change Books

One thing I learned a long time ago: Never let a book (or Bible teacher, or preacher, or friend, or long-held belief about a thing) ever replace God in your life. When the Holy Spirit abides in us, we have access to the discernment that will say to us, "yes, this is right," or "no, don't be so quick to weave that into the fabric of your soul." I have a relationship with God. Relationship. Which means as I have read this book, I have given room to the Holy Spirit to speak to me about what I am reading. This book is not the Bible. But neither is Oswald Chamber's My Utmost for His Highest, and yet God has used both of these books (in addition to Bible study) to lift veils from my eyes, encourage me, convict me, give me vision and hope . . .

I don't know this author, but I'm awfully glad he wrote this book. Oswald often points out scripture that details a really simple walk with Christ: "Do you find your walk with Jesus simpler than it ever has been in your life?" The Shack has pointed me more in this direction.

I suppose I could take the time to pick apart the book out of context, attempting to highlight what could be considered "unbiblical." Or, I can simply ask God to show me what He wants me to learn from it and enjoy it for what it is: One man's best attempt to express the trinity as he sees and experiences it.

Whether fiction (as it is categorized), or not (as the foward somewhat suggests), it is wonderfully encouaraging and thought-provoking. I'm considering purchasing extra copies to give away - which is exactly how I came to read it!

This is not my normal reading genre and I'm often uncomfortable reading "Christian" books but I was pleasantly surprised with The Shack. Whether or not you're open to the anthropomorphism that casts God as a black woman or the Holy Spirit as an ethereal Asian nymph like creature you should take the time to listen to their dialogue as written by William P Young.

It is an easy call to say that folks who buy into the Laws and Letters of Theology as presented by many mainstream churches today will squirm in their britches at the loose cannon approach taken here. Young writes from his heart and is brave enough to admit that most of us have railed at the Lord for the perceived injustices we see in the world today. Many of us have gone so far as to hate him (her, it) for taking loved ones in horrible ways before we're ready to let go. We question wars and why they're allowed if indeed God has the power to "just say no".

The courageous thing that Young's done in this book is not just to ask the hard questions but to attempt to offer answers that actually make a little sense.

I loved this book! I have read many of the reviews from 5 stars down to 1. Seriously, readers, why can't we just take the book for what it is, an entertaining read! There are too many people out there who try to psyco analyze everything in print. I didn't see it as heresy. I didn't even see it as slightly disrespectful to our God. We are merely human and there is much that we do not, and never will understand. God's ways are not our ways. Why should anyone put God in a box? I believe that He wants to have a very personal relationship with each and every one of us, and if He wants to appear as a large African-American woman called "papa" who are we to say He can't?
You need to read this book with an open mind, so not everyone is going to "get" it. It is open to interpretation, but so is the Holy Word. I believe God intended it that way - different passages speak to different people in different ways.
God has a sense of humor, and I think He must have smiled when He read this book.

The Shack (Special Hardcover Edition)
This is a great book about relationship. It is about you loving God and God loving you. It is about sharing your life together as you would with your best friend who lives down the street. Don't get caught up in theology or it may trip you up in getting what you need out of this book. It is fiction and it is kind of outside the box.

It would be a better book if the author had left out the vast amount of doctrine. For example, trying to explain the trinity while telling a story fails to to both.

The book came in excellent condition. I ordered 2 copies, 1 for me (haven't read it yet but the synopsis looks terrific) and 1 for a friend as a gift. She was thrilled. Thanks.

Okay, there is nothing particularly clever, new, or unpredictable about Ms. Green's latest book but it was 100% entertaining. I finished this book in the course of a day on my recent vacation and though I did not learn much about the human condition or have any type of moral revelations, I enjoyed Beach House. Hence the reason I refer to this as "candy": no nutritional value to the brain but "tasty" all the same. I have read many of Jane Green's other books and this one is much like the others in that it delivers a fun, easy read.

I enjoyed this book, especially after the complete let down of Second Chance. That said, I have read all of Jane Green's books, and this was not quite on par with her older books - I have noticed a marked decline in the stories in her novels the past several years. It was a fast read with an interesting story and a few twists. Nothing extraordinary or particularly memorable. My biggest complaint echoes that of other readers - there was so much detail at the beginning, and by the end, when the most important story arcs were occurring, it seemed rushed. Some of the biggest scenes in the book were not fleshed out. With more development at the end, this could have been a far better book than it was. As it is - if you are a Jane Green fan, I would wait for the paperback.

This was a cute book. If your looking for something simple then this is a good book.

The setting is Nantucket in summer. The characters are well drawn and the set up of their individual stories takes up the first half of the book. In the second half they come together in unpredictable ways, with everything playing out full circle.

Nan, the widowed white-haired, bicycle-riding matriarch is the center of the story and her grand hilltop estate with ocean views (Windermere) is the "beach house" to which the title refers. It's a dramatic backdrop to a variety of dramatic stories within this family-oriented character study. Other main characters include Nan's son, Michael, a jewelry designer who seems to have a fear of commitment. Then there's Daniel, who struggles to find his true self; Daniel's wife Bee and their two little girls; Daff, facing betrayal and divorce, and her ornery teenage daughter, along with her dad, Richard, and his new girlfriend. Relationships are all over the place, but ultimately you discover how they're tied together as the story explores many different aspects of love and commitment.

This book is a very quick read, left me satisfied and definitely made me want to plan a summer vacation in Nantucket.

Michele Cozzens, author of A Line Between Friends.

The guy on the back cover - Martin H. Stein has lost his credentials to practice medicine repeatedly since the book came out - overall the "science" in this book is NOT proven. If you need help with your life / thinking, etc. - often getting MUCH MORE SLEEP, and cutting way down on the stress in your life - along with exercise and eating right is enough to solve the majority of peoples problems (along with increases earnings - ha!). This was told to me by a MD who testified against Dr. Stein. TRY THAT FIRST! ...

To recap - The featured "doctor" who wrote a blurb on the back cover isn't allowed to practice medicine anymore.

This book has been great! Makes me much more tolerant of those I have been judgemental about. I feel compelled to give everyone I know this book, but that would be obsessive wouldn't it! I highly recommend it if you have family members who are having difficulty with ADD, drugs or maybe a tad dysfunctional. I am reading the next book now that is: Making a Good Brain Great: The Amen Clinic Program for Achieving and Sustaining Optimal Mental Performance

Excellent book! Gives a view on the brain that the typical medical world does not always show.

This book(I listened to the cd's.) is an amazing insight into the human brain, how it works, and explains so many misconceptions about thinking in regards to our present mindset about behavior. It explains each part of the brain and behaviors that are represented by each part in a way that is easy to understand and connect to. It also gives great detail and information on behaviors, why we use them, and strategies to help us control or stop them. One very important idea that I appreciate is that the author, Dr. Amen does not believe in a one sided approach. He looks at each person/brain as unique and deserving of an individual prescription whether it be one prescription or a combination of approaches such as therapy, medication, awareness, diet, supplements, biofeedback, and other methods. Dr. Amen also emphasizes that most people do not purposely exhibit odd behaviors/thinking patterns. He shows through specific examples in his book that sometimes no matter how hard we try to make ourselves change/alter a certain behavior, there is often a medical reason why we cannot. Through his brain SPEC images he has shown this to his patients and their family members.

The book has helped me to see others whose behavior I was so frustrated with in a new light and now that I better understand it, I am able to improve my feelings and relationships with them. If there is someone you know that uses certain behavior/ways of thinking that impact their life or yours in a way that makes living very difficult, then reading this book is a must. The brain is an organ in our body, and when things go wrong in it due to genetics, head injuries, childhood trauma, neglect, abandonment... it effects how our brain functions. There are checklists, helpful hints, information, behavior modification techniques, and so much more that can be helpful to anyone whether you think you need it or not. So don't go on thinking that you or a loved one is "crazy" and nothing can be done. Read the book. Though it is filled with loads of information, you will take away from it what you need and can use.

I found this book to be quite disappointing. After seeing Dr. Amen on the tv, he made it seem as if this book will give you useful methods and explanations for combating anxiety, depression, etc. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Rather, the book explains how there is a correlation between the under/over-activity of different parts of the brain and different mental health issues. After explaining which diagnoses correspond to which part of the brain, he offers very obvious and unhelpful tips. Even after diagnosing the problems in his patients, he always perscribes medications for treatment. The only thing this book solidifys is the fact that if you are in a situation where you are considering seeking professional health for a mental health issue, then you should definitley do it. It is those professionals, not this book, that can help you to develop a program to help you.

Great book on leadership and promotes excellent ideas for company success. Easy read and very useful. The points presented make perfect sense and are very practical. Not a good book but a great book!

I bought the book after seeing him on PBS. I must say I am a little diappointed. I was really hoping for some deep insight and inspiration. Instead I read about a bunch of research from newspaper clippings by some 20-something reasearch students who could not run a Quicky-Mart as well as Apu.

Collins has some great concepts Level 5 Leaders and the "Stockdale Principle" and then some things to turn on the eclectic filter as you read.

Find or steal one of Tom Peters books on Excellence - Before you read this

The egoism, hubris, and cold-bloodedness that is sanctioned by this book is frightening. Loyalty becomes the only virtue. If you've worked for an executive who has bought into this, you'll understand how we ended up in Iraq.

Good to Great is a great book for anyone in business. I was amazed at some of the less obvious lessons learned from the years of research as well as the simple truths that seemed obvious after they were revealed.
I am a small business owner with a professional degree but with no formal business education. It was good to read "research" that was not all stuffy and dry. A particularly strong point for me was the argument for why I should strive to be great and not just "good" or even "mediocre". I am planning on reading Jim Collins' other book, Built to Last.

This book by Jim Collins is one of the most successful books to be found in the "Business" section of your local megabookstore, and given how it purports to tell you how to take a merely good company and make it great, it's not difficult to see why that might be so. Collins and his crack team of researchers say they swam through stacks of business literature in search of info on how to pull this feat off, and came up with a list of great companies that illustrate some concepts central to the puzzle. They also present for each great company what they call a "comparison company," which is kind of that company with a goatee and a much less impressive earnings record. The balance of the book is spent expanding on pithy catch phrases that describe the great companies, like "First Who, Then What" or "Be a Hedgehog" or "Grasp the Flywheel, not the Doom Loop." No, no, I'm totally serious.

I've got several problems with this book, the biggest of which stem from fundamentally viewpoints on how to do research. Collin's brand of research is not my kind. It's not systematic, it's not replicable, it's not generalizable, it's not systematic, it's not free of bias, it's not model driven, and it's not collaborative. It's not, in short, scientific in any way. That's not to say that other methods of inquiry are without merit --the Harvard Business Review makes pretty darn good use of case studies, for example-- but way too often Collins's great truths seemed like square pegs crammed into round holes, because a round hole is what he wants. For example, there's no reported search for information that disconfirms his hypotheses. Are there other companies that don't make use of a Culture of Discipline (Chapter 6, natch) but yet are still great according to Collins's definition? Are there great companies that fail to do some of the things he says should make them great? The way that the book focuses strictly on pairs of great/comparison companies smacks of confirmatory information bias, which is a kink in the human mind that drives us to seek out and pay attention to information that confirms our pre-existing suppositions and ignore information that fails to support them.

Relatedly, a lot of the book's themes and platitudes strike me as owing their popularity to the same factors that make the horoscope or certain personality tests like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator so popular: they're so general and loosely defined that almost anyone can look at that and not only say that wow, that make sense, and I've always felt the same way! This guy and me? We're geniuses! The chapter about "getting the right people on the bus" that extols the virtue of hiring really super people is perhaps the most obvious example. Really, did anyone read this part and think "Oh, man. I've been hiring half retarded chimps. THAT'S my problem! I should hire GOOD people!" Probably not, and given that Collins doesn't go into any detail about HOW to do this or any of his other good to great pro tips, I'm not really sure where the value is supposed to be.

It also irked me that Good to Great seems to try and exist in a vacuum, failing to relate its findings to any other body of research except Collins's other book, Built to Last. The most egregious example of this is early on in Chapter 2 where Collins talks about his concept of "Level 5 Leadership," which characterizes those very special folks who perch atop a supposed leadership hierarchy. The author actually goes into some detail describing Level 5 leaders, but toward the end of the chapter he just shrugs his figurative shoulders and says "But we don't know how people get to be better leaders. Some people just are." Wait, what? People in fields like Industrial-Organizational Psychology and Organizational Development have been studying, scientifically, what great leaders do and how to do it for decades. We know TONS about how to become a better leader. There are entire industries built around it. You would think that somebody on the Good to Great research team may have done a cursory Google search on this.

So while Good to Great does have some interesting thoughts and a handful of amusing or even fascinating stories to tell about the companies it profiles (I liked, for example, learning about why Walgreens opens so many shops in the same area, even to the point of having stores across the street from each other in some cities), ultimately it strikes me as vague generalities and little to no practical information about how to actually DO anything to make your company great.

The style is very similar to El Erian's monthly articles, but there is nothing really new or original. If you are familiar with Bretton Woods II, have some training in economics and/or have worked in structured finance you will find this book slow at times, but if you are new to the structured finance world or you are trying to find out what went wrong with the financial system this should be an excellent overview. I agree with the other reviewers it reads like a news paper article, but it is a good overall review of the most recent economic cycle.

George Soros is a very interesting thinker.
It is true (as he more or less admits in his book)
that his philosophical ideas are somewhat "inexact"
by the analytic standards of that profession,
but the insights are real. He gives market equilibrium
theorists a run for their money.

I do not believe that this book is worth buying or reading
because of three factors:

1. It contains minimal advice for investors wishing to
change their investment strategies.

2. It is written for an audience for professional economists
with advanced degrees.

3. The editing of the text is very poor. Each chapter contained
multiple references to something "that I will deal with in
the next chapter" or "that I covered in previous chapter."
A few of these references is understandable, but the text
is so poorly written and edited that these references quickly
became a distraction and a nuisance.

I would strongly advise prospective readers to avoid this book.

El-Erian's strength is in identifying and explaining the "major fundamental transformation" that is going on. After discussing the transformation and emphasizing the investment needs for internationalization, foreign currencies, and inflation hedges, he discusses asset allocatrion. His asset allocation table and discussion are fine, except for one glaring ommission. He never mentions managed futures.

In an investment environment that appears to be negative for both debt instruments and equities, managed futures could be the most appropriate investment.

Mr. El-Erian's book reflects his high-level knowledge and understanding of economic issues. It is perhaps suitable for people at his level, policy makers etc. However for individual investors it is not worth the money, nor the time reading it. His writing style is exasperating as it sounds much like some Harvard publications. His long, complex sentences are time-consuming to understand. He loves to use all the most recent jargon to impress his readers. His ultimate recommendation for investing for the future is banal, buy a bit of everything! After finally finishing the reading of this book (it was painfully boring) I was left with the feeling that I didn't learn anything worthwile for my purposes.

This book is excellent for younger kids. For older kids 12-18, I like the following two books. The Edge Effect: Achieve Total Health and Longevity with the Balanced Brain Advantage and Don't Like to Read, Then Don't, Listen!: How to Turn Any Type of Text Into Audio Files That Can Be Read to You!

I recently saw Dr. Kevin Leman on Fox and Friends and I immediately went out and bought Have A New Kid By Friday. After reading this book, the whole atmosphere in my house has changed. I used to have kids who were disrespectful, and mouthy, but now I have kids who listen to me-- I almost fell over the other day when my son asked me what he could do to help.

I liked the book so much that I am buying a few extra copies for my friends and family. And I am also purchasing Dr. Leman's Birth Order Book.

This is a book for any parent.

I have three kids and can always use some new ideas and some review on old ideas. The book really helped my husband and I get on the same page. Liked it a lot. Worth the money

This is a great book but you have to have a lot of patience to follow through. It does work so keep trying.

This book was recommended to me. I was at first skeptical, but was amazed to see that if used consistently, it works!

"The Tipping Point - How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference" by Malcolm Gladwell gave me insight into trends as seen through his eyes. I loved it!

Gladwell caught me off-guard when he discussed the racial tipping point that affects the real estate market of a neighborhood. But that was not the most surprising. What surprised me the most was how low a percentage of new property owners could influence the change from a sellers market to a buyers market.

There were many times when he seemed to veer off his subject and I started wondering where he was going with the point of the story. Then he would pull it all together and I could see exactly why he said something the way he said it.

Gladwell points out common traits in typical public interest/popularity and how that relates to sales and marketing.

In each example, he explains the patterns that show the slow beginnings, the steeper climb, to the sharp growth in popularity to the hesitation at the top, then the crash and (except for a few examples) a sudden end of all growth.

His intention is to provide enough information to duplicate or create a path towards a tipping point in your business. And, with the proper actions, manipulate how long your business is able to remain at the top of the sales chart.

I was surprised that Gladwell used stories about the popular children's show Sesame Street in his examples. But, once I read his in-depth, behind-the-scenes stories, I realized how complex and how much innovative thought went into producing that very successful television show.

Now, I find myself paying closer attention to eye, face, and body position and movement when I discuss business (and personal) matters. And, I am noticing the signals I (un-intentionality) send to others.

Gladwell is able to describe and chart the same patterns of tipping points in every example he gave. He investigates the how, why, where, and when of his research. Then he presents it to his readers in easy to digest pieces.

His description of Connectors, Mavens, and Salespeople is clear and fascinating. It is easy to visualize how the traits of connectors, mavens, and salespeople live in each of us.

One of the most interesting viewpoints Gladwell shared, was that there are only three elements that create change. The first element is "The Law of the Few." You'll have to read his book to find out Gladwell's other two agents of change.

By the way: It was fun taking Gladwell's Manhattan Phone Book Test. I scored eighty-seven points the first time around. After thinking about it, I believe I could add another ten to thirty surnames to my known contacts list.

I strongly recommend you read and then use Gladwell's information to create your own (series) of tipping points for your business' growth.

And while you're at it, get involved in replacing broken windows, painting walls and cleaning up areas in need. (Read the book and you'll understand.)

Little things can make a huge difference when properly executed/initiated.

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

The concept behind this book is what makes it such a phenomenon. It was not only great concept-wise, but it was an engaging read. I wouldn't call it pure entertainment (some portions could be dry) but it was definitely easy to get through the whole thing and actually enjoy it. I recommend this book to anyone looking for more info on the idea of how things that seem obscure, go on to gain enormous popularity and spark trends or fads.

This audio book offered lots of great information and connected the ideas to the real world of business. I found the first CD quite boring and repetitive but once that was over it offered great listening and learning.

Very interesting and inspiring book. Easy to read, filled with interesting ideas and concepts, everything presented on good examples.

For a non-fiction book, it is written well, and content is thought provoking. However, there still seems to be little annoyances sprinkled here and there.

There are superficial back-references in almost every chapter that do not seem to add anything to context of that particular chapter. Also, some statements do not have scientific backing and reader is expected to take it as is.

Becoming acquainted with this book at this time in my life has become a true lifesaver for me. It has truly taught me to reflect on the way I think and how it has affected my health and general well-being. For the first time in many years, I've found that changing my way of thinking has brought me peace of mind, as well as release from a lot of the pain I have experienced. I now believe so much of my deteriorating health is attributed to the way I was thinking. Louise Hays has truly opened my eyes, and I am so very grateful.

I have the book, I have it on audio too. I enjoy listening to Louise L. Hay's voice, especially when she's helping guide my thoughts into imagining positive, wonderful possibilities. This will help you analyze yourself and change/shift your thinking for the better.

THis book is wonderful...makes you want to be THE best in life. I would recommend this book to anyone who is having a difficult time, very up-lifting to look at the other side of your problems, to be more positive in life!

I am so glad to finally find something that resonates with me and what I have always believed in my being but did not have the words to convey. Thank you Louise for bringing this to the world.

Although I looked at this book from a skeptic perspective because of all the ideas of our thoughts creating our reality, etc, I could not help but be inspired by Louise. She seems to just basically live a simple life and find happiness within herself, and always emphasizes that we can also be like this, and everyone deserves to be loved for the person that they are. I am definitely going to try some of her tips.
Some of the ideas about diseases being caused by negative thinking were a little hard to swallow. For instance, cancer and other ailments are supposed to be caused by all these pent up feelings and unforgiveness that we have bottled up...it is just a little hard for me to understand how a newborn could be born with a disease or a small child could get a disease. It's possible that there is more to it though than what is discussed in the book. I definitely think you should give some of her ideas a try, because just hearing Louise or reading her words and seeing what a difference she has made in people's lives is enough to show that she must be doing something right.

This is a great book to give you perspective on change. I highly recommend it.

Forget the little red book by Mao, We have a new mind numbing, thought control written device out there pushed among the working class. As it has been stated before..it truly is sobering that an American of any socio-economic status, level of wealth or educational background would be INSPIRED by this corporate tripe. Here's a thought for the cheese heads out there, has it occurred to you to move the " cheese provider " out of the picture and therefore the total dependence maze?..make your own cheese on further discovery out from the maze that was made specifically to control you? OR...perish the thought...maybe have more choices in your actual consumption other than cheese?

I understand that the book only addresses the need for accepting change but doesn't one's thoughts automatically leap to then who is the change maker?? Part of my offense to this little book is it's simplistic approach to life modifying decisions by OTHERS. Stepping back however, this book speaks volumes for the contempt corporate America has for redefining intelligent thought, decent & breaking linear either/or thinking, coupled with a current generation that turns out more votes for some lounge singer element on TV than in some civic elections in this nation. Unbelievable

I am grateful to all the reviewers that tried to save money and anxiety and anger for other people or potential readers of this book, by advising against buying it. I find all such comments are very interesting and very inspiring, which are elements you would never find in this book. In particular, I am grateful to the review entitled Show Me the Cheese by Bruce Silveman. It is such a wonderful review which should be published by major newspapers like New York Times and Washington Post. And we can read here for free! This book is an attempt to trash our culture, to put everything valuable we inherited from the past in a dumpster and sell some real garbage as the latest invention of once in a life time. This book and many other books such as the Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Shack, and the book insults God which I don't want to mention here, are all part of effort to show that man can be better off by themselves without the divine guidance of Jesus. Everything in the Western society in the last two hundred years are part of the development of that ideology. Just wait, you will read things worse than this!

The book is a quick read and reread. A good reminder of how we MUST flow with change in our lives.

A short easy listen giving great insight on what happens if you fight change. I for one had difficulty accepting changes that I didn't want, this book presented a new perspective and insight.

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT

I was thrilled to be reading this book until the last 5 chapters when one of the main characters suffered a seizure. Ms. Picoult wrote that something was inserted into the individual's mouth while he was convulsing. This is something that should be AVOIDED when a person is having a seizure; Ms. Picoult has done an extreme disservice to her readers and people with epilepsy by illustrating this procedure in her book. I hope that no one will take the situation as truth; people who have seizures and have foreign objects placed in their mouth can seriously injure themselves and others. There is no need to place a foreign object in their mouth! How archaic and ignorant for Ms. Picoult to include that in her story.

If you need to get lost in a page turner- this is it! A bit unrealistic in coincidence at the end- but I couldn't put this book down for two days. Twist and turns and I had tears running down my face. I am looking forward to reading Nineteen Minutes, my second novel by this author. I confess I read ahead- but it was wonderful even knowing the ending (though, I DON'T recommend spoiling the book as I did). I still think of this book weeks later- the message I walked away with was a reminder - Live life in every moment like it matters- and everyone matters in each moment I'm in; there are always distractions.

How far do you go to save the life of your dying child? And is it possible for a parent distinquish between the love they feel for their children? I put the premise of this book to my mother, and she had no answers for me. As a mother of two, all she said was, "send me the book, then I'll tell you." But I don't think she'll have an answer either. I can imagine that a book club could hold some GREAT discussions about the plot of this book, and the ethics of giving birth to one child for the specific purpose of saving another.

On one hand, I have never read anything by Jodi Picoult, so I was very pleased to "discover" someone new. But I will admit that can't say that the voice of this novel is very different or any fresher than her other novels, and clearly she is very prolific.

But this was clear -- this is a great, compelling tale. I am recommending it to all my sister-friends.

I'm very angry with Jodi Picoult. She was in complete control of the lives of the characters of this book. I have to wonder why she chose to end this book the way she did. I have to give the book high ratings due to the skill of the author. All along, I was tempted to peek at the ending, which I've been guilty of a time or two. This time, for some unknown reason, I resisted. I wish I had peeked now, because it would have saved me a few sleepless nights trying to finish the book.

I'll say this, for the author, she knows how to hold my attention. There were a lot of thought-provoking topics covered. I like the way we can get inside of the minds of all of the main characters. So much so, that I almost felt their pain.

For the sake of you who have purchased or plan on purchasing this book, don't peek at the end. You may not want to finish the book if you do.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It immediately drew me in. The topic is very interesting and thought provoking, no doubt. I read it quickly because I was very eager to find out what happened. However, the characters aren't incredibly likeable. They took turns narrating chapters, which is a nice format. But the thought processes of each character were very similar and almost too constantly "deep" and soap-opera-ish. I don't believe that an 11-year-old is as profound as a fifty-year-old mother and similar to an teenage male misfit. It was almost constantly too intense, if that makes any sense. The book is not bad, as I said, it's interesting. Everyone has mixed feelings about the ending and I thought it was just an okay one. This is the first book I've ever read by Picoult. Because I was so torn on my feelings for this one, I'll have to check out a few others before forming my opinion on her as an author.