Particles of Literature

The Bright Idea Conference did not fall with-in my schedule or means so in lieu I went to see author Jodi Picoult who was visiting West Michigan in March for the One Book One Community Program.

My first observation of the evening was those in attendance were 98% women. Where are the male readers? Don’t males enjoy reading dramatic books with modern themes? I guess that’s a question for someone other than me to answer. It was a large audience of approximately 600, at the West Shore Performing Arts Center in Holland.

Although the crowd was large and the author was somewhat funny, I wasn’t really that impressed. It was more of a commercial thing to sell her books than anything. I was looking forward to her talking about My Sister’s Keeper but she spent very little time on the feature novel, and more time on her other books, especially her newest release. I had no idea she had written so many other novels - 12 total. She also was not very accurate, in my opinion, when she was discussing Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, which she references for her next novel the 10th circle. She does have podcasts on her website. :o)

Overall I wasn't all that pleased with the driving all the way to Holland simply for a promotional event for the authors numerous novels. I did, however, enjoy reading My Sister’s Keeper. I doubt that I’ll be in line to get the rest of her books though. I have too many other works on my too be read list.

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I also started a new book discussion group at Extended Grace. The first book we chose was Fallen by David Maine.
Fallen is the story of Caine, Abel, Eve, and Adam in that order. The story is told backward leading us back to the place we all know - The Fall.

We were greatly surprised to be contacted by the author who offered to answer any questions we had. Since the author lives in Pakistan now in had to be handled through e-mail, but we're all about technology right? :o) His input really added more depth to our discussion. It can be found on our EG Book Club Blog