Friday, October 7, 2011

My Sister's Keeper

 Fiction by Jodi Picoult


I remember reading this book at the McDonald's in Alabama where I used to go with my older kids when they were little. So we're looking at maybe 2003. The story was really striking, and I haven't forgotten the questions it brought up in my mind.

If your daughter were dying and needed bone marrow, would you have another child in order to provide a genetic match for her? At first I thought, what a terrible idea! But then I realized that if my child were actually in peril, I would do whatever it took to save her. Plus, a sibling is a good thing, right? In this story we see what might happen....


Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Nineteen Minutes

 Fiction by Jodi Picoult

It's a school shooting story, but it's a really good one.

I read this book several years ago and it really stuck with me. There are no good guys and bad guys here; it's real people making both good and bad choices, and in the real world there are consequences to choices that you can't always predict.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Keeping Faith

 Fiction by Jodi Picoult


This is a book I read several years ago and it was really good. The odd thing about the story is that the titular Faith is a person, a little girl who talks to God. Or maybe she doesn't. Her mother, who takes her straight to a therapist at this sort of talk, doesn't think so. But Faith herself, who has been struggling since her parents' divorce, her conversations with God are quite real. And things happen that convince others that God may be working through the little girl. This attracts media coverage and gets the attention of an atheist debunker.

The author treats this topic dispassionately, but she really gets you inside the character's heads. Everyone in the story was really trying their best to do what they think is right. But my heart was with little Faith.