John Grisham Books

The following is a list of John Grisham books in chronological order.

A Time to Kill (1989)
The Firm (1991)
The Pelican Brief (1992)
The Client (1993)
The Chamber (1994)
The Rainmaker (1995)
The Runaway Jury (1996)
The Partner (1997)
The Street Lawyer (1998)
The Testament (1999)
The Testament (2000)
A Painted House (2001)
Skipping Christmas (2002)
The Summons (2002)
Bleachers (2003)
The King of Torts (2003)
The Last Juror (2004)
The Broker (2005)
The Innocent Man (2006)
Playing For Pizza: A Novel (2007)
The Appeal (2008)

Almost Dead by Lisa Jackson

Almost Dead by Lisa Jackson

From the back cover:
Cissy Cahill's world is unraveling fast. One by one, members of her family are dying. Cissy's certain she's being watched. Or is she losing her mind? Lately she's heard footsteps when there's no one around, smelled a woman's perfume, and noticed small, personal items missing from her house. Cissy's right to be afraid--but not for the reason she thinks. The truth is much more terrifying...

I just finished not finishing this book. Let me say it this way: it took me six weeks to read up to the halfway point in the book and it took me less than five minutes to skim the rest of the book and not miss anything that happened.

The storyline was bad and the characters were worse. The story would have been a great one if it were told with some imagination. But instead, the author used amateur tricks to wrap up the story. Instead of keeping the reader on the edge of their seats with a creative and suspenseful plot, we are lied to because the villain gives her sidekick a nickname that is also the name of one of the main characters. LAME! And who the killer turns out to be is also a cop-out to creatively coming up with a great storyline because it's not believable. I hate a good story with a cop-out ending. And the characters are annoying and also not believable. I could care less about any of them. The main character Cissy, was so stupid and whiny that I wished the murderer would hurry up and off her. But she suffers on through most of the book.

I almost never quit a book in the middle. It has to be really bad for me to not read it to the end. Oh yeah, did I mention the repetition? The author repeats herself over and over again. Did this book have an editor? Also, much of this book reads like a romance novel, which I find intolerable. This was (almost) my first and definitely my last Lisa Jackson book.

Laura's Rating: 2/5

Did you read this book and you agree with my review? Or did you love it and you think I'm nuts? Tell me about it in the comments!


Later this week I'll be posting a "good" book review. Stay tuned.

Best Books of 2007?

The New York Times has published a list of the ten best books in 2007. The first five are fiction and the last five are non-fiction. I don't know who wrote the article or who got to determine which books were this year's best, but if you can recommend any from this list, let me know in the comments! The fiction books look more interesting to me, but still...were any of these on Border's recommended reading lists? Or Oprah's? Hah, I'm kidding. Kind of.

Here's the list:

1. Man Gone Down by Michael Thomas
2. Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
3. The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano
4. Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
5. Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
6. Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
7. Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression by Mildred Armstrong Kalish
8. The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffery Toobin
9. The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh: A Woman in World History by Linda Colley
10. The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross

Link

J.K. Rowling is Named Entertainer of the Year

Entertainment Weekly magazine has named J.K. Rowling entertainer of the year. Rowling published the final book in her Harry Potter series this past July. Here's what the magazine had to say:

So we'll keep it simple: J.K. Rowling is our Entertainer of the Year because she did something very, very hard, and she did it very, very well, thus pleasing hundreds of millions of children and adults very, very much. In an era of videogame consoles, online multiplayer ''environments,'' and tinier-is-better mobisodes, minisodes, and webisodes, she got people to tote around her big, fat old-fashioned printed-on-paper books as if they were the hottest new entertainment devices on the planet.

Who could argue with that? There is no doubt that she has entertained us, not only this year but for many years with her books and movies. I can't think of another person who deserves the title more than Rowling does. Congratulations JoJo!
Link

Oprah's Book Club Pick: The Pillars of the Earth

Last week, Oprah Winfrey picked Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth as her latest book club pick. The Pillars of the Earth is a 973 page novel that is set in 12th century England. It was first released in 1989 and still sells 100,000 paperback copies per year in the United States alone. To read more about this book visit Ken-Follett.com.

This book sounds really interesting. I'm going to add it to my reading list. I've read other books that Oprah has recommended and haven't been disappointed yet.