Handle With Care

I am a big fan of Jodi Picoult, and I know this isn't the first time I've said it. I was really excited to see she had a new book coming out this year, and I picked it up as soon as it had been released. I didn't know the basic premise of Handle With Care when I bought it, but I didn't much care. Now I wish I did a little more research on it... I wasn't really happy with this book upon finishing it. I would have read it anyway, but I probably wouldn't have put off reading other books to read this one first.

Handle With Care tells the story of the life of Willow O'Keefe, a young girl suffering with OI (osteogensis imperfecta), or brittle bone disease. Her disease affects the life of her mother, Charlotte, and her father, Sean, as well as her sister, Amelia. On a trip to Disney Land, Willow breaks two bones slipping on a napkin, which puts her in the hospital, her parents in jail and her sister in foster care. Sean visits a lawyer, wanting to sue for damages. The lawyer says they have a case, just not the one they had thought. The O'Keefe's file a wrongful birth suit against their OB-GYN (who happens to be Charlotte's best friend), saying that if the OI had been detected sooner, Charlotte could have aborted the baby. What ensues is an epic legal battle that pits friend against friend, husband against wife, and mother against daughter.

One of the main problems that I had with Handle With Care was the character of Charlotte. I could not empathize with her at all, and I disliked her from very early on. The other problem I had was that I felt like I had read it all before, in her novel My Sister's Keeper. There's a major medical crisis between one of two daughters, and an ensuing legal battle because of it. Hmm... yeah, too familiar.

I give Handle With Care a 3 out of 5. I enjoyed the intigrated recipes within the story, and I learned a lot of trivia throughout the pages. Neither, though, was enough to get a higher rating. I could have just re-read My Sister's Keeper and been alright.

Turtle Moon

When I find a new author that I haven't read before, I often find myself immersing in all of their works over a short amount of time. I did it years ago with Jonathan Kellerman and James Patterson, then again a while ago with Jodi Picoult. Last year, I did it with Alice Hoffman, who I started reading because it was Picoult's favorite author. I purchased a lot of her books at once, and am slowly making my way through that cache. I just knocked another Hoffman book off, as well as adding a book to my 2009 list. That book was Turtle Moon.

Turtle Moon tells the interwoven story of two single mothers, a cop with a haunted past, and a boy called the meanest in all of the town. When one of the mothers is murdered, the one left behind, Lucy, takes it upon herself to figure out who this person was, and why she was dead, to clear her son Keith, who was at the scene of the crime and runs away with the now orphaned baby. With the help of the cop, Julian, the past of everyone involved is unraveled, and answers come out of the woodworks.

Initially, I wasn't drawn in by the book like I normally am with her stories. I struggled through the first 50 pages or so. I almost set it down, but I knew that Hoffman always comes through, so I kept going. I was rewarded, and by the end of the book I was connecting with characters and their motives.

I give this book a 3 out of 5. The ending was redeeming, not just for the characters but also the doubt that I felt when I started the book. If I would have been sucked in right away, like I have been with Hoffman's writing in the past, this book would have ranked higher.

The Tenth Circle

Just a few days after finishing book 5, The Pact, I have finished another re-read by Jodi Picoult. This one, The Tenth Circle, is probably my all-time favorite Picoult book. As an avid reader and collector of graphic novels, the included artwork by character Daniel Stone from his "Wildclaw" series is a total delight, and it mirrors the plot of the novel around it.

Stone is the father of a 14 year old girl, Trixie, who comes home one night saying she was raped. Stone's wife, Laura, is in the arms of another man. What unfolds between the family is one of loss, betrayel, pain and redemption. Their sins mirror Dante's Inferno, of which Laura is a scholar and professor of. The story reads as a classics lesson, as well as a true morality tale about the lengths you're willing to go to for yourself, for your family, and to be saved.

As I said before, this is one of my favorite Picoult books, and is probably why I chose to re-read this one second. It is more recent than The Pact, released in 2005. It seems like both have been made into Lifetime movies... I watched about 5 minutes of The Pact and turned it off, angered by how drastically the story changed in a short time. I have not seen the t.v. version of The Tenth Circle, so I'm holding my reservations on it till I see it. It stars Kelly Preston (Laura) and Ron Eldard (Daniel), and just by looks alone I am not happy with casting.

Overall, I give this book a 5 out of 5.