Wonder Woman delights literary crowd in Warwick

NEALY 400 people packed the Guy Nelson Hall last Thursday night to hear Jodi Picoult talk about her latest book Sing You Home. Although without a doubt most of the audience were confirmed fans, there couldn’t have been a single person present who didn’t thoroughly enjoy the evening.

Jodi’s books are always centred around issues and Sing You Home raises lots of talking points concerning same-sex marriages, the Christian Right, embryo fertilisation, and much else besides.

But it is also very unusual in that as the main character, Zoe, is a musical therapist, the book is divided into musical themes which the reader can listen to on the accompanying CD. On Thursday night the audience had the added treat of being able to listen to a live performance of some of the music from special guest musician Ellen Wilber.

All of this and the fact that Jodi was happy to answer a huge range of questions from the audience made for a very memorable evening indeed. She is something of a ‘Wonder Woman’ getting up at 5am every day to exercise before getting the kids to school and then starting her writing day, and unbelievably she answers all emails from her fans personally - sometimes hundreds a day.

With a genuine warmth and loads of enthusiasm shining through, everyone agreed with me when I said: “Jodi, we can’t wait to get you back”!

The event was organised by Warwick Books bookshop as a Warwick Words Xtra event.

Keith Smith, owner of Warwick Books.