Just Can’t Stop Reading

Yesterday I went to Barnes & Noble with a friend of mine. My mission? To pick up a couple books for my upcoming vacation.

Thanks to my uber- supportive reader Mom, who is awesome enough to buy me a copy of all the books her book club reads, I already had several: “The Secret History” by Donna Tartt, “Blessings” by Anna Quindlen, “The Almost Moon,” by Alice Sebold (which I cannot WAIT to sink my teeth into, having read both “Lucky” and “The Lovely Bones” several years back), “Ghost Story,” by Peter Straub, and finally, “Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man,” by Steve Harvey. Yes, comedian Steve Harvey. I’ve got to say, I’m kind of looking forward to this one.

But then I walked into B&N, stopped dead in my tracks, and (depending on how you want to picture me) may or may not have shrieked a little while jumping up and down giddily. Because, dear readers, JODI PICOULT HAS A NEW BOOK OUT!!!!

I should explain. Probably about 5 years ago now, I picked up “My Sister’s Keeper,” one of Picoult’s fabulous novels, in an airport. I’m pretty sure I had it finished by the time I arrived at my final destination that day. (This was probably a combination of the excellent book and also of my flights being predictably delayed and cancelled, a la “Dear American Airlines,” by Jonathan Miles, who writes a story in the form of a letter being written by a man whose flights have done just that and caused him to miss the culminating event of his life after years of self-exploration to arrive at that point…there’s your mini-review for that one, it’s probably not going to get its own post).

At any rate. “My Sister’s Keeper.” Totally and completely hooked. Since then I’ve acquired the entire rest of her collection, the latest three in hardback because I simply couldn’t wait for them to be more affordable and, let’s face it, I scrap all book-buying rules for Jodi 🙂

So yesterday found me giddily purchasing “Handle With Care.” I’m only 193 pages into it, but I’m pretty confident that my review after I’m done will continue to be along the lines of where it is now, which is, “ohmygod, how does she do this?!”

The book is excellent. As with her other novels, this one explores an incredibly complex scenario from the viewpoint of multiple people- all with a unique, and dare-I-say completely acceptable perspective on the situation. Suffice it to say that these viewpoints don’t always line up, leading the reader to have to discover their own feelings on the situation.

(The rest is NOT a spoiler, since you could learn this reading the book jacket, but if you truly want to know NOTHING about the book before buying it, don’t read on and I’ll see you in my next post!)

“Handle with Care” centers around a child with osteogenesis imperfecta, where bones break easily and a sneeze could result in a cast. (This is an extremely non-medical and simplified explanation; Picoult does an amazing job of providing you the genetic information behind this disease and the statistics on the patients  it affects each year). The question posed of the parents, as they search for the answer to whether or not to sue their physician (who happens to be Mom’s best friend) for medical malpractice, is: Even though you love her, would it be better if she had never been born?

I’m about 1/3 of the way through but with a busy day ahead of me, so look for the review sometime next week. In the meantime, let me know your thoughts about any of the books on my vacation reading list! I also picked up Lee Child’s “Killing Floor”- a Jack Reacher novel, another series I’m a big fan of. Look for future blog posts on Child’s work. Finally, I grabbed “Agnes and the Hitman,” by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer, off the bargain bin shelf. I have to confess I didn’t even read the back, but the title alone was worth the $5.98 for a fun beach read.

Happy reading!