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A woman and her husband admitted to a hospital to have a baby requests that their nurse be reassigned -- they are white supremacists and don't want Ruth, who is black, to touch their baby. The hospital complies, but the baby later goes into cardiac distress when Ruth is on duty. She hesitates before rushing in to perform CPR. When her indecision ends in tragedy, Ruth finds herself on trial, represented by a white public defender who warns against bringing race into a courtroom. As the two come to develop a truer understanding of each other's lives, they begin to doubt the beliefs they each hold most dear.… (more)
Jody Picoult has written a book that will stay with you long after you finish it. This is a good choice for book clubs. Conversation about difficult topics is the first step in healing our fractured country. ( )
This is such and eye opening story about daily life for people of color in the midst of what most caucasions consider ordinary middle class life. Jodi did an amazing amount of research as she wrote and before publication so that she could reflect authenticity. ( )
Wow. A very controversial topic that was tackled very well. This story is about Ruth Jefferson, a labor & delivery nurse at a hospital where she's worked for 20 years. One day at work, there is an incident that leaves her having to make a difficult decision and then the consequences afterward due to her decision. At the high level, this book is about racism. Jodi Picoult is known for conducting her own research and almost immersing herself in that research so that she can learn everything she can learn about the particular topic she's writing about. Her approach to this book is no different. She even wrote, in her "Author's Note" at the end of the book that in writing this book, it forced her to take a hard look at herself. I could not put this book down. ( )
I don’t usually read Jodi Picoult. I don’t like sad, and most of hers are. But I kept hearing about Small Great Things, so I decided to give it a go, and I am so glad I did! It’s not an easy read. It’s powerful, it’s heart wrenching, it is real. It will really make you step back and take a look inside yourself. It is a book I will think about for a long time. ( )
Excellent book. One of the best I’ve read in the last 5 years. I know it’ll stick with me for a while. It has great character and storyline development while also teaching a lesson in humility, humanity, and racism (how we all contribute to it). I learned a lot and will be glad to do some work to improve our culture. ( )
Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are. -- BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced. -- JAMES BALDWIN
The piano keys are black and white but they sound like a million colors in your mind. -- MARIA CRISTINA MENA
She wanted to get at the hate of them all, to pry at it and work at it until she found a little chink, and then pull out a pebble or a stone or a brick and then a part of the wall, and, once started, the whole edifice might roar down and be done away with. -- Ray Bradbury, The Illustrated Man
People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love. -- Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
Dedication
For Kevin Ferreira, whose ideas and actions make the world a better place, and who taught me that we are all works in progress. Welcome to the family.
First words
The miracle happened on West Seventy-Fourth Street, in the home where Mama worked.
Quotations
"True confession? The reason we don't talk about race is because we do not speak a common language."
I hear the flow of the fountain behind me, and I think about water, how it might rise above its station as mist, flirt at being a cloud, and return as rain. Would you call that falling? Or coming home?
Equality is treating everyone the same. But equity is taking differences into account, so everyone has a chance to succeed.
One day, you realize there is less of your life left than what you've already lived.
........there is nothing more selfish than trying to change someone's mind because they don't think like you. Just because something is different does not mean it should not be respected.
What no one told me about grief is how lonely it is. No matter who else is mourning, you're in your own little cell.
The best lies are the ones that are wrapped around a core of truth.
I knew that sometimes when people spoke, it wasn't because they had something important to say. It was because they had a powerful need for someone to listen.
How incredibly easy it is to hide behind white skin, I think, looking at those probable supremacists.
If Ruth seemed judgmental or prickly, then her sister is a porcupine with an anger management problem.
The white supremacist supports in the gallery start booing. I am not sure they'd be happy with any verdict short of a public lynching.
If the first freedom you lose in prison is privacy, the second is dignity.
There were stones in her voice.
As it turns out, public defenders are less Superman and more Sisyphus, and there's no small number of lawyers who wind up crushed under the weight of the infinite caseloads and the crappy hours and the shitty pay.
"White folks have spent years giving Black folks their freedom on paper, but deep down they still expect us to say yes, massuh, and be quiet and grateful for what we got."
All mothers worry, but Black mothers, we have to worry a little bit more. "Even walking can be dangerous. Just being can be dangerous, if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Ms. Thomas was small and pretty and hopped from the desk of one third grader to another like a starling on a summer patio.
we have to put one foot in front of the other every day and pray it will be better the next time the sun rises. That if our legacy is not entitlement, it must be hope.
Last words
I hold my daughter's hand, or maybe she holds mine, like we are at an intersection, and it's my job to take her safely to the other side.
A woman and her husband admitted to a hospital to have a baby requests that their nurse be reassigned -- they are white supremacists and don't want Ruth, who is black, to touch their baby. The hospital complies, but the baby later goes into cardiac distress when Ruth is on duty. She hesitates before rushing in to perform CPR. When her indecision ends in tragedy, Ruth finds herself on trial, represented by a white public defender who warns against bringing race into a courtroom. As the two come to develop a truer understanding of each other's lives, they begin to doubt the beliefs they each hold most dear.
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Jody Picoult has written a book that will stay with you long after you finish it. This is a good choice for book clubs. Conversation about difficult topics is the first step in healing our fractured country. (