I read it a while back, when it was first out...it was fantastic. But then again, I like all of Picoult's books!

Hi Steph, I've not read any of Picoult's work. Could you tell us a bit more about why you like her books?

I have read all of her books. They are great and each is so different from the last.

I read "My Sister's Keeper" and enjoyed(?) it - it had me crying like crazy at the end of the story.

I really liked the story. I thought the issues were presented in an interesting way, but I thought the ending was a cop out. I felt like Picoult took the 'easy' option, and also made the rest of the family a bit too 'happy ever after' (trying not to give away too much here).
Sadly, I have read her most recent publication, Vanishing Acts, and have to say I didn't like it at all. It felt very much to me that she chose some issues to look at and made up a not very good story to allow her to cover them.
I did like most of her other work though.

I finished My Sister's Keeper about a week ago. It was a book I could not put down. As I read the story, I experienced such a range of emotions regarding the ethics and the health crisis the family had to deal with. I agree, I thought the ending was a cop-out. I especially recommend ths book for those who are in a book club. I think it would create quite a bit of discussion.

I agree about it being a good book club choice, because of the social controversy around genetically engineering babies... the end just shocked me, and I hadn't really thought about it being the easy way out, but I see your point. I haven't read any of her other books, although I would like to read The Pact. I like how Picoult made me feel for each of the characters, no matter which side of the issue they were on. I also liked how she told the story from various characters' points of view. Does she do that in other books as well? I wrote a novella like that in college, so I'm a little biased! :-)

The Pact is the best-read it! It's very powerful.

Picoult's books all deal with something that could make the reader a little uncomfortable, and to force them to think about their values. Her general theme is "What would you be willing to do for the person you love - especially if they might ask you to do something really hard? Or if they don't ask...but you realize what is needed."

In My Sister's Keeper what is asked is not what you might expect. As a pediatric nurse who has worked with families in this situation, I felt so much for the sister who was expected to be her sister's keeper...what a burden, which she accepted. And I think the ending was not at all a cop out...that the request that was finally made was what the sister who needed help really wanted...and was an ultimate fulfillment of the love between them. Hopefully not spoiling it here...but the "keeper" chose to keep her sister's life untarnished...for the "keeper" there was always time.

Vanishing Acts also addresses these issues...what does love and caring for your loved ones mean.

Picoult uses several different writing styles. One of her most intriguing devices was in Songs of the Humpback Whale. She subtitles it as a novel in five voices, which it is, and very well done. But also, there is a strong connection in the novel to the musical part of the title. I won't go further, but would discuss this with anyone who wouldn't mind a spoiler or who has read the book...just start a thread for the novel if you are interested. (Sounds like the ending to every grade school book report..."If you want to know how the story ends, read the book."

Picoult is my one of my top five authors...it's fun to see the devices she uses. The only one of her books that I didn't totally enjoy was Harvesting the Heart, not that it was a bad book, or a bad story, not just up to her usual.

Which sister actually is the keeper? Which sister gave her sister the potential to have a normal life? Which sister has time to receive forgiveness for this decision?

Veronica, those are such thought-provoking questions! Did Anna "keep" Kate, or the other way around? Which one of them actually had a normal life? Amazing. I could talk about it for days! It's been almost a week since I read it, and I'm having such a hard time starting a new book because it is still in the forefront of my mind.

And did Anna keep the secret of whose choice it really was, because her parents would have time to forgive her, but if they became angry at Kate, all they would have for the rest of their lives would be regret for any anger they had that Kate made the choice she did...and that they spent so much of the end of her life angry at her. Anna knew that she had time for forgiveness.

It was time for one of the sisters to have a normal life. Bad enough that Kate didn't have a normal child hood and adolescence, time for Anna to have a chance. In a way, Kate became the donor that let Anna have a life.

I started The Pact two nights ago...last night I read for 3 hours until 1a.m.! (Far too late for me to be up!) But I couldn't put it down. I'm about halfway through. I'm so stressed out wanting to know what actually happened between Chris and Emily, but not really wanting to know.

I just LOVE finding a new author with more than one book! :-)

The phase my sisters keeper actaully comes from a conversation between Jesse and Julia Romano when Julia asks Jesse where Anna is

Our bookclub is reading it now-it's our fourth Picoult, (I also read The Pact and Plain Truth) and I'm the odd man out-I don't really like her books that I have read-I gave up on Salem Falls. However, this one did draw me in-but like astrokath, I thought the ending was too slick. My main complaint with Picoult is that I can see the reader-manipulation going on-I don't mind having my strings pulled by a book, but I shouldn't see the hand doing it. This book worked longer than the others I have read-but about 2/3 of the way through there the hands were.
On a positive note-LOVED the many reasons for the service dog! And the different fonts for different narrators worked very well.

I've read most of Picoult's books, and My Sister's Keeper was my favorite. The ending caught me by surprise. I felt she made some important points about the value of life, and in particular how important it is to cherish your children. I thought the brother's experience in this story was very significant too.

Astrokath, I completely agree about Vanishing Acts. I felt the story was manipulated around the issues. It felt to me that My Sister's Keeper and Harvesting the Heart were more from the heart. It will be interesting to see what she comes up with next.

Susan

My book club just read this book. We picked it because we had read "Plain Truth" and loved it.

We found them both interesting, but very different. I cried when I read the ending of "My Sister's Keeper"; I became emotionally attached to the characters like I have never done before.

What are the themes presented in this novel?

Our local library had a fund raising luncheon last year and Jodi was the speaker. If you ever get the chance to hear her she is amazing. Not only is she incredibly bright,but she has a terrific sense of humor and will keep you laughing the entire time. She thorougly researches her books by spending time with those who can help her. She lived in Alaska for months working with sled dogs for one of her books,she lived in a firehouse for several weeks with the firemen,she was one of the very few who have ever been allowed to live with the Amish while researching a book, she spent hours and hours working in a hospital lab for the background for I guess it was My Sister's Keeper,and there are others which I can't remember.What an interesting and likable person she is.

I also could not put My Sister's Keeper down. I read it when it first came out. What I liked about it was that you were able to see this whole tragedy from each character's pouint of view, and I always like a good twist in the end and this one had two.

I would imagine she was a good speaker-even though I do not enjoy her style, she does seem to be thorough, and she has certainly covered the gambit in her topics. There must have been many funny moments along the way.
However, I know she lived with an Amish family, and her treatment of the Amish teenager "split personality" was well-portrayed, but she made some howlers about Lancaster County in general in the book Plain Truth-no one who doesn't live in the area would notice, but my bookclub did! Granted, it's petty, but the thing that bothered us was that none of the "poetic licenses" she took were necessary to advance the story, which we would have understood-so it came across to us as sloppy writing. We found it distracting to be brought up short by what we saw as a "mistake" while trying to get into the story. But as I said, I know that was just a local thing.
And I disagree a bit with her statement that "she was one of the very few who have ever been allowed to live with the Amish while researching a book"...any serious writer who can demonstrate that their culture will be treated with respect will be welcomed into the Amish community for research. I was given every facility when I was researching a simple short story about an Amish wedding years ago, and "English" are regularly invited into Amish homes and lives. They are not nearly as isolated as they once were. I have to wonder, though, what the family she lived with made of the book when it was published.

I'm waiting for this book to arrive any day now. I skipped through a lot of the posts here (just in case there was too much info!) and am looking forward to reading it. Then I'll come back, and read the rest of the posts, and perhaps add my "review". ; )

>My main complaint with Picoult is that I can see the reader-manipulation going on-I don't mind having my strings pulled by a book, but I shouldn't see the hand doing it

My feelings exactly. I've tried a few of her books. Liked the premise but yeah, you can see the strings being pulled, the ideas hammering into your head. Not for me.

Shah-I realized no one answered your question. Apologies.
The themes in this book are sibling relationships, parent-child relationships, the extremes that parents will go to for their children and what it can do to a family and marriage, medical ethics and morals, the danger of a focus that becomes an obsession.

Anyone else-add what I've missed.

And my favorite of her themes...what are you willing to do for the person you love?

Picoult is one of the few authors whose books I automatically buy, in hardback, as soon as they come out. Then they make their rounds among the 5 main readers in the family circle.

I read the book awhile ago and had never heard of the author. (Got it from my DIL.) I couldn't put it down because the issues were so powerful but I can't remember the ending! What I do remember is that I didn't really think the mother was real. She was just too caring for the older sister and out of touch for the younger. But I loved the subject.

I read it a couple of days ago, and like some of you, I couldn't put it down. While the ending did make me cry a little I still found it too Hollywood for my taste, and the final chapter was a big, sugary mistake, like marachino cherries on top of a shepherd's pie. Picoult obviously thought Anna needed absolution from feeling guilty about having done what she did and from her mother's possible wrath, but the resolution she chose was, in my opinion, too facile.