Win Sing You Home By Jodi Picoult Shared As Electronic Format

can see, I think, what makes Picoult such a popular author, She chooses controversial situations and works her way through some logic, helping readers come to grips with questions that may nag them, Her writing is clear and accessible, and the story manages to hang together, but I felt nothing for the characters by the end, They felt like twodimensional megaphones for their respective positions, in this case the religious right fights an openly gay couple for cryogenically frozen embryos, The one character that I worried about, a young girl undergoing therapy for depression, is never mentioned at the end, so we never learn her fate, She was a casualty of the story, which is resolved adequately without her, Sing Me Home is not literature, but storytelling, and Picoult does an adequate job, If you read my book reviews, then you already know that I'm a Jodi fan, I know that some criticize her plots and writing style and the fact that she has her own formulaic style and that a few of my English teacher friends think her work paltry.
I wonder why so many literate and literary people are threatened by popular authors I guess I'm just a book slut and can usually find something worthwhile however minute in most everything that I read.
What I like about Jodi's books are the characters who feel like real people and the issues she chooses to explore which make me think about my own values and morals.


I wish I knew what Chris Bohjalian whom Jodi has toured with feels about this book which reminded me of his Transsister Radio, Like her book last year House Rules, I don't think this story is necessarily ahead of its time in fact, the gay couple issue has been plundered in quite a few plots already.
I wanted to be disappointed in this fact, but I wasn't, I read the book in one sitting I had an advanced copy, and I appreciated getting the chance to read the book before it hit the stores.
As always, Jodi's courtroom drama was interesting and had perfect Hollywood questions and answers, Speaking of Hollywood, this would make a good movie on the big screen, The topics of sexual identity and orientation, religion's view on this, and who owns frozen embryos, as I said, have already been written about in books, newspaper articles, and TV shows, but they are still controversial and still make me ponder my stance on the issues.
And I like Jodi's writing style which

prompts me to read "just one more chapter" before I put the book down, Zoe and Max love being in love, years ago that is.

The pain of miscarriages, invitro procedures, ovulation schedules and thousands of dollars spent has placed the marriage in a trying situation, After the loss of another baby, one that was far into the pregnancy, Max and Zoe are both heartbroken but Zoe wants to move forward and try again for theth time.
Max does not.

Zoe is a music therapist, mostly she works at the hospital cheering patients up or working with specific individuals to have emotional or developmental breakthroughs.
Its during this time when a guidance counselor and soso friend Vanessa asks her to council a suicidal teen at the high school, The women become very close and forge a bond that opens the door to love and a deep relationship, Soon the two move in together facing the challenges that gaycouples endure and before the wedding bells have even stopped ringing Zoe and Vanessa start talking about children, Vanessa offers a gift to Zoe that could change their life and decides to carry a baby for her.
Using Zoës fertilized eggs with her xhusband Max whos become a religious Christian freak will biologically make the child hers, only problem getting Max to agree.


I have always admired Jodis writing and her ability to take on controversial topics that make you stop, think and reevaluate, Beyond the fact that I really liked Zoes character it was hard to get past all the deep hating stereotype of Christians in the novel because she made the religious attacks way too personal.
I started this book already having experience with Jodi Picoults writing, so I knew I was in for an intense experience, She is so methodical and expressive but I always find her stories disconcerting, I appreciate that the author told the story from Zoe, her new wife Vanessa and Zoes exhusbands point of view, It gave me an opportunity to empathize, Ill admit it that I found the story a bit preachy and definitely advocated a viewpoint, but the story felt real especially in todays political and religious climate.
Zoe and Vanessas court case against Max made me examine my own views about this controversial issue, But the authors writing was remarkable in that I could empathize to all three main characters even if I didnt quite like them,

The story began with Zoe and Max struggling to conceive, What the reader never got to experience was any real tenderness, happiness or the power of their love, Their relationship was that of a woman determined to have a baby and the man she needed to make that dream a reality, It should have come as no surprise to the readers that Zoe and Max broke up, Unfortunately, Zoes new relationship didnt resonate with me either, What did resonate with me was Zoes desire to have a family and the stress the struggle caused her, Max and Vanessa,

I would have loved this story more if the author had delivered multifaceted characters instead of Max, an alcoholic turned bible thumper fighting a music therapist and an atheist school counselor.
The characters were oversimplified in such a way to make you either love them or hate them, The stereotypes were written in such a way that I felt led by the nose to the conclusion, which was a typical Picoult ending,
To describe Jodi Picoults writing as anything less than powerful and poignant is a grave understatement, With her upcoming release Sing You Home, Picoult plays on her strengths as a writer and provides her readers, once again, with a book that presents some hard hitting controversial topics, a compelling argument for both sides, and a courtroom brawl that has her audience wavering back and forth between both sides of the issue.


For fans of Picoult, youre going to get a story thats formulaic to her style, one that is fast paced, with multiple perspectives, a controversial element and a courtroom standoff.
No surprises on the delivery, but in this well researched, perfectly executed story, youll come across the events as they unfold, coupled with actual facts that will have you applauding Picoult for her ability to present a story without judgment or opinion strictly fact and its up to the reader to decide whether the outcome was fair and just.


In Sing You Home Max and Zoe Baxter have been married for close to ten years and for the past nine years they have experienced multiple miscarriages and failed IVF attempts.
But when Zoe finally finds herself seven months pregnant, they suffer a heartbreaking event, and she and Max are faced with the emotional devastation of picking up the pieces and trying to figure out how to move on.
They go their separate ways, and Zoe soon finds herself in a samesex relationship where she and her partner are hoping to start a family with the embryos that remained frozen after her marriage with Max.


The story is told from the alternating perspective of the following characters:
Zoe Baxter: a music therapist who uses music in a clinical setting to help patients alleviate pain or change their moods or simply engage in the world.
She works at senior centers with patients with dementia in burn units with children who are having dressings changed or schools with autistic kids,

Max Baxter: who divorces Zoe after the loss of their unborn baby, He succumbs to his past addiction of alcohol abuse and one night during a drinking and driving incident, he has an experience that brings him to the doorstep of his brothers evangelical church.


Vanessa Shaw: a school counselor who helps Zoe recover from her downward spiral after the death of her unborn child and her divorce to Max.


These three people fight for the right to decide what should happen to the preborn children that Zoe and Max created while married, and how that decision is influenced by a same sex relationship Max does not agree with.


The issues in this book raise the following questions:

Does religion hold a place in the American judicial system After a witness swears on the Bible during a court case, where do biblical references fit in a courtroom argument Do they fit at all

Does an embryo produced for IVF purposes between two people fall under the category of person or property If those two people divorce or go their separate ways, who has the rights over the frozen embryos

Is homosexuality predisposed or environmentally influenced Is a child raised in a samesex parental family likely to follow in their parents footsteps

Should the government have a say on gay rights including marriage and adoption

As a society, how much have we progressed in terms of gay tolerance

Should religious factions be allowed to use the church to mask their agenda of hate against the gay community

All very heavy topics that I myself had my initial stance on, which Ill politely keep out of this review, but when presented with facts, research, argument, and position, I found myself considering ideas I thought I initially had all figured out.
Very well done indeed. Worth the ride for Picoult fans! Sing You Home is my new favorite novel by Jodi Picoult, and as of now midMarch,my favorite book of this year.


There are so many things I wish I could say coherently about this book, I was at a loss of words when I finished it three hours ago, and I still am speechless, But I want to write this review while the emotions it evoked are still at their strongest,

The writing was superb as always, Picoult doesn't use a lot of "SAT" vocabulary, or extremely complex sentence structure, but the way she engages readers with detail and finesse is extraordinary, I am always tempted to read just a single page more, then just one chapter more, until I've gone through the entirepage book.
I even forgot to put this on my toread shelf on Goodreads,

Picoult's characters are splendid by the middle of the book I was immersed in Zoe's yearning for children and Max's difficulty with alcohol abuse, and I felt like they were real, breathing people.
Vanessa's nononsense attitude I admired, and side characters like Dara and Lucy I came to love as well,

The element that really made me appreciate this novel was Picoult's take on gay marriage, and homosexual inequality in contemporary society, I cannot adequately state how inspiring this book was to me in that regard, Here is one of the many powerful quotes that I had to stop and reread I even put this in my favorite quotes section on Facebook, . .

"I remember my mother telling me that, when she was a little girl in Catholic school, the nuns used to hit her left hand every time she wrote with it.
Nowadays, if a teacher did that, she'd probably be arrested for child abuse, The optimist in me wants to believe sexuality will eventually become like handwriting: there's no right way or wrong way to do it, We're all just wired differently,

It's also worth nothing that, when you meet someone, you never bother to ask if he's right or left handed,

After all: Does it really matter to anyone other than the person holding the pen"

Beautiful,

crossposted from my blog sitelinkthe quiet voice, .