Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult

Monday, August 19, 2013

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Summary from Goodreads

From the New York Times bestselling author of My Sister’s Keeper,Lone Wolf, and the forthcoming The StorytellerHarvesting the Heart is written with astonishing clarity and evocative detail, convincing in its depiction of emotional pain, love, and vulnerability, and recalls the writing of Alice Hoffman and Kristin Hannah. Paige has only a few vivid memories of her mother, who left when she was five. Now, having left her father behind in Chicago for dreams of art school and marriage to an ambitious young doctor, she finds herself with a child of her own. But her mother's absence, and shameful memories of her past, make her doubt both her maternal ability and her sense of self worth. Out of Paige's struggle to find wholeness,
Jodi Picoult crafts an absorbing novel peopled by richly drawn characters and explores issues and emotions readers can relate to.

My Review


It's sad to read a love story when you it won't end well. That's how I felt while reading this book. It's quite thick for a normal book and I can't imagine how will I endure the long story of Paige and Nicholas knowing Paige will end up sleeping in the porch. :( But this prologue also is the thing that keeps me going. How these two, so in love ended up in that stage.


I admin, I got bored in the end. You'll see it in the way I count the pages until the next chapter, how much pages will I still have to read to end this. But something in this story caught my interest that kept me going. But when I reached the second part of the story, I guess the story grew on me and I can't keep the book down. I was wondering at the beginning where will the story goes, and the second part answered all my questions and got me more intrigued.

At first, all I could see is Paige, a girl so lost. And when Nicholas came, I thought Paige had already found herself. But I was wrong. It only made her more lost. She lost her remaining self to Nicholas. She never found herself and she believes that the only way to find her way back to herself is by finding her mother who left her when she was young. I love the natural way the story goes. It's like I was there, helping Paige search for herself because I too don't know what's exactly she's searching for. We realized at the same time what's really the problem and I went with her as she goes back to where she really belongs to.
 
I started fearing the ending knowing Paige and Nicholas are not ok near the end. I wanted them so bad to be together that as I came near the end, I was wishing new pages will sprout to make the story longer. So opposite of what I'm feeling at the beginning of the book! haha!

I also wonder if this is a paranormal story or what. Paige's gift of drawing not just the person but also her past kept me wondering all throughout the st book. What is it's relation to story.To think that Paige always run away from her past and at the same tie long for it, does it makes sense that she sees other's past in her drawings?
I love how this book tackled how some person lost themselves in a relationship. Completely forgetting their own wants and needs for the satisfaction of their partner. It showed how important it is to be an individual person to stand on their own. That it is possible to love someone with all of you but still keeps who you really are.

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

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Summary by Goodreads

In her early thirties, Elizabeth Gilbert had everything a modern American woman was supposed to want--husband, country home, successful career--but instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she felt consumed by panic and confusion. This wise and rapturous book is the story of how she left behind all these outward marks of success, and of what she found in their place. Following a divorce and a crushing depression, Gilbert set out to examine three different aspects of her nature, set against the backdrop of three different cultures: pleasure in Italy, devotion in India, and on the Indonesian island of Bali, a balance between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence. 

My Review


The book that inspired me in every possible way! Ms. Gilbert made me wear her shoes as she travel to Italy, India, and Indonesia just by reading her words. It made me want to travel, to eat, to pray, to write, and to find myself as well.


I have watched this movie a long time ago. I got interested in the movie that made me want to read the book. But there's this fear that the book will not be much as interesting as the movie or the other way around. Either ways, I'll get disappointed. That's why it took me years before reading this. So when an opportunity came and someone lent me the book, I started reading. 

It's an easy read actually. For a travel and inspirational book, I did not had a hard time understanding each words. Ms. Gilbert has this way of writing the story in its simplest form, despite of all the complications. 

I guess the only hard part for me here is the "eat: part. I'm not that much familiar with the foods but I always loved Italy so I don't mind it at all. It's like I've been travelling with Ms. Gilbert all throughout the book. It's like I'm the one experiencing it and not her. And at some point, there are words that I'll read that would reach to the deepest of my heart. I started feeling that each words she's telling in this book are somehow made just for me.

It's a perfect book. It's like my soul was cleansed and I became mature a little after reading the book. I've learned lots of things just by reading this one. And as a frustrated traveler, I know that what we could experience as we travel is something that we could keep for the rest of our lives.