Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

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.

Review: I was given an ARC of Small Great Things from NetGalley for an honest review and this is my review.
Racial hate, the topic that Jodi Picoult tackles in her latest book will take the reader on an honest journey from the viewpoint of a white supremacist who is angry at the world and an African American woman who gets in his crosshairs.
Turk is the white male whose brother is killed when he is a child by what he believes he an accident caused by a black man who is found not guilty of the charges that are brought against him in court. This sets forth the motion of his hatred for blacks and eventually his rise to working in white power groups and marrying a daughter of one of the group's leaders.
When they had their first child and found out a black nurse would be caring for him they flipped because they were both against it. So they said she could not touch the baby under any circumstances. Well, the baby went into a breathing emergency and....
Ruth is an African American nurse who has been working at the hospital for over twenty years. She has also known what it was like to live in the white man's world because she went to white schools because her mom wanted the best for her so she never let it bother her until Turk and his wife told her she could not touch their baby. But, she did what a professional would and stayed away until she was left alone with him when another nurse was called away and he stopped breathing. But she was forced to help and Turk and his wife want her charged with murder because they think she killed their son because they hate black people.
Well, this book tries to prove racial hate on both sides. I really can honestly say I did not like Ruth or Turk until the very end when they did redeem themselves a little bit. To me Turk was trying way to hard to be a race hater. When he was in jail and friends with the blacks I had a bit of a problem with a true race hater doing that. I personally think he was a poser who bragged about more then he did. He annoyed me.
As for Ruth I also think she was ashamed of who she was. Her sister called her out on that big time. She had to have her son go to the better schools and be something he wasn't as well. I think as much as this book is about racial hate against other races there is a bit of self racial hate in here as well. Ruth wanted to live in the white neighborhood, have her son go to the white schools like she did, she was the only black nurse where she worked...etc.
As of the story it was very good. Had some surprises along the way and also made you, as a reader, take a minute and think about some of your words and actions and what they may really mean. I am giving Small Great Things five out of five stars.