Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult

I was recently on vacation outside of the country and found myself out of books...and out of hope that I might be able to find a good book in English to carry me through the rest of my vacation. Reading books in Spanish, while a noble pursuit, was not really what I was hoping for on my beach vacation. I was pleasantly surprised when I found a Jodi Picoult book on the shelf in the resort gift shop (strangely, none of the books in the shop were even in Spanish).

I'm trying to think of what I would compare Picoult to in order to effectively communicate how I feel about her as an author. I guess I might compare her to my car - she's reliable and at times surprisingly powerful...and there's usually nothing ordinary about her (I might be overestimating people's opinions of VWs right now, but anyone else who owns a VW will tell you that they consider their car to be anything but normal).

I've read a number of Picoult's books (7 of what I believe are 14 she has released to date) and she never disappoints. Her books are usually sensational (and I mean that in the most literal sense), focusing on controversial topics. One thing I really like about Picoult is that she does her homework, and it's obvious - she always thoroughly researches the topics she's writing about and you are definitely left with more knowledge after reading her books. Granted, that knowledge is usually about rather obscure things such as the different methods of hanging used in Capital Punishment, but it's knowledge nonetheless.

Change of Heart tells the story of a young man named Shay Bourne who is on Death Row and wants to donate his heart post-execution. Picoult's work isn't full of deep, meaningful metaphors (at least if it is, they're too deep for me because I haven't caught them), but it is full of interesting stories that can at times be deeply moving (I do not recommend that you read My Sister's Keeper in any public place). I would confidently recommend any of her books to a friend - regardless of whether or not they were titles I had read. There's something to be said for an author who can instill such confidence in her readers. Picoult, as an author, is like a smoldering flame - she won't burn bright and die quickly. She'll continue to throw heat.