Jodi Picoult

I know, she's like EVERYWHERE now. And I totally have the "I knew of her way back when" syndrome. Like when you've been listening to a band forever, thinking they were totally the coolest shit around, and then suddenly said band are all over the radio and you see people wearing said band's t-shirts and riding around with said band's bumper stickers on their car. It sucks. I'm sorry, I wanna share but not with the WHOLE WORLD! And then I get afraid that that horrible thing will happen where said band becomes really cliche and starts writing really crappy "pop" music even if said band did NOT PLAY POP!

This is how I feel about Jodi Picoult. Except she hasn't started to suck....thank the Lord!

Like when Bob Dylan changed his sound and added a band behind him, but all his First Fans thought it sucked and he was a sell out and the Brits boo-ed him. Jodi is kinda like Bob. I still like both their first work and their current work. That is a good thing, cause you know, I'm a First Fan.

I have been reading Jodi since 1998. I walked into a bookstore when I was in the 8th grade, looking for a new book to read. I was totally stumped and lost, I had just finished reading everything John Saul had out at the time and was looking for something fresh. (I have this habit of being totally committed to one author at a time and devouring everything they have published, even if it's only a hundred word tidbit in some obscure magazine when they were fifteen. I'm working on branching out, it's been hard.) So I asked an employee what she would recommend and she handed me The Pact. I bought it on faith, took it home and had it read (I'm serious) that night. The next day I went back to the bookstore and bought as many of her books as I could afford with my allowance.

She soon became my favorite author. I went to her book signing in a little bookstore in Multnomah Village called Annie Blooms Books. I begged my father to go with me. As an aspiring writer himself, it was not hard. I was the youngest in the room. The only girl I would say, all the other people there were definitely women. I was so nervous, but loved every moment of the reading. And at the end, I got in line and she signed my books. I have gone back every year she has come to Portland. She even remembered my name at one signing. I was totally star struck. I asked her a question one time about the ending to her book Salem Falls, it's hard to explain her answer but the way she talked to me was like a real friend. It was wonderful. I even started emailing her if I had questions about certain parts of her stories. She always responded and was always kind.

My favorite book of hers is definitely Harvesting the Heart. I have read it so many times I have lost count. The cover is all faded and worn, about to fall off. It sits by my bed on my nightstand, always. I can't really describe that book, it just always made me feel so normal about having doubts in my life, and that somehow I would find a way, even if I had to run away to find it. It is one of her firsts. On the copy I have her hair is very short and she looks totally different from the picture with her family above.

Tomorrow her new book comes out, Handle With Care. I will buy it tomorrow, even if I have to use all my pennies. Every year I do, it's like an introduction to spring. I am proud of Jodi for being so successful. And like Bob I'm sure the fame won't go to her head, or at least she will keep writing good books.

I hope this book is just as good, if not better, than the last.
Congrats Jodi!

LDM