Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult

Change of Heart

Every book club reads, at some time or other, a Jodi Picoult book. Every time we read one, we discuss the other Jodi Picoults we have read. Personally, I'm always amazed at the obvious amount of research she does before writing a plot. This one is all about the death penalty, and if a condemned man can donate his organs after the punishment has been carried out. 

Then there are the delightful characters she writes about: a Catholic priest, an ACLU lawyer, a mother who lost both her daughter and husband and a convicted murderer. Each one is so well developed that we had a great discussion on each of the main characters in the book, then discussed who is the hero of the book and it was not a unanimous decision!

There were lots of twists and turns, and the plot was by no means obvious. No wonder Judi Picoult is well read in book clubs when she produces a great book that leads to a wonderful discussion.

My Abandonment by Peter Rock

My Abandonment

If you haven't read the book:

The book is told from a 13 year old's point of view of her life with her father while living in the forest in Oregon. Although they are homeless, she seems content and well cared for, physically and educationally, until one day someone sees them, tells the police and they are tracked down and she is taken into care. The story of how they got to be living in the forest in Oregon isn't revealed until the end of the book. Neither is it ever revealed if he is her real father or not.

The book is haunting in its telling and there's lots of mystery and unanswered questions through the book, not all of which (like, is he her real father?) are resolved. I can't really say much more without spoiling the story if you haven't read the book. I did read the book quickly and thoroughly enjoyed it, but now it has left me with questions.
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If you have read the book:
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this is a spoiler alert and a discussion only for if you have finished the book
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So only scroll down if you've read the book
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I've read many reviews in other places and no one thought the same as I did, so here's my personal opinion or suspicions.
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At the end of the book she puts together her own manuscript of the events that have happened to her, so everything is her opinion. Like they say, winners write the story of battles, so the real truth was never written down.

I think she killed her own father, and here are my reasonings.

Their arrival at the yurt and the discovery of Susan and Paul was just strange. The characters themselves didn't seem human. Then you have to ask yourself, how did Susan manage to electrocute the father when he was fully awake, and presumably not very compliant? An average man can overcome an average woman, this part is unbelievable.

Then Caroline takes her father down the hill in thick snow and a bunch of teenagers arrive to have a party in a cave. Remember they are in the middle of nowhere and there is thick snow and the road cannot be found. This part of the story is also unbelievable. Where did they park their cars? Surely there wasn't a parking lot next to the cave.

So this is what I think happened, Caroline was kidnapped by a man who was not her father and used as a sex slave. Caroline doesn't say that they were having sex, but remember, she was writing the story. In a similar way to the Elizabeth Smart story, she was a prisoner, but was compliant. Would you want to admit that if it were you?

So I think that rather than being a great father, he was really holding her hostage and having sex with her. Then finally when she saw her chance, she murdered him. The clue is that earlier in the story she was told of other homeless people who had died by electrocution. When Caroline and her father entered the yurt and saw the wires, she murdered her father while he slept. Then she took him to an empty cave and disposed of his body.

But because the story was written by Caroline, she couldn't write any of that, so we have this bizarre story of strange and unrealistic people.

What do you think?

Dirt Music by Tim Winton

Dirt Music : A Novel

Dirt Music was not a very popular book. Two members of our group didn't manage to finish it. Nevertheless, we had a great discussion after reading it. The characters were very colorful and memorable. We were a little confused about some of the things that happened in the plot as there didn't seem to be any purpose to those events being there. Some of the events were just that the main character was traveling and met different people.

The way it was written was a little strange. I personally don't like writing that isn't in complete sentences. There was a lot of speech without the correct punctuation. My English teacher would have been horrified. However, that was the style and it did make it easier to read. And the book did win a number of prizes for having been written.

Personally I wouldn't read another book by this author because of the style of writing. However, his characters have stayed with me long after I finished the book.

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry by Kathleen Flynn

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris at the World's Most Famous Cooking School

I was really excited to read this book, but the reading of it didn't live up to my expectations. The author writes the story of how she suddenly decides to live in Paris and go to cooking school. But to my analytic brain, she didn't even say how she financed her year. I'm sure many of us have a wild idea of doing something similar, but a little help in the direction of how she achieved her dream may help others achieve theirs. 

I thought it was a great title for a book, and it did make me want to read it.

The book is punctuated with recipes, but it was interesting to note in book club that no one had even tried one of the recipes. With much good intention, I did plan on it, but somehow never got round to doing so. 

The book is compared with Eat, Pray Love, but I enjoyed that book much more. I think if I did it again in a book club, I would end with an evening of cooking one of the recipes together. 

Moloka'i by Alan Brennert

Moloka'i

Moloka'i takes place in the Leper colony in the Hawaiian Islands. Although the book is officially fiction, the events that happen in the book are true. It is the story of one young girl who contracts the disease and is sent away from her family to live on the colony with other lepers. The book is well researched and very moving in its depiction of life in the leper colony on Moloka'i.

Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz

Drowning Ruth: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club)

The way this book is written is unusual. It jumps about backward and forward in time, sometimes from one page to the next. But somehow it works and that added to the joy of reading the book. I wouldn't, however, have liked to have listened to this on CD, I think that would have made it confusing.

The mystery is around the fact that Ruth remembers drowning, although obviously she didn't actually drown. You don't find out what actually happened until the end of the book. The book is easy to read and difficult to put down. Personally I reached the middle and finished it in one day even though I had other things to do.

It is an Oprah Book Club choice and I find many of these have some form of sexual abuse in them. I'd just like to say that this one didn't. The characters were a little unusual, but just enough to make them interesting to read about and discuss in a book club setting.

The Wives of Henry Oades: A Novel by Johanna Moran

The Wives of Henry Oades: A Novel

Based on a true story, Henry Oades was living in Australia when his wife and children were kidnapped by Maoris. Henry did all he could to find them and then gave up and moved to California. Many years later his wife and children travel to California, but discover Henry has remarried. He welcomes his first wife into his home, while not rejecting his second wife. The resulting dilemma is the topic of this book. 

Henry is charged with bigamy by the people living near him, and you'll have to read the book to find out what happend next. This is the only book that has led to a discussion of bigamy in our book club, a rare and interesting dilemma, and one which our Henry didn't have an easy solution.