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Thursday 24 July 2014

Songs of the humpback whale - Jodi Picoult


The first time Jane Jones tried to leave her husband, her daughter almost got killed. This time, she's going to do it right.

Jane escaped a childhood of abuse into the refuge of marriage, only to find history repeating itself. And when her husband's neglect extends to their daughter too, she knows it must stop.

Taking Rebecca with her, Jane runs away, seeking the only place of safety she knows. But however far she runs, she cannot escape the question always on her mind how can she save her daughter, when she couldn't save herself. 



Published by: Hodder Paperbacks - Fiction
Pages: 448 Paperback
Year: 2009
ISBN: 978-0340897300



I was given this Jodi Picoult novel for Christmas and, so there it joined the merry band of books waiting patiently on the bookshelf to be read.  This is number 17 to be read from the bookshelf since Christmas. Having read The Storyteller  last month and thinking it was absolutely brilliant I was quite looking forward to reading this one.  Unfortunately I was left quite disappointed. Following a disagreement with her husband Jane Jones decides to take off taking her 15 year old  daughter with her following an elaborate plot/route  devised by her brother to get her to his home without Oliver being able to track them down.  As with some of her other books this one is split into chapters about each character who are then  supposedly linked throughout the book..  This on the whole works really well but on this occasion the book to me was very disjointed you couldn't always tell which character was linked to who.  The story basically being that Jane Jones seems to blame everything that's wrong in her life on her husband Oliver. By the end of the book I was left thinking she was the one that really need to see her shrink and fast.  Her parenting skills definitely would of been called into question along with her stability.   I believe this was one of Ms Picoults first novels if not the first.  I was glad I had read The Storyteller first otherwise this one could have put me off reading any others.  I am assured by my work colleagues that her other novels such as Plain Truth and her renowned novel My Sisters Keeper are much more in tune with her later works.  Just as well as they too are on the bookshelf to be read sometime soon.

In the meantime hope you are all enjoying the sunshine and not getting too many of the horrendous storms some areas of the UK have been experiencing.  I have to confess I do love watching a good thunder and lightening storm.

Have a good week one and all 



Mx 

3 comments:

  1. I love a good thunder storm too! It clears the air! I too have had mixed results with Jodie Picoult books, and tend not to read them now.

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    1. It's a shame as some are really good. I bought myself a Kindle last year so I can now down load a sample before buying so I have some other JP books to have a look at before making the decision whether to buy them or not. I usually know within the first chapter (which is what you normally get as your download) as to whether it's gripping my attention or leaving me totally confused.

      Mitzi

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  2. I haven't read any Jodie Picoult novels although they're readily available at my local library, mainly because I'm just about getting through the book of the month chosen by my book group and the members have already 'done' JP (before I joined them) and were not to keen on reading any more. Hope you have a better reading experience with the ones you have on your unread book shelf. We're having very pleasant weather here at the moment - a little cooler, but still dry and sunny.

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