Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult

Wow.  I just finished this book.  It was hard to put down at times and at times I needed a 15 minute break from it.

I've read a few Jodi Picoult's novels.  The Storyteller was amazing, My Sister's Keeper made me cry (I saw the movie first, which prompted me to read the book), The Pact, which I wasn't too impressed with.  I think that's it.  The Storyteller is what made me pick up her newest book.  I have seen many negative comments about it, including that it goes too much into elephants and their behavior.  I'll agree there were times when I was tempted to skim a page or two, but I didn't.  For the most part I enjoyed learning more about these majestic, intelligent animals.

Leaving Time is about a young teenage girl, Jenna, who is looking for her mother, who disappeared when she was three years old.  Her mother was a scientist studying elephant behaviors, specifically elephant grief.  Both her parents worked at an elephant sanctuary in New Hampshire (of all places) and one night there is a death that is deemed an accident to avoid a messy, possible murder investigation. That night her mother disappears from the local hospital and is never heard from again and her father ends up in the psychiatric hospital, where he still resides 10 years later.

Jenna, who has lived with her grandmother since that night, finds a washed-up psychic and the detective that was on the scene the night of the accident who blames himself for not digger deeper, to help her find her mother or at least figure out the truth of that night.  There are twists and just when I thought I had figured it out, I turned the page and was shocked at the turn of events.  Leaving Time is definitely a good story and I look forward to reading Jodi's next book.

4/5

Joy in the Morning by Betty Smith

This was my final book in 2014.  I loved A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.  I first read it sometime around 2005 and I've since reread it and had my oldest daughter read it and she also loved it. 

I don't know what took me so long to try another novel by Betty Smith, but I'm glad I finally did.  I really enjoyed this story.  Annie and Carl are young and in love and they decide to get married even though both families are against it.  He's in law school and she comes out to his college and embarks on her own self-education.  She discovers she has a passion and talent for writing and just like Francie Nolan, she loves books.  The young couple goes through some hard times, but always some bit of luck or help comes at the last minute to save them, which I thought was a bit too convenient but I remembered when the book was written and enjoyed the story for what it is.

There's a few things that did annoy me:  Her vague references to her step-father and some incidents that are never fully disclosed and also through most of the book I just did not like her husband, Carl.  I felt that he antagonized her purposely, only to make up with her right away for his own selfish reasons.   He's also jealous of her reading and writing, worried she may out-grown him and I can totally see that happening if the story continued on.  As it was it ended with a bright future ahead of them.  I truly enjoyed this sweet, simple story of a new couple's first year together.

4/5