I am a member of the Jodi Picoult fan club.

This is the second fan club I have joined this week. (This may be a topic on it's own for another day...) Much of my reading had been spent in the "nonfiction world". That is until one day in Pre-Op at the Madison Surgery Center the nurses had some time to discuss what they have been reading. It was then that Marlene handed me My Sister's Keeper. Next thing I know I'm sitting in my car in the middle of winter, unaware that I was going to be late for the conference I was attending, completely absorbed in the final pages of my first experience with Jodi Picoult. Just as promised by others who have read this book, the ending was unbelievable.

This week, Jodi happened to be passing through Madison. So, a few of her friends and a few of mine got together over at Barnes and Noble. Becky, who was driving from La Crosse to be there that night, is someone who will drive for 3-4 hours to see one of her favorite authors. She is the one who made me aware that Jodi was going to be in town... it was great to catch some of her enthusiasm for literature and the artists who bring us these works. (if you want to see some of the pictures she took...Becky's slide show.)

This week I read Nineteen Minutes and The Tenth Circle. I am enjoying exploring the topics that Jodi explores in her novels - there is mystery and romance, life and death, suffering and joy, a wrestling with ethics, a searching for redemption, and all that is common to the human story. I love that because Jodi writes, we talk about things that just may not come up otherwise. It's fabulous!

Check out some of her work: Jodi Picoult

The first fan club I joined this week may also be one that you would be interested in: gene reynolds Really, he has a fan club!