Capturing COVID…

𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫: Diana O’Toole is the proverbial New York “has it all” girl: amazing job, dedicated boyfriend, a wondrous, goal-oriented life planned out in pristine perfect detail. Until she doesn’t have anything. COVID interrupts and Diana is separated from it all - stranded on the Galápagos Islands where the virus has shuttered the island. Diana makes due, makes a few friends, adapts to her new life, and in the process questions every one of her life choices…

𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬: Picoult has done an astonishing job of recreating what COVID has been like for many. Reading the author notes - she focuses on the word “isolation.” The weird thing is for me? I don’t relate to most people’s experiences during the past few years. I spent 2014-2019 out of work as a teacher with a mysterious illness. I returned to work full time in 2020 after diagnoses (5 chronic health conditions)- yup, smack dab in the middle of COVID. I was isolated BEFORE COVID and then again during. I’m single and self-supporting. I may have been the only person who DIDN’T feel the sting of shutdown as badly as others, but more like an old friend had returned -the one you politely let in but secretly wish would leave after 2 days? That’s COVID isolation for me.

Picoult opens up our collected experience of strange we’ve all managed, coped with, and wrestled with the past 2 years. And man, she nails it. Who hasn’t considered changes or been forced to make them? Who hasn’t looked at their partner during COVID and thought, “Should I be with this you?” Darn you Picoult - you’re making us all ADMIT it!

This book is one that rattled my brain, made me think deeply about the past 2 years and realize how lucky I am that my family made it through unscathed. My illness shored up my resolution to be an amazing teacher and I fought like hell to get back to the classroom. COVID was just another hurdle in my long race. Many of my colleagues have faced opposite decisions and realized they were done teaching. We all share the EXPERIENCE, and for that I applaud Picoult because she absolutely captures a unique time in our history where we all shifted our foundations and questioned what the heck we are doing with our lives.

𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Contemporary Fiction
𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨: All the book clubs HAVE to discuss this. For all the readers…

𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨: If COVID is too raw for you it might feel “too soon.”

Thank you to the author, NetGalley and Random House Ballantine for my advanced copy in exchange for my always-honest review and for making me analyze and think - like a good teacher should.

A really unique story centered around C0vid-19, it's aftereffects and the results of the pandemic. This book took a big twist that caught me by surprise leaving me hanging on every word! I really enjoyed this one and highly recommend it. Easily one of the best books I've read this year.

Happy belated pub day to Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult! Thank you Ballantine Books for my ARC and @librofm for my ALC in exchange for an honest review!

In one sentence: Diana and her doctor boyfriend Finn are set for the trip of their lives to the Galapagos - but when COVID hits, Finn stays behind, leaving Diana to make the trip alone.

Jodi Picoult is known for emotional, tearjerker reads, and this book is no exception. You can feel Diana's fear and isolation in the Galapagos, as well as Finn's desperation as the COVID situation grows more dire in NYC. Picoult fuses multiple aspects of the COVID experience: the armchair trips many of us took through books coupled with the harsh reality of widespread suffering, as well as the self-exploration and questioning of the status quo that Diana experienced.

Marin Ireland is one of my favorite narrators, and she did a great job with the audio here! I'd recommend this book to audio readers or all kinds; since the story is told primarily from Diana's perspective, it's easy to listen to without getting confused. You can really immerse yourself in the world of the Galapagos on audio.

If you like emotional reads and can handle reading about COVID, I'd recommend this one! I ended up reading/listening in one day because I had to know how Diana's story would end.

Review of Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Wow. Jodi Picoult is a genius. I have loved her books since I first read one about 15 years ago. She always approaches the most delicate, controversial subjects with beauty and spot on research. Her characters, story telling, and writing style are flawless. This book was no exception. It will be an extremely important book in years to come for people to read and get a small piece of understanding about what our world was like during the Covid pandemic.

Quick synopsis: Diana is living her dream life in NYC. She has a great job at Sotheby’s and is in her way to a promotion. She has a great boyfriend named Finn who is a surgical resident and they are shortly to leave for a dream vacation to the Galapagos where they will surely become engaged. But then Covid hits and Finn must stay behind to work. He tells Diana to go anyway. She does and ends up stranded there. Finn sends frequent emails describing the utter horror of working in a hospital during this terrible pandemic. I will not write much more because I don’t want to spoil the story with hints. But there is a big twist with this one and your jaw will drop.

This book was just amazing. About 75% of my loved ones and friends and family are in the medical field. I’m a PA but staying home with my children as my husband is often exposed to Covid at the two hospitals where he works. My friends are nurses, CRNAs, NPs, fellow PAs, and physicians like my husband. I have talked to them all for countless hours as they lament everything they have had to witness and do during this past almost two years now. Many have PTSD and exhaustion is an understatement. Healthcare workers and all who support them as well as all essential workers are utter heroes. Jodi Picoult nailed this.

This book is extremely Covid heavy. It’s not the entire story, but it’s the largest portion. But it’s also a story about living your best life and how you have to follow your heart in all decisions. If you can handle the Covid part, please read this book.
I am so happy to be reading this as a buddy read with some of my best booksta friends.

A huge thank you to @netgalley, @libro.fm, @jodipicoult, @prhaudio, @randomhouse for the e copy and listening copy. I read and listened and will be purchasing the hardcover for myself to keep and re read.

#wishyouwerehere #jodipicoult

This was my first book from Jodi Picoult; it certainly will not be my last. It tells the story of Diana O’Toole who works at Sotheby’s, and her boyfriend Finn, a surgical resident, both living together in NYC. They are scheduled to travel together to the Galápagos Islands when the pandemic hit. Finn is stuck at work caring for sick patients while Diana travels to the Galápagos and gets stranded when all travel is halted.

Then there’s a massive twist.

I loved how the story came together. It’s really difficult to read about the effects of the pandemic while we are still in a pandemic, however, I loved the message Jodi sent.

Thank you to Penguin Random House, NetGalley and Jodi Picoult for an ARC of this title.

For as much as I read, I have not read a book by this author - by choice - as I didn't think I would like her writing style. In this book she tells the story of couple who is about to take an international vacation just as COVID is hitting the US. Finn, a NY hospital resident is unable to take the trip and so Diana goes on her own at his suggestion. Diana ends up being stranded on the island for two months as she is unable to return to the US. Interesting premise for the book and dealing with the year 2020.

Diana O’Toole a specialist in art sells and her boyfriend Finn who is a surgeon at New York Presbyterian hospital have planned a vacation to the Galápagos Islands. Diana decides to travel there without Finn because of a new illness Covid-19 that has created an influx of patients at his hospital. Unknown to the both of them that the entire world would change in a matter of days.

This novel was very thought provoking and at times rattled me to my core. It brought out emotions of my own experience surrounding the pandemic the past couple years and personal experience of recovery of a life threatening illness. The development of characters and the possible reality of their experiences made me completely invested. Well done Jodi Picoult! Get out there and get your copy!

Thank you Netgalley Ballantine Book and Jody Picoult for this fabulous novel to devour!

I did not know what to expect from this book, but it didn’t take long to find out!

Diana and Finn have their whole lives planned out: move up in their jobs -- Diana who is employed at Sotheby’s, Finn working to become a surgeon in a hospital in Manhattan; get married by 30; be finished having two children by 35; travel around the world, visiting as many UNESCO World Heritage sites as possible. “The Plan” is right on schedule. They have tickets and travel arrangements, for which they have saved for four years, to the Galapagos Islands -- non-refundable.

But on March 13, 2020, two days before they are set to leave on their two-week dream vacation, Finn decides that this is not a good time to leave the hospital. There are 19 cases of the Covid virus and his boss predicts more, saying this is not the time to leave. Finn encourages Diana to go by herself, since everything is paid for. And anyway, by the end of two weeks things will surely look much better…..

Diana hates to go alone, but decides to make the trip on her own, but from the beginning things do not go well for her. Her luggage is lost; she doesn’t speak the language (Finn was supposed to be there to speak for her!); as soon as she gets off the ferry to the small island where she has a hotel reservation, the whole island shuts down -- including her hotel!; and there is little or no internet connection, so she can’t even contact Finn to tell him she arrived safely! Well, she can surely make it through two weeks, when the island will open up again and she can return home…..

Yes, that is just the set-up to a very interesting story that begins with the main character being quarantined in a beautiful paradise. It really can’t be so bad.
You. Need. To. Keep. Reading!!!

There is a lot more to this story. I found that the author did such a good job of keeping my attention. And she added so many things that I didn’t expect. I couldn’t put it down. But I don’t want to say any more!

I enjoyed this a lot and hope others will too.

I'd like to thank NetGalley, Jodi Picoult, and Random House Publishing Group, and Ballantine Books for the advanced reader's copy in exchange for my unbiased review.

Keeps you thinking long after the last page! A story of the early pandemic that brought back so many memories of going through it myself. A little raw, and maybe a bit too soon, but I am so glad the book was written and so glad I read it!

One of the things you can depend on is that this author will always deeply research her subject. As a former nurse, I was impressed how well she represented the internal fear, burnout, isolation and chaotic nature of this nightmarish infection. Beautifully captured and plotted, it was a fast read and easy to devour. I had told myself I didn't want to read another book about Covid, but this one is different. It is one that explores not just the experience but the universal truth of how a calamity and life changing experience can make one reflect on one's life decisions.
The story begins March 2020 in NYC after Broadway shuts down when Covid raises its curdling head. Diane is an art specialist who works for Sotheby's and has an arrangement to possibly auction off a famous piece of art. This sale would hopefully elevate her to a higher position in the company. Meanwhile her boyfriend is a surgeon at a local hospital who is called in because the hospital is inundated with patients and needs every available medical practitioner. Both of them have their life planned out . They know exactly what they want for many years of their life. When this epidemic occurred though, their plans for travel to the Galapagos fell through and only Diane was only able to depart. She had hoped that he was going to propose to her on the island. However, she became stranded on the island because of travel restrictions that we only know only to0 well.On the island she became involved with the people in a deep and introspective way. This is where the novel takes a completely unexpected turn that led me to gasp out loud. The rest of the story is for you to discover. It pulled me into its world but stole two nights of being with my husband

Wish You Were Here is a deeply moving novel with immeasurable depth about resilience, and the strength of the human spirit through crisis. Jodi Picoult tackles the COVID-19 pandemic through the eyes of her main character, Diana O’Toole, and Diana’s boyfriend, Finn, a surgical resident who’s battling the pandemic on the frontlines.

Diane is stranded in the Galápagos Islands during the global lockdowns, while Finn is working 32 hour hospital shifts in the ICU losing hope of helping covid patients survive. Diana befriends a teen and her single father, and experiences firsthand, the beauty of the flora and fauna of Isabela Island and it’s people. This is where she starts to reevaluate her life.

This novel, as told through Jodi Picoult’s gift of tackling hard subjects with care, is a well executed and researched depiction of the pandemic. It’s a rollercoaster ride full of emotions. This story grabbed hold of my heart and held it long after I finished.

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine via NetGalley for kindly providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I finally finished a Jodi Picoult book! I have tried a few in the past, but usually end up abandoning them a quarter of the way through for being a bit cheesy. However, I really enjoyed this one about a woman who gets stuck in the Galapagos during COVID lockdown while her boyfriend is stuck working as a doctor in NYC.
While there, she slows down enough to reconsider her carefully planned out life, and things take an unexpected turn.
The real-life COVID aspects were difficult to read, but creatively done, and the plot was thought-provoking.

I was unsure how I would feel about a pandemic based book since I’ve been reading to escape reality for the last two years. However, this book was brilliant.

At the beginning, when the eerie calm before the storm is described, I could vividly picture where I was in the early March weeks and instantly connected with the narrative and it’s characters.

Around the middle, I felt like the author was doing too much with the pandemic, careers, relationships, trips, etc. but there was a big woah moment that really brought it all together that I appreciated.

While some aspects didn’t end how I might have hoped or imagined in the beginning, I felt satisfied with how things were left.

Definitely recommend this book and thanks to Net Galley for the early cop

Wow…this book was a lot of ups and downs. I was traveling to get engaged at the start of the pandemic. We had 2.5 days in London before we had to rush home, and thankfully he got the proposal in before we left. But needless to say I could relate to Diane.
This was hard to read, it really brought back the early days of the pandemic and the fear and the loss. Not just of people but experiences. The grief of watching the world you know change overnight. We are all still dealing with that, the whole world has PTSD from it not just the COVID survivors. This book to me was about evaluating your life and finding what truly matters in it, because tomorrow is never guaranteed.

I originally gave this book a 4, but after a week I've still been thinking about it, so I changed my rating to a 5! It's a slow burn at the beginning, building up the characters and the setting, which I've heard others didn't enjoy but I really did. I don't want to give anything away but it takes some twists and turns so clear out your schedule! You won't want to put it down!

Bestselling author Jodi Picoult shares that she suffers from asthma and when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, she was understandably petrified at the prospect of contracting the virus. Her fear rendered her unable to write or even read as she quarantined at her New Hampshire home for fifteen months. She had a "real sense of being un-seen and not knowing who I was or what I did anymore." When she finally found herself able to resume work, she pondered, "How are we going to chronicle this pandemic? How do we tell the tale of how the world shut down, and why, and what we learned?" By November 2020, she knew she wanted to make sense of all that transpired during a lost year. Wish You Were Here is her answer to those questions. She describes it as a story about how "best-laid plans that go awry, survival and the resilience of the human spirit, love and loss, and how one experience can change the way you think about and live the rest of your life."

After Picoult was able to resume reading -- romance novels provided the route because of their happy endings -- and eventually began writing again, she happened upon an article about a Japanese man who became stranded in Machu Pichu as a result of travel restrictions. So he transformed from a tourist to a resident. Having visited the Galapagos, she wondered if, by chance, any tourists had been stranded there. She discovered that Ian Melvin, a Scottish tourist, was trapped on Isabela Island for months and was able to not only contact him, but also some of the island's residents. She wanted to explore the concept of isolation, and how it can be "devastating . . . but can also be the agent of change" so she decided to write about what it "felt like to be stuck in paradise while the rest of the world was going to hell."

Of course, in relationship to a worldwide pandemic, survival and resilience also figured prominently into her research, and she interviewed medical professionals on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19. She also reached out to patients who successfully fought the deadly disease, specifically people who survived being on ventilators. They described experiencing dream states that were realistic and detailed. Most of their dreams fell into one of four categories: the inclusion of a basement; being restrained or kidnapped; the appearance of a deceased loved one; or the death of a loved one. When asked to explain how the experience changed their lives, many reported that they still return to their dream-state and it can feel as vivid and real as a parallel existence. Picoult reports that many brought her full circle to the concept of isolation. "When you find yourself utterly alone on a rocky outcropping or on a ventilator -- the only place to find strength is in yourself. As one woman told me, 'I'm not looking for anything outside of me anymore. I'm like, this is it I've got everything I need.'" Picoult believes that a uniform, universal reaction to the pandemic -- whether or not one actually contracted COVID-19 -- is having "a much clearer sense of what matters. . . . It's having no expectations but taking nothing for granted. . . . It's realizing that we could wake up tomorrow and the world could shut down. It's knowing that at the very end of life, no matter what your net worth is and the length of your CV, the only thing you want is someone beside you, holding your hand."

It is best to read Wish You Were Here with little advance knowledge of the plot and no expectations. Picoult has penned a thoroughly engaging story featuring intriguing and empathetic characters. At the center of the tale is Diana, an ambitious, twenty-nine-year-old New Yorker. She was never close to her mother, a photojournalist who was rarely at home while she was growing up and now suffers from dementia. Her father died tragically four years ago. Diana, an associate specialist at Sotheby's, has very specific career trajectory goals and unexpectedly builds a rapport with a prospective client, Kitomi Ito, whose life story closely parallels Yoko Ono's. Widowed many years earlier when her husband, a British musician, was murdered on the steps of the tony apartment building on Manhattan's Upper West Side (where the historic Dakota is situated) in which they resided, Ito is now ready to auction off a Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec painting. Diana and her difficult boss, Eve, are determined to convince her to retain Sotheby's to handle the sale.

But it's March 13, 2020, the world is gradually shutting down as the COVID-19 outbreak spreads . . . and Ito decides to delay parting with the painting due to her concerns about the virus.

Diana and her boyfriend, Finn, have saved their money, budgeted, and booked a dream vacation to the Galapagos Islands. But with COVID-19 quickly ravaging New York City, Finn, a surgical resident, is pressed into service, along with all other staff. Suddenly, instead of operating on patients, he finds himself trying to save those who have contracted the deadly virus and taking a vacation is out of the question. But he urges Diana to go without him so that they don't lose the money they have expended. Somewhat reluctantly, she departs and boards the ferry that will carry her almost to Isabela Island. As she nears the water taxi that will take her on the last leg of the journey, she notices the crowd of people waiting and is informed they are all trying to get back to Santa Cruz Island because the island is locking down for two weeks. She is offered the chance to return to Santa Cruz on the last departing ferry, but opts to proceed. As the water taxi leaves, Diana observes in the first-person narrative Picoult employs, "Suddenly it hits me: in an effort to seem more chill than I actually am, I have just stranded myself on an island." She is indeed isolated and alone -- the hotel and most businesses on the island are also closing, leaving her with no lodging or food. Fortunately, an old woman sees her and takes her in, permitting her to stay in a small apartment behind her house.

Diana reminds herself, "You are on an adventure," and works at embracing her situation. Picoult details her exploration of the beautiful island and the relationships she develops with her rescuer, Abuela, as well as Abuela's grandson, Gabriel, a former tour operator, and Beatriz, his troubled and sullen teenage daughter. Beatriz has returned to the island from school to ride out the pandemic. Beatriz gradually takes Diana into her confidence, and promises to mail the postcards that Diana writes to Finn each day.

When she can manage to pick up a wi-fi signal, Diana reads the emails Finn sends regularly describing, in heartbreaking and realistic detail, what he is experiencing as a physician on the front lines and the horror that is unfolding back home in New York City. He writes to Diana, "This virus is like a storm that just won't ease up You know on some rational level that it can't stay like this forever. Except, it does. And gets worse." He expresses his thankfulness that Diana is away, safe from the virus that is straining medical resources and claiming lives, as well as his frustrations and sense of helplessness as, completely exhausted, he and his fellow medical professionals continue caring for the unyielding barrage of patients. Diana feels some guilt for having taken the trip without Finn, especially when he shares how hard it is to be alone after staggeringly challenging stints at the hospital.

The two-week lockdown stretches into months, and Diana's feelings for her newfound friends deepen, causing her to question the decisions she made leading up to her sojourn to the island.

Picoult delivers a clever, shocking twist that suddenly lands Diana back in New York City and her old life. But she is unable to acclimate and adapt to being home. Diana is at first confused, wondering whether she is the one who changed or if the people around her, including Finn, have. She gradually comes to realize that her vivid and detailed recollections of all that she experienced and felt while in the Galapagos have irrevocably and fundamentally changed her. Her memories compel her to reevaluate every aspect of her life: the goals she set for herself before the pandemic, as well as her self-imposed timeline within which to achieve them. Suddenly the competitive world of art auctions doesn't have the allure it once did and she reconsiders her fractious relationship with her mother.

When it comes to tackling thorny questions about life and individual choices, Picoult has no literary equal. She employs her signature style to construct a deeply moving exploration of Diana's experiences. Each of her characters is fully developed and multi-layered, and there is no villain in her story . . . except, of course, the persistent, mutating virus. Rather, Wish You Were Here features characters who do the best they can, considering the circumstances they -- and the rest of the world -- were thrust into in 2020. Diana and Finn confront their fears in their own unique ways and, although no one emerges unscathed, Picoult affirms through their stories that the worst of times often bring out the best in each of us.

Ultimately, Diana learns that "you can't plan your life. Because then you have a plan. Not a life." If COVID-19 taught us nothing else, it proved that point conclusively. From Picoult's perspective, "the world pressed pause. When we stopped moving, we noticed that the ways we have chosen to validate ourselves are lists of items or experiences we need to have, goals that are monetary or mercenary." She hopes that surviving the pandemic has taught us all, just like Diana in Wish You Were Here, "to take the wins in a much smaller way." And that the book serves as a guide for "reflection and of connection to one another," helping her readers to, as she has, consider how the experience of living through the pandemic has changed the way they view the rest of their lives and enabling them to focus on what is most important to them.

I love Jodi Picoult and I enjoyed this book., I read this book about COVID-19 while still during the pandemic.

I wasn't sure I was ready to read a book about the pandemic and the global shutdown that started in March of 2020, but Picoult changed my mind. Her thorough research and suburb storytelling perfectly portrayed the fears, uncertainty, and dedication of the frontline workers in New York hospitals battling a virus they knew little about in the early days. Picoult's characters are so well-developed; they feel like friends. And--as with all her novels--I was invested in the lives of the people I was reading about from the get-go. A clever plot twist explores some of the murky and unknown side effects and experiences of people who have dealt with COVID and begs the question: What's really important to you in life? All in all, another FANTASTIC novel by an author who will always be at the top of my reading stack.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first Jodi Picoult book and after reading Wish You Were Here, I will be reading all of her books!
The story is about Diana O’Toole a young professional who lives in New York City with her boyfriend, Finn, who is a surgical resident in a NYC hospital. Diana has her life all planned out down to the details. She and Finn have a romantic vacation to the Galapagos planned and she’s confident that this is when Finn will propose.

Unfortunately, before their dream vacation comes to fruition, NYC is being ravaged by the corona virus and he has to stay in NYC to help with all of the patients pouring into the hospital. Finn encourages her to go ahead to the Galapagos because their vacation is non-refundable. Diana hesitantly agrees with him and sets off on the vacation alone.
The vacation is off to a bumpy start when her luggage is lost and she discovers there is no consistent internet on the island, leaving her feeling disconnected from Finn. To make matters worse, while on the island the borders close to travel now she is stuck in the Galapagos until they re-open, and no one knows when that will be. She does meet a local family and she is grateful for the company and their help. All of this free time on an island with scarce internet leaves Diana with a lot of time to contemplate her life and relationships.

This book drew me in immediately. The characters are so well developed and relatable. The author must have done extensive research on the Galapagos because the details have such clear imagery, I could picture myself there.
What I loved the most about this book is that it was unpredictable. I never saw the plot twist coming, I was shook, and I’ll leave it at that, I don’t want to spoil it. This is a book I would recommend!

Diana has her life planned out and everything is going according to plan. She wants to be married by 30, finish having kids by 35 and eventually move into the New York suburbs. Diana believes her boyfriend is about to propose, so the next goal is within her reach. Her plans quickly change when a virus reaches American cities and her boyfriend is called into work at his hospital. He encourages Diana to take their planned vacation, especially since it is nonrefundable. She arrives as the island goes into quarantine and she has nowhere to go and no way to notify anyone. A local woman takes pity on her and Diana is forced to learn hidden truths about herself and those around her.

Wish You Were Here is a stand-alone realistic fiction story that takes events from the Covid-19 pandemic and condenses them into a novel that can be enjoyed. Picoult has included many different viewpoints and weaved them into a single storyline for us. There is a twist about two-thirds of the way through the book that had me saying … wait! Once that twist was fully seated, though, I enjoyed this new trajectory the story took. Some readers may feel this book is still too close to the pandemic we are currently living in, but I thought it was well designed and a satisfying read.