John Grisham. Do you know if anybody had asked me whether I liked John Grisham, in a professional sense, obviously, I do not know him in a personal sense, so it would have to be the professional sense, yes whether I liked John Grisham, I would have said no. But then I looked at my mountain of books and realised that I had read every one of his novels. Why? I asked myself and the reason is he is easy to read, the writing flows and you need to use very few brain cells to understand his books and enjoy them. Sometimes that is nice, after all reading is about enjoying, it is a form of entertainment as well as a form of intellectual vigour. Having said all that, ...  Read the complete review

Can you keep a secret? You can? What if it wasn't just one secret but a whole series of them? And what if some of them were bigger than others? And what if you were only seven years old? Well, if you are sure, I'll let you in on a little one... this book is really, really good and it's all about secrets. One secret not enough for you, huh? Well I'll tell you another one of mine, but only if you keep it to yourself. There are few things more rewarding than sitting down to a book of which I fairly low expectations, only to be pleasantly surprised by the depth and breadth of enjoyment which it contains. I am much more familiar with the opposite ...  Read the complete review

John Grisham is one of the world's top bestselling authors, so much so, that his books have the legend 'The New Bestseller from John Grisham', splattered across the cover, even before they reach the bookshops. As a lawyer who writes 'legal' fiction, Grisham has proved the adage, 'stick to what you know', and utilizes his knowledge to the full. His books have been so successful that most have been made into films, so why has he suddenly decided to ignore his successful formula, by writing A Painted House? Has he suddenly become arrogant through previous success, and believes he can write anything, or could it be that in fact he is ...  Read the complete review

I had always considered John Grisham a writer of courtroom dramas and not a writer of ‘day-to-day’ life on an Arkansas cotton farm. And neither did I think he could write with a perceptive eye for characterisation and a detail that involves the reader. He does, and he does it well in A Painted House. I will raise one arm humbly and admit that I have never read a John Grisham novel. The simple reason being that his genre of writing has never interested me, and neither would I have done if this novel were not a freebie. A Painted House is narrated by Luke, aged 7, whose family has toiled for years on a cotton farm. The farm is neither owned ...  Read the complete review

If you are a Grisham fan you will know that nearly everything he writes is based around a legal eagle plot. Not with The Painted House, it is based upon his own experience of growing up in the countryside of Arkansas. I heard about it listening to Grisham on a radio show and felt it was worth a read then. The novel itself is narrated through the eyes of a young farm boy called Luke Chandler who lives on a cotton farm with his Grandparents and Mother and Father in 1952. It is based around the two months that the cotton becomes ready to be picked in late august. As the cotton is ready to be harvested his grandfather ( Pappy ) and his father have to ...  Read the complete review