Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

Small Great Things
Jodi Picoult
Published October 11th 2016 by Ballantine Books
Genres:  Adult, Contemporary

Summary:

Ruth Jefferson is a labor and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital with more than twenty years' experience. During her shift, Ruth begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that she's been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and don't want Ruth, who is African American, to touch their child. The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in the nursery. Does she obey orders or does she intervene?

Ruth hesitates before performing CPR and, as a result, is charged with a serious crime. Kennedy McQuarrie, a white public defender, takes her case but gives unexpected advice: Kennedy insists that mentioning race in the courtroom is not a winning strategy. Conflicted by Kennedy's counsel, Ruth tries to keep life as normal as possible for her family—especially her teenage son—as the case becomes a media sensation. As the trial moves forward, Ruth and Kennedy must gain each other's trust, and come to see that what they've been taught their whole lives about others—and themselves—might be wrong.

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My Thoughts

Ruth is a African American labor and deliver nurse and she is helping with the deliver of an infant.  When the infant is born she does a regular checkup on the baby.  The dad Turk is a white supremacist, he tells Ruth's boss that he doesn't want people like her, meaning an African American to be touching his baby.  So Ruth is now, not allowed to care for this infant.  

The next day while she is the only nurse in the nursery the infant goes into cardiac distress.  So Ruth has to make a quick decision, if she is going to break the rules and give CPR to the infant or ignore it.  Ruth decides she is going to give CPR to the infant. The infant does not make it and Turk sues Ruth because he thinks she purposely killed the baby.

I absolutely loved this book, Jodi Picoult never lets me down. This book however, deals with a really tough topic. I feel like this book really makes you think about the racism issues that are still happening today in our country.

This book was heart wrenching, I felt for Ruth, she was stuck in one sticky situation, damned if you do and damned if you don't. There were parts in this book that made me so angry and other parts where I was "hell yeah you go girl, you stand up for your right"!

This is one of my top books I have read in 2017!!

I recieved a copy from Netgalley and Random House - Ballantine Books in exchange for an honest review.

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