Skipping Christmas by John Grisham - Featured Review

Skipping Christmas by John Grisham Genre: Humor

     Nora and Luther Krank are facing the first Christmas without their daughter home for the holidays. Tired of the commercialism, crowds, and general moodiness associated with Christmas, Luthe comes up with a plan. Instead of spending a small fortune on the cards, baking, presents, and whatnot he spends the money on a Carribean cruise to relax in the heat instead of slushing through snow during the holiday season. The drawback is the fact that their flight doesn't leave until Christmas night so they still have to endure the expectations of the community.

     The Kranks live in a small tight knit neighborhood. Everyone's nose is stuck into everyone else's business. Nora bears the worst of the peer pressure from shop keepers and friends when it becomes general knowledge that they are skipping Christmas this year and not even hosting their annual Christmas Eve party. Skipping Christmas shows the best and the worst of small communities. While the neighbors are almost of nightmare quality when trying to convince Luther to decorate his house so their street can win the decorating contest for the 3rd year running, they also band together and rise above and beyond expectations when help is needed.

December Featured Author

     I'm going to do Something a little bit different this month. I have chosen 4 different previous featured authors that have Christmas books available so that I can keep a theme of Christmas stories for the entire month. This month's featured reviews will be A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Santa's Twin by Dean Koontz, Skipping Christmas by John Grisham, and House on Hope Street by Danielle Steel!

The Partner - Review

The Partner by John Grisham Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense

     The reader is dropped into the middle of the story, floundering to play catch up, pressing on to find out the events that led up to this point. The story unfolds through recollections and narratives of the characters until the reader reaches that "AHA!" moment where all the pieces suddenly fit together neatly and everything suddenly makes perfect sense.

     After finishing the book, I could only sit back and think "WOW!" the plotting and planning that went into this story proves exactly why John Grisham stays on the best selling list.

The King of Torts - Review

The King of Torts by John Grisham Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense

     While reading The Summons I noticed French's yacht was named King of Torts and fully expected him to be the main character in this book. While he does make several appearances he is only a minor character.

     Clay is a small time lawyer putting in time at the public defenders office. He is fairly happy with his job. A little overworked maybe but he is getting lots of trial experience. His long time girlfriend is unhappy with his lack of pay. Clay seizes an opportunity to strike out on his own when he lands a settlement case that is a sure thing.

The Summons-Review

Ray receives a summons to appear in front of honorable Judge Reuben Atlee, Ray's father. The prospective trip back home stirs up some unsettling childhood memories. While never outright abused, Ray harbors feelings of neglect at his father's hand. Irregardless of how Ray feels, he knows the trip is inevitable. His father has been gravely ill and his days are most likely numbered. Ray discovers much more than his father's already deceased corpse. He also stumbles across the fact that his father had harbored a secret.

This suspenseful story is mostly about obsession, paranoia, greed, and guilt. It also proves the old saying, "Just because you are paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you". Some of Ray's actions could be considered borderline stupidity, or even well into stupid territory. There are some fairly obvious options that he could have implemented, but he didn't.

This is the second book in a row in which I saw the twist at the end long before it came. I'm not that brilliant so it must have been fairly obvious. There was one point in my life where I had read everything John Grisham had ever written. I have not read any of his newer books in years and was disappointed with this reintroduction.

Playing for Pizza - Review

Playing for Pizza by John Grisham

     NFL quarterback, Rick Dockery is not having a good year. After taking a hard hit during an AFC championship game, he awakens in the hospital several days later to find that he is the laughingstock of the NFL. The best offer his agent can get him for the next season is with a team in the Italian NFL.

     This book is quite similar to a Movie titled Mr. Baseball in which Tom Selleck portrays an MLB player who is faced with either playing for a Japanese baseball team or retiring. There is an underlying lesson here that sometimes it is the things in life that we try to avoid that turns out to be precisely what we need.

Feature Author - John Grisham

John Grisham Born:   February 8, 1955 Main genres:    Mystery & Thrillers, Nonfiction,   Young Adult.

     Born on February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to a construction worker and a homemaker, John Grisham as a child dreamed of being a professional baseball player. Realizing he didn’t have the right stuff for a pro career, he shifted gears and majored in accounting at Mississippi State University. After graduating from law school at Ole Miss in 1981, he went on to practice law for nearly a decade in Southaven, specializing in criminal defense and personal injury litigation.

     Grisham overheard the harrowing testimony of a twelve-year-old rape victim and was inspired to start a novel exploring what would have happened if the girl’s father had murdered her assailants. Getting up at 5 a.m. every day to get in several hours of writing time before heading off to work, Grisham spent three years on A Time to Kill and finished it in 1987.

     When he’s not writing, Grisham devotes time to charitable causes, including most recently his Rebuild The Coast Fund, which raised 8.8 million dollars for Gulf Coast relief in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. He also keeps up with his greatest passion: baseball. The man who dreamed of being a professional baseball player now serves as the local Little League commissioner. The six ballfields he built on his property have played host to over 350 kids on 26 Little League teams.

     My introduction to John Grisham's work was in 1991 when The Firm was the monthly selection for Doubleday book club. I quickly became a fan and collected his work as it was published.

This month I plan to review the following books:

Sept 5, 2012 Read review

Sept 12, 2012 Read review

Sept 19, 2012 Read review

Sept 26, 2012 Read review

     Biography facts collected from John Grisham's web site.