Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

Oh my god.  This book was awesome.  It's definitely in my top 3 Jodi books.  It dives right into the story, right into the good part, which I love, because it captivated me from the beginning.  It's about a school shooting and it jumps back and forth in time as it goes through the story which makes it interesting.  You want to know what happens but you have to wait to the get to the point in time in the present when it makes sense to go back into the past to explain what happened there.  Does that sound confusing? 

Anyway, it goes through the story of the shooter and what his life was like in high school, what led him to the day of the shooting, and then there is another twist at the end.  Which I can't believe I didn't figure out until they were explaining it at the end.  I should have seen it coming.  It wraps everything up at the end too.  Which rarely happens in the books I read. 

I would recommend this book, unless you aren't interested in the subject matter.  It's completely 100% based around the shooting.  And of course there is a trial and a side love story that just happens...classic inclusions in Jodi's books.

Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult

I just finished this book yesterday.  It's a book club book.  It's about a man who is convicted for raping a teenage girl (he is a teacher).  He spends eight months in jail and then tries to settle into a small town called Salem Falls.  He picked the wrong town.  It's small, picture perfect, with no trouble.  Pretty soon the whole town discovers his previous conviction.  And one thing leads to another before he is being accused of rape from another teenage girl.  A girl who has a group of three friends, and all of them are witches.  There is a twist at the end.  One I had figured out this time by the middle of the book.  But it is written to make you question whether or not the twist you think you've figured out is the right one.  I won't give any more away.  It was pretty good.

Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult

I love Jodi.  I've run out of things to say about her books.  They follow the same general pattern but it's always a different story.  This one is about a little girl who thinks she can see and talk to god.  But god is a woman.  It goes through the life of her mother, who gets a divorce, and then has to deal with the media attention Faith receives.  There is a custody battle, a side love story, and a bitter sweet ending.  I enjoy all her books but this one doesn't spring out as a favorite.

Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult

Just finished this on my lunch break.  Will write more later...
Ok so it is much later.  This was a pretty good book.  It's about a woman who has been married for 10 years and has been trying to have kids with her husband for most of those years.  She has major complications and doesn't carry to term...eventually her husband walks away and cannot take going through everything they try anymore.  The main character then goes into a downward spiral of depression only to be saved by another woman, who she falls in love with.  The story gets interesting from there.  It has another ending I'm satisfied with. 

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

This was this months book club book.  I haven't seen the movie but I really loved this book.  I didn't want to put it down.  Skeeter quickly became my favorite character.  Along with Aibileen.  This probably wouldn't have been a book I'd have read on my own (choosing), and now I'm curious about the movie and how well it follows the book.  I will have to see it sometime.  I don't really have a lot to say about the book...so much happened, many surprises...and it was just really interesting. 

Trust Me by Lesley Pearse

This was a book a co-worker lent me and recommended a long time ago.  It took me forever to get around to it, I'm pretty sure it was over a year.  I just finished it today and I can't believe I didn't find time to read it sooner.  It captivated me from the very beginning.  I didn't want to stop reading, I picked it up every chance I got, and pages would fly by without me realizing I had read 100+ pages since I last looked at the bottom to track my progress.

Trust Me is about two little girls who lose their mother, their father goes to jail, and their grandmother is too old to be able to keep looking after them...so they get sent to an orphanage.  Their life is horrible.  The things they endure is incredible.  Then they're given an opportunity to go to Australia, and it looks like their life will be so much better, so they take it.  Luckily the girls are sent to the same orphanage upon their arrival, so they stay together, but this place is far worse than the one they left in England.  It goes on telling their story.  The older sister turns 15 and can leave the orphanage, but she has to work for three years at a place arranged for by the orphanage.  It surprisingly gets even worse...until finally she gets a break and events change her circumstances.  But by now the two sisters have drifted...due more so to the people running the orphanage than anything else.  Then when the younger sister turns 15 and goes out to work, they eventually re-unite.  I can't go into more detail.  A lot of unfortunate things happen.  But the older sister is painted in such a way you can't help but love her.  Things eventually get better for her too (although she has a great place to work at her second job, falls in love and gets married, there is still a major problem).  The ending is happy for her, but there is still a sad element.

It's neat to read about the different places they go to in Australia.  Perth, Esperance, King's Cross, Kalgoorlie, and Sydney.  This story is incredible.  Please read it!

A Painted House by John Grisham

This is September's book club book.  It's about a family who lives on a cotton farm.  The main character is a little boy who is seven years old, he is also the narrator.  However, the way it is written, it's easy to quickly forget his age.  Some wild events happen and the ending of the book was disappointing for me.  It left a lot of open ends, so that the reader can choose their own conclusions.  I didn't like that, but it is a good story.  And short-ish; about 300 pages.