Monday, December 29, 2008

J. Mervin, Mrs. Brown, Harvesting the Heart

Jodi, Picoult. Harvesting the Heart. 2nd. New York: Penguin, 1995
 
Harvesting the Heart is a novel in which a young mother searches for her place in a world that seems to trap her.   Paige is just 18 when she runs away from home in search of a new life, to get away from her shameful past.  Her own mother left her when she was young and she needs to start a new life.  She moves to a city and meets Nicholas who is a cardiac surgeon built on prestige and everything she is not.  They fall in love and soon marry and have a child.  However Paige is overwhelmed feeling she never had a mom to show her, and she will never fit in with Nicholas’s lifestyle. She does exactly what her mom has taught her and runs, leaving Nicholas and her child behind.  Through the search of her mother she finds herself and decides if she should ever return to her family.
Picoult writes simply including imagery and emotion in her novel.  Every page entices you not to not put it down, it is a sad and dramatic read.  Easy and realistic, and mother or child can relate to the family issues in this novel.  I recommend this book to anyone that likes love stories packed with emotion

Thursday, December 18, 2008

J. Curtis, Mrs. Brown, As Simple as Snow

J. Curtis, Mrs. Brown, As Simple as Snow
Gregory Galloway. As Simple as Snow. Publish Group: United States, 2005.

Anne Cayne was not like your everyday new girl in town, she loves secret codes, short-waved radios, old music, and she notices all the little things. Her boyfriend and she would send each other puzzles and codes to decipher, and he loved doing them until deciphering them was a matter between life and death. With puzzles, secret codes, and numeric maps hidden all over town, he is the only one who can find her, when she goes mysteriously missing. As Simple as Snow, by Gregory Galloway, is a mind-bending mystery that looks at young love, loss, and family. Each character plays a significant role, which the reader must understand from the beginning. Galloway includes suspense and imagery as a way to keep the reader intrigued. His writing is simple to comprehend, and this book is a quick and easy read. I recommend this book to anyone who likes to read a good mystery, with love, family and friendships tied in as well.