Audiobook Review: The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Published: 2013

So apparently I have read this book before, but I don't remember it at all. I love Jodi Picoult's books and I love how they touch on subjects that are hard for us to hear about. The Storyteller is no different. Set in New Hampshire, it tell the story of Sage Singer. Sage is a Baker for Our Daily Bread and works at night so she doesn't have to be seen by many people. You see, Sage has a scar on her face from an accident and she can't see herself past the scar.

Sage is also in a grief group and has been since she lost her mother 3 years earlier. There is where she meets Joseph Weber. Joseph doesn't say much during the group, but when he shows up at the bakery just before Sage is about to start her shift, they strike up a friendship. Then Joseph asks Sage to do something that she can't imagine. When he tells her why, her feelings are mixed about what she should do. Joseph was an SS Officer for the Reich during WWII and Sage's family is Jewish. Joseph is a beloved member of the community so trying to match that person with someone who would have done so much evil in the world is hard for Sage to grasp.

Sage's grandmother had been at Auschwitz and she had never told her story to anyone, but when Sage has this decision to make, her grandmother is forthcoming with her times in Germany and how she survived. Will Sage be able to honor Joseph's request after hearing her grandmother's story, or will she leave Joseph for the authorities to take care of?

I loved this story and I don't recall any parts of it, so I'm kind of glad this is a re-read for me. This story made me want to cry several times. Most of us know the story of the Holocaust, but to hear a first hand account(even if it is fiction) really makes you feel most invested. This book makes you think, what would I do if I was in Sage's position? Would I go through with what Joseph wanted me to do? There are so many things to consider with this situation. Should she tell her grandmother that she sits next to an ex-Nazi officer during grief group? Does her grandmother know Joseph already and not realize who he really is?

If you haven't read this book you should. If you haven't read any of Jodi Picoult's books you should. She is one of my favorite authors and here is another book of hers that did not disappoint.

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Review: Leaving Time: A Novel

Leaving Time: A Novel by Jodi Picoult
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jenna Metcalf is thirteen years old and more than anything, she wants to find her mother, Dr. Alice Metcalf. Alice is a doctor who studies the behavior of elephants, specifically, grief. She goes missing when Jenna is just three years old and there was a tragic accident at the Elephant Sanctuary where they lived and that her parents owned/worked. Jenna doesn't believe that her mother would have ever left her behind, so she enlists the help of Serenity Jones, a once famous psychic who helped to find missing people and Virgil Stanhope, a private detective, who was on the police force and was a part of the investigation of the accident at the Sanctuary. With their help, will Jenna be able to find her mother? And when she does, will she be disappointed by what she finds?

I have enjoyed reading Jodi Picoult novels for a long time. They always leave me with different kinds of emotions. Some happy, some sad, sometimes confused. Leaving Time was no exception. I felt a connection to each character. With Jenna, I felt sadness of the loss of her mother and her plight to find her. For Alice, a felt compassion for her work and the situation she was living in. For Serenity, I'm not quite sure my feelings about her, but she was a caring force in Jenna's life. For Virgil, it was pity, that he was unable to get his life together and accomplish his goals.

Listening to this book I was intrigued by the subject matter. Based on the idea that "an elephant never forgets" it was fascinating to learn about how elephants interact with humans and with each other, especially after they suffer a loss. A lot how we as humans grieve. This is another book that will make you think and keep you on your toes, covering subject matters of wildlife, mental illness and supernatural abilities. In the last 5% of the book there was a twist that I didn't see coming and it made me rethink everything I had just read/listened to. This is why Jodi Picoult is one of my favorites.

My favorite line from the book: "...there was a tear in the fabric I was made of and he was the only color thread that would match to stitch it back up."


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Review: Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Here lately we hear a different story every week where a person of color has been wrong by the police or another authoritative figure in their community. Jodi Picoult tackles this issue head on. Telling the story of Ruth Jefferson, the only black nurse in the Labor and Delivery Unit at Mercy-West Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut. When she is removed from the Bauer case because of the color of her skin, she's upset but continues to to do her job. When something horrible happens to the baby, Ruth has to choose between doing the job she was trained to do and fulfilling the wish of the white supremacist parents. When tragedy strikes, Ruth finds herself in the middle of a murder trial.

This book was amazing. I have been a fan of Jodi Picoult for a long time. Her books have a way of grabbing at your heart strings and make you look at the world from a different perspective. This book was no exception. I literally read this book from cover to cover. Rarely do I read the Author's Notes, but this time I did. I had to know where the inspiration for this book came from and what would make a white woman write a book about such an explosive topic in our society today. As a woman of color I felt a lot of emotions while reading this book.

Ruth Jefferson is a highly educated nurse at Mercy-West Haven Hospital. Despite being the only black woman in her department and one of the few in her neighborhood, she gets along well with her colleagues and neighbors and considers some of them friends, or so she thinks. As Ruth tells her story, I can relate to some of the struggles she faces. I was always taught not to judge people by the color of their skin. With part of my family descending from slaves and another part who owned slaves, my family is quite a mix of cultures. But when Ruth is put on trial or murder, these colleagues and neighbors were no longer her friends, they were now people who saw her as the black woman who killed a white baby.

This is an important book for everyone to read. Told from three points of view; Ruth's the nurse on trial for killing a baby; Turk, the white supremacist father of that baby; and Kennedy, the white, female public defender who is Ruth's attorney. Each character learns about themselves and the people around them over the course of this book.

I commend Jodi Picoult for tackling this difficult subject, especially during this time in our country when the subject is so relevant. As she mentions in her Author's Notes, most white authors write historical fiction about the black community, but this book fits right with today's headlines and some are even mentioned. This book helps to confirm why Jodi Picoult is one of my favorite authors.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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