Monday, May 04, 2009

“The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain.”

So, I read Jodi Picoult’s My Sister’s Keeper.

If it had been my first, I still might not have felt about it the way I did about Handle with Care, mostly because the mother in this one was so despicable. Utterly awful, not just clueless like Charlotte. I hated her, I thought she was immature and manipulative and a BAD mother; I even had issues with her morality. (I am beginning to suspect that Ms. Picoult has issues with her mother.) However – it was still a great read that I had a tough time putting down. I enjoyed the auxiliary characters (Jesse, Julia, even Campbell), or at least was completely engrossed by them; I enjoyed the secondary plots; I liked the dad very much. I actually liked Kate (the sister with cancer) even more than I liked Anna, but it’s possible I didn’t much like her because of a deliberate choice on the author’s part to make her seem weak and waffly, which fed into the plot and may have helped the author develop the issues and conflicts inherent in the plot.

I have Nineteen Minutes and Vanishing Act on request from the library; meanwhile, I am halfway through the third Traveling Pants books and am still completely enchanted with them. They are sweet and charming, and as Gina says, they make me want to hug the book. I used some of my birthday gift certificate to buy the 3rd and 4th ones (I got the first 2 at the thrift store).

I was asked to take Primo to the bookstore also, so he could buy a “totally awesome and cool” book his friend R had, For Boys Only: The Biggest, Baddest Book Ever. He has had his nose buried in it since we bought it, except for a brief moment when our backyard neighbor came over to visit and asked if she could see it. That’s right – SHE. He was horrified: “It’s for BOYS!” and he ran away into his room like a 16-year-old in a fit of pique.

I was also forced – forced, I tell you! – to purchase this and this, and this, because my children know I can say No to many things, but almost never to books, especially ones on clearance for three dollars apiece and with a gift card burning a hole in my pocket. Of course, I was forced to take in return the B&N gift cards their grandmother had given them for Easter, since I’d just spent all MY birthday Borders card on THEM.

But that’s only fair, right? Because I still need this and this and this.

*****
*Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

9 comments:

Sinda said...

Oh, I read Language of Bees this weekend. Couldn't put it down, even though I knew I'd be mad at myself when I was done. And I was.

Mary said...

After checking out your this and this and this I can look beyond the Paulo Coelho I am reading (do I like him - I am not sure)..

Kristin said...

Ok, now I'm a little freaked out because I have that one pot cookbook on hold at the library, I'm halfway through Olive Kitteridge, and I picked up Language of Bees yesterday. Seriously. I do not share your love of Twilight, but apparently everything else!

Anonymous said...

Re: My Sister's Keeper
But what about the ending? Did you fint it a bit too... neat? Convenient? ANNOYING?

Or maybe it's just me...

Anonymous said...

hey, what was that book about midwives you mentioned a little while back? (I think a friend recommended it to you?) I can't find the post...

Anonymous said...

Never mind, I found it.
(The Birth House)

BabelBabe said...

oh, it was totally too neat and coincidental. still made me bawl like a baby. and I would love a followup novel, to see just how long Kate makes it with the new kidney anyway, ya know? because she still HAS the cancer. in fact, now that I think of it, they often won't transplant someone with cancer - in fact, most times. so....hmmm.....

and you know, why didn't the mother donate her freaking kidney? I understand a perfect match is better, but....

Sarah Louise said...

TOTALLY love the Pants books. If you like those, I recommend Chicks with Sticks, a trilogy, about KNITTING!

xo,
SL

Still haven't read any Jodi Picoult, but the movie of Sister's Keeper looks good.

Kathy said...

I hated that mother in My Sister's Keeper and I really hated the ending -- I thought it was just too deux ex machina. And I agree with you about Picoult possibly having issues with her mother -- the mother in The Tenth Circle wasn't that great either.

I'm looking forward to The Language of Bees and Olive Kitteridge.