Great Small Things by Jodi Picoult

This is not an author that I read regularly and her genre of fiction is not one that I read either. I have done some research on sibling bone marrow donors, and read My Sister's Keeper, which is a story about that experience, and I would say it jibes with what we found when we interviewed families who had a bone marrow recipient, a donor, and then non-donor siblings, to try to better address the psychological consequences of such an event. However, it did not make me a fan, and I read this only because my book group picked it, and I am sorry I missed the discussion, because while I did not love the book, I would love to hear what others thought of it. This is, by her own admission, the author's attempt to address institutional racism, and to help the reader identify their own place in that story. Ruth is a black nurse who is a high achiever and extremely competent and she is the center of the story, but there are a myriad of characters around her who cover the gamut--there is the open white supremacist, the well meaning defense attorney who comes to see she wasn't as race neutral as she would have liked to be, and the very racist police and criminal justice system that they support. The story is designed to evoke emotions, and I think it is a good book club choice, especially if the discussion includes people of color.