Books of 2012: My Highlights

A lot of great books hit the shelves in 2012. Some highly-anticipated novels left many readers underwhelmed, while other quiet debuts proved that you don't have to have a well-known name to write a quality piece of fiction. 2012 also saw the welcome return of much-loved author Marian Keyes and brought British expat Jane Green briefly back to her native England.

This year, Young Adult fiction became my new favourite genre. Having adored the imagination and complexity of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, I had been searching for something to fill that void. The release of the Hunger Games film earlier in the year sent me to the book trilogy and I managed to devour all three in a very short space of time. It was similar in plot to that of Battle Royale (one of my favourite films!) but it brought a sick reality TV element that made it all the more sinister in its glamour. The Suzanne Collins trilogy was simply the beginning of my YA enjoyment this year though, with an impressive debut from Louisa Reid and a dramatic change in style from world-renowned author Jodi Picoult.

Firstly, Reid's dark book Black Heart Blue blew me away. There is nothing worse than finding something written for teenagers that is filled with a patronising attitude and simplicity - as if they are incapable of grasping anything more. There is none of that here as Reid deals with abuse, neglect and disability with grace and intelligence. The book, about the twin left behind after the death of her beautiful, more socially accepted, sister, is heartbreaking but gripping in its style. An eye-opener that promises more exciting work from an immensely talented author.

Completely different in style to Black Heart Blue, Picoult teamed up with her teenage daughter Samantha Van Leer to write the simply magical Between the Lines. The story, which sees the division between reader and fictional character blurred, saw a teenage girl fall for a character in a book - who wants nothing more than to leave his world and join hers. With gorgeous images in the margins and an utterly captivating and imaginative story, it's pure unadulterated escapism. A delight.

Another impressive debut this year came from Karen Thompson Walker who took a slow and menacing apocalyptic look at the end of the world in The Age of Miracles. It's completely captivating throughout and the prose is just gorgeous.

For the more adult reads this year, highlights have included Jane Green's The Patchwork Marriage, Dorothy Koomson's The Rose Petal Beach and the welcome return of Marian Keyes with her first novel in a few years, Mystery of Mercy Close. Green handled the contemporary issue of blended families with impartiality and understanding. Koomson brought a hidden darkness and humanity to a mystery and Keyes brought her own battle with depression into a courageous book about Helen Walsh.

2012 was also the year when Novelicious creator, Kirsty Greenwood, self-published her hilarious debut novel, Yours Truly. The book is filled with northern charm, humour and endearing characters. The premise - that Natalie Butterworth, people-pleaser and all round wallflower, is hypnotised into telling the truth - is inspired and loses nothing in the execution.

For the even more adult readers, of course, this was the year of 'mummy porn' Fifty Shades of Grey. The writing of this phenomenon was poor but the book was a guilty pleasure enjoyed by millions of readers across the world. The series spawned lots of copycats who tried to follow on from the success of E.L. James's books but only one managed to come close. With the creation of her crossfire series - which began with Bared to You - Sylvia Day created a brilliantly written tale of two dysfunctional people far more equal in their partnership. It's dramatic, naughty and devilishly exciting. Well worth a read.

What have your book highlights been for 2012? Share your tips in the comments below...
 

Exclusive Interview: Jodi Picoult on My Sister's Keeper Adaptation

Bestselling author Jodi Picoult is in the UK at the moment to talk about her new book Lone Wolf. The author of books including Change of Heart, Nineteen Minutes and Songs of a Humpback Whale was good enough to squeeze me into her busy schedule and I got to ask the lady herself just what she thought of the adaptation process from the perspective of the book's author.

Check out My Sister's Keeper: Book vs Film here


My Sister's Keeper – arguably your most popular book to date – was adapted into a film a few years ago. But the dramatic ending change in the film version angered many fans. How was that whole experience for you as the author and do you think authors should have involvement in adaptations?

Authors have no involvement in adaptations. Hollywood thinks we are the least important piece of the puzzle and by and large authors have zero control over a film. You give a baby up for adoption, you hope it goes to a good family and sometimes you're disappointed which is surely what happened to me with My Sister's Keeper.

In my case, the director knew that I thought it was very important that the ending stay the same and when he met with me, he read the book and said 'You're right, that's the only ending for the story. I'm not going to change it. If it does change, I'm going to tell you why and tell you myself.'

I then spent a year working with him, creating a script that was very close to the book and then one day a fan who worked at the casting agency contacted me to ask if I knew they had changed the ending. I called Nick, the director, at his house and he wouldn't talk to me and I flew to the set and he kicked me off the set and I went to the head of New Line Cinema and I said 'You're going to lose money on this film' and he said 'We know what we're doing'. And sure enough they lost a lot of money on the film.

I hope this hasn't put you off allowing any other adaptations in the future.

No, in fact Ellen Degeneres has the movie rights to Sing you Home and she's got a director attached, a star attached and a terrific producing team and they are going out now to produce it and starting to get interest for it which is wonderful.

The full interview can be found at Novelicious .

To find out where Jodi Picoult will be speaking on her UK tour check out her website - http://www.jodipicoult.com/events.html#British_Isles

Cover for Jodi Picoult's New Book: Lone Wolf

I've had the pleasure of reading this book - which is out at the end of the month - and I have just seen the final cover. Now I know the saying suggests you shouldn't judge a book by its cover but wow. I think it's gorgeous and had to share it...

The book is available to pre-order now and my review will be going up at Novelicious soon.

My Sister's Keeper: Book Vs. Film

Jodi Picoult is a bestselling women's fiction author and with good reason. She has broken the mould of nice and neat literature by exploring taboo subjects with sensitivity and grit. She has explored horrific topics from rape to organ donation and terminal illness. The infamous grey area where things are not clear cut and there are different perspectives to consider.

In My Sister's Keeper, she writes about a family with a child so sick they genetically alter a new baby to be born as a perfect match for its big sister. The cells from newborn Anna are used from the moment of her birth to help her big sister live just a little longer and continue as the years pass. And while all these operations and procedures help Kate live, they are not a cure and she continues to get sick and have treatment for her Leukaemia.

So when Anna goes to a lawyer and asks to sue for the rights to her own body, there are some serious reactions from her family. Her mother cannot understand how she could be so selfish and issue what is tantamount to a death warrant to her big sister while Anna's father tries to understand and be more sympathetic to his daughter's plight. After all, you can't help one child by hurting another - can you?

And this is the moral and ethical dilemma that is explored so beautifully by Picoult throughout the book. As the court case continues, Kate is getting sicker and the already dysfunctional family unit starts to fracture even more under the increasing pressure. The marriage between mum Sarah and dad Brian is close to complete meltdown and tensions are constantly running high. The brother Jesse is all but forgotten amid the chaos and Kate spends a lot of time in a hospital bed, sheltered by her parents. They clearly think they are protecting her but frequently get it wrong or make it worse. Kate gets a brief flickering romance with a fellow patient at the hospital that is so cute and endearing it makes you smile.

The point to the book is that no human is perfect and when faced with a situation as horrific as this, nobody knows how they would react. As with all good Picoult books, there are twists and turns you do not see coming that will leave you stunned and moved to tears on numerous occasions. To tell you any more would ruin the book so I will just say have tissues at the ready and read with an open mind to all perspectives.

5 out of 5 FOBLES - sensitive and daring. Perfect!

Now the film... The film had Abigail Breslin playing Anna and Cameron Diaz playing her mother. Two pieces of great casting that would have worked had the film been any good...but sadly it was not.

I heard when this was due out that something big had been changed but when I saw it at the cinema I was horrified to discover what it was that had been changed. I can't say what without ruining it but it's not a small change I can tell you that and it completely ruined the brilliantly written and darkly poetic ending to the masterpiece novel. It managed to turn a sensitive, sweet and endearing teen romance into something overly raunchy and unnecessary. For the brief moments where I actually enjoyed seeing the relationship between the sisters on the big screen I will give it 1 FOBLE but otherwise it's an overly sentimental destruction of a work of literary genius and deserves nothing more from me.

If it had stuck to the plot of the book, it would have been a classy, clever and endearing weepy but it ended up being an overly sentimental tearjerker playing for cheap tears like a bad comedy plays for the cheap and obvious laughs. I have never been so compelled to complain as I did when I watched this and even found myself going on to the Jodi Picoult website to ask her what the hell she had done in allowing them to destroy her masterpiece. Evidently I was not the first... as Jodi had already written on her page that she had no say in the matter and if you wanted to complain, do it the filmmakers directly.... so I did.

1 out of 5 FOBLES.  Horrific, tacky and obvious.

LE xx

Songs of a Humpback Whale by Jodi Picoult

Picoult has, by a large, found a niche and stuck with it and it has not failed her. Her books always raise ethical and moral dilemmas and explore what different people might do in different situations. Over her many books, she has explored religion, heart transplants, murder, choosing between children and even rape and abuse.

So, having read My Sister’s Keeper, I found it interesting to go back to where it all began – her first book. And it did not disappoint. Songs of a Humpback Whale has all the trademarks of a Picoult – brilliantly written and totally flawed and relatable characters within a complex plot with a strong emotional pull.

The main difference is that this book is much simpler in its drama. There is no massive life or death dilemma. The action, as it were, has already happened. We learn early on that Jane, the main protagonist, was abused as a child by her father and escaped into marriage at a young age. The reader also discovers at the very beginning that their daughter Rebecca survived a plane crash, aged 3. These two massive events are what, directly and indirectly, lead to Jane leaving her husband with her daughter in tow and that is when the book really begins. Her husband is a workaholic (a leader in his field of Whale song - hence the title) and has spent years neglecting his family with his absence. After a fight, Jane has had enough and runs.

Picoult is more subtle in this book, but equally brilliant. She explores in great depth the relationships between family members and the hazards of believing first impressions. She jumps perspectives from character to character and time, leaping between past, present and future events - but the fundamentals are not lost along the way. The characters are so well written that they leaped off the page and became my friends - ultimately I just wanted to know how their lives were going to pan out.

The book is more adult than I was expecting, as both Jane and Rebecca learn about new loves and go on their own paths of self-discovery in a very detailed and often explicit way so perhaps not for much younger readers.

Personally, I think it is a true testament to the readability of a book that even when the end is revealed in the middle, the reader still wants to continue reading simply to discover how it reached that point. And I did. It is that compelling.

A must for any Picoult fan, and for any readers who want to try her it would be a great place to start.

Enjoy! LE xx

3.5/5