Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

When starting this book, I became automatically grabbed into the story because Kristin Hannah writes in such a descriptive and interesting manner that the reader wants to continue reading. At first, I was a little hesitant to read this novel because it takes place in the summer of 1974. Due to the fact that the novel takes place in the 1970's, I predicted that it might be a difficult to understand the language in the novel since it was not taking place in modern day. Also, I thought that there might be references in the book to things occurring at this time that I would not be able to relate to it. However, I find that Hannah has written the novel in an enticing way that I am able to connect with it. Tully's problem of having her mom constantly abandoning her due to the fact that she is drug addicted and a hippie is one that many children today in foster care or an orphanage can relate to. Even though the hippie movement may be over, there are still plenty of mothers out there today who are either doing drugs or who are constantly drunk all of the time.

The main characters, Tully and her best friend Kate, have very different personalities. Their personalities are do different that the reader at the beginning of the novel would not even suspect that they would end up becoming friends. Tully is a girl who learned to grow up without her mom and dad. The only positive influence that Tully had in her life was her grandmother who had raised her after her mother had abandoned her for drugs. Tully's mother, Cloud, blames her own mother for a mistake that occurred a long time ago, but what that secret is has not been revealed yet. As Tully continues to get older, she continues to miss her mother and keeps memories from her childhood in her scrapbook in case her mother ever came back and wanted to see what she had missed with all those years of abandonment. However, at the age of 14, Tully stops asking her grandmother to get her a scrapbook and she eventually gives up hope that her mom will come back for her. Tully starts the typical teenage rebellious behavior and starts wearing clothes her grandmother doesn't really approve of. Tully eventually becomes the most popular girl at school, but she constantly feels alone and abandoned despite the fact she has all these friends. Tully's messed up and lonely life is nothing compared to the life that Kate has. Kate has a wonderful and supporting family, but she is constantly embarrassed by her mom's rules and feels alone because she has no friends. When Tully moves on to Firefly Lane with her mom and becomes neighbors of Kate, Kate automatically is jealous of the life she leads. However, would Kate really want to change places with Tully if she really knew what Tully went through??

The way that the Kristin had blended two opposite personalities was done well. It was very interesting for me to realize that two people who come from different lives could end up having one common feeling-lonely. I find it peculiar that Kate is not able to make the connection that her and Tully really did have something in common, and that she was not able to see that Tully's life was really not as good as it seems. Constantly throughout the book Tully would say to Kate that she is lucky to have a mom that is worried about you. Thus, it then shows the reader that Tully would trade the life of independence and popularity to just have a family and have someone that cares for her. It just goes to show you that popularity is not always everything and people all have complications in their lives that they need to deal with.

One particular passage that I found helpful in learning about the inner thoughts and traits of the characters was when Kristin wrote: "Bye. Tully stood there for a moment, feeling awkward. She wanted to hug Kate, maybe even cling to her and tell her how much this night had been helped by her, but she didn't dare. She'd learned a thing or two about vulnerability from her mother, and she felt too fragile now to risk humiliation." It becomes evident now that Tully is having a difficult time trusting a person and that just having someone taking the time to talk to her and truly listen to what is bothering her is all that Tully desires. As Tully had explained "On rare days she still felt...not quite lonely...but something. Adrift, maybe. As if the people she hung around with were placeholders. Today was one of those days. She sat in her regular seat on the school bus, hearing the buzz of gossip go on around her. Everyone seemed to be talking about family things; she had nothing to add to the conversations. She knew nothing about fighting with your little brother or being grounded for talking back to your parents or going to the mall with your mom. Thankfully, when the bus pulled up to her stop, she hurried off, making a big show of saying goodbye to her friends, laughing loudly and waving. Pretending; she did a lot of that lately." Hannah puts so much emotion into this passage that I am able to sympathize with Tully. While this feeling of abandonment is something that I can't fully understand, I am able to see the pretending and loneliness that she feels, and I think that many readers will be able to relate and connect to these emotions.

Overall, this book is off to a great start--stay tuned for more information on the friendship of Tully and Kate!!!

Addition by Toni Jordan

While reading this book, I must say that the way Jordan developed the main character, Grace, seemed very realistic to what someone today would describe as obsessive compulsive disorder. While I would argue the author did an excellent job at showing the reader what goes on with a person suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder, the way that she developed the character could have been done in more detail. It was a little difficult in the beginning of the novel to fully understand why she kept counting everything-literally everything. She would count the bristles on a toothbrush to the size of the piece of cake she would in her mouth at breakfast. It also was unclear exactly when this became a problem for Grace and what events in her life caused her to act in this manner. The reader can gather the impression that Grace was an upset and lonely, but there was no explanation of why until later on in the novel. However, this was not done in a significant amount of clarity as I would have liked to have seen. This may cause a problem for some readers because they would prefer a faster paced novel and one that answers the questions going on their mind as they read.

Grace always kept the fact that she counted everything a secret, and she really did not see it as a problem until a man in the grocery store named Ian noticed it because she had taken one of his bananas in order to have an even number of 10. What I specifically found challenging to understand is how Grace could not know that there was a problem and try to get help. It should have became obvious to her she needed help or she needed to tell someone about her problems when she wasn't able to hold her job as a teacher anymore.

Despite some of the issues I had with the development of the character, overall I would say that the novel was very well written. Toni Jordan wrote in a very interesting manner and it was done in a way that was understandable and enjoyable. The narrator for the duration of the story was Grace, which I find interesting because I wonder if the perception the reader sees of Grace would have been different if the narrator was somebody else or even if it changed from Grace to one of her family members. When you read the novel with Grace as the narrator, you get the impression that she is a lonely girl who just wants to fit in the world despite the fact that she has the compulsion to count. However, in my opinion, the reader would probably think of Grace as either annoying or strange if the story was narrated by her sister or Ian.

I found myself taking a long time completing this book because in the beginning it was a difficult for me to get interested because she begins by discussing numbers. However, eventually I was able to get used to her referring to objects that are countable and discussing her daily routine with time. One quote I found interesting was "Most people don't understand that numbers rule, not just the world in a macro way but their world, their own world. Their lives. They don't really understand that everything and everybody are connected my a mathematical formula. Counting is what defines us...the only thing that gives our lives meaning is the knowledge that eventually we all will die. That's what makes each minute important. Without the ability to count our days, our hours, our loved ones...there's no meaning. Our lives would have no meaning. Without counting, our lives are unexamined. Not valued. Not precious. This consciousness, this ability to rejoice when we gain something and grieve when we lose something-this is what separates us from other animals. Counting, adding, measuring, timing. It's what makes us human." When Grace states this it becomes clear that she wants meaning in her life and that she feels that counting gives meaning because it gives her something to get through the day and to look forward to. However, at the end of the novel, Grace's attitude about life changes and is evident when she says "Life isn't when you are standing on top of the mountain looking at the sunset. Life isn't waiting at the altar or the moment your child is born or that time you were swimming in deep water and a dolphin came up alongside you. These are fragments. 10 or 12 grains of sand spread throughout your entire existence. These are not life. Life is brushing your teeth or making a sandwich or watching the news or waiting for the bus. Or walking. Every day, thousands of tiny events happen and if you're not watching, if you're not careful, if you don't capture them and make them count, you could miss it. You could miss your whole life." Now, Grace is beginning to see that she has wasted part of her life with her compulsions and little details of life that she thought she needed to know when really all she needs to enjoy the simplicity of life itself. Curious to know what makes Grace want to change and appreciate her life??

A connection I was able to make with this book was with the television series Monk. How both this novel and Monk are similar is that they both tell a story about the lives of people who have to live with obsessive compulsive disorder, and how other people view their abnormalities. So, for people who are fans of the television show Monk, this book may be for you to read....

Change Of Heart by Jodi Picoult

"Would you give up your vengeance against someone you hate if it meant saving someone you love? Would you want your dreams to come true if it meant granting your enemy's dying wish?" When I read this quote in the back of the novel for the first time, I became intrigued by the topic and idea of the novel. I mean, it is not often that a person has to decide between continuing to feel hatred or letting someone they care for die. I picked up this book having a feeling that it would be very thought provoking and meaningful, and indeed it was.

After reading this novel, I was impressed by how strongly Jodi Picoult developed the characters. The character, in my opinion, that she developed best was Shay Borne. In the beginning of the novel, you go from thinking that Shay is truly a criminal and just wants to be redeemed for his wrong doings by giving Claire, a girl who has pediatric myopathy, a new heart before he is sentenced to death by lethal injection. However, as the novel goes on and continues, you get a chance to see the type of person that Shay is, and you see that he is not a cold blooded killer who killed June's husband Kurt and daughter Elizabeth. Then, when you find out that he is truly innocent, that is actions were merely to protect Elizabeth because Shay had witnessed Kurt abusing her, you see a side of Shay that is heroic and compassionate. What is confusing for the reader to grasp is why Shay would not tell his side of the story to the police or his attorney. The answer that Shay describes to his spiritual adviser, Father Michael, is that he doubts anybody will believe him since his record is not the cleanest to begin with. Also, because he knows that the DNA evidance proves he murdered them since his fingerprints were found on the gun. So, he just took the blame like he had done with his sister when she had burned the house down. I think that there is more to Shay's thinking th at even the author wanted left to interpretation. After all, there are many reasons as to why Shay could have done this.

Whether his actions were because he sees himself as worthless or that he truly wants to be kind and compassionate and seen as a hero is a matter of opinion. Out of all the books I have read by Picoult my favorite is this one because of how emotional the book is and how much I learned through this book about learning to see different sides of people and not to be judgemental. I even learned just simple basic facts about the death penalty. Another aspect of this novel I found interesting was how she discussed religious beliefs and the justice system in America, since currently many people do not talk about this. The way she does this though, however, is one that is fair and non biased.

One specific part in the book that I found memorable and well written was in the epilogue when Claire says "I have been someone different now for three weeks. It's not something you can tell by looking at me; it's not even something I can tell by looking at the mirror. The only way I can describe it, and it's weird, so get ready, is like waves: they just crash over me and suddenly, even if I'm surrounded by a dozen people, I'm lonely. Even if I'm doing everything I want to, I start to cry." I find this quote very powerful and meaningful because I think this is where readers begin to see that Claire is beginning to understand exactly what Shay was feeling, and Shay is trying to reveal to Claire, in his own weird and crazy way, that his actions were truly for a good reason.

I would highly recommend this book to readers who enjoy novels that teach you life lessons and anyone who enjoys characters that reveal their true selves as the book continues. This novel is surely one that nobody should pass up on--it is truly a moving and powerful read.