Profile Leader Bookclub

WHAT ARE YOU READING?

Leader asked Emma Jayne, HR Director of Four Seasons in London.

Reading and books have always been my great love. With a new hotel opening soon, a busy toddler and another baby on the way, nowadays reading feels like my guilty pleasure when I sneak upstairs to bed to try and cram in a few chapters while I can still keep my eyes open.

Much to my surprise and delight, my daughter has inherited my love of reading and likes us to read the same book over and over until we have nearly worn the words off the pages. Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson with illustrations by Axel Scheffler is our current favourite, which I can highly recommend to any little readers out there!

I am also currently reading Jodi Picoult’s Change of Heart. Picoult is well known for writing ‘morality tales’, which keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page. The story centres round a Mother whose first child had been murdered twelve years previously. Her second child has a heart defect and she needs to find a donor or her child will die. When a match is offered, it’s from the man who murdered her first child and here arises the dilemma. Although as a mother she may have thought she would do anything to keep her daughter alive, now she’s torn. Can she accept the physical heart of a murderer?

The book deals with moral dilemmas, family relationships, religion, crime and politics. It is a challenging and clever read, as are all of Picoult’s books.

Perhaps because I am a Mother, Wife, Daughter, Sister (and even a Director of Human Resources!), I can appreciate the moral challenge the story presents to the reader, written in Picoult’s uniquely intense and moving style. For anyone who appreciates a tale that makes you question your ideas and ideals…this book is for you!

Room on the Broom and Change of Heart are available on Amazon.com.