Love the Harry Potter books. By the way I see you're the new book discussion person. Well THAT didn't take very long. I'm sure you'll do a great job. Congrats!!

Anyway...I finished reading an older (2002) Jodi Picoult book while on vacation.

Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult
Amazon.com: Salem Falls: Jodi Picoult: Books

It was a typical (at least mostly) Jodi Picoult in that there was a lot of personal drama where you're wondering who is right and who is wrong and involves the legal system and whether it's able to decipher out the truth or not. (Every Jodi Picoult book I've read so far has involved the legal system). In the book a teacher from a ritzy private school is accused of sexually abusing a student and at the advice of his lawyer pleads down to a lesser charge. Little does he know how he'll have to wear the sexual predator albatross around his neck the rest of his life. He arrives in a small town and tries to anonymously start over but circumstances lead him to once again be accused of rape.

The book involves the teenage girls in the new town being Wiccan and portrays them as actually being able to cast spells (or at least it seems so) which I had a hard time buying. Through the book you "think" the guy is innocent, but as with any Jodi Picoult book, you never know. There is also a shocking (although I had somewhat suspected it) ending.

I enjoyed the book and as usual wasn't able to put it down. The subject matter is a tad "icky" and some may have trouble with it and some might not like the Wiccan elements, but I still recommend it.

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Just a funny!!! I was just reading my review to my kids and my 15 year old son said "Oh that term albatross around his neck comes from "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (and yes, he told me it's supposed to be spelled Rime, so I looked it up because I didn't believe him). My kids are such word nerds

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Thanks, Pam.


I was looking and I haven't read any Jodi Picoult. Salem Falls sounds good. Have you read My Sister's Keeper?

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"If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you." ~Nietzsche

My crafty/scrappy blog: http://paperscissorsthread.blogspot.com/
Christmas Card Challenge! 72/72 I'm ALL DONE!!!

Yes, I've read "My Sister's Keeper", "Plain Truth", and "Keeping Faith" also before "Salem Falls". If you've never read her I'd probably start with "My Sister's Keeper". I could NOT put that book down and I couldn't stop talking about it while I was reading it. Since my kids are teens, I'd sit every night and make them and my dh listen to me drone on about how fascinating the part I'd read that day was I'm normally pretty much a "black & white" type person (you may have noticed) but in Jodi Picoult books there are always tons of shades of gray. Especially in "My Sister's Keeper". You can see BOTH sides of the story (at least I could) and see how both were right but both were also wrong.

She has written tons of books and I've never heard anyone who has not liked any of them. Now I usually HATE the endings of her book (including "My Sister's Keeper"), but most "normal" people don't hate the endings as much as I do. But regardless the reading of the book is so fascinating that I go right back to reading another. I currently have about 6 or so of her books here waiting to be read. If I HAD to pick a current favorite author, she'd probably be it. So try one. I know except for that pesky "The Road" book we usually have similar tastes in books.

(P.S. Hope I didn't drone on too long for YOU now....You can see I like to talk about books).

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I am currently reading The Templars' Secret Island, The Knights, the Priest and the Treasure by Erling Haagensen and Henry Lincoln.

I like history with a twist!

no no, I'm all about books, too. Kev gets sick of me talking about what I am reading, especially when he is planning on reading the book after I do.

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"If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you." ~Nietzsche

My crafty/scrappy blog: http://paperscissorsthread.blogspot.com/
Christmas Card Challenge! 72/72 I'm ALL DONE!!!

I am thinking about re-reading Memoirs of a Geisha, I love that book! It was so much better than the movie, imo.

I just finished a "typical" Jodi Picoult book - Perfect Match. It was pretty good, but her things are starting to get pretty formulaic to me.

Right now I'm in the middle of the Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway. They are somewhat autobiographical accounts of his youth spent in northern Michigan. It was on a "recommended summer reading for Michiganders" list in our paper. I did not expect to enjoy it, having never read Hemingway, but I'm pacing through it pretty quickly. The accounts of what northern Michigan woods must have been like in the early 1900s, the indians, loggers, etc. are pretty interesting so far.

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"Perfect Match" is one of the ones I've got here to read (along with 100+ other books) but I've not read it yet. I can see how they could get formulaic though.

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The one you just read, Aliadam - Salem Falls - that was the first one of her books I've read. I've read a lot of her stuff but not "My Sisters Keeper." That always seems to not be on the shelf at the library.

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