There’ve been a few books in the past year or so that I haven’t been able to read. Mostly ones where people complain about being pregnant. Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult stood out for me for the opposite reason. The premise of the book focuses on an infertile couple, Zoe & Max. I was a little apprehensive that this book would hit a little too close to home. While there were definitely infertility medicines & procedures discussed, Zoe was doing IVF so it’s not exactly the same as us. I’d heard there were some inaccuracies in her infertility meds part, but if so, I didn’t catch them.
If you’ve read any other Jodi Picoult novels, you’ll recognize that she again in Sing You Home gives each character a voice {their own chapters & fonts}. I enjoy that ~ the feeling of being behind-the-scenes with each of the main characters.
I thought Jodi did a great job of portraying what infertility is like from a guy’s perspective. These two quotes from Max resonated with me {from chapter two so not really a spoiler}:
“I did everything she asked me to. I stopped drinking caffeine, I wore boxers instead of briefs, I started jogging instead of biking. I followed a diet she’d found online that increased fertility. I no longer put the laptop on my lap.“
I’m not sure about all that but I have mentioned the laptop & biking thing to Jason. He was already a boxer dude. But he & his buddies haven’t been an issue for us. This next quote though scares me because I know this is sometimes {I hope rarely} us.
“I can’t really tell you the moment it went wrong. Maybe it was the first time, or the fifth, or the fiftieth that Zoe counted out the days of her menstrual cycle and crawled into bed and said, “Now!” Our sex life had become like Thanksgiving dinner with a dysfunctional family- something you have to show up for, even though you’re not really having a good time.“
The infertility quote from Zoe that stood out & pretty much sums up my last twenty months quite well, “And to think, some people who want to have a baby only need to make love“.
Besides all the IF talk {really most of the book focused on other things}, I enjoyed learning about musical therapy through Zoe. I’d never really thought about that job, but looking back many of Ma’s fellow nursing home patients did perk up in the group singing/instrument playing activities. It really makes sense.
This book also brings up other hot-button topics like religion, depression, education, social politics & today’s families. I won’t say more beacuase I don’t want to give anything else away.
I know I talked a lot about the IF aspect of this book, but even if you’re not into infertility, I think you’d enjoy this book. Like other Jodi Picoult novels, Sing You Home makes you think & question your own thoughts about things {way to be specific, Suz!}.
I have read every novel Jodi has written {except for Perfect Match which is in my TBR pile}. Her books do follow a similar style & usually have a big twist or two at the end. This one also does that, but to me that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Not exactly knowing what would happen had me reading in suspense until the end. Over all, if you’re a Jodi Picoult fan or not, I’d recommend requesting this from your library.
I’ve only read The Sister’s Keeper. But I have heard she does those huge twists at the end. IDK if I want to know hers… lol because Jodi never wants any one to be happy it seems lololol jk.
But I read Sometihng Borrowed and Something Blue & LOVED them, so awhile later I got Baby Proof {by the same girl} and I couldn’t get past the first few chapters. It was about a married couple and they didn’t want babies but then later on down the road the man changed his mind and they fought a lot and then they got divorced. Well then she got pregnant. I was battling IF too and just was SO OVER the fact that 1. she didn’t want a baby, 2. She GOT a baby EVEN WHEN she didn’t WANT it, and 3. well that’s all.
I also got a book of a couple that did all the IF stuff and lost some babies and then had a little girl… I never read it all the way though… If I remember the name I’ll tell you… 🙂
I read those Emily Giffin books years ago before I was even thinking about kids, but when you mentioned it, I do remember thinking that was kinda annoying even then.
Katie, do you remember any books you really enjoyed while going through IF?
I read this one- http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/225279.The_Conception_Chronicles & there was one that was may be yellow? and it had a baby in an egg {chicken, not human}. I liked them.
and here is a list of books {Waiting For Daisy was the one I was talking about before & couldn’t remember the name}- http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/infertility
Those look like there are more fictional books with infertility mixed in. because face it, you probably know everything there is about infertility, right? How much more could you possibly learn? 😉
Thanks for the links Katie. I’ll have to go check them out. 🙂
I have read MOST of Jodi Picoults books. In fact up until 3 years ago I had read them all. I even e-mailed her a handful of years ago…and she e-mailed me back. She’s totally awesome.
And the reasons her books are so spot on is she does a lot of research. She interviews people. She finds people who are going through what she’s writing about and tapes them talking about it, has them read and give feed back. She’s amazing.