Absolute Chaos Discussion Boards
Miscellaneous => Chatterbox => The AC Book Club => Topic started by: mare on July 27, 2009, 06:21:31 PM
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This is the thread for people like me who have read a gabiilion of her books and want to discuss them.
I am almost done with Vanishing Acts now. But still my favorite has been Nineteen Minutes.
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Nineteen Minutes is my favorite JP too...the only other one I have read by her is My Sister's Keeper.
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So far I've read My Sister's Keeper, Change Of Heart, Plain Truth, Perfect Match, and Nineteen Minutes
My favorite would have to be Change of Heart. It's a bit reminiscent of Green Mile, but at the same time, completely different. I just love the entire message of the story.
My second favorite would have to be My Sister's Keeper.
The others were good, but not my faves. Nineteen Minutes brought back too big a reminder of Columbine for me and honestly I know this sounds awful, but I don't really want to read a story that tries to make me feel sorry for the guy who committed a murder like that. :shrug:
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I've read My Sister's Keeper, Nineteen Minutes, Second Glance, Keeping Faith, The Pact, Change of Heart, The Tenth Circle, Plain Truth and Vanishing Acts. I think there are some others but I can't remember off the top of my head.
I have loved some and not enjoyed some. The only one I couldn't really finish was Mercy. I just thought that one was incredibly boring. The other one I wasn't really crazy about on that list was the Tenth Circle.
All the others were great reads. I love how she writes in first person. I know i've mentioned that before, but I love books written in first person. To me it makes the story move faster.
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Favorite Quotes?
My favorite at the moment is from Change of Heart;
*No matter what Mr. Philosopher Next Door thought, there were things I knew for sure: That I had been loved, once, and had loved back. That a person could find hope in the way a weed grew. That the sum of a man's life was not where he wound up but in the details that brought him there.
That we made mistakes.
I closed my eyes, sick of the riddles, and to my surprise all I could see were dandelions - as if they had been painted on the fields of my imagination, a hundred thousand suns. And I remembered something else that makes us human: faith, the only weapon in our arsenal to battle doubt.*
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See, that's one of the reasons I found Nineteen Minutes so compelling. I love how she wrote from everyone's pOV including the shooter. So many times we just tend to demonize the shooter and not know about him. Not to say what he did wasn't pure evil but she really did a great job at letting us see that in the end he was just a troubled kid. I also liked being able to see things from his parent's POV as well.
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You're right about Change of Heart as well. It was very Green Mile. If i'm not mistaken, didn't she even mention The Green Mile in the book? LOL I thought that was pretty funny. I love how open-ended the ending was for that one and how many questions it raised. If you liked that one, I suggest you read Keeping Faith. It reminded me a lot of Change of Heart.
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I read My Sister's Keeper. ;D I really enjoyed it. (Except the end.)
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See, that's one of the reasons I found Nineteen Minutes so compelling. I love how she wrote from everyone's pOV including the shooter. So many times we just tend to demonize the shooter and not know about him. Not to say what he did wasn't pure evil but she really did a great job at letting us see that in the end he was just a troubled kid. I also liked being able to see things from his parent's POV as well.
Oh definitely. I thought it was beautifully written and I too loved the idea of it being written from all points of view and even the reason for making a person want to see the other side of and even feel sorry for the "bad guy"... I just don't wanna... lol.
Honestly for me though... I've personally always been the type who wondered about the other side of the person and their family and what they could possibly have gone through in their life to get them there. I realize that not everything is cut and dry - that not every murderer should be sentenced to death on the spot (I guess it's the liberal in me ;) ) but it makes the whole situation even sadder than it already is. When I opened Nineteen Minutes and started reading and realized it was about a school shooting I almost put it down. I remember exactly where I was when Columbine happened and I remember the shootings in Paducah and Arkansas and the many randoms that followed and it wasn't something I wanted to think/or read about... but it was how well it was written that kept me going.
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See, that's one of the reasons I found Nineteen Minutes so compelling. I love how she wrote from everyone's pOV including the shooter. So many times we just tend to demonize the shooter and not know about him. Not to say what he did wasn't pure evil but she really did a great job at letting us see that in the end he was just a troubled kid. I also liked being able to see things from his parent's POV as well.
I agree completely!
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I just started reading My Sister's Keeper which is the first book in a LOOOOONG time that I have read that has really intrigued me. I LOVE Anna's moral dillema and how Jodi Picoult does such an awesome job presenting everyone's side in the story. It makes the situation that much more complex and difficult for the reader to take sides, which I love. I'm still only halfway through so shh... No spoilers! I'm so excited to find a new author to explore. It's been a while since I've been impressed with any one author.
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once you're done, you should go find the My Sister's Keeper thread and add your two cents in there.
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once you're done, you should go find the My Sister's Keeper thread and add your two cents in there.
Yea I know! I don't want to venture in there just yet because of spoilers, but when I finish I will definitely throw out my thoughts there. My edition also has some wonderful book club discussion questions about the novel too at the end.
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I would definitely like to check out more by Jodi when I run out of books to read. I'll probably get Nineteen Minutes next, since I've heard such great things about it. I'm rereading Harry Potter right now, and I've also been in a Stephen King phase, plus I ordered Jurassic Park off Amazon, so I have plenty of books to keep me occupied for awhile. But it's nice to have new writers to explore for those times when I'm looking for something new to read and have no idea what.
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Jurassic Park was an excellent book. Another example of the book being so much better than the movie! Although I loved the movie as well lol
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Really? Wow, that makes me excited to read it then. Cause I agree, I love the movie!! I'm surprised I've never read the book... I guess maybe it's just cause when the movie came out, obviously, we were too young for the book, and then it just kinda fell off my radar.
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I've read two of her books so far, Change of Heart and Salem Falls. I've got Vanishing Acts to read next, then I think I'll buy My Sister's Keeper. I really like her books as they are quite different to the usual romance stuff I read.
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I loved Change of Heart, I came upon that at school in need of a new book lol and I'd just read My Sister's Keeper for the book discussion. That's an awesome book, I really loved the challenges on religion cause that's always been fascinating to me.
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Another one that really focuses on religion is Keeping Faith. That was an awesome book as well!
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So I just finished My Sister's Keeper and I'm bawling like a baby right now. Man... Talk about irony... That's all I have to say for the moment :'(
Now I need a new Jodi Picoult book to read. I think I'm going to run out to Borders tom morning. Any suggestions?
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Nineteen Minutes! That by far is her best book in my opnion anyway.
Other good ones by her: Plain Truth, Keeping Faith, Change of Heart, The Pact was okay. I have loved Vanishing Acts but for some reason it's taking me forever to finish it!
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Thanks Mare! I'll see what I can get tomorrow, but I'll keep your suggestions in mind.
It's a shame because just back in June our local Scholastic warehouse was having one of their yearly warehouse sales for the public where books are 50%-80% off. I went and stocked up on some childrens book to add to my library for my non exisistant classroom and I'm pretty sure I saw some Jodi Picoult books in the adult section. I should have picked them up!
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Nineteen Minutes is a MUST read!!! One of my face books of all time.
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I just finished "Plain Truth" last week and am now reading "Change of Heart." I thought Plain Truth was great. I like how all her books seem to be about legal/moral issues that really make you think, and just like with My Sister's Keeper, she threw a twist I wasn't expecting in at the end there.
I started Change of Heart the other day and am loving it so far; I'm not that far into it, but I think it has a nice mix of interesting characters. I'm wondering though, for people who have read it... total Green Mile rip-off or what?! I got to the part where Shay brings the bird back to life last night and was like, WTF?! At least she acknowledged it by having one of the other inmates call him Green Mile later, but still...
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JODI!! My fellow NH-native writer! I love her!! Second Glance = THE BEST.
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Nineteen Minutes is the one I make everyone read. I have really loved al the books I have read by her with the exception of Mercy and 10th Circle. I wasn't crazy about those.
Plain Truth was one of my favorites. I'm glad oyu enjoyed it!
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Nineteen Minutes is the one I make everyone read. I have really loved al the books I have read by her with the exception of Mercy and 10th Circle. I wasn't crazy about those.
Plain Truth was one of my favorites. I'm glad oyu enjoyed it!
You didn't like The 10th Circle!?? Oh my!! I might've liked it more, though, because I read it for an extra credit project in a lit class we were studying Dante in.
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It just didn't hold my interest as much as her other books did. I think my problem was I didn't like the lead characters. LOL When that happens I have a hard time seeing the book through. The Dante stuff was entertaining though.
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Nineteen Minutes is the one I make everyone read. I have really loved al the books I have read by her with the exception of Mercy and 10th Circle. I wasn't crazy about those.
Plain Truth was one of my favorites. I'm glad oyu enjoyed it!
I agree with you 100% on all counts.
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I'm late to the party on this one but she's my favorite author ever. I had the opportunity to have dinner with her last year and the way she talked about her writing made me fall even more in love with her books.
I'm not too fond of Mercy because...I just really hate cheating and I hate reading about it haha
But if you haven't, read Picture Perfect, and Songs of the Humpback Whale. They're both from earlier in her career but they're awesome to read. Plain Truth is another amazing one.
I bought My Sister's Keeper to read on a flight home from Denver and the poor man sitting next to me had no idea what to do when I burst into tears at the end of the novel. haha...
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I never followed up my post about Change of Heart, but I ended up LOVING that book! I think it's my favorite by her so far (I've only read three of them, though). It did feel a lot like a Green Mile rip-off, but setting it in modern times made it different, and she took it in a different direction as well. It was an interesting book (then again, so are all the books I've heard of hers).
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Change of Heart is my favourite by her so far too.