Books Once More

Well I know that it has been a long time since there was a book post but there was the Academy Award project to complete so I guess I kind of have a small amount of an excuse. But it is here, the time to put up a post about the books. I have been deabating for quite some time about exactly what books to talk about. I could talk about Jane Austen, I love her and I just finished re-reading "Sense & Sensibility" but I think that I want to read more of her before putting up a "how cool is Jane Austen" post. Then I was thinking that since I recently just read the first three of the MaryJanice Davidson "Undead" series for the second time, maybe I would talk about that. But that is something that I would like to write about as a whole. I could write about one of the books I am currently in the middle of but I would feel like that is a half hearted post. So what to write about? Obviously it has to be something that I really love. Something that will be worth the wait. And then I got to thinking about one of my favorite authors, Jodi Picoult. With that thought in my mind, I have decided to write about her.

She now has 18 novels out. I own 17 of them, the newest just came out a few days ago. I can't wait to go get it! I didn't think that it was coming out until May otherwise I would have gotten it right away. Anyway minus her first couple of novels, which I still own, all of her work is pretty amazing. Granted I haven't read the Wonder Woman comics that she wrote or the play she wrote with her son but other then that I think I have read all of her fiction. I love it. Her style of fiction is really something that I enjoy reading. Hence the owning of all her fiction novels and the springing for the hardbacks of her newest novels. I bought two of the Sookie Stackhouse novels in hardback, and I don't think that I will be doing that again seeing as the series is declining, other then that I rarely buy an author's latest novel as a hardback. I'm rambling a tiny bit. I'm a tad distracted. Anyway when it comes to Jodi Picoult I don't mind spending the extra dough.

Her novels usually end up as a courtroom mystery. I think that the most recognized name is going to be "My Sister's Keeper." It has been turned into a movie starring Cameron Diaz and so it has become a pretty recognizable title. The novel is about a family who has a daughter named Kate who has leukemia. Because her life was going to be filled with waiting for donors and surgeries the family decides to genetically engineer another daughter they name Anna. She was born so that Kate will always have someone around who is a perfect match for bone marrow donation, blood transfusions, and any other surgery that may be needed. This is how life goes on for quite a few years. It goes on until Anna hires a lawyer and sues her family for the rights to her body. This is where it turns to the courtroom. The novel is told through the eyes of Anna, Campbell (her lawyer), Sara (the mom), Brian (the dad), Jesse (the brother), and Julia (Anna's guardian ad litam). The novel is told from all these points of view, each chapter a different person, a different font. It makes it iteresting. The reader gets to experience what almost everyone is thinking. Anyway I enjoy it. The writing is beautiful, the story heartfelt and real. It's a great place to start if you are just beginning to find your way through Jodi's work.

Her writing, even in the few that I didn't enjoy as much, is always thought out. Each sentence, each phrase is put together with care and finesse. She's a master at taking dark subjects, "designer babies", rape, autism,school shootings, abusive realationships, and putting them in words that make the reader WANT to read about it, WANT to look at it, face it head on. It's a brilliant ability. I just love her work, her poetry, her talent. I highly reccomend her novels. Maybe skip ahead to her third novel "Picture Perfect" and go from there. Her first two are really not as great. They are her still trying to find her style. They are only something that a real fan of hers will want to read. But I say give a lot of the others a chance. They are worth the time. I know that I can't wait until I can get to a bookstore and buy her latest novel "Sing You Home." 

Jodi Picoult is an author that rarely disappoints, rarely lets me down. An author that I can see myself reading as long as she is writing. So go out, give her a try, see if maybe you become devoted to her as I am!