Book Review-My Sister's Keeper & Tipping Point

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really liked this book. I thought it was going to be "Meh" but it was amazing. Without giving too much away, this is the gist of the story: A husband and wife have a little 5 year old boy and a 2 year old girl. They are "done" having kids. They notice that the 2 year old has some bruises and eventually find that it's leukemia. They decide that they will have another baby and use science to ensure that this baby is a perfect donor match for their first child. That way she will have a "live donor" at all times.

It's a sad story: anything involving the sickness of a child is horrible. But it gets sadder when Anna (the "live donor") decides that she doesn't want to be forced to do anything else medical for her sister. Her sister's kidney shut down, and now there is talk of her giving one for transplant. She gets a lawyer and sues her parents for rights to make her own medical decisions. See? Sad book.

But I really liked how it was written. From the points of view of the Mother, Father, Son,Anna, Anna's lawyer, and the court appointed "Guardian Ad Lidem" (kind of like a fancy social worker) assigned to look at the case objectively and give her opinion to the court.

I'm not going to tell you the end. But it did make me cry. This quote in particular did it. It's Anna's mom realizing that she probably won't be able to keep both of her daughters. And then she says this:

"We don't so much have kids as we do receive them. Sometimes it's for a much shorter time then we thought. But even that short time is better than never having them at all."

I don't know what I would do. I think like this mother I would do everything to save one of my children. Would I do it at the expense of one of my other kids? I don't know!! It's really a troubling question.

Anyway, I really liked this book. I thought the 400+ pages would be tedious, but before I knew it it was over. I think the different viewpoints and narrators does this.

Hug your kids tonight, people!!


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The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book was very informative and a quick read. At the beginning it reminded me of "Freakonomics" because it starts to look at the hidden stories and meanings behind certain things. However, Freakonomics just points things out, while "The Tipping Point" talks about why certain things tip and others don't. It's kind of more saying, "If you want to tip your idea, this is what you need to know, and what you need to do."

I don't plan on ever trying to tip something, but it was really fun to read about it nevertheless. Part about Mavens, Connectors, Stickiness, Sesame Street and Blues Clues all had me riveted. Again, a quick read and totally worth the time.


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