This is another of Picoult’s earlier works which has been re-released (something I find frustrating). You can tell it’s one of her earlier books but I still thought it was more engaging than Songs of the Humpback Whale or Picture Perfect (which were also re-releases).

4/5

Buy it:

Kindle (£4.99)

Paperback (£4.49)

Hardback (£10.70)

Sing You Home- Jodi Picoult

Image from Amazon

Synopsis (from Amazon)

Zoe Baxter has spent ten years trying to get pregnant, and just when she’s about to get her heart’s desire, tragedy destroys her world. In the aftermath of loss and divorce, she throws herself into her career as a music therapist. Working with Vanessa, she finds their relationship moving from business, to friendship, and then – to Zoe’s surprise – blossoming into love. When Zoe allows herself to start thinking of children again, she remembers that there are still frozen embryos that she and her husband never used.

But Max, having sought peace at the bottom of a bottle, has found redemption in an evangelical church, and Zoe needs his permission to take his unborn child . . .

SING YOU HOME is accompanied by a soundtrack of original songs created for the novel by Jodi Picoult and Ellen Wilber.

Review.

I have been struggling with my current paper book (1Q84…although apparently a rest was all I needed) so I thought it would be a good idea to try an old favourite, as it were. Sing You Home has just come out in paperback, and I had been waiting for it anyway so when I spotted it half-price at WhSmiths I had to snap it up.

I’ve found Jodi Picoult’s writing a little up-and-down lately. Handle with Care is a relatively recent one and it’s my favourite, and I enjoyed House Rules but I was less than impressed by Second Glance and wasn’t that keen on Picture Perfect. Add to that the publishers recent tendency to re-release obviously old novels and you can see why I was a little anxious when it came to reading this one.

Luckily is seems that Picoult is on form with this one. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it as much as some of her other work but it was certainly up to her usual standard. I found it very clever how Picoult managed to make the reader almost want both sides of the party to ‘win’. I really liked Zoe and Vanessa but I liked Max too. I guess I could say I saw both sides of the story and although I ultimately came down on Zoe and Vanessa’s side I didn’t want Max to loose out and I really could see where he was coming from. Considering Picoult has a gay son (this is mentioned in the notes for the book) it seemed almost professional that she was able to present Max’s side.

There was one little niggle I had though and that was to do with how Max’s legal team handled his case. Now I am no legal expert, but even I could see that there was a better way to fight his corner.

4.5/5

Buy it:

Paperback (£3.86)

Hardback (£11.66)

Kindle (£4.99)

Looking Back: Best books of 2009

So my first year of blogging, my first review of the year. Looking back it was a bit of a sloppy couple of posts but still did what I intended, as in talking about my favourite books of the year. I picked two that year, so looking back do I still remember them fondly.

Winner 1: Handle with Care- Jodi Picoult

I don’t think my memory will ever stop loving this book. It’s not just that I love Jod Picoult’s books, although that is part of it, it’s how it connected to me personally. This personal connection means I will never forget this book, and probably never stop loving it.

Winner 2: For One More Day- Mitch Alborn

Err I do not remember this book at all. Only that I enjoyed it! I wasn’t even sure of the title when I needed to write it for this post, despite having read it a few minutes before. Maybe it wasn’t so great after all!

Great Literary Women

I thought it would be good to make a post for International Woman’s Day (which, if it has managed to pass you by, is today) So I thought I would make a post about great women in literature. I would love to hear your own thoughts on this, who else would you include? Who wouldn’t you include?

In no particular order

1) Lyra Belacqua/Lyra Silvertongue (His Dark Materials- Phillip Pullman): Lyra’s quest in the first of the Northern Lights starts as a quest to save her friend, but as Lyra grows it becomes a fight for her beliefs and what is right.

2) Ana Fitzgerald (My Sister’s Keeper- Jodi Picoult): Ana is great because he stands up to her parents, a very difficult thing to do for a young girl, because she believes she is right. (Highlight for spoiler)Ultimately she does this not for selfish reasons but because her sister asked her to, which makes me respect her all the more

3) Ma (Room- Emma Donoghue): Ma is strong because she goes through so much but still manages to bring Jack up well despite being away from civilisation, and because she fights to get Jack out of Room

4) Thursday Next (The Thursday Next Series- Jasper Fforde): I find Thursday Next especially strong in Something Rotten, not only is she fighting the criminals, but she’s also fighting the establishment, the corporation, fighting to have her husband re-actualised and being a single parent!

5) Minny (The Help- Kathryn Stockett) Minny doesn’t take rubbish from anyone, even though she may be better off fearing. She holds together her family and is a great friend. When she is loyal she stays loyal but you certainly don’t want to get on the wrong side of her!

House Rules- Jodi Picoult

Synopsis (from Amazon)

Jacob Hunt is a teenager: brilliant at maths, wicked sense of humour, extraordinarily organised, hopeless at reading social cues. And Jacob has Asperger’s. He is locked in his own world – aware of the world outside, and wanting to make a connection. Jacob tries to be like everyone else, but doesn’t know how.

When his tutor is found dead, all the hallmark behaviours of Jacob’s syndrome – not looking someone in the eye, odd movements, inappropriate actions – start looking a lot like guilt to the police. And Jacob’s mother must ask herself the hardest question in the world: is her child capable of murder?

Review

I am quite happy to say that Jodi Picoult is a favourite author of mine, however recently I’ve found her writing to be a little hit and miss. For example I loved Handle with Care- it was my favourite read last year, and quite probably my favourite Picoult book, but I really was not impressed with Second Glance, which I wouldn’t even give a second glace (haa haa aren’t I hilarious?). For these reasons I was excited about reading House Rules but also a little…anxious is I suppose the most fitting word. I was really interested in the subject and hopeful that it would be done well. As someone who works with children- some of whom have learning disabilities, and has a degreee in psychology. Kids like Jacob are the type that I eventually want to work with, I hope to take a masters in Educational psychology in the not too distant future. I wanted this book to be informative and still have the interest that Picoult usually gives me, a sort of mystery and a crime story, and of course the emotional side which really gives Picoult’s writing heart. As far as an account of life with- and for a child with Asperger’s syndrome I thought it was pretty honest and informative- it told me things I did not know (although I cant claim to know a great deal about Asperger’s, having only studied autism on a wider scale) and gave the human side- what it felt like for the family, and even for the ‘sufferer’.

As for the crime side, it was done well, and did have me wondering to some extent right up to the end- although I did work out a key part of the plot long before it was explicitly said (highlight for spoiler) I worked out quite early on that Jacob was covering for Theo, and I didn’t ever think that it had been Theo who murdered Jess, although I did think that she had been murdered- possibly by the boyfriend.  I did think that she was being abused by the boyfriend was a bit of an unnecessary plot line but I guess it kept the reader thinking he did it. It could be that it gave a valid reason for Jacob to set him up, but I don’t think that fits with the profile of someone with Asperger’s. Jacob wouldn’t have set up Mark to get back at him for what he did to Jess, because he didn’t feel empathy- although he may have seen that as a reason why Mark would have killed Jess and set it up so the police would see that too.

As a first Picoult read I would probably put a few books as a first choice before House Rules. For a first time reader I would probably recommend either My Sister’s Keeper or Handle with Care, but if you have read and enjoyed Picoult’s writing in the past I don’t think you will be disappointed by this one.

4/5

Handle with Care- Jodi Picoult

Cover of Handle with Care: A Novel

This review was written 11 & 17/5/09

Synopsis (from amazon)

Everything breaks. Some things just hurt more than others.

Charlotte O’Keefe’s beautiful, much-longed-for, adored daughter Willow is born with osteogenesis imperfecta – a very severe form of brittle bone disease. If she slips on a crisp packet she could break both her legs, and spend six months in a half body cast. After years of caring for Willow, her family faces financial disaster. Then Charlotte is offered a lifeline. She could sue her obstetrician for wrongful birth – for not having diagnosed Willow’s condition early enough in the pregnancy to be able to abort the child. The payout could secure Willow’s future. But to get it would mean Charlotte suing her best friend. And standing up in court to declare that she would have prefered that Willow had never been born…

Initial thoughts

Before I even started this book I knew it could be one which I could connect with, and I’m glad I wasn’t wrong. When I was 7 I was diagnosed with osteoporosis, a disorder which is similar to osteogenisis imperfecta, in fact at points it had been proposed that this is what I have, although tests have said osteoporosis. My osteoporosis is nowhere near as bad as Willow’s but all the same I recognise some of the issues she has as my own problems, especially when I was younger. I can’t even remember my first break, or my second, one I got falling down a couple of stairs I was crawling up, the other falling off my parents bed. (highlight for spoiler) Somewhere about this time my parents were asked about child abuse, in a less blatent way than Willow’s parents, and it wasn’t until after that they found out the question they had been asked was one asked to parents who are suspected of child abuse. When I was just finishing my first year of primary school is the first break I can remember, I broke my femur falling off my scooter, I was in traction for the whole Summer holiday. I broke my leg again falling over on my crutches, then my ankle when my foot slipped off the foot rest on my pushchair while I was still recovering. After that I had no breaks until just before I joined here, in more normal circumstances this time, I was hit by a car. I had the same bisphosphonate treatment as Willow in my teens, which was rather successful. All the same I do fear things, I fear falling a little, I’ve never been skating, or learnt to ride a bike, I’m scared of heights, I hate ladders and am not always comfortable with stairs unless I already know them. I am better than I once was, I know that just falling is unlikely to harm me, although my recent break is somewhat of a set back. I have never pitied myself, it’s just the way I am, but this book has made me think about myself, and my illness (I say for want of a better word)

Review
oh my

(highlight for spoiler) I never expected it to end this way. I don’t understand why. Why did Willow have to die, and in such a way? Was it so nobody really lost the court case? Seems extreme measures. I would like to think that at least it meant that Pippa and Charlotte, and Emma and Amelia became friends again.

For me I think this may be my new favourite Picoult book, not because it has the best plot, or is the most well written- both those are good but maybe not her best- but because it touched me personally. It didn’t make me cry but it did bring me close a few times (and generally books don’t even do that). Sometimes because of Willow herself, sometimes because I could see myself in her, and sometimes because it brought my own memories forward.
I adored Willow, she’s so brave, and somewhat unfazed, she doesn’t feel sorry for herself. Some of that people say I have but I don’t know if I could if I was as bad as Willow is. I really liked Amelia too (highlight for spoiler) in ways I felt more sorry for her than Willow because Willow’s pain was mainly physical, Amelia’s was psychological and in a way that is harder to get over

I liked how we always saw Willow through other people’s eyes. Except for the one chapter where Willow spoke.

(highlight for spoiler)I liked how Willow didn’t see the money as realy being hers so much as something that had brought her family back together. She didn’t so much care about what the money gave to her as that it made her family happy. This part made me close to tears at first because everything that had happened it didn’t really matter to Willow, she just wanted her family to be happy.

I also liked the recipes throughout the book, they made for something different.
Other people may not like this book as much, I am not sure, but I still think everyone will enjoy it.

5/5

My Sister’s Keeper- Film of the book.

(I feel the trailer is a little spoilerish but not too badly, and, well, it’s the official trailer)

I love the book of My Sister’s Keeper, Jodi Picoult is an author I enjoy and My Sister’s Keeper is the first one of hers I read, and still one of my favourites (my favourite if you’re wondering is Handle with Care). So I was a bit…cautious… about the film. I tend not to like films of books, I hate it when they change things or leave stuff out, and I find it hard to take them as films in their own right.

This one was actually pretty good as far as films go. I liked the characters (in fact I probably liked Sara and Kate more than I had in the book). It was a little more emotional than the book, but sometimes that seemed forced. I haven’t cried for the book but I got a little teary over the film. I liked the way they portrayed the relationship between Kate and Anna. I thought the different voices which make up the book were done quite well, but was disappointed about how little we got from Campell Alexander and Jesse. There were a few changes I didn’t like. I didn’t like how much they cut of Campell, or that they left certain bits to do with him in which seemed kind of random (highlight for spoiler)him having the epileptic fit just seemed pointless without having the rest of his story, except for saying that was why he took Anna’s case, but it seemed more convenient for that than it had in the book. I didn’t like they way they changed Jesse either, they keep all the good kid bits of him and lost the rest (spoiler) I was kind of anticipating the arson, and that added something to the original story. I was disappointed it was gone, plus I prefered Jesse when he had more of a bad boy image, theere was more too him. I guess this is because the film was more about Kate, whereas the book is more about Anna, and about the whole family really. In a sense the film was kind of one-demensional in that way, but if they’d had all in interweaving storylines it would have been a very long film.

Unfortunately there is no review of the book My Sister’s Keeper on my blog, I read it before I started blogging. My review of Handle with Care was written on BCF but there is a copy in my review of the year 2009 here

You can also read my reviews of Picture Perfect and Songs of the Humpback Whale both by Jodi Picoult

Picture Perfect- Jodi Picoult

Synopsis (from Amazon)

A woman is found in a Los Angeles graveyard, unable to remember anything about herself or her life.  No one is more surprised than she when, days later, her husband comes to the police station to take her home – and turns out to be Hollywood’s leading superstar, Alex Rivers.

Cassie Barrett begins to remember bits about her life: her passion for her career as an anthropologist, the whirlwind romance on location in Africa, her childhood.  But she senses there is something troubling in this perfect life that she can’t remember; and then, when she sees a pregnancy test, it all comes flooding back – and once again, Cassie feels there is no alternative but escape…

Review

I must say I have been disappointed with Picoult’s writing more recently. I did enjoy the book, and it’s still an improvement on Second Glance or Mercy. I did really like Cassie. It’s strange I wanted everything to work out with Alex, despite anything, I think that shows some skill in Picoult’s writing that she could still give the sense that Cassie really loved him, and that he loved her. By the end I did really enjoy it.

4/5

Review of the Year 2009 (Part 1)

The bit at the beginning

Seeing as it’s almost the end of another year I thought it might be nice to have a sort of review of what I’ve read this year. What the best books have been, and the worst, and the most surprising. I’ll probably go on to talk about the books I’d like to read as a result of what I have read.

As I started logging my books from about the beginning of February those are all I will mention. My first review was written in late Febuary so on lists I will highlight books with no reviews in red, books with reviews on this blog will be linked. Those not reviewed on here are reviewed on my thread at The Book Club Forum, if you aren’t a member there (Why not?!) but would like to see a review of something mentioned let me know. I’ll post full reviews for the ‘winners’

So off we go…

General Stats

Books read (45)

Blue Diary- Alice Hoffman

Cover of Blue Diary

Synopsis

Ethan is a man most people would trust with their lives. Member of the volunteer fire department, coach of the school baseball team. He seems to have everything, a wife who he still loves the same as the day he met her and a lovely son. But Ethan has a secret. A secret which will rock the whole community.

Review.

I never really had been attracted to this book when seeing it around, but my sister recommended it as she knew I like Jodi Picoult’s books. I suppose I can see the similarities. Picoult’s books do tend to be about how events effect different people. I did feel as attached to the characters in this book though- there was only one I really felt for. The others I sympathised with but I didn’t feel that attached to.  I did find it a bit more predictable than Picoult’s books too, there always seems to be a twist in the tail with Picoult, and there was none here.

One thing I would have liked to have changed is to find out the outcome for Ethan. While the majority of the story wasn’t directly about him it felt unfinished not to know what happened with him.

I enjoyed it well enough however, and if you want something easy then I’d recommend it, but if you’re looking for something to really get involved in don’t bother.

3/5

Songs of the Humpback Whale- Jodi Picoult

Cover of Songs of the Humpback Whale: A Novel

Synopsis (from Amazon)

Jane had always lived in somebody’s shadow. Escaping a childhood of abuse by marrying oceanographer Oliver Jones, she finds herself taking second place to his increasingly successful career. However, when her daughter Rebecca is similarly treated, Jane’s dramatic stand takes them all by surprise. Jane and Rebecca set out to drive across America to the sanctuary of the New England apple orchard where Jane’s brother Joley works. Oliver, used to tracking male humpback whales across vast oceans, now has the task of tracking his wife across a continent. To do so he must learn to see the world – and even himself – through her eyes…

Review

Ok so did I miss something…both the above synopsis and and the one on the back of the book suggested Rebecca was abused but as far as I can see that isn’t what happened, or the reason why Jane chose to leave…did I miss something crutial? (Highlight for spoiler)There was a brief section where I thought the Grandad may have thought about doing something, but that was in the past (he was dead in the present section) and not what caused them to leave at all. I guess that’s not something that’s really important though, makes no difference to the actual story even though it gives a false impression. Although this is Picoult’s latest book in the UK it was her first book in the US. You can already see her style though, with multiple voices. I don’t think her flow was quite up to her current standard, I did find that the changes in time took a while to adjust to and at first I found them a little confusing.

What I did like about this, in comparison to the other Picoult books I’ve read (which I think is all that are released in the UK) was that it was easier to relate to. There was still a moral dilemma as in the rest of Picoult’s books but it was the sort of dilemma you can image facing yourself, while not exactly common it’s less…dramatic, I suppose, and that makes it seem more likely to happen to you. I guess some people may see this as a disadvantage but for me I found I could more easily understand how the characters were feeling because it was easier to imagine myself in that situation.

I wouldn’t say it’s my favourite Picoult book, and it took me a little longer to get into, but I did really enjoy it- more even than some of her more recent ones.

4/5

December- Elizabeth H. Winthrop

Synopsis (from Amazon)

Eleven-year-old Isabelle hasn’t spoken in nine months, and as December begins the situation is getting desperate. Her mother has stopped work to devote herself to her daughter’s care. Four psychiatrists have already given up on her, and her school will not take her back in the New Year. Her parents are frantically trying to understand what has happened so they can help their child, but they cannot escape the thought of darker possibilities. What if Isabelle is damaged beyond their reach? Will she never speak again? Is it their fault? As they spiral around Isabelle’s impenetrable silence, she herself emerges as a bright young girl in need of help yet too terrified to ask for it.

Review

This book has been sitting on my shelf for a while. I just didn’t feel compeled to read it for some reason. I’m not sure why, it sounded interesting enough.

In the end it reminded me quite a bit of Jodi Picoult books, a similar style. In a way this was good because well I like Jodi Picoult books, but at the same time it made it seem unoriginal. All the same I enjoyed it, in particular I liked Isabelle, and the psychologist in me was really interested in why she wasn’t speaking.

Highlight below for spoiler

In fact the psychologist in me didn’t like that we never found out for sure. I guessed and I think as a reader I was meant to guess but I would have liked to know if my suspicions were right

3.5/5