Books Set in North America (New York, New York) and England

By Any Other Name, by Jodi Picoult (2024)

By Any Other Name is a dual-timeline historical novel.  It follows the historical poet, Emilia Bassano, who may have secretly written plays that were published under William Shakespeare's name, and the fictional Melina Green, who lives in the present.  Chapters alternate between Emilia and Melina.  The novel focuses on sexism, racism, and authorship, but it seems a bit heavy-handed.  In the 16th-century, playwrights often collaborated and shared ideas.  Most of the playwrights were male, but it was an established community of writers.  Scholars have long argued that plays published under Shakespeare's name were not actually written by him.  Emilia may have written or contributed to much of Shakespeare's better known plays.  Emilia's story is the more interesting story than that of the fictional Melina.

Melina strives to write a play, but has suffered from numerous obstacles and rejections.  Her latest play was about Emilia.  Knowing that there are virtually no females playwrights whose work is performed, Andre, Melina's male friend, submitted her play in a contest under the name Mel Green.  When her play is submitted, Melina tries to hid behind Andre.  Will her play be accepted if the world thinks it was written by a man?  Is it more important that Melina's play is performed than she get credit for it?

This book was not a page-turner for me, but it was interested.  I did find the modern-day portion of the story to be a bit far-fetched.

3 Stars

Read:  August 14, 2026

Books Set in North America: New Hampshire, United States

Mad Honey, by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan (2022)

 

Jodi Picoult’s book tackle timely social topics and Mad Honey is no different.  Her books also come with twists – some the reader may seem coming and others that come as a complete surprise.  This novel deals with both domestic violence and transgender issues.

 

The underlying theme of beekeeping and honey is, of course, a metaphor for life.  Mad Honey refers to the honey made from rhododendrons and mountain laurels.  The grayanotoxins from these flowers can make one very ill.  Mad honey is deceptive, because you believe it to be sweet, but not to be deadly.  It isn’t until after you become ill, that you realize the potency of the honey.

 

In this novel, high school senior Asher McAfee is living with his mother in northern New Hampshire.  They moved there when he was a young child after his mother left his abusive father.  His mother took over her family’s beekeeping operation following the death of her father.

 

In his final year of high school, he meets Lily Campanello, newly arrived from the west coast.  Like Asher, Lily is living with her single mother, having fled a troubled relationship with her father.  Lily has deep secrets and to keep these secrets, she lies about her past.  Some big lies, some small lies, and some lies of omission.

 

The novel goes back and forth in time.  The novel is told mostly in the voice of Asher’s mother Olivia, and in flashback, in Lily’s voice.

 

The book opens with Asher cradling the body of Lily at the bottom of the staircase in her home.  It appears they had a fight and Asher is charged with her murder.  Throughout the long trial, in which Asher’s uncle is the defense counsel, evidence is presented that could be interpreted to present a guilty verdict.  Mixed into the texture of the novel are tidbits about bees and honey.  I found these to be more interesting than the trial itself.

 

Read:  October 15, 2023

 

3 Stars

 

 

Books Set in North and South America: United States and Galapagos Islands

Wish You Were Here, by Jodi Picoult (2021)

 

This novel focuses on the Covid-19 pandemic.  Diana O’Toole is a young art specialist on the verge of her 30^thbirthday.  She and her surgical resident boyfriend have plans to vacation on the Galápagos islands to celebrate her milestone birthday.  Days before they are to leave, Covid-19 shuts down the United States and her boyfriend must remain at the hospital to help with the influx of Covid patients.  He convinces Diana to still take the vacation as it is already paid for.

 

Diana arrives at the Galápagos, only to find that the island will be shut down for two weeks.  The hotel where she was to stay is closed down and the spotty internet connection is spotty.  Diana is isolated from the rest of the world and is unable to contact her boyfriend.  An old woman befriends her and provides her with food and a small apartment, the had formerly belonged to her adult son.

 

Being away from all this is familiar to her, Diana begins to re-evaluate her life and her relationship with her boyfriend.  Why doesn’t he try to contact her?  Why did he convince her to go on their trip alone?

 

The author also researched Covid-19, and the second half of the book explores how people who contracted the virus and survived coped.  [Spoiler Alert: Many patients who contracted Covid experienced hallucinations.  In this novel, Diana’s trip and lengthy stay in the Galápagos islands was a hallucination.  What seemed like a lengthy stay on the islands, was just a few days.  Days she spent in the hospital with a very serious case of Covid.  The author interviewed many patients who experienced such hallucinations while suffering from Covid and Diana’s story is based on these interviews.]

 

This was an easy and fun book.

 

Read:  November 8, 2022

 

4 Stars

Books Set in Africa and North America: Egypt and Boston, Massachusetts

The Book of Two Ways, by Jodi Picoult (2020)

In ancient Egyptian mythology, the Book of Two Ways describes the roads through the afterlife.  One route is through water and the other by land.  The roads are separated by a lake of fire, but both routes have the same destination.

In this novel, the author uses this theme as a way to describe Dawn’s life.  Dawn had been an up-and-coming graduate student in Egyptology, when she learned her mother was in hospice and would soon die.  Dawn left her studies to be with her dying mother.  After her mother died, Dawn suddenly found herself responsible for raising her young brother.  At the hospice facility, she met Brian, whose grandmother was dying.  They took comfort in each other, had a child and then married.

Brian represented security.  He was a respected theoretical physicist at Harvard who studies, in its own way, a theoretical path of two ways.  After giving up her studies in Egyptology, she becomes a death doula – she assists people at the ends of their lives.

For 15 years, Dawn has had a wonderful life.  Her relationship with her teenaged daughter becomes rife with teenage angst.  Her marriage reaches a stalemate.  Dawn finds that she can’t forget Wyatt, the pedigreed fellow graduate student, with whom she initially had a love-hate relationship, back before she gave up on her studies in Egypt.

The novel takes the path of two ways.  In one path, Dawn travels to Egypt to find Wyatt.  In the other path, she stays with Brian as their relationship frays.  The novel also goes back and forth in time, from the present to events that occurred in Dawn’s student days.

The author seemed to try too many story lines.  Dawn’s parents never married.  As presented in the story line, the reader thinks there must be a reason for this that will be later explained.  Kieran’s brother is gay, but this is irrelevant to the story line.

Ultimately, none of the characters were very likable.  I read this book while trapped on a plane for several hours.  Otherwise, I might not have finished reading it.

Read:  March 19, 2021

2 Stars

Books Set in North America: United States, Mississippi

A Spark of Light, by Jodi Picoult (2018)

 

I have read several novels by Jodi Picoult.  She selects often controversial topics and explores various sides of the issue without lecturing or telling the reader the “right” answer.  This book, that explores an abortion clinic is no exception.  What is unique about this novel is that it takes place in one day, but it told backwards, one hour at a time.  (We do learn the backstories of the characters as the layers of each person is slowly peeled back.)

 

As is true in many states, laws have been enacted that severely restrict a woman’s ability to procure a safe and legal abortion.  This novel takes place in the only such center available in Mississippi.  As soon becomes clear, the Center, as it is called, also provides a plethora of health and reproductive services for women.  This book was carefully researched and is grounded in fact from both sides of the issue.

 

The novel begins when a gunman enters the Center and begins shooting, immediately killing the receptionist.  The women in the Center at the time of the shooting are there for various reasons.  Wren is a 15-year old girl who talked her Aunt Bex into taking her there for birth control pills; Joy needed an abortion; and 68-year-old Olive was there for women’s health care.  Janine is a “spy”, pretending to need an abortion in the hopes that she can capture incriminating evidence “proving” that women are coerced into getting an abortion.

 

George, the gunman, had just learned that his daughter had an abortion and wants to take revenge on the Center.  As has happened throughout the country, there have been a number of shootings at women’s health clinics.  In the afterward to the book, the author provides a summary of much of her research.

 

This is one of Picoult’s best novels.

 

Read:  February 21, 2021

 

4 Stars

Books Set in North America, United States, New Hampshire

Nineteen Minutes, by Jodi Picoult (2007)

 

All High School students suffer from teenage angst as they struggle to find their true selves.  Many students are bullied and others are complicit in the bullying in an attempt to fit in.  This novel, which is a bit dated, began as an ordinary day in a small town in New Hampshire until Peter Houghton, who had been bullied every day since kindergarden, brought a gun to school and began shooting.

 

There is no denying that Peter was the killer of several students, some of whom had teased and bullied him for years.  Among the injured was Josie Cormier, whose mother was the Judge over the trial, and Josie’s boyfriend, Matt Royston.  Matt was a jock and one of the most popular students at the school.  He was also jealous and possessive of Josie.

 

Josie had been a close friend of Peter’s when they were children, but their friendship was strained after their mothers had a falling out.  Josie still felt some sympathy towards Peter, but was afraid if she showed it, she would be ostracized by the “cool” kids.

 

The book travels between the present and past as we learn of the events leading up to the shooting.  The book is about teenage angst – something that probably all readers can identify with.  Picoult tackles these issues in the bigger drama of school shootings, which have become common events in schools.

 

There are several subplots, including a troubled and difficult relationship between Josie and her single mother, Josie’s abusive boyfriend, reckoning with sexual identity, and pregnancy scares.

 

At the end, we learn that, although Peter shot and killed several students, Josie actually shot her Matt, her abusive boyfriend, and Peter promised to protector her from this carnage.  The jury finds Peter guilty of murder and he is sentenced to life in prison.  He finds and escape through suicide, and Josie was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 5 years.

 

As with most of Picoult’s novels, this examines social issues and is well written and researched.

 

Read:  November 28, 2020

 

4 Stars

Books Set in the United States: New Hampshire

Change of Heart, by Jodi Picoult (2008)

Jodi Picoult’s novels tackle controversial topics. Change of Heart examines restorative justice and the death penalty.  As we begin this book, we learn that June has just lost her husband in a car accident. The policeman who tells her about the accident later becomes her husband.  When June is pregnant with her second child, an itinerant carpenter, Shay Bourne, appears offers to do some repairs the home.  Before the baby is born, Shay has murdered June’s second husband and daughter.  He is convicted and given the death penalty.  A young man named Michael Wright is the last hold-out on the jury to condemn Shay to the death penalty.

Fast forward 11 years, and Shay has exhausted all of his appeals and a date for his execution by lethal injection has been set.  Shay has been moved to a portion of the State prison for dangerous prisoners.  Michael is now a Catholic priest and June and her daughter, Claire, with her policeman husband is now 11 years old.  Claire has a medical condition and needs a heart transplant.

Shay wants to donate his heart to Claire believing that it will bring him redemption.  Lethal injection, however, will render the heart unusable.  Enter Maggie, an ACLU attorney, who determines that the law will allow the State to execute Shay by hanging, thus preserve the heart for transplant.

The novel it told through many voices ~ Michael, the priest, Maggie, the attorney, June, and Lucius, a fellow prisoner. While Shay is spending his final months before his execution, a number of “miracles” seemingly occur.  Is Shay the messiah?  The book is a discussion of the death penalty in theological terms.

I really enjoyed the debate of this novel.

5 Stars

Read:  April 22, 2018

Books Set in the United States: Connecticut

Small Great Things, by Jodi Picoult (2016)

Like so many of Jodi Picoult’s novels, this book tackles social issues that have been in the news.  This time the theme is racism and white supremacy.

Ruth Jefferson is a nurse in the maternity ward in a Connecticut hospital.  She is the daughter of a woman who was a domestic and the first in her family to go to college.  She worked her way through college to earn her nursing degree.  She has worked at the hospital for 20 years and is only African-American nurse on staff in the maternity ward.

While working in the hospital, she is also a widowed mother, raising a studious teenage son.  She is saving her money to send her son to college.

Enter Brittany and Turk, a couple of white supremacists.  Brittany has just given birth to a baby boy.  They name their son Davis in honor of Jefferson Davis.  Ruth meets the couple and performs a routine checkup of the newborn.  The parents are taken aback that a Black nurse would touch their son, so insist that that a note be included in the baby’s file stating that no African-Americans are to treat the baby.  The hospital agrees to the parent’s request and Ruth is ordered not to touch the baby.

Nearing the end of a double shift, and when the ward is short-staffed, Ruth is called in to monitor the baby.  When the baby goes into cardiac distress, Ruth is faced with the dilemma of whether to let her nursing instinct to take over or obey orders not to touch the baby.  Soon other medical personnel are called in and a doctor orders Ruth to perform CPR.  When the baby dies, Ruth is charged with murder of the baby.

Ruth is assigned a public defender (I am not convinced that she would be considered indigent for purpose of being assigned a public defender, but …), a well-intentioned white woman with a young daughter, with no concept of racial prejudice.  The prosecutor, however, is a Black woman.  How will this play out before a jury?

As with many of Picoult’s books, there is a twist near the end.  Maybe I have read enough of her writings to look for clues throughout the book.  At any rate, I guessed the twist.  That didn’t take away from the important conversation of this novel.

Small Great Things was a page-turner.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and felt the characters really came alive.

Read:  July 4, 2017

4.5 Stars 

Books Set in the United States: New Hampshire

The Pact, by Jodi Picoult (1998)

The Pact is about two teenaged lovers who may or may not have entered into a suicide pact.  The novel opens with the death of young Emily Gold.

Emily Gold and Christopher Harte, whose parents were next-door neighbors and close friends, were born within months of each other.  From infancy, they were best friends.  Emily and Chris have gone from friends to lovers.  While Chris is enchanged by the sex, to Emily it feels almost incestuous.

As the two prepare to graduate from high school and look towards college, Emily begins to feel suicidal.  She tries to convince Chris to join her in death.

In the wee hours of the morning, Emily and Chris plan to carry out their suicide pact.  Emily dies, but Chris survives.  Soon he is charged with her murder.  Much of the book is spent on his arrest and trial.

This was a quick read, but I found it unsatisfying.  We never really see what caused Emily’s depression, although there are some red herrings.  Neither Emily or the parents of the teenagers are well developed.

Read: November 13, 2016

Three Stars 

Books Set in the United States: New Hampshire

Keeping Faith, by Jodi Picoult (1999)

Read: April 28, 2016

3.5 Stars

Books set in the Untied States: New Hampshire

Leaving Time, by Jodi Picoult (2014)  5 Stars

Leaving Time is told through the eyes of several characters:  There is Jenna, a thirteen-year old girl, who has spent the past 10 years wondering why her mother left her when she was three-years old.  There is Alice Metcalf, Jenna’s mother who has spent her entire professional life studying elephants, specifically how elephants experience grief.  There is Serenity Jones, a washed up psychic.  There is Virgil Stanhope, a former cop who investigated the tragedy at the elephant sanctuary 10 years earlier.  Ostensibly he committed suicide on the day of his promotion, only to reappear as Victor, a private investigator.  And finally, there are the elephants residing in an elephant sanctuary in New Hampshire.

Alice had been studying elephants in Africa when she meets Thomas Metcalf, who ran an elephant sanctuary in the States.  They have a brief night of passion, before he returns to New Hampshire.  They stay in touch, but when Alice discovers she is pregnant, she visits Thomas in New Hampshire.  They wed before they really know each other and she learns of his mental illness.  She stays with Thomas working at the elephant sanctuary while trying to continue her research.

The novel unwinds between the present and the past, and slowly the reader begins to piece together the tragedy that occurred at the elephant sanctuary 10 years earlier, leaving Jenna motherless with the mysterious disappearance of her mother.  Virgil was one of the cops who investigated the original events, but realized at the time the case was handled badly.  He hopes to redeem himself by helping Jenna search for her mother.

Through Alice’s voice, we learn about elephant behavior.  Elephants grieve for lost members of the herd, and when a mother loses a calf, it will stay with the body for days as it grieves. Picoult did her research, and as noted in the Afterwards, the bits about the elephants are based on real elephants at the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, an actual sanctuary for elephants in captivity.

The ending, while fitting for the novel, requires a bit of magical thinking.  It does explain, however, some of the seemingly inconsistence in Jenna’s life.  I enjoyed this novel and read it in two days.

Read:  March 12, 2016 

Books Set in the United States: New Hampshire

Lone Wolf, by Jodi Picoult (2012)

I thought this story was rather far-fetched with respect to Luke Warren, who is portrayed to be a wolf biologist who actually lived in the wild with wolves for two years.  That aside, this is a novel about a dysfunctional family (aren't all families dysfunctional?), yet have to deal with a family member who has suffered irreparable brain injury.

The author does a good job at keeping the suspense, as family secrets are not divulged, and the reader is kept guessing as to causes of the family split.

Luke, Georgie, Edward and Cara were a family until Luke's research took him into the wild.  When he returned, he was a changed man.  At age 18, Edward and his father had a fight, ostensibly because Edward revealed to his father that he was gay.  The fight was enough so that Edward suddenly left the family and moved to Thailand where he got a job teaching English.  Luke and Georgie divorced; Georgie remarried and began a new family.  Cara moved in with her father.

One night, Luke and Cara were in a car accident that left Luke permanently brain damaged.  Cara suffers from extreme guilt, thinking that she was the cause of the accident.  When Georgie learns of the accident, she immediately called Edward and asked him to return.

Much of the deals with the ethics of ending a terminal life.  Jodi raises interesting points.  Throughout the novel are passages from Luke, as he discusses the lives of wolves and how they can correspond to human lives.

3 Stars

Read: December 20, 2015

Books Set in the United States: New Hampshire

Handle with Care, by Jodi Picoult (2009)

This novel follows the family of Willow O'Keefe, a young girl born with Type III osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as brittle bone syndrome.  The novel is told though the eyes of numerous people, including her mother, father, sister, her mother's OB/GYN and her mother's lawyer.  The brittle bone syndrome means that Willow must be extremely careful ~ the slightest movement can and will break her bones.  To care for Willow, her mother Charlotte has become a stay-at-home mother.  Her father Sean, a police officer, works overtime to afford the treatment and other special needs for Willow.

After Willow suffers broken bones while on vacation Disney World, her parents are initially arrested on grounds of child abuse.  Her parents seek out a lawyer to sue the bark, but end up discussing a lawsuit against the OB/GYN on grounds of malpractice for a wrongful birth.  The theory being that if they had known earlier that the fetus Charlotte was carrying, they may never have carried Willow to term.  They are told that if they win, they will have sufficient funds to care for Willow throughout her life.  Filing suit, however, means that Charlotte will be pitted against Piper, who, in addition to being her doctor, was also her closest friend.

The novel traces the medical ethics of and personal morality in the case of a disabled child.  In addition, it explores the impact of such a child has on other family members.  Sean is opposed to abortion and knows that that option was not truly an option.  He opts out of the lawsuit and defects to the defense.  This leads to a separation between Charlotte and Sean.

Willow's older sister, Amelia, feels neglected by all the attention given to Willow.  She develops bulimia and starts cutting herself to make her self feel.  All of this is done in secret and her parents are unaware of how the attention to Willow affects Amelia.  No one considered how the wrongful birth suit would impact Willow.  She feels somehow the cause of the split between her parents.

Jodi Picoult did a lot of research into both the disease and the ethics surrounding a wrongful birth lawsuit.

5 Stars

Read: December 12, 2015

Books Set in the United States: Pennsylvania

Plain Truth, by Jodi Picoult (2000)

3 Stars

Read:  June 6, 2015

Books Set in the United States: Vermont

House Rules, by Jodi Picoult (2010)

4 Stars

Read:  March 19, 2014

Books Set in the United States and Germany

The Storyteller, by Jodi Picoult (2013)

5 Stars

Read: February 2, 2014