My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

 

      I will let you know now, from the very beginning, that this book is one of the most emotional books that I have ever had the pleasure to read.   Yes, it is a book about cancer.  I'm not sure why I wanted to read it, but I finally mustered up enough emotional stability to go to my bookshelf, grab the book, and whole myself up in my room.  I finished the book in the matter of nine hours.  

      I will begin with a run down of family.

      Sara, the mom, is an ex-lawyer, who believes her older sister (who basically raised her) is ashamed of her since Sara became everything Zanne wasn't- a mother and married to someone who Zanne thinks is less than capable to take care of the family.  Her main purpose in this book is, of course, a mother, but also to keep Kate alive.

       Brian is the firefighter dad who stays at the firestation a little too often.  I think this is to distance himself away from breaking down due to his eldest daughters condition.

       Jesse is the typical juvenile deliquent.  He is given the spot light a few times in this book, but I wouldn't call him a vital character.  He is the brother of Anna and Kate, son of Brian and Sara, and lives in the apartment above the garage.  The most important characteristic about Jesse is he is the arsonist we hear Brian and his team talking about so much.

       Kate, I would say, is the second main character.  She was diagnosed when she was two with a rare form of leukemia.  It grows a resistance to most drugs once previously taken.  Basically, her body is falling apart, and she relies on her sister, Anna, to keep her going.  Literally.  I'd say half of Kate's blood is Anna's.  I suppose at some point, she lost her will to survive, and, when diagnosed with kidney failure, she made Anna promise to refuse a kidney transplant.

       Anna is the main character of the book, though it switches points of views nearly every chapter.  She was conceived to give Kate chord blood cells that Kate desperately needed.  Sara and Brian genetically modified the egg to be a perfect genetic match for Kate, so, in case the need ever arised, Anna can donate.  However, before you jump to conclusions about how horrible of parents they seem to be, they only thought it would be chord blood cells.  When Anna was 5, she donated Leukocytes, and when she was 8, she donated three rounds of granulocytes.  Now, at 13, her sister makes her promise to refuse to donate a kidney, so she can die.  It kills Anna, but she agrees, and files a lawsuit against her parents for medical emancipation.

 

      This is when we meet Campbell Alexander, the man with the backwards name or the man who is named after the soup.  He is Anna's case attourney.  He has a hard outer shell, and gives bazzare reasons why he must have his dog every where he goes.  We don't learn until late in the book that he developed epilepsy after a car accident, and Judge is his seizure dog.  Actually, we learn this by Campbell having a seizure in the middle of the court hearing.

      Julia is the guardian ad litem.  She observes Anna's family for much of the story.  Her and Campbell have past history, and their love again blossoms.

      Judge De Salvo is the judge who makes the ultimate decision for Anna to be medically emancipated from her parents.  

    

 

       Even though they won the case, the ending was still extremely tragic, and not what you would expect.

        Though this book was emotional, it was worth the read. 

      

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

      Jane Eyre is a timeless classic that I absolutely adore.  If I don't know what to read, I generally turn to Charlotte Bronte's great work.  It is so in depth with emotion- love, anguish, hatred, sorrow, etc....   To those who don't enjoy classics (I started to enjoy reading by the classics, so I'm partial to authors like Charles Dickens, Bronte, and even Shakespeare.), this tale could be difficult to get into, and is rather long for most peoples tastes.
      Jane is an orphan, having both her parents die when she was an infant.  Her mother's brother- Mr. Reed of Gateshead Hall, a rather rich man, took her in.  Soon after, however, he passed, and left her with his wife and three children who mistreated her terribly.  Accustomed to their torment, and often hearing how horrible and wicked a child she was, she usually sat quiet and brooding, dreaming of a time where she could leave Gateshead Hall.

      Her wishes were granted after the harsh punishment that left her unconscious in the Red Room.  Soon she was sent to Lowood Institution for girls- a quaint Christian school started by Naomi Brocklehurst- currently ran by Mr. Brocklehurst of Brocklehurst hall. There she meets a few people who she would hold dear to her heart.  There she would experience heartache, beginning when her dear friend dies during the typhus outbreak.

 

      Her vast knowledge she acquired at Lowood helps her become the governess to Miss Adele Varens at Thornfield.  There she meets Mr. Rochester.  Despite her curiosity towards him, she tries to keep her distance.  Despite that effort she does fall in love.  However, she feels he won't feel the same for her since she is a governess and he is a wealthy man.  This is not the case.  

      Their plans to marry were tarnished when an objector informed Jane and the Priest that Mr. Rochester's first wife (one who he did not marry, but could not leave due to her insanity) was still alive.  Jane leaves him for a number of years, but returns.

      There is a happy ending, and they are married, despite what others may think.

      Despite the length of the novel, and how most would think Charlotte Bronte's writing seemed to drone on and on, I like this classic.  Like I said in the beginning of this post, I often turn back to this work.  If you have a young reader, who reads on a level more mature than most, or prefers the finer things in life (well, finer literary works), I recommend Jane Eyre for them.