I’m in a John Grisham phase recently. I had read The Firm some time ago, but I picked up The Chamber a few weeks ago, and followed it with The Summons and The Runaway Jury, all great legal and courtroom stuff. Now I’m about 2/3 finished with A Painted House, which is the best of the lot so far.
This novel is as far from the courtroom scene as you can get. It follows a picking season of Arkansas cotton farmers in 1952, as seen through the eyes of a seven-year-old boy. The writing is just wonderful. Grisham, at least in this book, reminds me very much of Steinbeck, not just in subject matter, but in his genuine love for the people in his story. The Chandlers, though their struggles are different, remind me of the Joads, and Grisham’s writing style is as clean and as gripping as Steinbeck’s.
I just bought a paperback of The Pelican Brief, which will be the next Grisham book on my list (unless I can get a paperback or a library copy of The King of Torts first). Grisham’s stuff makes for good movies, but the books are always better.
I’ve been going on a Michael Crichton binge lately. I’ve read The Andromeda Strain, Timeline, Prey, and now Congo. So far, The Andromeda Strain was the best. Definetly a recommended author.
I’d been meaning to re-read it and then someone brought up the idea of casting the characters for a movie, so when I went to get my hair done today I took along Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.
Recently finished The RunAway Jury and Flags of our Fathers (Flags especially was gripping). Am currently reading Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam which talks about the decline in social capital in the US in the last half of the 20th century, why it’s happened, and the very real affects we’re all experiencing because of it. Fascinating book. Especially recommended for those with an interest in sociology.
Ah…I’ve read that, and some of his other novels (which work along similar lines). The trouble with them is that they’re generally not nearly as interesting once you get through the Middle Ages – but that might be my own bias showing through.
I’m reading Langland’s The Vision of Piers Plowman – hey, it’s long and it’s in Middle English, so it takes a while – and about to start on Edith Pargeter’s A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury, which is a novel about the same events Shakespeare covered in Henry IV, part 1. I actually started it a while back, and never finished; I’m not sure why, as it was pretty good (though it’s not quite the same without Falstaff ;)).
(If you’ve heard of the Brother Cadfael mysteries, this is the same author, although she wrote them under the name Ellis Peters.)
Um, I actually am a sociologist (albeit of religion, and albeit no longer in the biz), so this is kind of an embarassing quesion – but what do you mean by social capital, Grim?
I love Robertson Davies too. I’ve only read the three books in the Deptford Trilogy so far.
The book I just finished is Girl’s Poker Night a first novel by Jill Davis. It is a light-hearted story about a woman and her friends. I characterize it as a cross betwwen Bridget Jones’s Diary and the TV show Sex and the City. I am looking forward to her next book.
I am currently reading The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, on the recommendation of a co-worker. I am 1/4 of the way through it. It is the story of a southern preacher and his family who go to the Belgian Congo in 1959. It is written in the voices of his wife and his four daughters. The character development is extraordinary, the language beautiful. It is quite a departure from my normal read, but I am enjoying it emmensly.
Once I have finished it I plan to reread the Harry Potter series in anticipation #5.
I am reading Paul Zindel’s Harry and Hortense at Hormone High, I think thats the name. I’ve jus been on a Zindel trip since finishing The Pigman and Me.
okay so maybe they’re a little kiddy, but they’re still great and revive my faith in humanity.
( except in The Amazing and Death-Defying Diary of Eugene (i forgot last name), which i finished a couple days ago. I will never forgive her for what she did to poor Eugene.
At the moment, I’m on page 72 of Altered Carbon, a hard-boiled science fiction detective novel in which the central “what-if” is that in the future dvices inserted in the cerebral cortex can record a person’s consciousness and insert it into another body, so that physical death is just a momentary pause. Fascinating, well-thought-out novel.
I just finished Kindred by Olivia Butler. It’s about a black woman is the mid 70s who becomes unstuck in time and winds up in the Antebellum South. It was a harrowing book - just riveting.
Tonight I’m starting The Century’s Daughter by Pat Barker.
I’m attempting to read ‘Paradise Lost’ at the moment. I haven’t got very far into it (5 pages, after two weeks ‘reading’ it) as it’s exam term, and whenever I have time for reading my brain is too fatigued to handle the writing. That’s not to say it’s badly written - it’s not - but it’s in a relatively archaic form of English.
So far all I’ve read is the events immediately after The Fall, and the war in heaven.
I just devoured Ennis’ Preacher: Ancient History <subliminal>read it! read it!</subliminal> and am currently re-reading George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones <subliminal>read it also! read it also!</subliminal>
Musashi, by Eiji Yoshikawa.
This was referenced in the last book I read, By the Sword, as the most popular book ever published in Japan. It follows the life of the man who was supposedly the greatest swordsman ever in Japan.
Anyway, after that reference about it being the most popular book ever in Japan, I asked my son if he had ever read it, as he’s taking Japanese on the side, and he said no. So I got it, let him read it first, and now I’m on it. Not too far in yet, but it’s a page turner.
