Keeping Faith

Jodie Picoult is without a doubt a very gifted writer. Although I have to say that her book Keeping Faith, was not my favorite.

Most people know Jodi Picoult's books tend to involve difficult moral conflicts and true to life accounts. In Keeping Faith, the author focuses on the controversial issues of spirituality; a topic that most people take extremely seriously, and often personally. When you read this book, you will no doubt ponder where your beliefs interweave among the gray area of believers and non-believers. This book raises a lot of questions and would be the cause of a lot of heated debates in any book club. But, if your just looking for a book to read for pleasure, I would recommend you find something else.

Each character that the author created played a very particular role within the story but without a lot of information or reasons as to why. I would have appreciated more background information about each character.

I found that the story was easy to get into, but was laden with predictability. The summary on the back cover gave away too much information and ultimately was a spoiler for me. It would have been nice to have been left with some surprises while reading. Not much was left to the imagination.

The most frustrating part for me was the ending. My initial reaction was complete bewilderment. I've read the last page over and over again and I still cannot come up with an definitive conclusion. I am unsure as to where the author wanted to take me in the ending of the story. If you have read this book and have ANY thoughts on what the ending means, please share your thoughts at CantPutDown.com

So! I would not recommend this book for leisure reading. But as a book club pick, definitely; you'll find yourselves debating for hours.

Buy it!

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Nineteen Minutes

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult begins with a list of all the things you can do in nineteen minutes ending with - in Nineteen Minutes you can change your life.

In Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult explores a young man going into his high school on a shooting rampage. She explores the young man's life and the lives of those around him. She also causes us to reflect on how our own expectations for the teenagers in our lives can mix with years of disappointment and torment by their peers to push a young person to desire relief through such an extreme action.

All is not what it seems and I found myself haunted by this book, so much so that more than a year after reading it, I am writing this review.

I like to read books that make me think, challenge my perceptions and stay with me. This book gets high marks in all these areas.

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The Pact

The Pact by Jodi Picoult was a fabulous read with a jaw dropping first paragraph, an intense plot, and a slew of characters that you can relate to.

Although I have to admit, I did not enjoy the way the story concluded. I felt like the ending was forced instead of following its own natural path. But I can understand why Jodi Picoult ended it the way she did. There was so much despair and anger throughout the entire story that if it ended with its natural path there would be a lot of upset readers. To me though, it is great to read a story like that every once in a while just to shake you up.

The first paragraph is very intense. The main character dies by a gun shot wound with whom appears to be a childhood friend turned lover. Right there your mouth drops. Unexpected beginning for sure. As a reader you can't help but think "What the hell just happened?" It was a great beginning. Undoubtedly, you have to keep reading to find out what happens.

Jodi Picoult does a great job with the characters by making them realistic and likeable. You can imagine them so vividly. The friendships that are established between the Hartes and the Gold families are nothing but envious. We can all hope for a small amount of that kind of friendship in our own lives. Or if we do have a glimmer of it already, it makes you stop to think about it and appreciate what you already have. 

I enjoyed the integration of the Harte and the Golds friendship within the story. It really tears at your heart when the trajedy rips the two families apart. But I have to say that I was surprised at the way the bond between the Hartes and Golds came to such an abrupt end. As integrated as these two families were I would have expected the bond to have stayed cohesive longer than what was told in the story. I felt more could have been focused on the breakdown of friendship. It would have made the friendships seem more real since so much of the story kept focusing on how great friends the two families were and that the two mothers were best friends. It was even stated that the parents felt that eachothers kids' were like their own. Of course you never will understand how anyone would react in the face of a true tragedy. Someone you think is emotionally strong could be the first to break down. And someone whom you think could never make it through comes out thriving.

There were so many emotions flying around within this story. I know myself that it triggered reactions in me that I never knew were there and it surprised me. So even though I did not particularly care for the ending of this story, nevertheless I thought that it was cleverly written and was deeply entertaining. If you are interested, here is a link to the author Jodi Picoult's web site.

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