Jodi Piccoult – The Book Date

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This week its exploring any kind of genre that takes our eye.

I have chosen what loosely might be termed general/women’s fiction and could be both contemporary or historical. These are all actual print books I have sitting on my TBR waiting to be read.

The Life You Left. Carmel Harrington. Her husband leaves for work and doesn’t return.

The Hope Chest. Viola Shipman. Mattie has ALS and Don her husband of fifty years can’t imagine life without her. The discovery of a hope chest unveils some precious memories.

Bad Behaviour. Liz Byrski. Zoö in Freemantle, Julia in London. These two women made choices back in 1968 that shaped their future pathways.

The Tea Chest. Josephine Moon. Three women come together to realise a vision of a tea shop in London. It may fail and they may need to look at what is important to each.

Grown Ups. Marion Keyes. About a family – the Caseys who are a large family until one gets concussion and spills some secrets – leaves them wondering if its time to grow up.

The Sweet Taste of Muscadines.. Pamela Terry. When their mother dies Lila and Henry return home and start to uncover some shocking secrets that overturns their family history as they know it.

Wish You Were Here. Jodi Picoult. A woman is stranded in the islands of Galapagos and as she faces dangers she finds she is evolving into someone different. She breaks down years of estrangement with her mother, takes the initiative in her profession and looks and her partner Finn.

The Reading List. Sara Nisha Adams. When Aleisha discovers a crumpled reading list in a tattered library book it sparks an extraordinary journey.

Someone Else’s Shoes. Jodi Moyes. Sam and Nisha mix up their bags at the gym, each has quite different shoes in them and both of them must use what’s there.

The Last Summer. Karen Swan. Set in the 1930’s and goes from a remote Scottish Island to a position on an Estate in the mainland. There is murder and mystery and relationship involved.

If you have read any of these let me know. If not do you know a book that could easily be added to this list?

The next read I have lined up for myself is one about someone dealing with a heart transplant. One of the reasons I read is to explore through book characters what its like for people to deal with such life changing events. I decided to look at other books with this theme running through them.
Book cover

The Gift of Life. Josephine Moon

Gabby McPhee is the owner of The Tin Man, a chic new cafe and coffee roasting house in Melbourne. The struggles of her recent heart transplant are behind her and life is looking up – until a mysterious customer appears in the cafe, convinced that Gabby has her deceased husband’s heart beating inside her chest.

book cover If I Should Lose You Natasha Lester

As it turns out another Australian author. And… I have this one already waiting on my bookshelf, just haven’t so far got to read it, but now my interest is re-awakened.

Camille is a nurse specialising in supporting families through the difficult decision to donate the organs of their dying loved ones. Camille’s mother is a gifted but uncompromising transplant surgeon determined to make it in a man’s world until her own life falls apart. And Camille herself is a mother to Addie – five years old, critically ill and in desperate need of the very organs her mother and grandmother work with.

Tiny Pieces of Us Nicky Pellegrino. book cover I had this one on my radar by a New Zealand author but wasn’t too sure, however now I am reconsidering. I think it could still be in the shops, if not will look at the library.

Vivi Palmer knows what it’s like to live life carefully. Born with a heart defect, she was given a second chance after a transplant, but has never quite dared to make the most of it. Until she comes face-to-face with her donor’s mother, Grace, who wants something in return for Vivi’s second-hand heart: her help to find all the other people who have tiny pieces of her son.

book cover The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae. Stephanie Butland

Another one I may consider reading. I’ve read one Stephanie Butland and I suspect I’d find this one on Kindle.

Ailsa Rae is learning how to live.
She’s only a few months past the heart transplant that – just in time – saved her life. Life should be a joyful adventure.

book cover Change of Heart Jodi Piccoult

I am not sure if I’ll read this one. Mixed reviews by readers I follow. It will have a lot of angst I know as a mother struggles to accept the offer of a heart for her daughter from a man she cannot forgive!

I might still have a change of heart over reading this one!