Meh.

This rather unenthusiastic expression seems to sum up a feeling of mild indifference or dissatisfaction. It's a word that can be used to convey a lack of excitement or enthusiasm about something.

Perhaps it's used when we encounter something that is just okay, not bad but not great either. It can also be a response to a situation that fails to meet our expectations.

However, "meh" can also have a certain charm. It can be a way to express our honest opinion in a lighthearted and casual way. It's not a harsh criticism, but rather a simple acknowledgement that something didn't quite hit the mark.

In a world where we are constantly bombarded with information and experiences, "meh" can be a refreshingly honest and unpretentious way to express ourselves. So the next time you're feeling a bit underwhelmed, don't be afraid to just say "meh."

Jodi Picoult is one of my favorite authors. So, when I discovered this novel for just $.75 at a library book sale and realized I had never read it, I had to hold back my excitement and not make a fool of myself. Jodi Picoult writes about hot, current topics in a fictional way, such as suicide, stem cell research, kidnappings, murders, and school shootings. These topics are unfortunately all too common. She gives "stories" to these issues and makes you think about how you would react if you were in the shoes of the shooters' mom, the caretaker of a cloned child, or the sibling of a kidnapped victim.

The book jacket for Harvesting the Heart didn't describe what it was about, but given the author, I was sure I'd like it. Boy, was I wrong! In fact, this was one of the worst books I've ever read. If this had been my first Jodi Picoult novel, it probably would've been my last. Fortunately, I assumed she must have been having an "off" month when she wrote this because it was terrible.

I'll try to summarize the book quickly. If there had been a dust jacket, I imagine it would've gone something like this: Paige O'Toole, a wannabe artist dealing with abandonment issues from her mother leaving her at a young age, abandons her father by running away in the middle of the night. Years later, she abandons her husband and child, then finds her abandoned mom and abandons her again because her mom isn't sensitive enough to Paige's whining about how hard she had it. Finally, she returns to her husband and child expecting them to be forgiving, supportive, and happy to see her because she's a victim of abandonment.

Umm... yeah! That's not how it works, Paige. I think this novel was so terrible because Paige felt entitled to be selfish. She thought it was her right to be careless with other people's feelings because she was hurting. I'm not the moral police, and I've been careless and selfish with people's feelings and hearts too. But at some point, you wake up and face what you've done. Paige never did that. Throughout the whole novel, she felt her actions were justified. She was an abandoned child, had an abortion, lost the love of her life, married a man who was never home, was a bad mom, her in-laws hated her, and gave up her dreams. Blah, blah, blah. I got so tired of hearing her complain and whine about being a punching bag for God. The whole tantrum she threw in the middle of downtown Boston, asking "What have I done to deserve this?" made me throw my book across the room. She just didn't get it. She never understood that regardless of your past, it's never an excuse for bad behavior in the present. She never figured out why Nicholas was so mad at her for leaving and then manipulated her way into his workplace and stalked him. It was just weird. Then she had a nervous breakdown after calling her husband a liar. Huh? Weird!

I felt the most empathy for Paige's father, who was the only character in the novel that I truly liked. He never stopped loving his wife, gave up his dreams to raise a daughter he loved, even when she left him too. He was the example of what a parent should be. I wish Jodi Picoult would've involved his character more in the storyline.
I wouldn't recommend this novel because I personally didn't like it. Try any of her other books (my favorite is Plain Truth), but skip this one. Harvesting the Heart isn't like her other novels. The writing is good, but it's just an annoying book. Especially if you get passionate and involved in books like I do, it'll make you want to slap Paige. I did read some reviews about this novel on Goodreads, and more people liked it than not. So, it's strictly a matter of taste. And I happen to have excellent taste!

I am not particularly drawn to her books.

Her writing style doesn't seem to resonate with me on a deep level. The stories she weaves often lack the kind of excitement and intrigue that would keep me engaged from start to finish.

Maybe it's the way she develops her characters or the pacing of the plot. Whatever the reason, I find myself having a hard time getting fully immersed in her literary works.

It's not that her books are bad per se, but they just don't have that certain something that makes me eager to pick them up and devour them.

I've tried reading a few of her novels, hoping to discover the charm that others seem to find, but so far, I've been left somewhat disappointed.

However, I do recognize that everyone has different tastes in literature, and perhaps there are those who truly love her books and find great value in them.

Maybe I just need to give her writing another chance and approach it with a different mindset.

But for now, I remain not particularly drawn to her books.

I hate to say it because I usually LOVE Jodi Picoult's books.

However, this particular one just didn't have the same impact on me. It took me approximately a week to finish reading, which is significantly longer than it typically takes me to devour a book.

The story line had its merits, but for some reason, it failed to truly captivate my attention. I found myself rather disengaged for the majority of the book.

It wasn't until the final few chapters that I finally felt a glimmer of interest and started itching to know more. By that point, to me, the story was just beginning to get good.

It's a bit disappointing as I had such high expectations based on my previous experiences with Jodi Picoult's works. But alas, not every book can be a winner.

Perhaps it was just a matter of personal taste or maybe I was in the wrong frame of mind while reading this one. Nevertheless, it's still a well-written book, just not one that completely won me over.

This is not my favorite book written by this author.

It belongs to those kinds of books where I really detested the main character. She is a self-centered, immature, and overly entitled young woman whom I simply could not identify with in the slightest.

Having said that, it was still a somewhat tolerable book that can be read and digested relatively quickly.

If you don't have high expectations regarding the depth of the characters, perhaps you won't be as let down as I was.

It's not a terrible book, but it definitely didn't meet my personal standards for a great read.

Maybe for some readers who are less挑剔 about character development, it could offer a bit of entertainment.

However, for me, the unlikable main character really detracted from the overall enjoyment of the story.

Nevertheless, it's still a book that can be finished in a short amount of time, which might be appealing to some.

Overall, it's a mediocre offering from this author in my opinion.

I really did not like this book.

I had picked it up in audiobook form as I was in search of something nice and long. Also, I recognized the name of Jodi Picoult as one of those more famous writers of what we might call airport fiction. So, I decided to give it a try.

Well, it was quite a painful experience to get through. Mainly, I found the two main characters extremely annoying. The female protagonist is the more prominent of the two, and the novel felt like listening to the therapy sessions of a selfish, self-absorbed, and extremely immature individual. She reminded me a great deal of the character Jenny in The L Word, and I don't mean that in a positive sense. Maybe it's just that the characters' values differed significantly from mine. Certainly, a well-developed character doesn't necessarily have to be a likable one. However, I just didn't feel that I was being drawn into a particularly rich inner world.

Not to mention, the writing was rather inelegant. Some sentences and phrases just made me cringe. For example, a description of the seats in a hospital waiting area as being stained with coffee and tears. Tears? Er... OK.

This book just didn't work for me on multiple levels.

I hadn't desired to read another Jodi Picoult novel. After commencing with the high point of My Sister's Keeper and making my way through a rather formulaic series that always had a twist at the conclusion, I didn't have much anticipation for this book. However, it was the only one I had for a long night in a hotel in a foreign country.

It was quite distinct as it was clearly overwritten, and in certain parts, it was also beautifully written. Typically, I regard Picoult as a storyteller whose characters are somewhat sketchy and seem to be like ciphers that show up with different trappings in one book after another. But the two main characters in this book were entirely individual, perhaps especially the woman. Sadly, nearly five hundred pages dedicated to two characters, one being a bolter, the daughter of a bolter, and one not trying very hard to break free from his patrician family, becomes tiresome without a good story.

The ending was pleasantly predictable rather than some fabricated nonsense like the ending of My Sister's Keeper and the others. And if I could, I would have given it 3.5 stars.

I have read several books penned by this author up until now.

To be honest, this particular one ranks as my least favorite among them.

I simply couldn't muster much sympathy for any of the main characters.

Their actions and behaviors didn't resonate with me on an emotional level.

Moreover, the story itself seemed to lack a clear direction.

It meandered along without really going anywhere significant.

There were no real twists or turns that could capture my attention and keep me engaged.

As a result, I found myself rather disappointed with this book.

It failed to live up to the expectations I had based on the author's previous works.

I hope that the author will come up with something more captivating in the future.

So once in a blue moon, I decide to pick up a Jodi Picoult opus. It could be because it's conveniently sitting on the shelf, or perhaps because I'm feeling a bit brain dead and in need of some light reading. Usually, her books are filled with clichés, but they're still somewhat okay. Jodi has the ability to string sentences together in a decent manner, and she writes about topics like moms and kids and relationships, which are things that we can all somewhat relate to, especially when our brains aren't firing on all cylinders.

However, I need to announce that I am seriously disappointed, nay, DISGUSTED with the sloppy research in Jodi's 1995 novel, Harvesting the Heart. The story is about a poor girl from Chicago whose father is a crackpot Irish inventor and whose mother abandoned the family when the daughter was just 5 years old. There's Catholicism in the story, but it's a sloppily researched and cliché version of it. There's also an abortion (!) that the character deeply regrets, and a rich and handsome cardio-thoracic surgeon from Boston. I could have overlooked all of this.

But then there's an uber expensive open hunter named Donegal. At one point, the horse colics while the runaway mom cuddles next to him as he thrashes in agony. And subsequently, the found-again mom allows her beginning rider daughter to gallop the priceless Donegal through a grassy meadow full of gopher holes and unmown thigh-high grass. Nope, sorry, this just won't work for me. It won't work for anyone who has ever been around real horses, even at a rank beginner level. I seriously think Jodi wrote this book just to see if anyone was paying attention. From the Irish dad's totally ludicrous inventions to the under-researched near death intussusception near the book's finale, this book is filled with gaping holes. Shame on you, Jodi. Shame.

I read this book when my son was small, which was almost a decade ago.

At that time, I vividly remember that I was exactly the same age as the main character, who was in her early 20's.

I could truly relate to her experiences. Being young and pretty, yet facing difficulties in understanding and dealing with the whole concept of motherhood.

It was as if I was walking in her shoes, sharing her confusion and the challenges she encountered.

The story seemed to unfold before my eyes, making me feel a deep connection with the character and her journey.

It was a remarkable reading experience that left a lasting impression on me, even after all these years.

I often find myself reflecting on that book and the emotions it evoked within me.

It served as a reminder of my own youth and the uncertainties that came with it, especially when it came to the role of being a mother.

Overall, it was a book that I will always cherish and remember for its ability to touch my heart and make me feel understood.

The work gives the impression that the author is inexperienced in the use of metaphors. There are numerous references to the "HEART" to the extent that it becomes tiresome and elicits eye-rolling and grumbling due to the preposterous recurrence of the metaphor.

However, its usage is related to the storyline as the protagonist is the chief cardiac doctor at the Boston/Cambridge hospital and his wife, Paige, is the doting and LOVING wife, until she deliberately leaves town. Their relationship is built on oppositions. She doesn't blend in with his MD crowd of colorless homes, hospitals, fine white china, and rich tapestries as she craves color and life. She expresses herself through drawing on walls, cheap dishes to seem acceptable to her husband's doctor friends, and tacks her drawings on her restaurant's walls.

The couple's differences are also evident in their education and style preferences. He lacks all color while she embodies color and simplicity. He recreates life daily as a cardiac surgeon performing bypasses, while she struggles to manage the lives she brought into the world. She aborted her first child, which left her with the fear of being a bad mother to their baby, Max. The author's concept of writing a fictional account of a woman with post-partum depression is worthy of praise. Writing about mothers' fear of motherhood is courageous, and writing about leaving life on a whim is equally commendable.

Nevertheless, the book would have been enhanced if it hadn't overused the cheesy heart metaphor. It would have been better if Paige hadn't recalled so many fine details about things she claimed to have forgotten. It would have been more believable if she had more than $1000 to sustain herself and fuel her car for a three-month journey from Boston to Chicago and then to North Carolina. Additionally, the book cover would have been more appealing if it hadn't implied that the story was about Paige and her missing mother when it wasn't.

Finally, the book's lack of closure is an interesting approach, similar to that of TV series like "Dallas" with Bobby Ewing in the shower, which leaves the door open to bring Nicholas and Paige back.

Paige O'Toole's life took a tragic turn when her mother abandoned her at the tender age of five.

Left with her father, she embarked on a journey to pursue her dreams. Along the way, she met and fell in love with a young doctor, and they got married.

Soon, Paige found herself pregnant, but instead of joy, she was filled with uncertainty. She questioned whether she could fulfill the expectations of being a mother and wife that everyone had placed upon her.

Feeling lost and adrift, Paige realized that in order to move forward and find inner peace, she had to confront her past and go in search of her long-lost mother.

This story delves deep into the complex demands of being a mother and wife, and the arduous process of overcoming emotional pain. It is a beautiful and detailed narrative that showcases Jodi Picoult's remarkable storytelling skills.

One would not expect anything less from this talented author.