Change of Heart: A Novel (Wsp Readers Club) Paperback – December 2, 2008

This is my first Jodi Picoult book although I am an avid book reader. I read this book because it was the pick in our book club.And, I'm so grateful that I read it. It was thought provoking on so many levels. I loved the spiritual aspect of the book and the way the characters dealt with their spirituality. This book doesn't promorte one right belief and the characters are from many beliefs. And they continously grow and explore their spiritual lives while simultaneously grappling with the death penalty. I like that the book doesn't tell the reader what to believe and yet presents beliefs/arguments in many ways and at many levels so that the reader can grapple with the material and make up their own mind.I felt very engaged with the characters, both the major and lesser ones. I liked them all and could understand them from their own perspectives, which i think is attributed to the good writing of Jodi Picoult.This is a GREAT book club selection as there is so much to talk about. I would also allow my teenager to read this (i think she would really like it). It is also a book I would want to keep and reread (which is very uncommon for me).I highly recommend this book.UPDATE: based on comments of my book club, those who had not read jodi picoult were more likely to like this book than those who had read her books.

I liked this book. At first, I thought it was a knockoff of The Green Mile, but it becomes a much more rich story. It begins with the mother describing how it felt when her first husband died in a auto accident and how she later fell in love with the police officer who delivered the devastating news. She talks about the sweet relationship between her young daughter and her new husband, then describes the events which led up to the crime. Then the reader is introduced to the college student who is serving on the jury who convicted the accused murderer of the husband and young child. The jury must now decide whether to impose the death penalty which has not been used in New Hampshire in many, many years.The story has four characters who tell the story from their personal point of view, each contributing to the whole story. The subject matter goes into the morality of the death penalty and the views of religions. The author raises so many thought provoking ideas about the true validity of any one particular religious faith and poses so many questions causing the reader to think about religion in a new way. It doesn't preach, she simply puts the questions out there and allows the reader to arrive at a conc!usion...or not. The narrative moves along and has some startling twists. Some readers might accuse the author of a contrived tale, but I enjoyed the questions and the lack of ant definitive answers. I enjoyed the book.

Author Picout always produces page turners, usually with critical societal and psychological issues being explored.In Change of Heart she may have attempted more than was possible in this novel, but nonetheless, the book is readable, and makes one address the issues of capital punishment (and types of capital punishment); the realities of someone dying because of heart failure and the inabiity to find a suitable donor; and the passions that drive all of Ms. picoult's major characters. Also the enigmas of caprice and chance. I kept thinking, "Oh, if only. If only." But there are no 'if onlies' in her work.This is not a great book stylistically and probably attempts too much in terms of plot. But I read it quickly, easily, and know more of each issue than I did before and was white knuckling it to the end to see what would happen to the supposed villain and real victims. Worth reading if you are a Picout fan and not a bad first novel to read if you haven't tried the author before.I admire her blunt courage in making herself and us face unpeasant but very real parts of our everyday life which we usually manage to avoid.I'm glad Jodi Picout is young and has years to write. I look forward to more reading treats. Claire Holcomb

Another amazing story by this author. All other books of hers I've ready have a surprising ending but not this one. With this book, you get exactly what you are expecting but it is incredibly well written and performed (audio version) and I held out so much hope that it would not end exactly as I suspected.I very much enjoy how much research she does into the topics she covers in her books. Each and every topic is so controversial and she writes about them in a way that makes is difficult at times to take a stance on one side or the other. This book is no exception. With capital punishment at the core of this story, I found myself vacillating on pro or con throughout. I laughed and I cried and I got angry many times during this book.I am always challenged when writing a review of her books...tell too little and I'm not sure it does the book justice...tell too much and risk spoiling it for the next reader.

For June Nealon, the loss of her husband and daughter at the hands of a vicious murderer was the defining moment in her life. When Shay Bourne knocked on her door that afternoon looking for carpentry work, who knew that this unassuming man would so completely betray her trust and change her life forever...making her and her family part of the most heinous crime in New Hampshire history. The only thing that June has left is her daughter Claire....who is deathly ill with a failing heart, and in need of a donor. When Shay Bourne offers his own....he is, after all, on death row with his demise imminent....will June accept the most unlikeliest of gifts? Will Claire? Or will June choose to suffer yet more catastrophic loss? A powerful story of love, loss, religion and the most unlikely of Messiahs.....a tale that drives home that things are not always as they appear to be. That the most despicable of criminals may in fact be the hero that no one else has had the courage to be....a story that will make one question one's own beliefs, and incite us to look beyond the surface when seeking the truth. A wonderful, must-read.DYB