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Description edit
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... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Summary edit
After struggling with infertility, Zoe and Max discover they want different things in life - and for Max it does not include a baby. Zoe throws herself into her music therapy business and Max throws himself into the bottle, and eventually an evangelical church family. When Zoe discovers love... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)
Characters edit
- Vanessa Shaw: Starts out as an acquaintance to Zoe, becomes her friend. High school guidance counselor.
- Zoe Baxter: All she wants in life is to have a child and has seemingly always fallen short,due to infertility problems in both herself and her husband. Music therapist, passionate about helping others through music.
- Max Baxter: Recovering alcoholic. Owns a landscaping business. Zoe's husband, brother to Reid. He can't bear to watch Zoe continue to torture herself in hopes of a miracle child.
- Liddy Baxter: Max's sister in law, married to Reid. Is very religious and caring.
- Reid: Max's brother. He and his wife Liddy are experiencing infertily issues as well.
- Clive Lincoln: charismatic pastor
- Angela Moretti: a very funny lawyer who spends too much time objecting to witnesses/words she doesn't agree with instead of actually coming up with arguments as original as her jokes to prove her point.
- Dara: Zoe's mom, currently working as a life-coach.
- Marie S: Add a description of this character.
- O'neill: Lawyer
- Kylee
- Reid Baxter: Max's responsible, wealthy, church-involved older brother, husband of Liddy. Has everything he could want in life, except for a child.
- Wanda
- Mr Docker: Patient of Zoe's
- Marisa
- Dr Gelman
- Ben Benjamin
- Dr Newkirk
- Joel
- Dr Fourchette
- Elkin
- Bonnie
- Daniel
- Joe Hoffman
- Michaela
- Sammy
- Ellie
- Todd
- Liddy: Sister-in-law of Max, wife of Reid, desperate to have a child.
- Wade Preston: Ultra smoothe attorney, flagrantly right-wing, supporter of the "traditional family" and gay basher.
- Lucy Dubois: Teenage, potential suicide. Outsider, different, disconnected from her peer group, difficult to reach.
Quotes edit
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“I taste her and realize I've been starving.”
Zoe -
“I slip her hands beneath the hem of my shirt. Her palms brand my stomach; I am sure I will wake up with her initials seared into my skin.”
Vanessa -
“The optimist in me wants to believe sexuality will eventually become like handwriting: there's no right or wrong way to do it. We're all just wired differently.”
Vanessa -
“Did you ever notice how other people's houses have a smell? I has asked the first time I went over to Vanessa's.Please tell me mine isn't something awful like bratwurst.No, I said. It's clean. Like sunshine on sheets. THen I asked her what my apartment smelled like.Don't you know?No, I explained. I can't tell because I live there. I'm too close to it.It smells like you, Vanessa had said. LIke a place nobody ever wants to leave.”
Zoe and Vanessa -
“If you ask me, music is the language of memory.”
Zoe -
“When I was married to Max, I mistook being a lifeline for being in love. I was the one who could save him; I was the one who could keep him sober. But there is a difference between mending someone who's broken and finding someone who makes you complete.”
Zoe -
““For anyone who hasn’t accepted Jesus into his heart, this is what it feels like: as if you’ve resisted the fact that your vision’s gone blurry and you need glasses. But eventually you can’t see a foot in front of you without knocking things over and bumping into dead ends, so you go to the optometrist. You walk out of that office with a new pair of glasses, and the world looks sharper, burgher, more colorful. Crisp. You can’t understand why you waited so long to make the appointment.””
Max -
“The music we listen to may not define who we are. But it's a damn good start.”
Zoe -
““I once told the head of the English department at school that I liked Romeo and Juliet the best,” I say, “and she told me I was a philistine.”“What! Why?”“Because it’s not as complex as King Lear or Hamlet, I guess.”“But it’s dreamier. It’s everyone’s fantasy, right?”“To die with your lover?”Zoe laughs. “No. To die before you start making lists of all the things about him that drive you crazy.””
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“Are you attracted to someone because of who they are, or what they are?”
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“But I do know that I’m at the stage of my life where I want forever, not right now.”
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“"Because,” I say finally, “when you love someone, you don’t see the parts of him you don’t like"”
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“That I kind of want to be with you forever. Except forever’s not long enough.”
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“Beliefs are the roads we take to reach our dreams. Believe you can do something—or believe you can’t—and you’ll be right every time.”
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But there is a difference between mending someone who’s broken and finding someone who makes you complete.
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I know that the first person I kissed won’t be nearly as important as the last person I kiss.
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“Anxiety’s like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you very far.”
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This is true of anyone: the music we choose is a clear reflection of who we really are.
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The bottom line in both cases is that people don’t change; that no matter how charming you are and how fiercely you love, you cannot turn a person into someone she’s not.
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The moment I heard my first love story I began seeking you, not realizing the search was useless. Lovers don’t meet somewhere along the way. They’re in one another’s souls from the beginning.
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Imagine if there was a pentatonic scale for life: if no matter what step you took, you could not strike a wrong note.
Highlighted by 120 Kindle customers -
I tell you this as a cautionary tale: beware of getting what you want. It’s bound to disappoint you.
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If you ask me, music is the language of memory.
Highlighted by 29 Kindle customers
Setting & Locations edit
Rhode Island, Massachusetts
First Sentence edit
One sunny, crisp Saturday in September when I was seven years old, I watched my father drop dead.
Table of Contents edit
Track 1: Sing You Home
Track 2: The House on Hope Street
Track 3: Refuge
Track 4: The Last
Track 5: Marry Me
Track 6: Faith
Track 7: The Mermaid
Track 8: Ordinary Life
Track 9: Where Are You
Track 10: Sammy's Song
Series & Lists edit
This book is in 2011 Published Books. (community list)
Authors & Contributors edit
- Jodi Picoult (Author)
Other Contributors:
- Ellen Wilber - CD song writer and singer.
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Atria Books
Country: United States of America
Publication Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1439102725
Page Count: 466
Publisher: Atria Books
Country: United States of America
Publication Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1439102725
Page Count: 466
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: PS3566.I372 S56 2011
- Dewey: 813.54
Subjects edit
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