Search - Vanishing Acts

Every time I pick up a book by Jodi Picoult I am amazed all over again. She writes like I imagine I can, with a deft twist of plot and an even defter (more deft) turn of the phrase. As I read her books I find myself wishing I had someone I could stop and share a sentence or paragraph with. Her writing makes you want to call up your best friend and say, “Listen to this, isn’t this the most fabulous thing you’ve heard?”

Delia Hopkins dreams of a lemon tree and from there starts a story that spins her world out of control. Soon she finds herself in Arizona with a young daughter, an alcoholic fiance, and the man whose presence has completed the triumvirate of friendship since childhood. With her world tipped upside down and sideways Delia has to work her way through to the other side; while she learns that it isn’t the memories of our lives that are the most important thing.

This is the first Jodi Picoult book I read and half way through I ordered all the others available on PBS. This is an amazing author and I wish more people wrote like her. Each chapter is through the eyes of one of the main characters and it makes the book so much richer and we understand so much more because we see the same story through different eyes and this gives us the story as a whole instead of from only one perspective. You will think you know exactly what is going on in this book and then it twists just a little and changes everything.

I almost put this book down when I found out what the father did, because I was scared it would have a horrible ending. I'm so glad I kept reading. Great book. I couldn't put it down, and there were many twists and turns along the way. This is my first book by her, and I'm now sure it won't be my last.

Got this book for my wife. She loved it! As usual, Jodi Picoult provides the reader with an excellent story.

This was an okay, even though it was an earlier publication by the author. However, if I continue to run across a pattern of lack-of-originality by the author, I may have to abandon reading future novels. The book is filled with cliches we've already seen on television programs. I honestly think Picoult would make a great politician due to her ability to appeal to mainstream by sensationalizing tragedies we've seen in the media.

There were some parts that dragged out and were filled with fluff that makes you think the author writes her books hoping that they are made into movies for tv. It definitely had too many filler pages with nonsense. Including how to make meth with pretty detailed instructions so that readers can play "Breaking Bad" the home game. :P She also manages to plagerize herself by reusing a prison inmates suicide in another book.

Overall, I finished this because I had nothing better to do. Luckily, I've read later novels by the author and haven't minded them.

Excellent book! I love Jodi Picoult