The Year in Review - Books

So, I achieved last year's New Year's resolution -- to read 52 books in 2009, one for each week. I'm definitely on a reading kick now and hopefully it will continue into 2010.

All the books that I read can be found via this link: Book a Week

Here's just a quick run-down of a few things "book-related" in 2009.

• Favorite Author: John Steinbeck -- I hadn't read a book by him prior to this year, but I'm now thrilled to say that I have an actual "favorite author." Time to tackle Grapes of Wrath this year.
• Favorite Nonfiction - The Great Deluge - Riveting stuff about Hurricane Katrina. I should really read more nonfiction...
• Oldest Book - Pride and Prejudice - (Jane Austen) - First published in 1813
• Most Recent Book - Handle with Care - (Jodi Piccoult) - Published in 2009

Top Ten Books of 2009

1. The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien
2. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
3. Ethan Frome - Edith Wharton
4. East of Eden - John Steinbeck
5. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
6. Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates
7. The Postman Always Rings Twice - James M. Cain
8. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer
9. Mother Night - Kurt Vonnegut
10. The Alchemist - Paolo Coelho
    

A Book a Week - The Film Club

Book Fifty-Two of the Book-a-Week Quest
The Film Club
by David Gilmour (2008)

"The second time you see something is really the first time. You need to know how it ends before you can appreciate how beautifully it's put together from the beginning."

To finish up this Book-a-Week Quest, I figured I might as well pick a book about film. In this year where (by the time the Oscars roll around in March) I will have seen nearly two hundred 2009 releases, why not read a book about a film club?

A memoir, David Gilmour's The Film Club tells the true story of a how he dealt with his troubled high school dropout son, Jesse. Jesse is failing school and his father makes a rash decision -- Jesse can drop out of school as long as he watches three movies a week with him. David was a former film critic and he hopes that films can open up Jesse's mind to things he's never thought of before.

While the experiment is somewhat of a success, the film club takes a back seat to "real life" which, in this book's case, means Jesse's trials and tribulations with two girls -- Rebecca and Chloë. Sure, it was fun to read about the films, but Jesse was really just a screwed-up guy when it came to girls. Break-ups lead to drugs and hospital visits...and, to be honest, I just got really tired of reading about the kid.

It doesn't help that I had a really difficult time figuring out a time line in this book. It takes place over three years (I think), but Gilmour never makes it easy to determine how much time has passed between chapters. It's not that he jumps around, but I had no clue that three years had gone by at the book's end.

Now, Gilmour is quite a good writer in the way he crafts his sentences. It's quite an easy read and when he talks about film, he really shines. It's just a little unfortunate that the family aspect of the book becomes repetitive and falls a little flat.

A Book a Week - Strangers on a Train

Book Fifty-One of the Book-a-Week Quest

Strangers on a Train
by Patricia Highsmith (1950)

This one had been on my shelf for a really long time for some reason, despite the fact that it's got that noir feel that I really enjoy.

Guy Haines is a promising young architect who is on his way to signing divorce papers in Texas. While on the train, he meets Charles Bruno, a psychopath who hatches a murderous plan with Guy -- Bruno could kill Guy's wife while Guy could kill Bruno's overbearing father. Guy wholeheartedly disagrees, but, a few days later, Guy's wife ends up murdered...and Bruno will stop at nothing for Guy to complete his part of the deal.

Patricia Highsmith crafts a tense tale here, jumping back and forth between the inner thoughts of Guy and Bruno, with both men being fully realized complex characters. The only thing I wish is that the tale was maybe 75 pages shorter. Clocking in at nearly 300 pages, there's not quite enough story to stretch out over the whole book. And, unfortunately, the end is slightly anticlimactic.

So, while it's not quite a perfect thriller, I'm certainly not opposed to picking up another Patricia Highsmith novel in the future.

A Book a Week - Your Movie Sucks

Book Fifty of the Book-a-Week Quest

Your Movie Sucks
by Roger Ebert (2007)

I'll say this about Roger Ebert - while I may not agree with his views as of late (you really gave perfect 4-star ratings to Trucker and Ponyo, and 3 1/2-star reviews to The Men Who Stare at Goats, Big Fan, The Invention of Lying, My One and Only, Funny People, and Public Enemies?), he can certainly write a well-crafted review. That Pulitzer Prize-winning style is evident in Your Movie Sucks, a compilation of some of Ebert's zero to one-and-a-half star reviews from 2000-2005.

I must have some decent taste in film because I had only seen 24 of the nearly 175 movies reviewed in the book, and of those 24, I could really only disagree with his ratings on two of them (he really despised the ingenious Team America: World Police, and Dana Carvey's The Master of Disguise is the one of the best "awful movies" I've ever seen). While there's no review that particularly stands out, I must say that I enjoyed reading nearly every criticism (even if the book is heavy on the godawful "Teen Comedy" film genre).

It goes to prove that there's definitely some fun in writing awful reviews.

And for anyone that wants to criticize this as a "Book-a-Week" choice, feel free. But it was over 325 pages and Ebert doesn't shy away from using big words like "lugubrious" either.

A Book a Week - The Moon Is Down

Book Forty-Nine of the Book-a-Week Quest

The Moon Is Down

by John Steinbeck (1942)

If anything good has come out of this book-a-week quest, it's that I finally have someone I can call "my favorite author." John Steinbeck definitely takes that prize. This is my fifth Steinbeck book of the year and while I wasn't falling head over heels for The Red Pony or The Pearl, I can't say that I've genuinely disliked any of them.

The Moon Is Down is a simple story that deals with a small European town being overtaken by invading soldiers. Neither the conquered nor the conquering parties are given countries to which they belong, but, considering that this was written in the midst of WWII, it's easy to infer Steinbeck's veiled intentions. Steinbeck allows the reader to see both sides of the war with chapters focusing on both the soldiers and their captives.

What's most interesting about the book is that, according the book's cover, Steinbeck had in his mind that this would be turned into a play rather than a novel. The book relies heavily on dialogue, both serious and witty, but always engaging. Also, each chapter feels like its own "act" in a play. While not "cliffhanger-ish," each chapter ends in such a way that it "finishes and cleans up" the loose ends in the chapter, while drawing the reader into desiring to know what happens next. I realize that's the case in most books, so I guess I'm not really accurately describing how this book felt "play-ish," but it did.

Anyway, this was definitely an enjoyable read. With three books left to go, it's entirely possible one more Steinbeck will be coming...

A Book a Week - Bagombo Snuff Box

Book Forty-Eight of the Book-a-Week Quest

Bagombo Snuff Box
by Kurt Vonnegut (1999)

This is a collection of 23 short stories all of which were written by Vonnegut in the 1950s while he was a struggling writer, selling his "stuff" only to magazines.

Some are certainly better than others, as is often the case with short story collections (not that I've read a ton, but I've read a few). The stories start out fairly strong, lag a bit in the middle (the middle 12 or so were a struggle), and pick up again at the end. The big issue, which Vonnegut addressed in his introduction to the book, is that nearly every story is super-simplistic. You can see the "moral" a mile away. That doesn't necessarily make the stories bad, but it lessens their oomph, I guess.

Still, it furthered my knowledge that I generally like Vonnegut as an author (something that I thought way back in high school) and will continue to read through more of his repertoire.

A Book a Week - Frankenstein

Book Forty-Seven of the Book-a-Week Quest

Frankenstein
by Mary Shelley (1818)

Well, as I was told, this book certainly isn't what you'd expect insomuch as film and television have played up the "monster" aspect to the nth degree and the book, while certainly still containing a monster, focuses on the human who created the creature.

And it's probably because of the focus on the creator that the book is a snoozefest. This was a rough one to get through. And while I made it through the last 100 pages in a day, it was a struggle. This is one of those books where you read the first two sentences of a paragraph, then slip into an unconscious mind-wandering state until you hit the last sentence, when you realize you weren't paying the least bit of attention to anything that came before it...and you're forced to re-read it all again. That happened every single chapter for seemingly every third paragraph.

And it just seemed kinda ludicrous in this day and age, having seen various presentations of Frankenstein's Monster, to have this "monster" manage to speak perfect eloquent English. I realize that shouldn't be a criticism of the book, per se, for it was that "modern media" that bastardized the original novel, but it just made the premise seem a little odd.

Oh, well...I can say I read it now...and I'll never pick it up again.

A Book a Week - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Book Forty-Six of the Book-a-Week Quest

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

by Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1962)

I'm going to spoil the ending of the book for you by typing up the the last paragraphs:

Shukov felt pleased with life as he went to sleep. A lot of good things had happened that day. He hadn't been thrown in the hole. The gang hadn't been dragged off to Sotsgorodok. He'd swiped the extra gruel at dinnertime. The foreman had got a good rate for the job. He'd enjoyed working on the wall. He hadn't been caught with the blade at the search point. He'd earned a bit from Tsezar that evening. And he'd bought his tobacco.

The end of an unclouded day. Almost a happy one.

Just one of the 3,653 days of his sentence, from bell to bell.

The extra three were for leap years.

Those paragraphs sum up the book. It's simply a day in the life of a guy named Ivan Denisovich Shukov who is a prisoner in a Soviet labor camp in the 1950s. You'd think that might lead to boredom...and, in part, you'd be right. Nothing of any significance happens in this book. Yet the author manages to make Shukov's utterly mundane life seem interesting. There's no chapters or page breaks throughout the book, so you're simply reading straight through about a day in the life of a Soviet prisoner.

There's really not a whole lot to say here except to say that as I was looking through a bookshelf and spotted this, I couldn't believe that I was actually going to read it. I mean, this was Russian, had no chapters, and, if I'm being honest, the summary on the back of the book didn't sound too appealing. For some reason, though, I started it and found it surprisingly interesting.

I'll consider this as prep for my 2010 goal of reading War and Peace.

A Book a Week - The Alchemist

Book Forty-Five of the Book-a-Week Quest

The Alchemist

by Paulo Coelho (1988)

I can see this falling into the self-help or religion category in any bookstore, but this novel was quite beautiful in its simplicity.

Fable-like (or, as wikipedia describes it probably more accurately, "an allegory"), The Alchemist tells the tale of Santiago, a Spanish youth who abandons his flock of sheep in order to follow his Personal Legend...something that everyone has in them that they tend to push away or hide.

It's a simple tale that you would think couldn't sustain being spread out over 200 pages, but it somehow or another managed to keep me incredibly interested. I'm usually not a fan of the self-help mumbo jumbo, and I admittedly rolled my eyes a few times, but there were moments here where he was discussing spirituality and faith that I was moved.

Coelho writes in such an effortless manner and manages to weave tales within tales and not cause confusion. There is a vested interest in Santiago from the very opening pages. Even with the most minimalist descriptions, we feel like we know the main character from the get-go, rooting him on his quest.

A Book a Week - Ethan Frome

Book Forty-Four of the Book-a-Week Quest

Ethan Frome
by Edith Wharton (1911)

I read this book in ninth or tenth grade and remembered loving it. If someone asked me what my favorite book was, this would likely come to my mind. However, I hadn't read it in over a decade and I wondered whether it would hold up. Fortunately, it does.

Ethan Frome is a tragic love story set in the New England town of Starkfield in the late 1800s. The story's fairly simple. Ethan is married to the sickly Zeena whose constant pestering and bitterness irks him to no end. He begins to fall in love with Mattie, Zeena's cousin who has come to live with them in order to assist the somewhat invalid Zeena with chores. Mattie and Ethan both realize that any type of love affair between the two of them cannot come to fruition, however, they both long to escape the clutches of Zeena and run off together.

Anyone that's been reading this book-a-week blurbs knows that I'm not a fan of authors being overly descriptive. Wharton here is the exception. Her writing flows so effortlessly and elegantly. It'll sound silly, but she uses "common language," never pulling out the "big words" to make herself seem more important. Despite that (or perhaps because of that), there were certain passages in this book that I read over again because I loved the way she wrote them. I think another reason for enjoying the book as much as I do is that it's a love story (however unhappy it may be) told from a male perspective. That's a rare occurrence and it's pleasant to read.

I'm quite happy this book held up as well as it did for me. Now it's time to read something else by Ms. Wharton and see if I can claim another favorite author alongside Mr. Steinbeck.

A Book a Week - Fahrenheit 451

Book Forty-Three of the Book-a-Week Quest

Fahrenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury (1953)

Part of me wanted to hate this because everyone but me seemingly had to read it in high school. Anything forced on you can't be good, right? Well, there may be a reason it's read by so many high schoolers...it's shockingly good.

The tale of a future where books are burned and life, in turn, seems very robotic, was filled with several lines that really seemed to hit home to me.

Describing what could easily be our society now, Bradbury writes: "Cram [people] full of noncombustible data, chock them so damed full of 'facts' that they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without thinking."

On a world without books: "We seemingly have everything we need to be happy, but we aren't happy. Something's missing. I looked around. The only thing I positively knew was gone was the books I burned."

And on the failure of a media-driven society (even though the quote out of context really doesn't seem like it's about that): "You can't make people listen. They have to come 'round in their own time, wondering what happened and why the world blew up under them."

Not only was the story itself intriguing, I found Bradbury's writing style to be a treat to read. Typically, I'm not a fan of the "overly descriptive" technique, but Bradbury uses it to great effect here, depicting a desolate future driven solely by "new media" while the "classic media" of books gets brushed aside by "showiness."

Really, really liked this one.

A Book a Week - Mother Night

Book Forty-Two of the Book a Week Quest

Mother Night
by Kurt Vonnegut (1961)

This is probably the quickest read for me in this Book-a-Week Quest as I made it through this book's 267 pages in less than four hours. I definitely enjoyed this much more than the previous Vonnegut book I read for this Quest.

The story is told via the writings of Howard W. Campbell, Jr., as he details his life as an American spy during WWII. That being said, was he really a US spy or was he a Nazi sympathizer? The nice thing about the book is that it doesn't really give us a clear answer. It seems that Campbell himself isn't quite sure what he is either.

Vonnegut's writing here is so breezy and easygoing. The dialogue here felt right on and I enjoyed that Vonnegut didn't bog down the book with excessive descriptions -- pretty much straightforward stuff here...nothing superfluous. Sure, there's nothing really deep here, but it's not as if this is a throwaway book. It definitely brings a bunch of things to the table. Questions about love, betrayal, being one's true self (and whether that's a positive or negative). I really enjoyed it.

A Book a Week - Cell

Book Forty-One of the Book a Week Quest

Cell

by Stephen King (2006)

I read a bunch of Stephen King in high school, but I'll admit that I drifted away from him during my college days mainly because I was just too busy reading "important" stuff to spend time with King's books.

Well, King may not be the best writer out there, but he manages to hold my attention. Cell was an enjoyable 350-page read, moving along at a brisk pace and providing a few moments of genuine shock. Add to that, I truly liked (and genuinely bought) the premise that a signal sent over cell phones has caused anyone who uses them to turn into zombie-like creatures. Throw in some well-rounded protagonists that have the reader actually rooting for them, and you've got a winner all around.

Having fallen behind a bit on this book a week quest, expect to see another King book pop up here in the next two months.

A Book a Week - Shutter Island

Book Forty of the Book-a-Week Quest

Shutter Island
by Dennis Lehane (2003)

If you've been to any movie in the past five months, you've probably seen the trailer for the movie version of this book. The flick was delayed 'til next year, but after seeing the trailer tens of times, I figured why not read the book.

It's the mid 1950s and patient Rachel Solando has disappeared from a psychiatric hospital located on Shutter Island. Two U.S. Marshals are called in to investigate the case. Little do the two marshals know that the island is home to some interesting and perhaps unethical treatments and they may be the hospital's next "experiments."

As a story, Shutter Island proved intriguing. It was a quick read, well-paced, and never really got boring. That being said, it just didn't work as a whole. Characters (with the exception of main character marshal Teddy Daniels) weren't really fleshed out. They were introduced and then disappeared -- providing one piece of information to solve the mystery and then quickly dismissed by the author. Add to that, some odd dream sequences featuring completely random stream of consciousness ramblings (which, at first, were kind of neat, but then just got old) and the book didn't quite click as a whole.

Not a bad read, by any means, but it really wasn't anything special either

A Book a Week - If I Die in a Combat Zone

Book Thirty-Nine of the Book-a-Week Quest

If I Die in a Combat Zone
by Tim O'Brien (1975)

Tim O'Brien's novel The Things They Carried is my favorite book that I've read on this year-long quest and quite possibly one of the best things I've ever read. If I Die in a Combat Zone doesn't quite live up to that book, but it still, at times, provides a gripping portrayal of the difficulties of being on the front lines of the Vietnam War.

A memoir of O'Brien's years leading up to and serving in Vietnam, the author once again shows an effortless, easy-to-read writing style. The unfortunate thing is that the author isn't nearly as interesting of a "character" as the GIs in his previous book. I found very little connection with the author, and, in a memoir, I feel like I should have cared about him a little bit. Plus, looking back on the book, not much really happens here...there's no major "battles" that occur and it almost feels as if O'Brien was just "hanging out" in the overgrown jungles. Now, I'm not trying to sound callous -- he certainly depicts difficult times and losing many of his fellow soldiers, but there just wasn't a whole lot going on here.

Still, like I already mentioned, O'Brien has a writing style that is incredibly easy to read. I'm certainly not opposed to picking up another of O'Brien's books.

A Book a Week - Lost

Book Thirty-Eight of the Book-a-Week Quest

Lost

by Michael Robotham (2005)

The previous book I read by Michael Robotham, Suspect, was mindless entertainment. This one wasn't as much fun and I think I may be done with the author.

Suspect is told in first person by psychologist Joe O'Laughlin as he helped an investigation of police inspector Vincent Ruiz. Lost is told in first person by Vincent Ruiz as he tries to solve a crime with the help of Joe O'Laughlin. A child is missing and after a three-year investigation, it is believed that the young girl is dead and her killer is in jail. Ruiz doesn't believe justice has been served, however, and he's desperate to find the girl whom he believes is still alive.

The problem with the novel is that the crime is much too convoluted to follow. Robotham keeps building suspect upon suspect, evidence upon evidence...by the end, there are seemingly upwards of ten people involved in the crime, none of whom we really care about, nor could we have any guess as to why they did what they did. It just gets ridiculous and incomprehensible. Plus, Robotham seems to have a really difficult time writing action scenes.

It was a quick read, but it was certainly not impressive.

A Book a Week - The Bell Jar

Book Thirty-Seven of the Book-a-Week Quest

The Bell Jar
by Sylvia Plath (1963)

Witness the psychological downfall of Esther Greenwood in The Bell Jar, a wonderfully written tale that unfortunately leaves a little to be desired in terms of character development and actual plot.

Told in first person by Esther, our protagonist is actually a fully realized character -- one of the most substantially developed characters I've read this year (which, since Esther is apparently strongly based on the author is understandable). The problem is that everyone around her feels like a throwaway character. In the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't matter as the story is solely about Esther and her spiral into depression, but it would've been nice to have a little more oomph from the secondary characters.

Certainly an interesting read, there's really not much here in terms of story -- the plot is somewhat nonexistent, but we cget an in-depth look into the psyche of a young woman...and it helped me realize that you ladies are cra-a-a-zy...

A Book a Week - Fight Club

Book Thirty-Six of the Book-a-Week Quest

Fight Club
by Chuck Palahniuk (1996)

Even though the movie is directed by one of my favorite directors, David Fincher, I've never seen the cinematic adaptation of Fight Club. That being said, since it's a film liked by a lot of people, I had had the ending spoiled for me. Fortunately, that didn't really ruin my appreciation for this book, which, while not amazing, was an enjoyable read that I was able to finish in less than a day.

Most everyone reading this probably knows the plot, and, if you don't it can pretty much be summed up in one (run-on) sentence. The narrator (who, if I'm not mistaken, we never find out his name) meets up with Tyler Durden, an anarchist who has formed various groups including a Fight Club (in which participants secretly meet in order to beat each other to a pulp) and Project Mayhem (a group that fights against societal norms in violent manners); a friendship ensues and the narrator begins to change...for better or worse...

There's not a lot of plot here, but that really didn't detract from my enjoyment of the novel. To me, the biggest point that Palahniuk is trying to make (and I swear I wrote this before I looked at Wikipedia...the same thing, essentially, is written there) is that men have been stripped of their masculinity, whether it be by women or the materialistic consumer age, and Tyler's Fight Club and Project Mayhem are simply ways for men to become MEN again. Have a little fun...beat some people up...fight back at a government and society that has turned you into the weaklings that they force you to be. For the most part, Palahniuk makes this work. Sure, he delves into the "consumerism is bad" thing, which, although I've read nothing else of his, I've heard is prevalent in quite a few of his novels, but I appreciated the theme.

And Palahniuk writes in such a manner that, although he tends to jump around and be talking about two or three different things at once, is incredibly easy to read and follow. Not once was I confused and I felt like it was one of those novels where I easily could have been. His writing style isn't overly descriptive which is another plus in my book. He writes just enough about something to give the reader a broad idea of what he's talking about and allows you to fill in the blanks.

Overall, I must say that I enjoyed the book quite a bit. As evidenced by the fact that I read this in the course of about 16 hours, I really couldn't put the book down. I'd definitely consider picking up another book of his.

A Book a Week - Our Town

Book Thirty-Five of the Book-a-Week Quest

Our Town

by Thornton Wilder (1938)

Unlike Equus and The Glass Menagerie, the only other plays I've read for this Book a Week Quest, Wilder's Our Town really didn't resonate with me.

The story/dialogue is incredibly simple and I really think this is just one of those plays that doesn't read well on paper. There's a need to watch this unfold onstage in front of you...a need to feel the actors' emotions.

I also know that there's gotta be some deep meaning here that I just didn't get. I guess there's something about stages of life (as the play focuses on "youth" in Act I, "marriage" in Act II, and "death" in Act III) and how we change as people as we get older, but that's not deep at all and really pretty damn obvious.

I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to see this onstage, but I certainly didn't love this one.

A Book a Week - Handle With Care

Book Thirty-Four of the Book-a-Week Quest

Handle with Care
by Jodi Picoult (2009)

So, I've never read anything by Jodi Picoult, but I did see My Sister's Keeper (and enjoyed it) in theaters this year. Handle With Care is essentially the same story as that movie, with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI -- a severe brittle bone disease) taking the place of cancer (Granted, I didn't read the novel My Sister's Keeper, but there were an abundance of similarities between this book and that movie, and I imagine that My Sister's Keeper the movie is somewhat similar to the book). Still, despite the likeness, I couldn't help but enjoy this book (for the most part). It was a breeze to read and honestly kept me on the edge of my seat wondering the outcome.

Told from five different perspectives, this is the tale of Willow, a young six-year old girl with OI -- a disease that could cause her bones to break with a single sneeze. What was unique to me about the novel is that Picoult switches between five narrators, a technique that she apparently used in My Sister's Keeper, as well. Charlotte is the mother who decides to sue her ob-gyn for "wrongful birth" for supposedly not giving Charlotte the choice of terminating her pregnancy once it was discovered that Willow had OI in the womb. Piper is another narrator and Charlotte's best friend...and also her ob-gyn. Suffice it to say, suing your best friend doesn't go over too well. We also see the perspective of Sean, Charlotte's husband who doesn't agree with Charlotte's litigious mindset which causes a huge rift in their marriage. Marin, Charlotte's lawyer, is narrator #4 (my least favorite) who has a backstory with her trying to find her birth mother via various adoption agencies. The last narrator is Amelia, Willow's sister, who is a thirteen-year old girl having to deal with the fact that all her family's attention is focused on her ailing sister. From the very beginning, the reader sees that Amelia is in trouble emotionally and it becomes evident when she begins to cut herself and develops an eating disorder.

Jumping back and forth between these five narrators certainly provided an interesting perspective for me, and it was enjoyable. There's a somewhat different "voice" for each of the characters and Picoult does a good job of spending just enough time with each narrator before switching to someone else.

Picoult's writing style is a breeze to read and she really does make this emotional story a page turner. However, my biggest issue with the story is that I feel like it wrapped up much too quickly. The book is nearly 500 pages, yet I can't help but think that the ending felt tacked on as an afterthought. I've invested a ton of time with these characters, I'd at least hope for a decent build up to the ending...and it just kind of happened, causing all that build-up and tension to vanish. Plus, and this irritated me to no end, there's a "surprise ending" that was so ridiculously unnecessary that I was literally angry when I closed the book when I read the last page. There was absolutely no reason for the conclusion except to yell "SHOCKED YOU, DIDN'T I?" It left such a bad taste in my mouth after I had enjoyed the book immensely up until that point.

Nevertheless, despite the fault (and it's a huge one, in my opinion), the book (at this point) is still gonna make the Top Ten list over on the right-hand side of the blog. I would certainly pick up another Picoult novel in the future, however, I have heard that a lot of her books follow this same pattern of various narrators and this surprise ending. I'm unsure whether that's true (and, while this various narrators thing was fun for one book, the gimmick may get old), but I wouldn't be opposed to reading at least one more book by the author.