A Painted House - John Grisham

Yes, I admit I used to love “The Waltons”. Yessiree…I’ve laughed and cried, smiled and sighed and the adventures of John Boy Walton and his extended family living in those beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. I did stop short of watching “Little House On The Prairie” mind…honest. I guess it’s that homely Mark Twain kind of feeling that may have drawn me to my first attempt at reading a John Grisham book recently. “A Painted House” is the story of a farming community in 1950s Arkansas. Apparently inspired by his own childhood, John Grisham recounts a tale of life on a cotton farm down in the deep South of the USA in 1952. Luke Chandler is the only child ...  Read the complete review

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

Wow, a John Grisham book without lawyers. For those of you that are unacquainted with his books, he is an all-American-lawyer-who’s-seen-sense-and-turned-to-writing author. Needless to say, his books focus around lawyers, intrigue and/or criminality. The film ‘The Firm’, with Tom Cruise, was based upon his book of the same name. With ‘A Painted House’ however, he turns his back on the mean, greedy, double-crossing affairs of the sinfully money obsessed world of modern, American, big buck lawyers and plunges back in time to the hard-graft era of the struggling rural 1950s America. Luke, a seven year old boy of traditional Southern ...  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