Color Me Cultured - Lone Wolf Book Review

A popular new year resolution is to read more books. It isn't too late to start reading more this year... it is only the 3rd week of 2013 after all. If you need a book suggestion Meredith, up and coming author, blogger and treasured CMS contributor is here today with a review of Jodi Picoult's Lone Wolf.

Lone Wolf By: Jodi Picoult

Every artist at some point or another will be asked who in their field has been a role model or idol of sorts, a standard to live up to.  While I haven’t gotten published and am unsure whether or not I ever will, my answer to this question was determined prior to ever writing one sentence of my book.  Before I get into what makes this book by Jodi Picoult so great, I should say that if there was one author whom I desired more than any other to live up to, and earned accolades from later in my career, it would be her.  She dedicates such attention to the details in her book that this goal seems impossible to someone with the limited attention span which I possess.  The first book which I ever read by her was entitled The Pact, and frankly is still one of my favorite books to this day.  Since then I have read everything she has written.

Her stories, centered on families and the daily trials and tribulations which make our lives seem more complicated than they actually are; make us question whether we are doing the best we can.  Her characters are flawed with realistic handicaps and relatable personality traits.  And most importantly as a reader, you walk away having learned something; understanding better how our careers, passions, and downfalls play intricately into who we are as people, and how the rest of the world perceives us. 

In Lone Wolf, Picoult integrates the dynamic of a wolf pack to explain the basic deficiencies a family unit is forced to deal with because of human nature.  As tragedy befalls the Warren family, four persons who have banished themselves to different corners of the globe are brought back together to decide the fate of one.  Unlike in a wolf pack, where a member who cannot carry their own load will slink off in the night to relieve the burden they have put on their pack, this family is forced to determine the outcome of one on their own.  In a passionate and moving tale of family, the worst of our flaws are put on trial and unlike the wolf we learn that we can’t actual unburden the ones we love of our baggage by disappearing in the middle of the night.  

Go and get your copy today! With the chilly temps and winter weather slamming half the country it is a perfect time to snuggle up with a book.