Words For Words

The King of Torts - John Grisham

jason — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:21:20 +0000

This is the first Grisham book I’ve read. I just never envisioned myself as reading Grisham, however, when I picked up a dozen Grisham books cheap at a thrift store, I thought I might as well give one a try. This one was pulled at random from the pile so I’m not sure if I picked a good one to start with or not, but overall I was pleasantly surprised. It held my interest long enough to finish and it wasn’t much of a chore to get through. Not really my style of book, but I’ll be back to try more Grisham in the future.

On to the story. This was a novel that got me emotionally involved unlike many…..and I’m not really sure why. I was rooting for the main character, yet hated him as well. It fascinated me to see how the class action lawyers functioned (if it really functions like this) and yet how dirty the whole process was. Grisham really spun a tale that brought to light the seedy side of law and the greed that sudden masses of money can bring. For the most part this was well plotted, yet a few threads were left hanging and the novel just seemed to wrap up too quickly and cleanly.

Not too bad thought and an enjoyable read, so I’ll try some Grisham again in the future. 6/10

John Grisham

Supreme Courtship - Christopher Buckley

toddg — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 15:13:36 +0000

President Vandercamp has sent two highly-qualified jurists to the Senate, but Dexter Mitchell, the chair of the Judiciary committee covets the position for himself, and ensures that neither nominee is confirmed. Sound like a dry beginning? Not at all! The president goes a different direction with his third nominee - Judge Pepper Cartwright, star of TV’s Courtroom Six (think Judge Judy here). Cartwright’s husband is also her producer, and not exactly supportive of losing his start meal-ticket. This book is a well-written piece of comedy which brings the mysterious and often cannibalistic world of Supreme Court confirmations into a first-class bit of humor.

Christopher Buckley, Supreme Courtship

Lightning - Dean Koontz

jason — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 20:39:51 +0000

It’s been awhile since I’ve read a Koontz book even though I have quite a few on the shelf. This was a pleasant read. I wouldn’t really consider this in the horror genre as he’s typically grouped, but more of a suspense novel with a touch of sci-fi thrown in for good measure.

Without giving too much away, it’s basically a time-travel story with good character development. I really felt for the characters and was intrigued how things turned out for them. There was a twist about 2/3 in that I didn’t expect though looking back, may have been hinted at and I was just not paying enough attention. This is also not a typical sci-fi time travel novel in that time travel is purely a plot element to move the story forward. So for you hard-core sci-fi readers, nothing new here and in fact there are some inconsistencies in the time-travel that you may pick up on if you pay attention.

I did enjoy this and this just affirms why I enjoy Koontz so much. 9/10

Dean Koontz

Writing the Breakout Novel - Donald Maass

toddg — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:05:26 +0000

I am a sucker for a book about writing, as it is an easy excuse for avoiding the actual turmoil of putting words down on paper. This was actually a helpful guide, as it got me thinking about ways to improve the words I’ve already written, and got me excited about finally finishing the novel. Although the examples are now somewhat dated (the book was written in 202 and frequently uses books that I’ve read but forgotten), the passages do provide good examples of what, and what not, to do. I look forward to putting these learnings into practice.

Donald Maass, Writing the Breakout Novel

Sweetheart - Chelsea Cain

toddg — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 22:09:48 +0000

Well, it’s said that the second book is the most difficult to write, even more so when the first book is a best-seller. This book brings Archie the detective and Gretchen the serial killer back from the first book, with Gretchen in jail and Archie still inexplicably in love with the woman that tortured him. I liked 2007’s Heartsick, as the characters were damaged in an interesting way. In this book, they’re just damaged, and the book feels shallow as a result. The ending was easily anticipated, and I found myself finishing this book 10 pages at a time - not much interest, just a place I needed to go. Wake up Archie - she’s a serial killer, you’re a cop - do your job!

Chelsea Cain, Sweetheart

Debt of Bones - Terry Goodkind - Sword of Truth

jason — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 21:28:02 +0000

Not a bad break in the the Sword of Truth series I’ve been plowing through this year. This was a very quick read, very short and wastes no time in extra atmosphere building. In some ways that hurt the book. I would have liked to see this expanded into a full-length novel. In fact there are many back history topics in the Sword of Truth series I would love to see expanded on, just a bit more than this one was. Though it is what it is and Terry Goodkind makes no promises that this is on the same par as the rest of the series, but just a brief interlude.

It is a nice break though in a long series and now I’m re-energized to jump back in and finish out the series. This book is best read after finishing at least half of the regular series. If you read this too early, you may not understand what is going on completely and in fact, may take a small bit of the suspense of the first book (Wizard’s First Rule) if you read Debt of Bones first. So don’t do that! 6/10

Sword of Truth, Terry Goodkind

The Map Thief - Heather Terrell

jason — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 21:06:36 +0000

Seems like other people really liked this book. It did nothing for me. While I’ve read worse books, this was just an ok one for me. There was very little suspense for me. Basically I knew what was going to happen almost from the first page. The conclusion was predetermined and only the path was a mystery, but even the path didn’t include much thrill or excitement. It was just a story and nothing really memorable occurred.

While some seemed to think the switch between time frames to tell the whole story was a nice medium to convey the story, I found it distracting. Don’t get me wrong, without those flashbacks, this book would have been awful, but the chapters were short and with the context switch just about every chapter (every 2-3 pages) it at times was confusing. With such short chapters it wouldn’t have hurt if we could have thrown 2 or 3 chapters per time frame together in a group.

The concept was interesting and the story has a lot of potential, but to me it was just a so-so novel. Being a fairly short novel, it didn’t take much time to read so that was a plus as minimum time was invested. I may keep an eye out for future Heather Terrell novels, but I probably won’t go out of my way to grab one. Just a 5/10 for me.

Heather Terrell, thriller

Die Trying - Lee Child

toddg — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 02:33:27 +0000

First, it is true that I have little restraint with this author, as this is the sixth Jack Reacher novel I’ve read in four months! In this book, Jack is again drawn into a complex situation that starts with the simple kindness of helping someone pickup her dry cleaning. Moments later, Jack and Holly are handcuffed together en route to a militia compound in Montana. All is not what it seems, however, as a special dynamite-lined holding cell has been created for Holly, and Jack is suddenly thrust into a secret battle between the militia leader and the FBI. As with all of this author’s novels, the story starts quickly and doesn’t slow down, and as with the others, I highly recommend it!

Die Trying, Jack Reacher, Lee Child

The Black Tower - Louis Bayard

toddg — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 02:19:44 +0000

Set in the early 1800s, this novel features a once-criminal, now-detective named Vidoqc who is investigating a death in post-Napoleonic France. He pulls Hector Carpentier, a university student and almost-doctor, into the mystery because Hector’s name is found in a shoe of the deceased and offers the only clue. Vidoqc shows remarkable skill of observation, and Hector is forced to dig into the life of his father, a former caretaker of Louis-Charles, the son of Marie Antoinette and Louis the Sixteenth. I enjoyed this book, as it was a bit off of the beaten path and it offered a view of France that seemed historically correct (even if it ultimately wasn’t). I’ll need to go back and read this authoer’s prior two books!

Louis Bayard, The Black Tower

Envy the Night - Michael Kortya

toddg — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 21:13:52 +0000

Frank Temple III returns to a remote area of Wisconsin, intent on fulfilling a promise to his dead father, a man with distinguished service in the armed forces but who fell to temptation and became a hired assassin. Devin is the intended target, his father’s former colleague and the man that brought him into the business of death-for-hire. A local garage owner, Nora, becomes a target of Devin’s people when a Lexus with a tracking device ends up in her body shop, a Frank finds himself included as a target himself when he intervenes in an attack. Ezra still lives at the lake cabin that he, Frank Junior, and Devin bought after serving together in Vietnam, and reluctantly gets involved to make certain that Frank III doesn’t follow the path of his father. Confused? There are a number of complex characters in this thin novel, and a few double-crosses that I haven’t mentioned here. This book offers a great weekend read, and I’ll be checking out Koryta’s other offerings

Envy the Night, Michael Kortya