Okay, here's the plain truth- I was sucked into this book, totally and completely! I purposely have been avoiding going to the library. Why? Because I'm supposed to be packing up the apartment in preparation for the move this Saturday. But silly me! I had to stop by to drop off some books, that were on the overdue side, and instead of just leaving them in the drop box, I HAD to go in... And then I was already INSIDE the library so why not just go ahead and get a few books to hold me over...
I did manage to stop myself at 3 books (instead of my usual 6 or so). I did really good with Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception. (Sophie Kinsella's Undomestic Goddess was the third book and for those who are curious was placed in my mother's hands over the weekend (she's hooked on Kinsella's books), and I won't see it until this Saturday)But then I picked up The Plain Truth late Saturday night. As per my usual I read for a bit until my eyes couldn't stay open any more. I was intrigued, but not hooked. The intrigue quickly turned into obsession around 11 o'clock Sunday morning. I really and truly did try to put it down. I just kept coming up with more excuses as to why I HAD to finish reading this book. Did I mention that I was supposed to be packing, and up to this point only 4 boxes had been packed away????
So, yeah, completely engrossed with this story about an 18 year old Amish girl who is accused to murdering her own baby. The story begins with a woman giving birth in the birthing stall of the barn. It fast forwards to the farm hands discovering a dead newborn. The farmer's wife had a hysterictomy many years ago so couldn't have been the mother, and her only daughter denies up and down that she wasn't pregnet- despite the fact that she shows all the signs of a woman who just gave birth. The daughter is accused of suffocating the infant and is brought to court. Enter the second heronie, a confused middle aged woman who needs a break from "city life," her boyfriend of 8 years and some of the tough court cases that she's been apart of. She finds herself as the young woman's lawyer and guardian until her trial is brought to court. The lawyer tries to get to the bottom of the infant's death but is met with refusal each time. Of course their relationship develops and everyone learns a little more about themselves. And I'm trying to be really good about not letting too much out about the ending.
Picoult's work is well written and made very real. Her characters feel familiar and aren't perfect, everyone has their faults. Picoult has easily become one of my favorite writers- and that is only after reading two of her books. I can't wait to spend more time exploring the other worlds that she has created in her other books.
Oh and for those who were wondering, I FINALLY finished The Stand. It took me a solid month to finish the 1200 page monster. My boyfriend even commented that that was the longest he's ever seen me read one book! The beginning of the book started out VERY SLOW!!!! King introduces you to over a few dozen characters and then quickly kills some of them off as a superflu spreads over the United States. Civilization as we know it comes to an end and people start migrating to find one another. Some of these people dream about an old black woman in a cornfield, while some others dream about "the dark man." Once people start meeting up with one another (around page 600), then things start to get intresting. The book is filled with rich detail and left me wanting a list of characters just so I could keep up with them all (I did find a website that was able to help me out at times). For all of the buildup that was done I thought that the final conflict between good and evil would be more. Overall, I did enjoy the book, that is, once I got through the first 600 pages and could keep everyone clear in my mind. It's only because of my boss' high recommendation of the book that kept me at it, otherwise it could have followed the fate of some other books and be tossed aside only half read.
And in case you are wondering, as I write this, I should be doing more packing and not procrastinating by blogging... oh well... I have Friday off to finish before the real fun begins on Saturday!
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