The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

“Everything seems simple until you think about it. Why is love intensified by absence? Long ago, men went to sea, and women waited for them, standing on the edge of the water, scanning the horizon for the tiny ship. Now I wait for Henry. He vanishes unwillingly, without warning. I wait for him. Each moment that I wait feels like a year, an eternity. Each moment is as slow and transparent as glass. Through each moment I can see infinite moments lined up, waiting. Why has he gone where I cannot follow?”
– Chapter 1, pg. 1

"Think for a minute, darling: in fairy tales it's always the children who have the fine adventures. The mothers have to stay at home and wait for the children to fly in the window."
– Chapter 8, pg. 126

"Don't you think that it's better to be extremely happy for a short while, even if you lose it, than to be just okay for your whole life?" – Chapter 13, pg. 231

"I never understood why Clark Kent was so hell bent on keeping Lois Lane in the dark." – Chapter 36, pg. 446

“Sleep erases all differences: then and now; dead and living. I am past hunger, past vanity, past caring. This morning I caught sight of my face in the bathroom mirror. I am paper skinned, gaunt, yellow, ring-eyed, hair matted. I look dead. I want nothing.” – Chapter 44, pg. 501

So those were some of my favorite book quotes from The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

Is there an editor in the house? This book did not need to be 518 pages. I actually started and stopped this book months ago because I didn't like the idea of a 40-year-old man visiting his future wife as a six year old. Naked. Did

you get that? Naked. Publisher: This has best seller written all over it! Me: ...Really? Only my love for Rachel McAdams forced me to give Niffenegger a second chance. At least she would occasionally whip out some crazy/disturbing situation right in the middle of a boring chapter. You know, some so-sick-it-sticks plot twist (say that five times fast). Watch, in 2025 I'll be sitting on some train to Vienna minding my own business when out of nowhere I'll remember how Henry's future self gave himself a blow job or how Clare had a miscarriage because their baby time traveled out of her uterus and ended up a bloody mess in the bed next to her. Joy.

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

“Gamma rays, leukemia, parenthood. It is the things you cannot see coming that are strong enough to kill you.”
– Chapter 10, pg, 105

“Summertime, I think, is a collective unconscious. We all remember the notes that made up the song of the ice cream man; we all know what it feels like to brand our thighs on a playground slide that’s heated up like a knife in a fire; we all have lain on our backs with our eyes closed and our hearts beating across the surface of our lids, hoping that this day will stretch just a little longer than the last one, when in fact it’s all going in the other direction.” – Chapter 29, pg. 279

“Change isn’t always for the worst; the shell that forms around a piece of sand looks to some people like an irritation, and to others, like a pearl.”
– Chapter 37, pg. 350

“I realize then that we never have children, we receive them. And sometimes it’s not for quite as long as we would have expected or hoped. But it is still far better than never having had those children at all.” – Chapter 46, pg. 395

“None of us is obligated to go into a fire and save someone else from a burning building. But all that changes if you’re a parent and the person in that burning building is your child. If that’s the case, not only would everyone understand if you ran in to get your child – they’d expect it of you. In my life, that building was on fire, one of my children was in it – and the only opportunity to save her was to send in my other child, because she was the only one who knew the way.” – Chapter 51, pg. 406

“As much as you want to hold on to the bitter sore memory that someone has left this world, you are still in it. And the very act of living is a tide: at first it seems to make no difference at all, and then one day you look down and see how much pain has eroded.” – Chapter 56, pg. 422

So those were some of my favorite book quotes from My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult.

The first time I heard about this book was back in 2006 during a group discussion for my Issues in Biotechnology capstone course. My classmate made it sound like an interesting PGD read (which stands for preimplantation genetic diagnosis and not some variation of the MPAA’s film rating system),

so I made a mental note to pick it up someday. Fast forward three years (has it really been that long?), and I find out my favorite 6-year-old, Olivia Hancock, is starring in the movie opposite Cameron Diaz. My best friend is Olivia’s babysitter from time to time. I took her to the zoo once, bought her a stuffed giraffe. Woo-hoo, I’m basically famous (note the sarcasm). So my goal was to read the book before seeing the movie. It’s your typical Picoult. Lots of viewpoint switcheroos, similes (a few that didn’t make any sense), an endless supply of in-your-face metaphors, and your obligatory surprise ending. On the grocery list this week: Kleenex.

Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult

“In the space between yes and no, there’s a lifetime. It’s the difference between the path you walk and one you leave behind; it’s the gap between who you thought you could be and who you really are; it’s the legroom for the lies you’ll tell yourself in the future.”
– Chapter 3, pg. 20

“I knew exactly how she felt. When you’re different, sometimes you don’t see the millions of people who accept you for what you are. All you notice is the one person who doesn’t.”
– Chapter 6, pg. 41

“I don’t think religions are based on lies, but I don’t think they’re based on truths either. I think they come about because of what people need at the time that they need them.” – Chapter 14, pg. 94

“The Greeks and Romans, with all their gods, thought they were making sacrifices and praying at temples in order to receive favor from their deities; but with the passage of time, people consider this to be false. How do you know that 500 years from now, some alien master race won’t be picking over the artifacts of your Torah and their crucifix and wondering how you could be so naive?” – Chapter 14, pg. 94

“Death penalty cases are emotional minefields – you get to know the inmate, and you excuse some heinous crime with a lousy childhood or alcoholism or an emotional upheaval or drugs, until you see the victim’s family and a whole different level of suffering. And suddenly you start to feel a little ashamed of being in the defendant’s camp.” – Chapter 25, pg. 153

“This is what it always comes down to, I realized. There are the ones who believe, and the ones who don’t, and caught in the space between them are guns.” – Chapter 52, pg. 268

So those were some of my favorite book quotes from Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult.

How ironic. I had no clue this book was going to be about religion. There I was, warily reading along, just waiting for the part where I could snort with disgust and throw the thing aside. But instead, Picoult decides to whip out something I dislike even more than religion: Cellular memory. UGH, will

fiction writers never let this ridiculous concept die the painful death it so rightfully deserves?? ONE paper was published in a NON-peer-reviewed, NON-scientific journal (not to mention it was some whack job, short- lived “alternative therapy” journal), which suggested memories can be stored in all cells of the body (and not just the brain). This would allow organ donation recipients to “inherit” personality traits from their organ donors. Puh-lease! I’ll bet my right kidney we NEVER see the day a respectable, prominent medical or scientific journal publishes this crap. In my mind, cellular memory ranks right up there with the existence of God.

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

"In nineteen minutes, you can mow the front lawn, color your hair, watch a third of a hockey game. In nineteen minutes, you can bake scones or get a tooth filled by a dentist; you can fold laundry for a family of five... In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world, or you can just jump off it. In nineteen minutes, you can get revenge." – Chapter 1, pg. 5

“Newborns reminded her of tiny Buddhas, faces full of divinity. It didn’t last long, though. When Lacy saw those same infants a week later at their regular checkups, they had turned into ordinary – albeit tiny – people. That holiness, somehow, disappeared, and Lacy was always left wondering where in this world it might go.” – Chapter 1, pg. 15

“He pictured his life as a graph. Normal was a line that stretched on and on, teasing its way closer to an axis but never really reaching it. He knew that there was a difference between something that makes you happy and something that doesn’t make you unhappy. The trick was convincing yourself these were one and the same.” – Chapter 6, pg. 130

“So much of the language of love was like that: you devoured someone with your eyes, you drank in the sight of them, you swallowed them whole. Love was sustenance, broken down and beating through your bloodstream.”
– Chapter 7, pg. 173

“Children didn’t make their own mistakes. They plunged into the pits they’d been led to by their parents.” – Chapter 9, pg. 286

“Something still exists as long as there’s someone around to remember it. Everyone would remember Peter for nineteen minutes of his life, but what about the other nine million?” – Chapter 14, pg. 450

So those were some of my favorite book quotes from Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult.

This was my first Jodi Picoult read. Someone suggested it for our subdivision’s book club. Then after everyone hated on it, they decided Picoult has been churning out too many books at too fast a rate (Dean Knootz, anyone?). Maybe I’m too much the romantic, but this book would have been

gold for me if the surprise ending had turned out just a little bit differently. (Note: Spoilers ahead... as always). Josie randomly shooting her boyfriend was ridiculous! Sure, I get that he was an asshole to her and she felt trapped and fake and blah blah blah. But was that really incentive enough to send a bullet through his stomach point blank? No. I'm sorry Picoult, but that was beyond believable. The way I would have ended it? Two guns would have slid out of Peter's bag. Matt would have immediately grabbed one, aimed it at Peter and begun to taunt him. Josie would then have a REAL motive to kill Matt: To stop him from killing Peter. Sooo much better.