Information Review

I just finished this book by Jodi Picoult. I’ve read four of her books, “Handle With Care”, “My Sister’s Keeper”, “Change of Heart” and “Keeping Faith” and they keep getting better every time. Her writing is an extraordinary gift. Immensely readable, FAITH was a very moving and realistic novel. I enjoyed reading this book very much. It seemed so real and was written so well that I could actually see this happening. I never wanted to put it down, it just kept pulling me in farther and farther into the plot line.

The book is about Mariah's struggle to keep her daughter, Faith, and cope with her divorce, and her ex-husband's sudden remarriage. Mariah knows Faith is seeing God, but she can't get Colin to believe her. So she has no choice but to fight for custody of Faith.

Half of the book was predictable while the other half surprised me very much. The way the author wrote this book was just so real and so normal and the Whites were such a normal family, but she wrote it in a compelling way and it truly amazes me that she can write about regular life in a way that you do not see in regular life. If you are looking for a book that is plot-driven, but with depth of character and thought, you will like this book.

I'm not sure how good or bad this book is compared to Picoult's other bestselling books such as Handle With Care, My Sister’s Keeper, but I enjoyed Change of Heart thoroughly.

In Change of Heart, Shay Bourne is convicted of a brutal double murder of a man and his daughter. After 11 years of appeals, the execution date is set. Now he is convinced that he needs to donate his heart to the murdered girl's sister, Claire Nealon, who needs a heart transplant if she's to finish out the year. The state of New Hampshire only carries out executions by lethal injection, which won't allow for an organ transplant. But, if Shay can be executed by hanging, he can be brain dead but have a still viable heart. Enter ACLU lawyer, Maggie. She wants to help Shay donate his heart to the little girl and, if possible, strike a blow for her anti Death penalty beliefs. Then, there's Father Michael, the Catholic priest with a secret of his own: eleven years ago, he was on the jury that sentenced Shay to death. He wants to clear his conscience and help Shay make peace with the Lord before he dies.

This book, in true Jodi Picoult fashion, was absolutely amazing. Not only did it have perfect characters who grew and changed throughout the story, but from the very beginning there left a question begging to be asked: Why did Shay kill Elizabeth and Kurt in the first place? The whole book focuses around Shay and his fight for his execution to allow him to donate his heart, and the growing evidence that Shay could be some sort of religious figure from the past. One thing Picoult does very well in all her books she creates well defined, intriguing characters. All the characters here are wonderfully written, and in the same way she brought back Ian Fletcher from Keeping Faith.

The film is based on the novel of the same title by Jodi Picoult starring Cameron Diaz and Alec Baldwin, with Nick Cassavetes directing.

This is a story of Anna Fitzgerald who is 13 years old. Her sister Kate has been diagnosed with leukemia (cancer) since she was a baby-Kate's doctor gave the idea to the parents that they could possibly have another child who could be the donor of umbilical blood cells to the sister Kate. The parents, Sara and Brian conceived a child thru a Petrie dish that would match exactly to Kate's blood type for the purpose of putting Kate in remission.

When Anna is born, her cord blood is utilized to help (by then, 2 year old) Kate. No problem. There is absolutely nothing invasive about retrieving cord blood. It is taken from the umbilical cord after it is removed -and would otherwise be considered bio-waste.

When Kate, 16, is in need for a kidney transplant (the endless treatments of chemotherapy and other drugs over the years have caused kidney failure), their parents Sara and Brian demand that Anna donate a kidney to Kate. As her older brother Jesse turns to arson over his frustrations with his family's motto of Kate only, Anna has grown tired of being a harvest. She hires attorney Campbell Alexander to represent her in court in an attempt to get a judgment stopping her parents from using her body anymore. Sara, who is obsessed with keeping her beloved Kate alive at all costs, feels betrayed by her youngest child while her husband understands the immense pressure on his youngest daughter. Anna wants to help Kate because she loves her sister, but knows that it must be her decision not a mom who sees her as a biological feeder mechanism.

Anna is a thirteen year old girl who has healthy but has to donate her body to Kate, her sister, who has a rare form of leukemia. Anna was conceived only to help her older sister survive. When she is pushed too far, Anna fights back for the right to make her own choices about her body.

Her brother, Jesse has also had enough with his parents choices. He chooses to act out by setting fires, which ironically, his father (Brian) has to put out.

Their father, Brian, is pushed into a hard position. He loves his children and his wife, but sometimes his wife seems only to care about one person in the family, Kate. When Anna decides to sue them, he moves out with her and the family unravels more.

Sara, who in my opinion was a selfish woman who only cared about Kate, no matter the consequences to her other children, was supposed to be a moving character. I thought she was unbearably horrible. The true question of the book was who would ever allow a woman like that to become a parent?

A film based on this book will be released on June 26, 2009.

Like many of Picoult's books, this one is written from multiple points of view and the chapters are titled with the name of whose story is being told and the date which provides a nice sense of continuity and timing.