Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult

I really really really shouldn't be posting about a book I just finished. I really really shouldn't be spending my morning finishing a book. I really really should be going to the market to find food for the upcoming week. I really should be at work, working on my evil project that I'd love to be taken off of so that I can find a new project. I really should be working on my photos so I can get my last PEI trip uploaded. That trip was like a month a ago and I still don't have them up... and one of my friends is likely going to kill me because of it.... life is hard but you know what trumps all the angst written in this paragraph? Schlock by Jodi Picoult!


Oh how I love Jodi... let me count the ways... She is awesome at her little formula. Typical Jodi book has two mothers who are best friends and love each other like sisters but because of the big event of the book, that relationship is destroyed for ALL TIME. Also in this little formula are the children, usually of that age when they finally realize that their parents aren't perfect and start keeping secrets from them. The children are usually the "big event" plot point of the book and one is usually neglected over the needs of the other. The husbands are not usually as interesting except they are excellent fathers despite their typical not perfect characters. Actually, Jodi is very adapt at writing imperfect people which make them much more interesting to read. There might be some MarySue qualities going on here but they aren't annoying ones.

Handle With Care is a story about a family who has a child that was born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta. OI is a genetic defect that causes the bones to be extremely brittle and break very easily. They love their daughter Willow no matter how hard life is living with a child with a disability. Problem is, OI is very expensive. Insurance will only over so much, they are very much in debt, and they see the future where Willow will need more and more surgeries, special equipment, and one and on... The mother's gamble on a solution: file a wrongful birth lawsuit against the doctor. Wrongful birth argues that the doctor should have diagnosed the disability in the womb and offered abortion as an option. The big problem, the doctor is her best friend. Bing! Big Event Plot is born.

I know this is coming off as sarcastic but I really do like Picolts books. They are easy reads, usually about controversial subjects that are fun to discuss in a group, and there is something comforting about them. It has been over a year since I've read one but it felt like putting on that warm comfy sweater you keep in the back of the closet for cold winter nights. But in this case, a warm cosy book that you bring out on hot summer days to while away those days that feel too humid to move.

Anyway, iPod is charged and I have no more excuses to prevent the start of my day... too bad that didn't take longer.

Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam

Stupid dog. I'm sitting on my mother's front porch watching a neighbour's dog tempt fate by running back and forth across the street, narrowly avoiding oncoming traffic and its owner who keeps yelling, "Buddy!" Apparently this is a common occurrence and I'm finding it way too stressful. More on that later.

So, I finished another book. Weird how I feel more productive the more books I read and this one was a Giller prize winner. Not one of my pulp or graphic novels I can get through in a day. That being said it wasn't a difficult read or boring or weird in a Canadian literature sort of way. Weird, eh?

This book is a compilation of short stories about the medical experience, told from the point of view of a half a dozen doctors, starting from pre-med and the pressure to get into med school to the frustrations of the job. Since the author is also a doctor, I was a little afraid that the characters would be portrayed more on the heroic or martyred end of the spectrum like you find on bad television medical melodrama. That wasn't the case. Some of the doctors are jerks and some not-so-much of a jerk, basically human.

The fun part was finding out stuff I had noticed before, thought was weird, and now have an explanation for it. As in, I've spotted doctors coming in the patient's room during their rounds and take a seat. Are they tired? Didn't get enough sleep the night before? Turns out this gives the patient a sense of time spent and it is taught early. Unfortunately, I just know that if I find myself in a hospital and the doc takes a seat at the edge of the bed or nearby chair, I'll get a little giggly and that will earn me an extra day's stay for a psych evaluation. And to be honest, that just sounds easier than trying to explain what is going on it my wacky head.

Another interesting point, they put a glossary of terms in the back of the book but there wasn't a time when I thought that I didn't understand something. Must be a sure sign that I've watched way too much tv.

Anyway, this was a good book. Glad I read it, even if things didn't roll where I would have wanted them to.

As for the dog, the poor thing has been captured after about an hour of playing chase in the neighbourhood; score another point for that dog's guardian angel. I was sure a couple squealed tire sounds was going to mean that it was a goner for sure.

Claire's Head by Catherine Bush

I’m back into the “borrowed from co-workers” books. I promised myself that I wouldn’t do that but then, I also promised myself that I wouldn’t buy anymore until I read more from those that live on the “To be read” shelf…. The fluidity of promises around here is quite drenching. We will have to work on that.

But there is a story behind Claire’s Head and not just the one between the front and back cover. You see, this book was listed on a book club website. They pair up authors that are willing to come to book club meetings and book clubs that are willing to read the author’s book. (We could have used that when reading A Complicated Kindness.) We never choose Catherine’s book but then, I think some of us were afraid that we wouldn’t like it and then have to pretend to say nice things to the author’s face. It is so much easier to pan the author’s choices when they are not in the room.

I don’t think it would have been difficult coming up with nice things to say about this book. Not to mention, getting into our migraine stories would be a barrel of fun as well. You see, the main character, Claire, suffers from migraines. She has since she was a child and shares this affliction with one of her sisters, Rachel. When her sister goes missing, Claire travels the world, following a string of clues, to hopefully uncover what happened to her.

The majority of the story takes place in Toronto and Claire, who works as a mapmaker for the city, throws in a lot of the street names that even only infrequent visitors to the city would recognize. This allows for an interesting contrast as Claire describes how, under the strain of a migraine, the different parts of her body are affected. The mystery as to what happened to Rachel propels this story along and makes you wonder, under the most desperate of situations, what would you give up to make the pain go away?

Anyone who has ever suffered from a migraine can sympathize with what Claire and Rachel live with. Believe you me, I've made some strong promises to make it all go away. Or if you are lucky enough to have never experienced such pain, it should be quite the educational experience. Believe me, they can be quite strange and everyone’s is very different.

My rating: :-) :-) :-)