Sister's Keeper

Karen had read a book by Jodi Picoult while on a boat in Alaska. I've seen this name before and, really, who could miss it when it is three times the size of the book title. She is always on the best-sellers list. Why. Karen wasn't too sold on the book she read, but she said it was engrossing enough for her to want to finish it. So, I got this book, My Sister's Keeper, based on my sister's shaky recommendation.

The story is about a girl whose life has been devoted to supplying various body parts and fluids used to keep her sister alive. Her sister has some very severe form of leukemia. I'm not sure what this story is like if you read it yourself. I loved the listening experience of this book. It is told from several people's point of view: The mother, the father, each of the sisters, a brother, and a few other key characters. There was a different reader for each character. The readers did a good job of telling their character's point of view. One Amazon review said all of Picoult's characters speak with the same "voice". I suppose their different voices and speech patterns hid that from me.

I was reading this in bed. Don't do that if you really want to know what's going on. I kept falling asleep. That just meant that I had to rewind and listen all over again the next day. One of those sleeping through periods landed me almost at the end of the book. And I didn't like that end. It was waaay too contrived. I was so disappointed. But I went back to find out what happened between. It was better. Now it's only contrived and a bit trite. Maybe predictable if you don't fall asleep while listening. It is still worth reading, but get it from a library or borrow it from a friend. It isn't worth paying for.