.: Jodi's Stories :.

I have been spending much of my spare time (which isn't very much actually) reading up novels. Now, I never really believe in buying books/novel for reading, unless one; I am going to read it a couple of times two; it's a definite real bargain.

So with that in mind, I am a regular visitor the our very own National Library.

Now, don't underestimate our National Library. Tho very much lacking as compared to libraries in other developed countries, there is still a wide range of books and novels that you could lend/borrow (I could never seem to get this right, someone pls correct me?).

And one of the novelist that I am following closely aside from Nicholas Sparks and Nora Roberts; is Jodi Picoult.

I have read her very first debut novel; Songs Of The Humpback Whale.

In this book, I love how she narrates the story by 5 different individuals - Jane, Oliver, Rebecca, Joley and Sam. What is unique is that her narration of Rebecca's experience is end to beginning. I have to admit that I was a lil confused when I started of with the novel, but after reading on, I manage to piece together what this whole novel was all about. I love the way that she must have really did her research to know and able to write so much about the Humpback whales and apple orchards.

The sypnosis of the novel as below :

In this novel, Jodi Picoult interweaves five rich narrative voices to tell a story of love, loss, and self-discovery. The voices belong to a mother, her daughter, and three very different men.

Jane had always lived in somebody's shadow. Escaping a childhood of abuse by marrying oceanographer Oliver Jones, she finds herself taking second place to his increasingly successful career. However, when her daughter Rebecca is slighted, Jane's dramatic stand takes them all by surprise.

Leaving Oliver and his whale tapes behind in San Diego, Jane and Rebecca set out to drive across America to Uncle Joley and the sanctuary of the Massachusetts apple orchard where he works. Joley directs Jane across the United States in a series of letters waiting for her in designated post offices. Each letter gives concise directions to the next post office; each letter provides Jane with a chance to reflect on her forgotten past.

Oliver, used to tracking male humpback whales across vast oceans, now has the task of tracking his tantalizingly unpredictable wife across a continent. To do so he must learn to see the world-- and even himself-- through her eyes.

Songs of the Humpback Whale is a powerful and sensitive novel of family life that questions how songs are passed down from male speaker to male speaker, but also examines the female tradition of listening that women unconsciously pass on to their daughters.

I have also read Second Glance, which is very much an unconventional love story.

Do we love across time? Or in spite of it?

This was the first two sentence in the synopsis that caught my attention. As I read on, I was very much swooned by her quirky, likeable characters; the mysterious elements of magical realism of the supernatural world; and the more serious social critiques on sensitive topics such as genetic selection and races.

I am now halfway through Perfect Match; which is basically a story about the battle of the parents of a sexually abused 5 year old boy.

Updated 02/09/09 :

I have to admit that this is the best Jodi's novel I have read so far.

It did started off kind of slow, mild, almost static plot, but as pages and pages were turned, the plot starts to thicken, and midway to the story, there were sharp twists here and there; at it was then that I started to flip the pages at a faster pace.

When we are struck at without a reason, we should strike back again very hard; I am sure we should - so hard as to teach the person who struck us never to do it again.
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre