ARC Review: Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult

Sing You Home
Author: Jodi Picoult
Publication:  Atria (March 1, 2011)


Description: Every life has a soundtrack. All you have to do is listen.
Music has set the tone for most of Zoe Baxter’s life. There’s the melody that reminds her of the summer she spent rubbing baby oil on her stomach in pursuit of the perfect tan. A dance beat that makes her think of using a fake ID to slip into a nightclub. A dirge that marked the years she spent trying to get pregnant.


For better or for worse, music is the language of memory. It is also the language of love.
In the aftermath of a series of personal tragedies, Zoe throws herself into her career as a music therapist. When an unexpected friendship slowly blossoms into love, she makes plans for a new life, but to her shock and inevitable rage, some people—even those she loves and trusts most—don’t want that to happen.


Sing You Home is about identity, love, marriage, and parenthood. It’s about people wanting to do the right thing for the greater good, even as they work to fulfill their own personal desires and dreams. And it’s about what happens when the outside world brutally calls into question the very thing closest to our hearts: family.


INCLUDES A COMPACT DISC OF ORIGINAL SONGS
Music by Ellen Wilber
Lyrics by Jodi Picoult
All songs performed by Ellen Wilber


I was lamenting my tall stack of review books when one of the English teachers I work with said "I'd like to read the Picoult book." Here is Mrs. B's review of it. 


Mrs. B's Thoughts:

Popular author Picoult tackles the controversial topic of gay rights in her latest powerful tale. When music therapist Zoe Baxter’s latest pregnancy ends in a stillbirth, her husband Max decides he can’t handle any more heartbreak and leaves her. As she picks up the pieces of her life, Zoe is surprised to find herself falling for a school counselor who happens to be a woman. While Zoe is finding happiness with Vanessa, Max falls off the wagon and is helped by a pastor from his brother’s evangelical church. Vanessa and Zoe wed in Massachusetts, and Vanessa offers to carry one of the fertilized embryos Zoe and Max stored. Excited by the prospect of being a mother, Zoe goes to Max to get him to release the embryos to her and is shocked when he instead sues her for custody of them, backed by his church. Told from the perspectives of all three major characters, Picoult’s gripping novel explores all sides of the hot-button issue and offers a CD of folk songs that reflect Zoe’s feelings throughout the novel. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The always topical Picoult plans a multimedia tour to more than two dozen cities with Ellen Wilber, who will perform the songs she and Picoult wrote together. --Kristine Huntley

Sing You Home is a well written novel about a very controversial and sensitive subject in our country – same-sex relationships. Picoult gives each of her three main characters a voice. The chapters are divided into the perspectives of each character.

I recommend this book for adults who are fairly open-minded. The book will make you think of many questions about homosexuality and same-sex adoption.

Favorite Quote:

Every life has a soundtrack.

Thanks, Mrs. B! I hope to read this one too if time permits. It sounds really thought-provoking.