December 27, 2019
Celebrating a Bookish Hanukkah With Our Jewish Friends: Sixth Candle–The Extra Sense
#eightcandlebooktag
*This post contains Amazon affiliate links.
I’m linking up today with Davida at The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review Blog (information on the meme link up here) to celebrate a bookish Hanukkah with our Jewish friends. #eightcandlebooktag Join us! (find my first candle here, find my second candle here, third candle here, fourth here, fifth here)
Happy Hanukkah to my friends, followers, and book buddies who are celebrating!
Sixth Candle: The Extra Sense
A book that scared you, worried you, or that was edgy or spooky in some way (doesn’t have to be a paranormal book).
Well…you’ll notice a dearth of reviews for scary, spooky thrillers on my blog! It doesn’t take too much to scare me or provoke a bad dream. Usually if something is scary, spooky, or too thrilling, it gets shelved without hesitation as a DNF. I think I’m classified as a HSP (highly sensitive person) in my reading life! So today’s prompt stumps me!
Since I haven’t read any really scary books, I finally considered other books that disturb me in some way and make me uncomfortable while reading. I read a great deal of WW11 histfic, so some of the concentration camp passages are highly disturbing. A couple of examples of some of the most difficult “concentration camp” passages I’ve read include books like The Lilac Girls, Between Shades of Gray, and The Nightingale. Often, books that describe the unfortunate plight of innocent children are quite difficult to read. Examples include Before We Were Yours and Orphan Train.
However, for this prompt I decided to go another direction with a book that is uncomfortable or disturbing to read and that is Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult. I found that the chapters that focused on Turk and his racism and white supremacy especially difficult to read. I remember having feelings of dread every time his chapter came up, and wishing I could skip them.
For today’s post, I’m choosing to highlight Small Great Things
The following brief overview has been published previously on this blog:
Amazon Summary:
Ruth Jefferson is a labor and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital with more than twenty years’ experience. During her shift, Ruth begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that she’s been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and don’t want Ruth, who is African American, to touch their child. The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in the nursery. Does she obey orders or does she intervene?
Ruth hesitates before performing CPR and, as a result, is charged with a serious crime. Kennedy McQuarrie, a white public defender, takes her case but gives unexpected advice: Kennedy insists that mentioning race in the courtroom is not a winning strategy. Conflicted by Kennedy’s counsel, Ruth tries to keep life as normal as possible for her family—especially her teenage son—as the case becomes a media sensation. As the trial moves forward, Ruth and Kennedy must gain each other’s trust, and come to see that what they’ve been taught their whole lives about others—and themselves—might be wrong.
With incredible empathy, intelligence, and candor, Jodi Picoult tackles race, privilege, prejudice, justice, and compassion—and doesn’t offer easy answers. Small Great Things is a remarkable achievement from a writer at the top of her game.
My Thoughts:
This is an important and memorable read; however, it was difficult for me to rate. First, I would award it 4 stars for being a page turner and for the focus on an important issue. At the same time, I would rate it 3 stars for the author’s overly pedantic tone (for my preference), one-sided political insults, and the too convenient plot twists at the end. Overall, that would average out to a 3.5 star rating. On Goodreads, I rounded that up to 4 stars. This rating comes with a word of caution that the author was heavy handed in her message and her political comments….it seems that most of her fans might already be aware that her stories are sometimes controversial because of their polarizing themes.
I’m conflicted as I write this because it’s an important issue and message, but at times it felt like a lecture and a political attack. In the end, I admire her bravery at tackling this important and sensitive issue. The chapters involving Turk, the white supremacist, were especially difficult to read because they were filled with hate.
Without hesitation, though, I recommend this book for readers who enjoy controversial and current topics, for nurses and legal professionals, and for those readers who want to form their own opinions on trending new releases and relevant topics. Small Great Things would make a terrific selection for a book club discussion. Plus, if you’re a huge Jodi Picoult fan you might not want to miss this story with its ambitious themes.
My Rating: 4 stars
Small Great Things Information
Meet the Author, Jodi Picoult
Jodi Picoult is the author of twenty-two novels, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers “The Storyteller,” “Lone Wolf,” “Between the Lines,” “Sing You Home,” “House Rules,” “Handle with Care,” “Change of Heart,” “Nineteen Minutes,” and “My Sister’s Keeper.” She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and three children. Read more at http://www.jodipicoult.com/
QOTD!
Have you read Small Great Things or is it on your TBR?
Are you a Jodi Picoult fan?
ICYMI
I have finished my Fall TBR!
(just in time to begin my Winter TBR!)
Winter 2019 TBR
My Nonfiction November Posts:
2019 Nonfiction Reads
Nonfiction and Racial Injustice
Nonfiction/Fiction Pairings
Favorite Nonfiction Books
2020 Nonfiction TBR
Finding Chika by Mitch Albom
Happy Reading Book Buddies!
“Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading.”
~Rainer Maria Rilke
“I love the world of words, where life and literature connect.”
~Denise J Hughes
“Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad ones.”
~Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
“I read because books are a form of transportation, of teaching, and of connection! Books take us to places we’ve never been, they teach us about our world, and they help us to understand human experience.”
~Madeleine Riley, Top Shelf Text
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Unless explicitly stated that they are free, all books that I review have been purchased by me or borrowed from the library.
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Born and raised in the Boston area, Amor Towles graduated from Yale College and received an MA in English from Stanford University. Having worked as an investment professional in Manhattan for over twenty years, he now devotes himself full time to writing. His first novel, Rules of Civility, published in 2011, was a New York Times bestseller in both hardcover and paperback and was ranked by the Wall Street Journal as one of the best books of 2011. The book was optioned by Lionsgate to be made into a feature film and its French translation received the 2012 Prix Fitzgerald. His second novel, A Gentleman in Moscow, published in 2016, was also a New York Times bestseller and was ranked as one of the best books of 2016 by the Chicago Tribune, the Miami Herald, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the St. Louis Dispatch, and NPR. Both novels have been translated into over fifteen languages.
Fredrik Backman, a blogger and columnist, is the New York Times bestselling author of A MAN CALLED OVE and MY GRANDMOTHER ASKED ME TO TELL YOU SHE’S SORRY. Both were number one bestsellers in his native Sweden and around the world, and are being published in more than thirty-five territories. He lives in Stockholm with his wife and two children. Visit him online at his blog: FredrikBackman.com, on twitter @backmanland, or on instagram @backmansk.