Harvesting the Heart - Jodi Picoult

Rating: 2 Drink more Mint Juleps before reading (åå)
Pages: 464
Challenges: Summer Reading Thing, Reading Full Circle Challenge

Synopsis (from BN.com)
Paige has only a few vivid memories of her mother, who left when she was five. Now, having left her father behind in Chicago for dreams of art school and marriage to an ambitious young doctor, she finds herself with a child of her own. But her mother's absence, and shameful memories of her past, make her doubt both her maternal ability and her sense of self worth.


Review
I really like Jodi Picoult books but I struggled with this one. I had a hard time with first I cannot believe that a child who was abandoned would abandoned her own. OK she just left for a while, but when she left she didn't have any intent on coming back. Second, she seemed to have very little anger against her mother for leaving her. I just really struggled with Paige and didn't believe she would react the way that she did. Also I struggled with her as a mother leaving her child. So needless to say I struggled a lot with this book but FINALLY finished it. If you are interested in Picoult I would start with Salem Falls and skip this one!

Drums of Change - Janette Oke

Rating:2 Drink more Mint Juleps before reading (åå)

Pages: 240

Challenge: Reading Full Circle, Novella Challenge, A-Z Challenge (D Title)

Synopsis (from BN.com)
A young Indian girl must make a choice between the old ways of her people, the man she loves, and the white man's religion.

Comment

I just had to put in the Barnes & Nobel synopsis. Talk about summarizing a book in one sentence! I didn't think this book was excellent but I can think of more than one sentence...so here goes

My Synopsis

Running Fawn (notice I took on the challenge of using the character's name in the synopsis...just to prove I have read the book) and her Indian Tribe are at a pivotal point for their generation. The Indian Tribe is going through a transition to live on the White Man's Indian Reserve (after the Buffalo was eliminated and their food source was completely gone). A White man (the tribe calls him "Man with book") joins the tribe to teach them the Gospel. He starts a school and takes a special interest in Running Fawn and Silver Fox (the Chief's son). After the school has to disband Man with book convinces the tribe to let Running Fawn and Silver Fox to a boarding school to learn the ways of the white man. When Running Fawn learns her father is ill she leaves the school to meet up with the tribe. Silver Fox realizing she is in trouble follows her to help her make it to the tribe. This book has a little Christian inspiration, a little history, and a little romance.

Review

Although the book has a little of the topics it is very little. The concept is good and there are some American Indian books that I have loved, but this one missed the mark. I think that there were a lot of different parts of the history that could have been explored and the romance happened in the last chapter of the book. If you want to read Jannette Oke I would recommend Love Comes Softly.

By the way- was my synopsis better than B&N?

Blue Moon - Luanne Rice

Rating: 2 Drink more Mint Juleps before reading (åå)

Challenge: Themed Reading, Spring Thing, Reading Full Circle

Publishers Weekly (From BN.com)
Though its setting is quite different, this highly readable, richly detailed slice of life offers the same absorbing vision of a single family in a particular time and place as do Elizabeth Jane Howard's Cazalet Chronicles. Set in a Rhode Island fishing village-cum-resort town, the narrative focuses not on the upper-middle-class, white collar characters that Rice has heretofore brought to life in such well-reviewed novels as Crazy in Love and Secrets of Paris , but on a family of hardworking restaurateurs. The action revolves around Cass Keating Medieros, the youngest granddaughter of Sheila and Eddie Keating, founders of the family's successful restaurant, Lobsterville. Though Cass and her fisherman husband Billy have been ``madly in love since eighth grade, and proud of it,'' their marriage has begun to show the strain of caring for their partially deaf daughter Josie. Meanwhile, their teenaged son is experiencing his own first grand passion; their nephew dabbles in Satan worship; and Cass's embittered sister Nora blossoms when romance unexpectedly comes her way. These and other engaging subplots keep the narrative sailing briskly along; frisky sex scenes are another plus. A dangerous sea storm clears the decks for this multigenerational saga's unabashedly teary and heartwarming resolution. Rice writes with assurance and is particularly adept at illuminating the inner lives of the novel's youngest characters. 35,000 first printing; Literary Guild selection; author tour. (Sept.)

Review

I was really disappointed in this book. I kept thinking it would get better or there would be something that happened, but not until the last few chapters was there a conflict. Now the question is why did I continue a book that nothing happened in? I don't know. I wasn't committed to finding out what happened to the characters or anything, so I don't know why I kept up with it. I guess I need to get better at giving books up! Also I listened to this on audio and am wondering why on a book with a majority of female characters was a man picked to narrate? Seems odd...

Has anyone else read Luanne Rice? I am not sure if I will read any of her other books (unless some of you have some good reviews).

Change of Heart - Jodi Picoult

Rating: 3 Don’t bet on this one…wait for the movie (···)

Pages: 447

Challenges: Spring Thing Swap, Chunkster, Full Circle Challenge, Pub Challenge

Synopsis

Shay Borne is on death row and wants to give his heart to the girl whose sister and father he is accused of killing, but death by lethal injection does not produce a viable heart. Enter Maggie from the ALCU and Michael a Catholic priest whose decision on Shay's jury for the death penalty led him into the priesthood. Also, odd things are happening in the jail ward where Shay is housed leading people to wonder if he is Jesus or some type of miracle worker.

Review

I struggled a lot with this book. I have read a lot of Picoult’s books and typically enjoy them, but I didn't enjoy this one as much as some of the others. I like that she takes on prevalent issues in society, but I think this book could have taken on the death penalty without injecting all the questions of God. I didn't like some of the misconceptions she portrayed about Christianity and I am not sure that Shay is creditable, which makes me question some of the book in general. Books with narrators with issues make me question if the book is truly in the right perspective. Are things happening as they appear to the "unstable" narrator. Although Shay wasn't the narrator the other characters certainly question his actions. And it leaves the reader questioning also.

I think this would be a really good book club book, because if anyone is like me they will want to discuss this book after reading it! Plus it leaves a lot of questions open for interpretation and questions of myself if I would want Shay to lie to me to appease me or if I would want him to be himself. I think I would want him to be himself.

Here are some quotes I liked from the book:

“But things like jealousy, rage, and infidelity – they don’t
disappear. They lie in wait, like a cobra, to strike you again when you
least expect it.” (361)

“How could I not have known that you see
God every time you look at the face of the person you love.” (384)

Other Picoult books I liked better: My Sister's Keeper, Second Glance, and Vanishing Acts.

BookReporter.com has an interview with Jodi Picoult.

In this interview Picoult said, "Who says that just because you're right, that means someone else has to be wrong? Why do we believe the things that we do --- because they're right, or because it's too scary to admit we don't know the answers?" I think it is an interesting question. Although I have a lot of tolerances with religion I am wondering if I practice this with my husband!

I have gone Challenge Crazy!!

I am signing up or have signed up for 2 more challenges.


Jane Austin Challenge
This is a challenge to read or watch 2 Jane Austin books/movies. Masterpiece Theatre is running a series on all 6 of her books and a movie about her life. I love the A&E version of Pride and Prejudice and haven't seen Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey or Persuation so I am excited to see them. Someone commented that the movies start Jan 13! I am not sure if I will read any of the books based on my current reading list...we'll see.


I am also joining Reading Full Circle Challenge...see next post. I have selected 12 books for that...so I have 24 books so far commited in 2008...I am hoping to read 50 books - we'll see if I make it.


I was thinking of joining Reading My Name challenge, but all authors name Darcie/Darcy seem to be Harliquin or non-fiction writers.


I also want to read the Chronicles of Narnia series. :) Plus I want to start a book club! LOL!!

Reading Full Circle Challenge

Here's how to do it...
Use the common words from your book titles to connect the last title and the following title. The last title in your list needs to share a word with the first title making it a full circle. Click on the button if you want to join.

Here is my list:

Drums of Autumn – Diana Gabaldon
Drums of Change: A story of Running Fawn – Janette Oke
Change of Heart – Jodi Picoult
Harvesting the Heart– Jodi Picoult
Fatal Harvest – Catherine Palmer
Fatal Grace: A Three Pines Mystery – Louise Penny
A Tread of Grace – Mary Doria Russell
The Scarlet Tread – Francine Rivers
Scarlet Moon – Kimberly C Hughes
Blue Moon – Luanne Rice
Autumn Blue – Karen Harter

I actually got a few books I own in this List (Tread of Grace & Drumbs of Autumn). I have been wanting to read more Jodi Picoult (and the change of heart is her new one) and Janette Oke because I love the Love Comes Softly Series...all of the others are new books and new authors!!

This was hard but fun!! It took me a few hours...and I wanted to include the Drums of Amber so I can work on the series this year.