Ocean City Free Public Library Book Blog

Despite the fact that I like to think of Jodi Picoult's books as "Lifetime TV movie" fodder, every time she has a new one out, I always try to snag it (working in a Library definitely has its perks). At any rate, with Change of Heart , we have the usual suspects - the devoted and emotionally torn mother, the lawyer/public defender/judge with a heart of gold and a controversial theme with an emotionally charged ending. This time, it's concerning organ transplants, the death penalty and the potential reincarnation of Jesus. Shay Bourne is a convicted murderer on death row when he declares that he wants to donate his heart to the girl whose family he killed eleven years earlier. Now that he's made this decision, strange "miracles" have been occuring throughout the prison. Pretty hefty stuff. If you're in a book club, this one will be sure to spark many debates. Despite the soap opera feel that Picoult's novels ALWAYS seem to have, I can't p...

Sometimes the simplest ideas can be so clever that it makes you go, "now why didn't I think of that???!?!" Kuiper's novel is exactly what its title suggests - literal notes that pass between a mother and daughter on their shared refrigerator. It's amazing to see how just a few scant lines here and there (one note simply reads: "Yes") can create such a compelling and surprisingly emotional narrative. It's also amazing to watch the communication between mother and daughter evolve from a simple relationship to a highly mature one. And of course, it makes sense that Kuipers would precede her book with the famous William Carlos Williams poem "This is to Say": I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold.