My Sister's Keeper

written by Jodi Picoult

It's been a long time since I've gotten worked up enough about a book that I actually cry over it. I don't know, maybe this says something about the dearth of good literature that crosses my coffee table. (Oh wait, I don't have a coffee table.) All I know is, I can count on my pal Janet to pass along a good gut-wrenching read when she finds one, and she did. I figure any book that reduces me to whimpering on my couch at three in the afternoon has to be pretty good.

The gist of the story: there are two sisters. One's 16 and in the late stages of a wicked form of leukemia. The other, who's 13, was conceived specifically to be a donor for her sister and has undergone all kinds of medical procedures in order to prolong the older sister's life. The novel begins with the 13-year-old tenuously seeking out a lawyer to help her gain medical emancipation from her parents.

As if this isn't enough, add to the mix a controlling and martyr-like (but well-intentioned) mother, a dad who's caught in the crossfire, a neglected and rebellious older brother, and you have the makings of a pretty profound page-turner.

I like the way the auther puts it: "...this isn't an easy book, and you know from the first page that there are no easy answers."

Really cool elements:

• Picoult's writing style is easy and inviting. Throughout the book, she gives voice to each of the main characters, flipping back and forth among each of their perspectives. If that sounds annoying, give it a chance anyway — it's surprisingly easy to read because Picoult does it so well. I found it pretty amazing that she could, for example, go from being a 13-year-old girl, to the fortysomething firefighter dad, to the used-to-be-attorney mom, to the slimey (but yet likeable at some levels!) lawyer who represents the main character. Only thing that felt weird was, the perspective of the sick daughter was never revealed until the very end. It will become obvious why, if you read through to the last page.
• Though certain characters cause a lot of messy moral themes to surface (drug use, promiscuity, arson, and parental rights are a few that come to mind), there is some form of resolution to many of these problems in the end.
• And speaking of the end. If you like twisty plots like I do, this is the book for you. If you hate being shocked, better read the last chapter first.

Not-so-cool elements:

• This is a great parable about human love and sacrifice, and because the main characters are teenagers, about 80 percent of the book is awesome material for the 13-and-up crowd — especially since readers of that age are beginning to look outside themselves and ponder larger issues of morality. Only problem is the other 20 percent of the book. Particularly the parts that focus on the unruly older brother, who uses some pretty raw language and gets himself into all sorts of mayhem while the rest of his family is focusing on the sick sister. There's also some hanky panky between the attorney and the court-appointed guardian ad litem, which seemed unnecessarily explicit.
• For being such a realistic book, portions of the ending seemed a little too tidy, maybe far-fetched. Nuff said. I won't spoil it for you.

Snow Mountain Passage

written by James D. Houston

This was a great summer read — a fascinating piece of historical fiction that brings to life the ordeal of the famous Donner Party. The story focuses mainly on James Frazier Reed, one of the group's leaders, but the author folds in recollections from Reed's daughter, Patty, who was eight at the time the pioneers attempted to cross the Sierra Nevadas.

You probably already know bits of their story because the nation developed (and still maintains) a morbid fascination with the fact that certain members of the party resorted to cannibalism — an early snow trapped most of them in the cruel mountains, with almost no means of obtaining food once their supplies ran out. What the book does, though, is go far beyond the gore (the cannibalism bit isn't even a focus of the story until about the last 75 pages) and instead affords appropriate attention to the experience of these remarkable people who gave new meaning to the idea of human endurance. Houston skillfully develops themes that we can all relate too: human conflict, power struggles, loss, grief, hopelessness, and survival — not only physical survival, but survival of the spirit.

Really cool elements:

• At the risk of spoiling the book for you, I need to mention that there is a beautiful theme of reconciliation that doesn't fully materialize until the end.
• Houston paints a portrait of Reed that holds him up as an amazing example of husband and father, without coming off as trite or phony. His character is genuine, believable, human, and (yes) flawed. His flaws and mistakes are what make this book captivating.
• Teachers and parents won't have trouble recommending this book to kids that are middle-school-aged and older. Though some of the themes are disturbing, they reflect the conflicts we experience in real life. There are only a handful of swear words (and aptly used, I might add) and there's nothing in the book that I would consider raunchy.

Not-so-cool elements:

• There are a lot of names to remember here. The Donner Party was really big, and many characters come into play as Reed's story unfolds. If you read like I do — in short snatches here and there, between carpool responsibilities and work appointments or whenever a blessed commitment-free minute presents itself — you might need to keep a list of who's who.