Jodi Picoult Books in Order: The Complete Guide
Jodi Picoult's books in order — every novel from Songs of the Humpback Whale (1992) to her most recent, with the recommended reading order and the essential books for new readers.
Jodi Picoult has been one of the most consistently commercially successful literary novelists of the past three decades — she typically publishes one novel per year, and most of them become bestsellers. Her formula, if it can be called that, involves selecting a morally complex contemporary issue (medical ethics, racial justice, school violence, reproductive rights), embedding it in a family story with multiple first-person perspectives, and resolving it through a legal or institutional climax that does not always deliver the resolution the reader might prefer.
This structure gives her novels an unusual quality: they are page-turners that are also genuinely difficult, in the sense that they force the reader to hold multiple contradictory sympathies simultaneously. She does not write villains; she writes people with irreconcilable needs.
The Essential Reading List
For new readers, these are the novels that best represent Picoult’s range and that have been most widely read:
My Sister’s Keeper (2004) — Anna Fitzgerald was conceived specifically to be a bone marrow donor for her sister Kate, who has leukaemia. At thirteen, Anna hires a lawyer to sue her parents for medical emancipation — the right to make decisions about her own body. The novel’s moral complexity is genuine: both the parents’ choice and Anna’s refusal are understandable, and Picoult provides narrators for each position. The film adaptation (2009) changed the ending, which is worth knowing.
Nineteen Minutes (2007) — A high school in New Hampshire; a student who brings a gun. Picoult’s novel on school shootings was written before the subject became the dominant public conversation it is today, and its approach — providing narrative access to the shooter’s experience and his parents’ — remains more honest and less politically managed than most treatments. The question of causation (bullying, parenting, culture) is raised without a settled answer.
Change of Heart (2008) — A man on death row petitions to donate his heart to the sister of his victim. Medical ethics, capital punishment, and religion intersect in ways that demonstrate Picoult at her most structurally ambitious.
House Rules (2010) — Jacob Hunt has Asperger’s syndrome and an obsession with forensic science. When his social skills tutor is found murdered, the way Jacob behaves at the crime scene makes him the primary suspect. Picoult’s treatment of autism and the criminal justice system is more nuanced than most popular fiction on either subject.
Lone Wolf (2012) — A family divided by an accident that leaves the father in a coma, and the impossible decision about whether to continue life support.
The Storyteller (2013) — A young woman working in a bakery befriends an old man who confesses to being a Nazi SS officer and asks her to help him die. Picoult’s most historically grounded novel and the one most concerned with forgiveness and its limits.
Leaving Time (2014) — A thirteen-year-old girl investigates her mother’s disappearance using a psychic and a disgraced detective. One of Picoult’s more structurally experimental novels, and the most concerned with grief and the science of elephant behaviour. The ending is the most surprising in her catalogue.
Small Great Things (2016) — A Black nurse is ordered by a white supremacist father not to touch his newborn. When the baby dies during a procedure, she is charged with murder. Picoult’s most explicitly political novel on race, and the one most praised for its ambition to represent multiple perspectives on American racism — including that of the white public defender who takes the case and must examine her own assumptions.
A Spark of Light (2018) — A hostage situation at an abortion clinic, told in reverse chronology — the novel begins at the end of the siege and works back to its causes. The structural choice forces the reader to see consequences before understanding them, which is Picoult’s most formally interesting device.
The Book of Two Ways (2020) — A plane crash forces a woman to reckon with the life she chose and the one she abandoned. More meditative than most of Picoult’s work, and more interested in archaeology — specifically ancient Egyptian death rites — as a frame for thinking about mortality.
Complete Publication Order
- Songs of the Humpback Whale (1992)
- Harvesting the Heart (1994)
- Picture Perfect (1995)
- Mercy (1996)
- The Pact (1998)
- Keeping Faith (1999)
- Plain Truth (2000)
- Salem Falls (2001)
- Perfect Match (2002)
- Second Glance (2003)
- My Sister’s Keeper (2004) ★
- Vanishing Acts (2005)
- The Tenth Circle (2006)
- Nineteen Minutes (2007) ★
- Change of Heart (2008)
- Handle with Care (2009)
- House Rules (2010)
- Sing You Home (2011)
- Lone Wolf (2012)
- The Storyteller (2013) ★
- Leaving Time (2014) ★
- Off the Page (2015, with Samantha Van Leer)
- Small Great Things (2016) ★
- A Spark of Light (2018)
- The Book of Two Ways (2020)
- Wish You Were Here (2021)
- Mad Honey (2022, with Jennifer Finney Boylan)
- By Any Other Name (2024)
★ Most recommended entry points
For New Readers: Where to Start
If you are reading Picoult for the first time, choose based on which issue interests you most: My Sister’s Keeper for medical ethics and family loyalty; Small Great Things for race and the criminal justice system; Nineteen Minutes for school violence and causation; Leaving Time for grief and its scientific dimensions. Each is representative of her method and can be read without any knowledge of her other work.
For the Best Fiction Books
For the definitive guide to fiction — the greatest novels across literary fiction, classics, and contemporary writing — see our Best Fiction Books of All Time list.
More Women’s Fiction Reading Guides
- Liane Moriarty Books in Order: Complete Reading Guide
- Books Like Big Little Lies: Darkly Comic Domestic Thrillers
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Frequently Asked Questions
What order should I read Jodi Picoult books in?
Jodi Picoult's novels are all standalone — you can read them in any order. The most recommended starting points are My Sister's Keeper (2004), Small Great Things (2016), and Nineteen Minutes (2007). My Sister's Keeper is the most widely read and establishes her characteristic approach: a morally complex issue, multiple first-person narrators, and a courtroom conclusion.
What is the best Jodi Picoult book to start with?
My Sister's Keeper (2004) is the most recommended starting point — it is her most celebrated novel and establishes her structural approach clearly. Small Great Things (2016) is the alternative recommendation if you want her most explicitly social and political novel. Nineteen Minutes (2007), about a school shooting, is the third most frequently recommended entry point.
What is Jodi Picoult's most popular book?
My Sister's Keeper (2004) is her most commercially successful novel — it tells the story of a girl conceived specifically to be a bone marrow donor for her sister with leukaemia, who sues her parents for medical emancipation. The film adaptation (2009) brought it to a wider audience. Small Great Things (2016) is her most critically discussed in recent years.
How many books has Jodi Picoult written?
As of 2026, Jodi Picoult has published 28 novels, beginning with Songs of the Humpback Whale in 1992. She typically publishes one novel per year and has maintained consistent commercial success throughout her career.
Do Jodi Picoult books have sequels or connected series?
Most of Picoult's novels are completely standalone. The exception is Leaving Time (2014) and a companion novella, as well as the Storyteller connections. She and her daughter Samantha Van Leer have co-authored two YA novels. Otherwise each book is independent, which makes her work easy to approach in any order.