Posts Tagged ‘Jodi Picoult’

This week’s Author of the Week is not a chick lit author, this week’s author of the week is women’s fiction author Jodi Picoult! Here is a mini-biography from fantasticfiction.co.uk:

Jodi Picoult received a degree in creative writing from Princeton and a Master’s degree in education from Harvard. Jodi lives in New Hampshire with her husband and three children. Jodi Picoult’s novels centre on family, relationships, and the balance of love. Riveting plots bring to light questions and issues that remain with a reader long after the last page is turned.

Jodi is the author of 16 novels and her 17th, House Rules, is due out in March 2010 and sounds fab. Jodi’s books always create debate to those who read them because she takes controversial issues and turns them into a fab story. I’ve read My Sister’s Keeper, which I loved, and Nineteen Minutes, one of the best books I read last year! I also have The Tenth Circle, Plain Truth, Handle With Care & Change of Heart to read and they all sound fab. One of Jodi’s novels, My Sister’s Keeper, has been turned into a film starring Cameron Diaz which has also created debate among Jodi’s fans for the change of ending. I have yet to see it so I can’t tell you my thoughts on that!

Jodi is a well-loved author and she is a favourite of mine! I look forward to reading her entire collection! I also must mention her book covers - they’ve been re-issued and are fab! As there are so many covers, click underneath to see them all!

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Reviewed by Linda Gallagher

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. Parents and children alike are 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.

When the midnight calls come in from the hospital, no one is prepared for the appalling truth: Emily is dead at seventeen from a gunshot wound to the head as part of an apparent suicide pact. The gun holds a single unspent bullet that Chris tells police he intended for himself, but a local detective has doubts. And the Hartes and Golds, in a single terrifying moment, must face every parent’s worst fear: do we ever really know our children at all?

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One of my favourite all-time authors Jodi Picoult has just released the brilliant Handle with Care, but already the synopsis for her next book is up on her website. House Rules isn’t due for release until March 2010 but looks fantastic, and I love the sound of the synopsis already! Here it is:

“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 he keeps in his room, and telling the 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 – not looking someone in the eye, stimulatory tics and twitches, inappropriate affect – can look a heck of a lot like guilt to law enforcement personnel — and suddenly, Jacob finds himself accused of murder. HOUSE RULES looks at what it means to be different in our society, how autism affects a family, and how our legal system works well for people who communicate a certain way – but lousy for those who don’t.”

Published by Hodder & Stoughton, its not on Amazon for pre-order yet but keep an eye out as it will be eventually! You can read an excerpt on Jodi’s website; http://www.jodipicoult.com/

Handle With Care is possibly one of Jodi’s most controversial books, with an impossible question at the heart of it. Willow O’Keefe was born with OI - Osteogenesis Imperfecta, a brittle bone disease which means even a sneeze can break several bones.

Her sister Amelia and parents Charlotte and Sean O’Keefe do their best to look after her but are stressed out due to the pressure of caring for such a sick young girl, and are also in financial trouble. Charlotte is thrown a lifeline when someone tells her she can sue her obstetrician for not warning her of Willow’s condition when she was pregnant.

But suing would mean Charlotte has to admit she would have aborted her baby if she had known. Oh and not to mention the fact that Charlotte’s obstetrician is her best friend Piper…

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