My Sister's Keeper

I finished reading My Sister's Keeper about a week and a half ago. Cried my eyes out. I had planned to finish watching the Indie Sex documentary but I couldn't put the book down. Late into the night I was nearly done and the saddest scene was painted in rain and while the tears were falling down I could only vividly imagine that it was really raining outside. The book continued to open my mind to many more perspectives that I have not quite stepped foot in before. That is what was so amazing about Jodi Picoult. She can write from various perspectives and really make you feel for them, even if you may not previously had been on their side. And even her writing style changes with it, and effectively. For example, Stephenie Meyer of the Twilight saga wrote from a couple perspectives but unfortunately the style of writing was mostly consistent between the two and weren't realistically enough evidence of two distinct characters. Even Jodi's depiction of male perspectives were entrancing and even funny. I thoroughly enjoyed her writing and would like to continue to read more of hers but don't know where to start just yet. Also, the more I read the more interested I was in the author herself. She mentions astronomy, a plethora of medical terms and procedures, the workings of fire, and even mentions astrological signs. All of these of which made me curious of her life and experiences. None of which I can actually find, although I have not done in depth research. When she first mentioned an astrological sign it made me excited because that is the type of information I am always eager to know about characters in my readings. It may sound silly to some of you but it's the truth. Very often I'm searching for the astrological sign of characters in film, literature, and even the actors of films. It's the same with symbolism that appears in these mediums that may or may not be relevant to astrology or other things I find interesting. And when I say that she mentioned these things, she did them with utmost knowledge about them that was wonderful and beautifully expressed. The inner conflict of each and every character was realistic and insightful and the same for the relationships between the them.

Now...the movie was just an utter disappointment.
I honestly didn't even full all out cry...just got teary eyed. The acting was decent, especially Cameron Diaz who I don't particularly care for. Yes, I was already aware of the major deviation the film took from the novel. But those changes were just plain stupid...I'm not even going to cover that statement with something that will sound more mature. It's simply true, the film is horrible in comparison to the novel and not just because of the major ending change but everything else that it left out of which I've already mentioned that I liked about the book. They just took a perfectly awesome piece of writing and stripped it of all the awesomeness and put some famous names and pretty faces and boom! they made a film. Yeah, this is harsh, and it would be a film I might of liked had I never read the book, but the fact of the matter [despite that books are always better] is that these issues at hand are soooo complex and sooo intense and deserve much more detailed attention of which the film left quite a whole lot out. Bottom line, the film is just a damn glamorized version of a pretty damn realistic book. Especially the reality of dysfunctional families.

I know I talk a lot of crap about film adaptations but this is something I take incredibly seriously and I want to really convey the vast division between these two works and that this, right along with I Am Legend, are some of the worsts in my opinion. I'm also happy but sympathetic to the author who was not so happy about the ending of the film either.
So...all in all, I definitely encourage you to read this and to even see the film too. The order of which is up to you and how you want to go about irritating yourself. I only suggest both because it is relevant to make your own opinion on these things as I have here.

"You don't love someone because they're perfect, you love them in spite of the fact that they're not." 

"Maybe who we are isn't so much about what we do, but rather what we're capable of when we least expect it."  

"Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it's not because they enjoy solitude. It's because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them."

"Extraordinary things are always hiding in places people never think to look." 

"A photo says, you were happy, and I wanted to catch that. A photo says, you were so important to me that I put down everything else to come watch."  

"The bottom line is that we never fall for the people we're supposed to." 

"True love is felonious… You take someone’s breath away… You rob them of the ability to utter a single word… You steal a heart." 

"Kids think with their brains cracked wide open; becoming an adult, I've decided, is only a slow sewing shut." 

"He insisted that stars were people so well loved, they were traced in constellations, to live forever."  

"There's some illogical part of me that still believes if you want Superman to show up, first there's got to be someone worth saving." 

"In the English language there are orphans and widows, but there is no word for the parents who loses a child."  

"Life sometimes gets so bogged down in the details, you forget you are living it. There is always another appointment to be met, another bill to pay, another symptom presenting, another uneventful day to be notched onto the wooden wall. We have synchronized our watches, studied our calendars, existed in minutes, and completely forgotten to step back and see what we've accomplished." 

"Remember that every fire will burn itself out, even without your help." 

"The human capacity for burden is like bamboo- far more flexible than you'd ever believe at first glance." 

"It is a remarkable question- Do all the wonderful things happen when we are not aware of them?" 

"Until this moment, I had not realized that someone could break your heart twice, along the very same fault lines." 

"She told me she'd be a phoenix. The image of the mythical creature rising from the ashes glitters in my mind. 'They don't really exist.' 'She said that depends on whether or not there's someone who can see them.'" 

"My eyes fill up with tears. 'But I love her,' I say, because that is reason enough.'" 

 "It is so easy to think that the world revolves around you, but all you have to do is stare up at the sky to realize it isn't that way at all."