Author

Jodi Picoult

Q: What should I read first by Jodi Picoult?

Start with Songs of the Humpback Whale.

Jodi Picoult has written 30 books.

Jodi Picoult is an American author who has built her career around the kind of morally fraught, issue-driven novel that book clubs are built for, alternating first-person narrators to circle a single wrenching dilemma from opposing, equally sympathetic angles. Since her 1992 debut, Songs of the Humpback Whale, she has published roughly thirty novels centered on courtroom drama, medical crisis, and family rupture — a daughter conceived to be a genetic donor for her dying sister in My Sister's Keeper, a school shooting's aftermath in Nineteen Minutes, a Black nurse charged after a white supremacist couple's infant dies in her care in Small Great Things — each built on months of obsessive research interviewing surgeons, lawyers, survivors, and activists. Almost all of Picoult's novels stand entirely alone, without a continuing series or cast, though she has occasionally collaborated: a young-adult fairy-tale duology, Between the Lines and Off the Page, co-written with her daughter Samantha van Leer, and Mad Honey, co-written with novelist Jennifer Finney Boylan. My Sister's Keeper was adapted into a major 2009 film starring Cameron Diaz, and several other novels have been adapted for television. Picoult has become one of the defining voices of American book-club fiction over more than three decades, known for tackling hot-button social and ethical issues through the lens of ordinary New England families in crisis.

Series: 0
Books: 30
First published: 1992
Best known for: Songs of the Humpback Whale

Standalone books

Read these in any order — each is a complete story.

Book —:
Songs of the Humpback Whale
Novel1992
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Songs of the Humpback Whale
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Book —:
Harvesting the Heart
Novel1993
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Harvesting the Heart
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Book —:
Picture Perfect
Novel1995
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Picture Perfect
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Book —:
Mercy
Novel1996
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Mercy
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Book —:
The Pact
Novel1998
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Pact
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Book —:
Keeping Faith
Novel1999
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Keeping Faith
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Plain Truth
Novel1999
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Plain Truth
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Book —:
Salem Falls
Novel2001
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Salem Falls
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Book —:
Perfect Match
Novel2002
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Perfect Match
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Book —:
Second Glance
Novel2003
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Second Glance
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Book —:
My Sister's Keeper
Novel2004
Alternative text for cover: Cover of My Sister's Keeper
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Book —:
Vanishing Acts
Novel2005
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Vanishing Acts
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Book —:
The Tenth Circle
Novel2006
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Tenth Circle
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Book —:
Nineteen Minutes
Novel2007
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Nineteen Minutes
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Book —:
Change of Heart
Novel2008
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Change of Heart
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Book —:
Handle with Care
Novel2009
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Handle with Care
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Book —:
House Rules
Novel2010
Alternative text for cover: Cover of House Rules
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Book —:
Leaving Home: Short Pieces
Novel2011
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Leaving Home: Short Pieces
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Book —:
Sing You Home
Novel2011
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Sing You Home
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Book —:
Between the Lines
Novel2012
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Between the Lines
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Book —:
Lone Wolf
Novel2012
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Lone Wolf
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Book —:
The Storyteller
Novel2013
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Storyteller
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Book —:
Leaving Time
Novel2014
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Leaving Time
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Book —:
Off the Page
Novel2015
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Off the Page
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Book —:
Small Great Things
Novel2016
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Small Great Things
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Book —:
A Spark of Light
Novel2018
Alternative text for cover: Cover of A Spark of Light
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Book —:
The Book of Two Ways
Novel2020
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Book of Two Ways
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Book —:
Wish You Were Here
Novel2021
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Wish You Were Here
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Book —:
Mad Honey
Novel2022
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Mad Honey
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Book —:
By Any Other Name
Novel2024
Alternative text for cover: Cover of By Any Other Name
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Frequently asked questions

What should I read first by Jodi Picoult?

Start with Songs of the Humpback Whale (1992).