purple and not-for-profit

Jodi Picoult Strikes Again

#4 - Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult
(for someone who randomly stumbles across my blog who does NOT know me - yes, I managed to work a full-ish day at work, work at home for several hours, and still manage to finish a whole Jodi Picoult novel by 2am. I read fast, ok?)
Jodi Picoult's books, from what I can tell, like to pick up a thread of little-known culture (the Amish, Wicca, etc) and use that as a backdrop for the story she weaves. Also, her books almost always tend to deal with some kind of abuse. In this case, we got the abuse we were looking for in The Pact on the last page of this book, but also a neat dualism between all of the pairings in this book. Except I kept getting detectives, deputies, and children mixed up. Plus, maybe I really just didn't get into The Pact as much but Jordan McAfee's storyline wasn't as compelling as I wanted it to be. Overall though... I liked the book a lot.

Reflections on reading and literacy
When people hear how much I read, a frequent question that I get is, "What is your favorite book?" I have always struggled with ranking books that I read. That isn't to say that I don't have books or series that I run back to. Often. When I'm looking for "comfort reading." As I kid, I didn't read the "good" books. I think I read all 152 Babysitters club books that were published at the time, not to mention all sorts of other junk reading. My idea of classics extended really only to Madeleine L'Engle and Louisa May Alcott. I was in college before I saw Jane Austen as more than a chore and I still am surprised at the holes I have in my already-read repetoire.

And sometime, I'll have a non-Jodi Picoult book in this 50 books.

This feels like an adult Book-It except without the free pizza.

Oh, by the way? I found something I NEED in my life. I need about twenty of these in my life: The ThumbThing. All of my turned pinkies and sore thumbs could be behind me! Behold! I could hold open books wherever I go! Now, to find out where to purchase one...sigh.

commentary on the template...I know, I know--it is getting better and worse at the same time. deal.

Labels: books

posted by kate @ 6/06/2006 02:17:00 AM