Friday Finds is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. While browsing book blogs, Amazon.com, Washington Post.com, NPR.org and various other places on the Internet, these are the books that made it to my wish list this week.
Tag: Columbine
What Are YOU Reading?
I’m reading “Nineteen Minutes”by Jodi Picoult right now. As I mentioned in a previous post, I really loved her latest novel, “Change Of Heart”, but wasn’t sure what to expect with this one. I had doubts going into this book as well as high hopes. I lived in Denver, CO from August 1998 to July 1999. The morning of April 20th, 1999 I was at work and looking forward to dinner with my boyfriend at the time and his roommate and his girlfriend Kristen, when the news broke that a shooting had occurred at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. The whole country stopped in it’s tracks and the Denver area fell to it’s knees in despair. Two teenagers had gone on a shooting spree and then killed themselves in their high school. Kristen and I attended the memorial at the high school a couple of days later. Kristen and I couldn’t tear ourselves away from the news that whole week. I actually kept the Vans sneakers I wore that day that became covered in mud for years an years without washing the mud away.
I understand that Picoult did a massive amount of research for this book including interviews with people affected by the Columbine Massacre. So far I don’t like the flow of “Nineteen Minutes” as well as “Change of Heart” but I am happy that though I am reading the same author’s work I feel like it’s a very different book. I have stopped reading James Petterson for the sole reason that all of his books read the same and just flow together into one long story after awhile. I do feel like I need to be taking notes as I read “Nineteen Minutes” because there are so many characters and with the flashbacks and I find myself having to look back to what I already read for clues. I’m about a quarter of the way done so far so I’ll let you know how it’s going as I continue.
What are you reading right now? Are you happy with it or are you regretting picking it up? Please leave a comment below if you care to.
Book Review ~ Change of Heart
I just finished Jodi Picoult’s “Change of Heart” and I loved it! I found myself thinking about the story and characters many times throughout the two weeks or so that I was reading it and wondering what was going to happen to them and how the story would play out. This was my first experience reading a Picoult novel and I was not disappointed. The topics of religion, the possibility of a Messiah floating through the U.S. prison system and the lives that were affected by selfish acts of sexual abuse were woven together so beautifully and intricately that I know I will be thinking about this story for a while to come. The characters were so clear and bright to me though I did have some trouble flipping from one first-person account to the next as the chapters (not really chapters though) flew through my fingers.
I would recommend this book to someone who is looking for something completely different and thought provoking. Remember that this book is the one that lifted me off of my reading block stump. I am so glad that I picked it up at the Base PX. I am interested in reading Picoult’s “Nineteen Minutes” about a small town high school shooting because I lived in Denver when the Columbine shootings devastated the area and the country. I attended the memorial service at the high school and saw, with my own eyes, the boarded up windows where students and faculty had jumped to safety on April 20th, 1999.
Planet Books 