Meeting Recap: Change of Heart

This past Sunday we met at Beth’s house in Annapolis to discuss Kara’s pick, CHANGE OF HEART, by Jodi Picoult. For the most part, the book was a disappointment. Kara hoped to have a good discussion on the ethics of capital punishment but the way the story progressed there was no discussion to be had on that topic.

As a group we had a LOT of complaints about this book. Here’s a list of some of them:

• too many things going on, too many subplots - one gal called it “a muddle”
• the story has been done before (The Green Mile?!)
• most of the characters were bland and unbelievable (Fr. Michael was the worst culprit – no one believed a priest would act the way he did)
• the comparison of Shay to Christ was not only odd but unbelievable as well
• the writing wasn’t very good
• the opinions in the book were all “politically correct” – no one was allowed to believe strongly in one thing and think that other people were wrong in their beliefs

The only redeeming quality was Maggie and her relationship with her mother. With all the mother/daughter groups in our club, this was a fun topic to discuss … although I think the moms got more out of it than the daughters did!

Our meal theme was a lot of fun though. Beth decided we should each bring something we'd want for our last meal if we were on death row. Some of the items that showed up were antipasto and wine, chocolate strawberry cake, dessert shooters, and peanut butter cups.

We rated the book as follows:

• 8
• 7 x3
• 6.5
• 6
• 5.5
• 4
• 3
• 2 x2
• 0

Quite the range, huh? With 12 voters, that gives us an average of 4.8.

(I also reviewed this on my blog if you want to check it out.)

Our next meeting is at Cyndi's house on March 26th and we'll be discussing Bev's pick, THE BEAN TREES, by Barbara Kingsolver.