John Grisham Book Giveaway!

If you are a fan of John Grisham's work (like me!) you won't want to miss this great contest. 

Read all the details including a link to enter: here.

Happy Reading and Weekend! :-)

Ford County by John Grisham

When you live in a city of less than 10,000 people as I do and take taxis on a fairly regular basis (we sold our two cars when we moved here 5 years ago, our major "act of green" and with no regrets) you get to know the regular drivers fairly well.

 

One man that drives for our one and only local taxi company is an avid reader and I always enjoy discussing what we we both currently reading, when I get him as a driver. The conversation moved to John Grisham on a recent ride home and the book Ford County came up. He hadn't read it so I gave him my (twice) read copy to enjoy. How's that for a unique tip! ;<)

 

Thought I'd share my thoughts here on this wonderful book too.

 

 

I've been a long-time fan of John Grisham's books but never a fan of short stories by any author, for the most part. I usually find that short stories end much too soon for my liking, just when the story is starting to unfold. Not the case with Ford County by John Grisham.

 

 I picked up a copy of this book at a library book sale a couple of years ago. In spite of it being short stories, my love of most things Grisham won out and I shelled out the $$ to buy it. It was money well spent. :<)

 

Ford County takes the reader back to the setting for his first novel: A Time to Kill and John Grisham's home state of Mississippi.

 

 

I read all the stories in this book in a couple of days. Some of them made me laugh... loud and long. Some brought tears to my eyes. All were entertaining from start to finish. As is the case with most of Grisham's books, the characters were so real and memorable, long after I read the last line of each story,  making each of them a pleasure to read.

 

 

Down on his luck divorce lawyer, Mack Stafford gets a phone call that promises to turn his endless misfortunes around, fast and in a big way. 

 

Sydney, a dull and unpretentious data collector discovers a new skill for winning at a local casino and at the same time, making the man who stole his wife, pay for his misguided decision.  

 

When three "good, old boys" make the trek to Memphis to donate blood to a seriously injured friend, things run way off course in a big way and helping their pal is soon the last thing on their minds.

 

Just a small sampling of the entertaining characters and stories this book provides.

 

 

From the John Grisham website:

 

"Featuring a cast of characters you’ll never forget, these stories bring Ford County to vivid and colorful life. Often hilarious, frequently moving, and always entertaining, this collection makes it abundantly clear why John Grisham is our most popular storyteller."

 

 

From Amazon.com:  

 

"Grisham has always had a rare gift for breaking hearts when he invokes unforgettable images of the broken, hopeless South. Some of the stories are hilarious, and Grisham’s gift of humor has never found a showcase like this. One of these stories should find its way into the anthologies of the best short stories of 2009. It might not happen, but I for one think the stories in Ford County are that damned good.--Pat Conroy"

 

 

I couldn't agree more, on all counts.

 

Even if you've never been a fan of short stories either, this definitely is a book that might be the one to change your mind.

 

As I titled my review over at Amazon this is: Grisham Gold!

 

 

Overall rating for this book: Excellent. 5 out of 5. 

The Racketeer by John Grisham

 

 

 

I've been a fan of John Grisham's work for a long time. I had been looking forward to reading: The Racketeer for weeks and finally got around to it during the Christmas holidays. Now I'm wondering why I bothered to put in the time.

 

 

The story starts out OK. Not great but OK. In keeping with most of Grisham's previous books , the pace of this story is fast and kept me relatively engaged until about half-way through. There, the story takes an implausible turn and things quickly go downhill from there.

 

From the Amazon product page:

 

"Given the importance of what they do, and the controversies that often surround them, and the violent people they sometimes confront, it is remarkable that in the history of this country only four active federal judges have been murdered.

Judge Raymond Fawcett has just become number five.

Who is the Racketeer? And what does he have to do with the judge’s untimely demise? His name, for the moment, is Malcolm Bannister. Job status? Former attorney. Current residence? The Federal Prison Camp near Frostburg, Maryland.

On paper, Malcolm’s situation isn’t looking too good these days, but he’s got an ace up his sleeve. He knows who killed Judge Fawcett, and he knows why. The judge’s body was found in his remote lakeside cabin. There was no forced entry, no struggle, just two dead bodies: Judge Fawcett and his young secretary. And one large, state-of-the-art, extremely secure safe, opened and emptied.

What was in the safe? The FBI would love to know. And Malcolm Bannister would love to tell them. But everything has a price—especially information as explosive as the sequence of events that led to Judge Fawcett’s death. And the Racketeer wasn’t born yesterday . . .

Nothing is as it seems and everything’s fair game in this wickedly clever new novel from John Grisham, the undisputed master of the legal thriller."

 

 

Sounds good, doesn't it?

 

Well, I won't go into plot details in case you are planning to read this one. Suffice to say (in terms of being unbelieveable) if for example this is how the FBI actually conducts itself, or even close, I would be very surprised. When protagonist: Malcolm Bannister is actually allowed to keep "the loot" in addition to the other "perks" he had been granted,  I just shook my head as I was reading. Come on Mr. Grisham! I know there are times when law enforcement agencies have to make allowances, cut corners.. in order to obtain evidence that they need to prove a case but this goes too far. By the author's own admission at the end of the book, he did little research for this one.

And sad to say: IT SHOWS!

 

 

The reaction to: The Racketeer over at Amazon is a very mixed bag, much more so than with most of Grisham's earlier books. There are a lot of 1 and 2 star ratings for this one, all saying pretty much the same things: implausible plot, unlikeable/unmemorable characters and a lack of quality in the writing that has a lot of people questioning if Grisham even wrote this one!

 

 

I'm not giving up on John Grisham, YET.

 

Hopefully, he'll get back on track with his next thriller. There wasn't much by way of (believeable) thrills in this book. I hope this isn't the beginning of the end when it comes to John Grisham's previous quality of work as a first-rate novelist.

 

No matter how big an author gets, in the book biz, a few "stinkers" can still bring them down and hard. It made me wonder, again after reading what Grisham said about his lack of research for this one, if he has decided to rest on his laurels for now and let his reputation as the master of the legal thriller, continue to sell mega copies of his new releases. It won't wash, at least in the long run. As is the case with most creative ventures, when you're a writer: you really are only as good as your last book.

 

 

Mr. Grisham, read the reviews, listen to your fans!
You didn't get to the top of the book pile, writing books like: The Racketeer.

 

 

Overall rating for this book: Fair. 2 out of 5.