Picture This (Sheehan)

Picture This  (Peaks Island Novel 2)
Jacqueline Sheehan, 2012
HarperCollins
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062008121


Summary
Jacqueline Sheehan made serious waves with her much beloved runaway bestseller, Lost and Found (“The best book I’ve read in a long time” —Susan Elizabeth Phillips). Now she treats readers to a sequel, Picture This—a story of rebirth and personal redemption that is as moving, funny, and heart-soaring as its predecessor.

Whip-smart contemporary women’s fiction with heart and soul, in Picture This, Rocky Pelligrino is back on Peaks Island off the coast of Maine, along with Cooper the dog, the beautiful black Labrador retriever who gave her a new “leash” on life.

But this time a new wrinkle warps the fabric of her world when a young girl shows up on Rocky’s doorstep claiming to be the long-lost daughter of her late husband. (From the publisher.)

Lost & Found (2007) is the first of Jacqueline Sheehan's two Peaks Island novels. Picture This is the sequel.

Author Bio
Jacqueline Sheehan, Ph.D., is a fiction writer and essayist. She is a New Englander through and through, but spent twenty years living in the western states of Oregon, California, and New Mexico doing a variety of things, including house painting, freelance photography, newspaper writing, clerking in a health food store, and directing a traveling troupe of high school puppeteers.

Currently on the faculty of Writers in Progress and Grub Street in Massachusetts, she also offers international workshops on the combination of yoga and writing. She writes travel articles about lesser-known destinations and lives in Massachusetts.

Novels
Sheehan's books include Truth (2003), reissued as The Comet's Tale: A Novel About Sojurner Truth (2011); Now & Then (2009); two Peaks Island novels, Lost & Found (2007) and Picture This (2012); and, most recently, The Center of the World (2015). (Adapted from the publisher.)

Book Reviews
Surrounded by her Peaks Island friends, widow Rocky Pelligrino's emotional journey continues in Sheehan's sequel to Lost & Found (2007).... Sheehan uses her skills as both a psychologist and a writer to create a solid, insightful story that will leave fans eagerly awaiting another visit from the strong heroine, her dog and her friends.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
1. Rocky is caught between wanting to start a new relationship with Hill and grieving the sudden death of her husband. Does it seem unimaginable to fall in love again after the death of a spouse, or would it feel like a second chance?

2. Rocky is instantly drawn to Natalie in a way that seems to defy her psychological knowledge. What is it that pulls Rockey to the wayward girl?

3. How does Natalie's background influence her behaviors with Rocky and with others on Peaks Island?

4. The house that Rocky buys is brimming with personality. The house makes a wish when Rockey first stands in front of it. "Give me one more go at it." How does Rocky's decision at the end of the book answer this wish?

5. How does Cooper respond to Natalie? If not for Melissa's photo, would anyone be able to detect his hesitation with Natalie? How is the micro detection of the camera like Cooper's perception of the world? What can the camera see that the naked eye cannot?

6. Tess and her granddaughter Daniel are extremely close. Aside from sharing synesthesia (even though Tess losers hers after surgery), how else are their sensibilities similar?

7. Natalie picks Daniel, the most tender spirit on the island, to include in her plan of revenge. Are there any other reasons why Natalie picks the child?

8. Melissa is immediately suspicious of Natalie? How can teenagers see each other so clearly?

9. In this story, who are the Tzadikum nistarim?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)

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