Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult and Samantha van Leer {book review}

UK cover

I am on Twitter!!! (@unitedcakedom) I am stating that because that is how I learned about the existence of this book. I follow Jodi Picoult and she was re-tweeting peoples responses! 


I picked up a copy at my local grocery store, in hard back! It is rare for me to buy a hardback. I love books, but I have to really want it not to wait until it comes out in paperback. 


Just a flip through the book it had my attention. There are pictures! Well drawn pictures! 


I like the idea of the characters of books having their own world (between the lines) after the book closes. The story was handled very well, for such a complex story line. There are so many questions to be asked about the world in the book and I think most of them are answered! What happens when a character in a book wants more? 


I enjoyed reading this book it's labeled as young adult, but I think today there are so many books that sit on the borderline of young adult and adult. I am nearly 30 and I enjoyed it and I think a young person the age of  10 or so would enjoy it as well. 


It was an entertaining light read that I would suggest to anyone who loves fairy tales! 

I have a couple of niggles; I wanted a few more examples of why Delilah and Oliver liked each other. It felt a bit forced, it's one of my gripes about fairy tales in general. Tangled: Rapunzel was locked in a tour for 16 years! Yet she marries the first guy she meets! I know at the end there is the disclaimer when Eugene says "after years and years of asking I finally said yes" so it implies that she didn't marry him the second she got home. But still! Anyway off track again........ where was I? 


My other niggle was after all this build up (not going to spoil it) it just ends. I guess that is a sign of a good story that I didn't want it to end, but I was physically looking for more pages thinking "is that it?" Maybe there is a sequel? I've never know Jodi Picoult to do a sequel, but there is a first for everything! 


To find out more about what this book is about click here! 
~LiSa

Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult - a book review

Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult : June's first husband was killed in a car crash. Against all the odds, her daughter was uninjured and, in another miracle, June found love again with the policeman who rescued them. Six years on they are a happy family, June pregnant with their own child.

But now June's second daughter is dying without the new heart she so urgently needs. And her first daughter, along with her husband, is dead, killed by Shay Bourne, an itinerant workman they welcomed into their home. The crime was so heinous that Shay has been given the death penalty for the first time in 69 years in New Hampshire. Shay is going to die, and he is looking for redemption. He wants to give June's daughter his heart . . .

This was written in true Picoult style. It has all the twists and turns you come to expect from her. This book has had lots of criticism of resembling Stephen Kings The Green Mile. In fact I feel it was very similar, but I also know that she knows that. She has one of the inmates on I-tier call Shay Bourne 'Green Mile' and even has one of the characters say they would rather be curled up with the latest Stephen King novel. Besides the main character basically being the same the stories are very different. Jodi Picoult's is based on the very the touchy topic of religion. Where Green Mile is more about the death sentence and sentencing innocent people. If you liked Green Mile, which I did, I would recommend Change of Heart to you. And vise versa if you liked this then I would recommend The Green Mile, not the movie. Where the movie was entertaining it didn't have the same impact that the book did, there was just something lost in the feeling for the main characters. A topic I could go on and on and on about all day!
As I am a very curious person when it comes to religion I really did like this book. Religion is a very personal thing as I feel it says a lot about the person, but I hate how it's something people can't talk about in an easygoing conversation. It always seems to turn into a childish argument of who is right and who is wrong. If you are a close-minded person when it comes to religion I would stay clear of this book as it's just going to piss you off. I'm sorry if that statement pissed you off. I'm just warning you.

I think this book warrants a read. Maybe not my favorite Picoult novel but it definitely still has me thinking!

Check out our other reviews of Jodi Picoult's books: House Rules, Keeping Faith, The Pact, My Sister's Keeper, The Tenth Circle and Plain Truth.

A recommendation: House Rules by Jodi Picoult

House Rules is about Jacob Hunt, a teenage boy with Asperger's Syndrome.  He's hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself well to others, and like many kids with AS, Jacob has a special focus on one subject - in his case, forensic analysis.  He's always showing up at crime scenes, thanks to the police scanner in his room, and telling cops what they need to do...and he's usually right.   But then one day his tutor is found dead, and the police come to question him.  All of the hallmark behaviors of Asperger's can look a heck of a lot like guilt to law enforcement personnel -- and suddenly, Jacob finds himself accused of murder. 

I really, really enjoyed this book.  As usual, I was sucked right into what was another amazing story by Picoult.  After reading several of her novels, I am begining to be able to pick up on her forshadowing and pretty much figure out the "mystery" of the story.  Even so, she still tells a fantastic story that questions my morals and endears me to the honesty of her characters.  Jodi Picoult is becoming a favorite author for sure!

A Book Review

Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult

For the second time in her marriage, Mariah White catches her husband with another woman, and Faith, their seven-year-old daughter, witnesses every painful minute. In the aftermath of a sudden divorce, Mariah struggles with depression and Faith begins to confide in an imaginary friend. At first, Mariah dismisses these exchanges as a child's imagination. But when Faith starts reciting passages from the Bible, develops stigmata, and begins to perform miraculous healings, Mariah wonders if her daughter a girl with no religious background might indeed be seeing God. As word spreads and controversy heightens, Mariah and Faith are besieged by believers and disbelievers alike, caught in a media circus that threatens what little stability they have left. Is Faith a prophet or a troubled little girl? Is Mariah a good mother facing an impossible crisis or a charlatan using her daughter to get attention?

Another Picoult novel that didn't disappoint. It's just something about the way she writes. Religion is a touchy subject at the best of times so this book could be touchy for some. Also if you are a strong non-believer you may find this book very ... annoying. It's not meant to try to make you believe, it's trying to get you to ask "what if?"
I read the book pretty quickly because I couldn't put it down. Although a good book and definitely recommended I felt like something was missing at the end. So, if anyone else has read this please let me know what you thought. I want to know if anyone else felt that way. Like something wasn't answered? Along with the last couple pages...how did you interpret that?

The Pact by Jodi Picoult -- A Recommendation

In this contemporary tale of love and friendship, Jodi Picoult brings to life a familiar world, and in a single terrifying moment awakens every parent's worse fear: We think we know our children… but do we ever really know them at all?

For eighteen years the Hartes and the Golds have lived next door to each other, sharing everything from Chinese food to chicken pox to carpool duty-- they've grown so close it seems they have always been a part of each other's lives. Parents and children alike have been best friends, so it's no surprise that in high school Chris and Emily's friendship blossoms into something more. They've been soul mates since they were born.

So when midnight calls from the hospital come in, no one is ready for the appalling truth: Emily is dead at seventeen from a gunshot wound to the head. There's a single unspent bullet in the gun that Chris took from his father's cabinet-- a bullet that Chris tells police he intended for himself. But a local detective has doubts about the suicide pact that Chris has described.
The profound questions faced by the characters in this heart-rending novel are those we can all relate to: How well do we ever really know our children, our friends? What if…? As its chapters unfold, alternating between an idyllic past and an unthinkable present, The Pact paints an indelible portrait of families in anguish… culminating in an astonishingly suspenseful courtroom drama as Chris finds himself on trial for murder.

With this riveting psychological drama, Jodi Picoult explores the dynamics of intimate relationships under stress-- from the seemingly inexplicable mind of a teenager to the bonds of friendship and marriage. Few writers have such a gift for evoking everyday life coupled with the ability to create a level of dramatic tension that will keep you up reading late into the night. The Pact is storytelling at its best: wonderfully observed, deeply moving, and utterly impossible to put down.

http://www.jodipicoult.com/the-pact.html

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult -- A Book Review

Here's what we had to say about Jodi Picoult's novel My Sister's Keeper!
All is a go so lots of spoilers!! We await your comments!! We can't wait!! ;0)
Note: See earlier post for our answers to the Book Club questions!!

Janet: I enjoyed this novel's ups and downs. I love Picoult's trademark twists. I could not connect to Sara on any level in this story, no matter how hard I tried. Besides the main issue of her conceiving Anna just to save Kate and all the following medical procedures, I also felt that a good mother would never give up on a child (Jesse). I think this even spoke to me louder than the rest. How could you let that happen? How could you love child so much as to let another (or two, in this case) go? I enjoyed Anna's character and was very sad that she was the one who ended up dying. Overall, I really liked this novel.

Lisa: I really enjoyed this story. It is one of those situations where you don’t know what you would do or how you would feel if it were you. Although I think I agree with the father more. I think I know myself well enough that if I love any of my other kids as much as I love my daughter I could not use one of them to save the other. She didn’t want to send Anna to hockey camp because of what might happen to Kate if she were gone. WTF? So, she gave Anna life, but not to actually live. I didn’t really like the ending. I was hoping that Anna got to live her life and that Kate had some sort of miracle lived for another couple of years then passed away peacefully. I don’t know? But after all that and Anna dies anyway?

Stacy: As a whole I really enjoyed reading this book. It kept me interested, the characters were interesting, I agreed with Brian's role as Anna's father over Sara's role. I didn't like Sara much, no matter how many times she said she loved Anna and Jodi tried to show us through back stories and such, I still never believed it. I believed she loved Anna to some degree but I just felt her heart was with Kate and Kate only. We can say all we want that we would never do to our kids what Sara did to Anna, but do we really know that?Campbell and Julia's characters and story was a nice side story that I think helped make the book a little less intense. I have to say I really thought that Anna dying was the wrong choice, a powerful one, but not the one I wanted. I wanted her to give Kate her kidney by choice and have Kate go into an 8 year remission. Maybe I'm a sucker for happy endings.

Jodi Picoult -- Recommended by Amy

Plain Truth:

YA-Philadelphia defense lawyer Ellie Hathaway retreats to her great Aunt Leda's home in Paradise, PA, to get a break from her high-pressure job. Almost at the same time that she arrives, a dead baby is discovered in the barn of an Amish farmer. A police investigation reveals that the mother is an 18-year-old unmarried Amish girl, Katie Fisher, and that the infant apparently did not die of natural causes. Even in the face of medical proof that she recently gave birth, Katie denies the murder charge. Ellie reluctantly agrees to defend her, even though she does not want to be defended. To better understand her client, Ellie moves into the farmhouse with the Fisher family where she begins to see firsthand the pressures and sacrifices of those who live "plain." As she searches for evidence in this case, she calls upon a friend from her past, Dr. John Cooper, a psychiatrist. As Coop and Ellie work together to unravel fact and fiction, they also work to resolve issues in their relationship. Readers will experience a psychological drama as well as a suspenseful courtroom trial. The contrast between the Amish culture and the "English" provides an interesting tension. This study of opposites details much information about a way of life based on faith, humility, duty, and hon-esty.Carol Clark, formerly at Fairfax County Public Schools, VA Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The Tenth Circle:

Bestselling author Jodi Picoult's The Tenth Circle is a metaphorical journey through Dante's Inferno, told through the eyes of a small Maine family whose hidden demons haunt every aspect of their seemingly peaceful existence. Woven throughout the novel are a series of dramatic illustrations that pay homage to the family's patriarch (comic book artist Daniel Stone), and add a unique twist to this gripping, yet somewhat rhetorical tale.
Trixie Stone is an imaginative, perceptive 14 year old whose life begins to unravel when Jason Underhill, Bethel High's star hockey player, breaks up with her, leaving a void that can only be filled by the blood spilled during shameful self-mutilations in the girls' bathroom. While Trixie's dad Daniel notices his daughter's recent change in demeanor, he turns a blind eye, just as he does to the obvious affair his wife Laura, a college professor, is barely trying to conceal. When Trixie gets raped at a friend's party, Daniel and Laura are forced to deal not only with the consequences of their daughter's physical and emotional trauma, but with their own transgressions as well. For Daniel, that means reflecting on a childhood spent as the only white kid in a native Alaskan village, where isolation and loneliness turned him into a recluse, only to be born again after falling in love with his wife. Laura, who blames her family's unraveling on her selfish affair, must decide how to reconcile her personal desires with her loved ones' needs.
The Tenth Circle is chock full of symbolism and allegory that at times can seem oppresive. Still, Picoult's fans will welcome this skillfully told story of betrayal and its many negative, and positive consequences. --Gisele Toueg

Amy Says:

In anticipation of the book club, book of the month, I have been reading more books by Jodi Picoult, because I am a fast reader and finished the book way to fast and didn't know of another book to pick up.
I have read The Tenth Circle and Plain Truth along with our book of the month, and I still cannot get enough. I cannot even go into details of the book(s) because it will give away valuable and shocking plot twists! All I can say though is Jodi does not disappoint the reader. The characters are well thought out with depth. They each have a past, a present, and a future that they are all unsure of. Just when you think you got things figured out, Jodi always throws in another twists, which makes your jaw drop. Just like our book of the month, you think the book is all wrapped up nice and neat, then the "bombshell" hits and makes you say out loud.... no way!! I am going to continue to read Jodi Picoult's pieces because they are amazing peices of literature and you should check them out too!!