I will give it this...the book is an easy read. I'm still trying to figure out why it is such a classic. It's not a bad book, I just didn't necessarily find it riveting. Finished it in two days and had to check online at the SparkNotes to make sure I didn't miss something as I was left slightly dumbfounded when I was done. Turns out I followed the plot just fine, understood everything that was going on. Maybe I'm just a simpleton or maybe I set my standards too high or low, but I left this book feeling rather unimpressed for all the hype it has received.

I read this book back in high school as a requirement for my 10th grade English course. I decided that it was time to read it again now that I'm older (and hopefully wiser). The story does definitely show some parallels with live in today's political climate - in ways that have been a bother to me for some time. However, I found the writing fairly pedantic and the story didn't seem to flow as easily as it could have. I'm sure that part of it was on purpose in order to mislead and confuse the reader, but I don't think that approach served the plot as well as it could have. There were times when the vagueness caused more frustration than curiosity for me. Overall, not a bad read and I can understand why it is a staple for high school and college English courses. Just not one of my favorites.

I'm just going to be blunt about this. This book was weird. Easily read, sure. Well-rounded characters, yup. Plot, just plain odd. The story follows Rose Edelstein, who can understand people based on the taste of the food they make. She can identify ingredients and their sources in addition to the emotions of the chef. It all begins when she taste a chocolate frosted lemon cake baked by her mother that just tastes like sadness. I think this book had great potential. The story could have blossomed in so many ways. There were opportunities that I felt should have been taken that just weren't. The plot was occasionally left dead and empty when it temporarily had such promise. Just when I would get to a point where I thought "Here we go. This is about to get really good..." nope. It stopped. The direction of the plot would change or the time frame of the story would jump to another year, another location. It was very frustrating. Honestly I was torn as whether to give it two or three stars. The sheer potential of this book is the only thing that saved it from a two star rating. I found the story line of Rose's brother, Joseph extremely vague and frustrating. I'm certain that the vagueness was intentional, but because of it the entire story line containing the brother only detracted from the novel as a whole rather than adding the depth that it had the possibility of doing. Overall, I suppose I just find myself disappointed and angry at having finished this book without getting what I wanted out of it.

Realistically, if there were half stars I would've given this book a 3.5. I have read Kitchen Confidential and watched No Reservations and I love Anthony Bourdain for his wit and sarcasm. The stories he tells in this book are well written and detailed as I would expect. However, I did notice a distinct change in his sardonic nature. He tended to be softer on his rivals than he had been in the first book. I blame this on his fame. In fact, he alludes to the fact that this is the issue as he states that he could not be trusted to be a critic. He wouldn't give anyone a bad review for fear of losing some of the perks that come with his status. I find this a little sad. I still enjoy him, but now the fact that his honestly could be tainted - in a man who I thoroughly enjoyed purely for his brutal honesty - has somewhat wrecked it for me. I will still continue to read his books and watch his shows, but the gild has come off of the lily so to speak.

I had high hopes for this book, but they just weren't met. I found the start of it boring and only stuck with it because a good friend had told me how much she loved it. I did like the setup of telling the story through multiple years on the same day. I found it very creative. I liked the writing and the author's tone. I just found the plot to be less that I'd hoped for. The book finally started to pick up near the middle and I found myself getting more involved with it, the reading going faster and easier. But then the bottom dropped out. An event in the plot completely ruined the entire book for me. After that I was only half-heartedly reading. I felt very disappointed in where the author chose to take the plot. I appreciate that he did make it less predictable than it otherwise could have been, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.

I really did enjoy this book. The writing was superb and she manages to balance out the sides to each story. In a book like this I find that I have to judge based on how much the plot moves me emotionally - for good or for bad. Unfortunately some of the ways the plot led made me feel rather conflicted and uncomfortable, leading me to give this one a rating lower than it could have potentially had. If there were half scores, I would give it a 3.5. I had quite powerful opinions that formed throughout the development of the story. The case of assisted suicide is presented quite well. Even though I found myself often torn about Maggie's death, I could understand the pain. Though I could never put myself in the position of either Jamie or Maggie with regard to her death, I could see how such a tragic illness could tear two people apart. I did find it slightly distracting that the book began to sway more heavily towards the relationship between Cam and Mia. I felt that the focus left the Jamie story line too much and I was absolutely disgusted by Cam. He wants to have his cake and eat it too. I found it highly upsetting. I would've changed a few things about the story to make it more palatable, but she does keep it realistic. Though I may not like the way things turned out, this is the way that they certainly could've occurred in real life. I just felt disappointed in the development of Allie's character. I found her so charismatic and loving at the beginning. I hated to see her become more and more of a doormat as things progressed.

CeeCee Wilkes is conned into aiding Timothy Gleason and his brother kidnap the Governor's wife, Genevieve. She is naive and unaware that she is being used. When Genevieve's remains are found twenty years later, the child she was carrying missing, CeeCee's life turns upside down. She was there and she knows what has happened. How much should she do?

It's difficult to review this book without giving away too much of the story. Though this wasn't what I was expecting, I found myself enjoying this book. There were a few uncomfortable moments and times when I would have written things differently, but the plot weaves a good sense of conflict among the characters. I formed very strong feelings about the main characters - their dynamics lent themselves to frustration. I had a hard time deciding on my rating for this book. Once again, I am wishing there were half stars. I actually would place this at a 3.5. I did enjoy reading it. It just didn't suck me in as much as it had the potential to do.

Ugh. I really did not like this book. I struggled to finish it. I didn't like the characters, I didn't like the plot. The only thing that saved it from being one star is that Jodi Picoult can make a book that makes sense. I HATED the chapters narrated by Max. I wanted to just beat him upside the head. Yup. This book made me consider violence. This was hands down the worst Jodi Picoult book I've ever read and quite possibly the worst book I've read this year. Never again.

I'm not sure what I was expecting here, but this wasn't it. Lift is an open letter to her daughters. While it's cute and in some places very endearing, it doesn't really have a good flow and seems to wander aimlessly from one topic to the next. She has a nice style of writing and she does well with speaking directly to her daughters, I just wish it were organized a little bit differently.