Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult

ellen archer

When a tragic accident happened in an elephant sanctuary, a whirlwind of activity all happened at once.  One woman was dead.  Another was seriously injured.  A man loses his grip on reality… and a little girl is separated from her mother.

Jenna Metcalf was 3 years old when that night cost her both of her parents.  Her father is taken to a mental facility, and her mother quietly slips out of a hospital ward never to be seen since.  Now Jenna is 10 and living with her grandmother; but not a day goes by that she does not wonder what ever happened to her mother and why she never came back for her.

Jenna takes all the babysitting she money and tracks down a once famous-now washed up psychic names Serenity Jones to search for her mother through her talents, and Virgil Stanhope, the now retired police officer who was on the scene the night of the accident.  For reasons beyond them, both Serenity and Virgil feel that they are meant to help this small girl who is just looking for answers.

Told in alternating voices of Jenna, Serenity, Virgil, and Alice (Jenna’s mom), the whole story comes together of what happened that night and why.

 

 

 

I feel like a kid when I try to describe how I felt about this book.  Mainly because I want to say “Oh wowza!!!!”  I have read and enjoyed Jodi Piccoult before, but kind of had her framed in a box of a female John Grisham who tells harder cases (like school shootings, autistic murderers, and suing your parents for rights to your own body…)  but this THIS is not the Jodi Piccoult that I think any of us know.  This is a brand new author… and she has created something amazing.

Leaving Time comes at you at such a wonderful pace.  While you may think four different narrators is a bit much, it blends well and flows easily from one voice to another.  While each persons perspective is entirely different, they all fit together so well.  When Alice is the narrator you learn so many amazing facts about her time working with the elephants.  I learned so much about these amazing creatures and how they care for their young, never forgetting a person no matter how much time has passed.  The facts about the elephants added another layer to the book.

I loved this story.  I listened to it on audio and it went with me from the car to the house.  I could not get enough and I wanted to know how this would all come together… and when it does….

whoa.

Kudos tot he incredible narrating team of:  Rebecca Lowman (Narrator), Abigail Revasch (Narrator), Kathe Mazur (Narrator), Mark Deakins (Narrator)

For those of you who enjoy Jodi Piccoult’s writing as well as for those who found her past story lines to be a bit of the same, you are in for a treat and I must tell you do not miss this book!!!

 

 

  • Listening Length: 15 hours and 11 minutes
  • Program Type: Audiobook
  • Version: Unabridged
  • Publisher: Random House Audio
  • Audible.com Release Date: October 14, 2014

 

  • Hardcover: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Ballantine Books (October 14, 2014)

 

 

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

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Hey there!  Welcome to It’s Monday, What Are You Reading!

I love being a part of this and I hope you do too!  As part of this weekly meme I love to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme. Fair warning… this meme tends to add to your reading list! 😉

I was just looking at last weeks post and remembered I was typing up the last few sentences of that as I was on my way out of the hotel in St Paul Minnesota  on my way to Opus and Olives – the BIG author event of Minnesota.  I recall that I had super cute shoes with me, but had neglected to remember that the last time I wore that pair I had been standing and rocking back on the heel (bad habit but I do this) and one fo the heels became lose.  As I put the shoes on last Sunday I recalled that I never had the shoe fixed.  Thank goodness I am an over packer and had a back up pair (yes… that may be odd but it is how I roll), not as cute, definitely more comfy, and they did the trick.

Anyhoo… it was a great event, I still need to post pictures; but it started off a good week that then led into seeing Gone Girl at the theater and book club.  Here is what I posted this past week:

 

Burn by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge

Gone Girl book VS. Movie

Not My Father’s Son by Alan Cummings

Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer (I LOVED this one!)

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote – Bookies Book Club Review

Choose Your Own Adventure by Neil Patrick Harris

 

I think it was a good reading and listening week. I had quite a bit of audio time this past week and then after yesterdays readathon, I currently have 2 books and 5 audio book reviews to catch up on.  NICE. As for this week, here is what I am thinking…

For My Ears

the vanishing, wendy webb

Recently widowed and rendered penniless by her Ponzi-scheming husband, Julia Bishop is eager to start anew. So when a stranger appears on her doorstep with a job offer, she finds herself accepting the mysterious yet unique position: caretaker to his mother, Amaris Sinclair, the famous and rather eccentric horror novelist whom Julia has always admired…and who the world believes is dead.

When she arrives at the Sinclairs’ enormous estate on Lake Superior, Julia begins to suspect that there may be sinister undercurrents to her “too-good-to-be-true” position. As Julia delves into the reasons of why Amaris chose to abandon her successful writing career and withdraw from the public eye, her search leads to unsettling connections to her own family tree, making her wonder why she really was invited to Havenwood in the first place, and what monstrous secrets are still held prisoner within its walls.

 

 

Nightmares, Jason Segel, segal

Sleeping has never been so scary. And now waking up is even worse!

Charlie Laird has several problems.

1. His dad married a woman he is sure moonlights as a witch.
2. He had to move into her purple mansion, which is NOT a place you want to find yourself after dark.
3.He can’t remember the last time sleeping wasn’t a nightmarish prospect. Like even a nap.

What Charlie doesn’t know is that his problems are about to get a whole lot more real. Nightmares can ruin a good night’s sleep, but when they start slipping out of your dreams and into the waking world—that’s a line that should never be crossed.

And when your worst nightmares start to come true . . . well, that’s something only Charlie can face. And he’s going to need all the help he can get, or it might just be lights-out for Charlie Laird. For good.

 

 

 

Jodi Piccoult, Leaving Time

For more than a decade, Jenna Metcalf has never stopped thinking about her mother, Alice, who mysteriously disappeared in the wake of a tragic accident. Refusing to believe that she would be abandoned as a young child, Jenna searches for her mother regularly online and pores over the pages of Alice’s old journals. A scientist who studied grief among elephants, Alice wrote mostly of her research among the animals she loved, yet Jenna hopes the entries will provide a clue to her mother’s whereabouts.

Desperate to find the truth, Jenna enlists two unlikely allies in her quest. The first is Serenity Jones, a psychic who rose to fame finding missing persons—only to later doubt her gifts. The second is Virgil Stanhope, a jaded private detective who originally investigated Alice’s case along with the strange, possibly linked death of one of her colleagues. As the three work together to uncover what happened to Alice, they realize that in asking hard questions, they’ll have to face even harder answers.

As Jenna’s memories dovetail with the events in her mother’s journals, the story races to a mesmerizing finish.

 

 

For My Eyes

Khristine

It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie are looking forward to two days of boys, booze, and fun-filled luxury. But what starts out as fun turns twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine. And things only get worse from there.

With a storm raging outside, the teens are cut off from the outside world . . . so when a mysterious killer begins picking them off one by one, there’s no escape. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on one another, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?

 

 

KW1

In the lakeside resort town of Port Manitou, Michigan, dedicated teacher and running coach Neil Kazenzakis shoulders responsibilities that would break a lesser man: a tragic accident has left his wife seriously debilitated, he cares for his mother-in-law who suffers from dementia, and he’s raising his teenage son, Chris, on his own. On top of all that, he’s also secretly been seeing Lauren, his mother-in-law’s caregiver.

When Neil breaks up a fight one day after school, he doesn’t give the altercation much thought. He’s got bigger issues on his mind, like the fact that Lauren is ready for a commitment and he has to figure out a way to tell Chris that he’s in a serious relationship with someone other than the boy’s mother. But when an anonymous person uploads a video of the fight to YouTube, the stunning footage suggests Neil assaulted a student. With his job, his family, and his reputation suddenly in jeopardy, Neil must prove his innocence and win back the trust of the entire community—including his son’s.

 

 

I think that is where I am.  How about you?  How is your reading going this fall?  Please add your link to What Are You Reading below where it says click here:

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