Grisham returns to form
Saturday, January 17th, 2009
Ever-busy John Grisham is back with what made him famous — legal thrillers. His latest, due out this month, might seem reminiscent to his breakout-novel-turned-movie, The Firm. In The Associate, bright and idealistic attorney Kyle McAvoy, fresh out of law school, lands a plum job at a plum firm only to find himself caught in a deadly web of intrigue and deceit.
Publisher DoubleDay has this to say: “With an unforgettable cast of characters and villains—from Baxter Tate, a drug-addled trust fund kid and possible rapist, to Dale, a pretty but seemingly quiet former math teacher who shares Kyle’s “cubicle” at the law firm, to two of the most powerful and fiercely competitive defense contractors in the country—and featuring all the twists and turns that have made John Grisham the most popular storyteller in the world, The Associate is vintage Grisham.”
If this all sounds familiar, rest assured it’s a new cast of characters and a different town, with all-new chase sequences (just a guess here).
For a sneak peek, CLICK HERE.
Far fewer than the 80 percent of Americans who own slow cookers use them on a regular basis. This book is an attempt to change that. Instead of the usual recipes for slow-cooked roasts and throw-together soups, it is filled with modern and ethnic-inspired recipes – 350 in all – for such dishes as Mexican black beans with pork, Caribbean jerked chicken, polenta, and veal stew with sun-dried tomatoes and rosemary. Award-winning food writer Jane Snow talks about remarkably versatile slow cookers, and shares a recipe for risotto from Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook.
Ask. Believe. Receive. In The Secret, Rhonda Byrne compiles the words of successful authors, businesspeople, spiritualists and scientists to explain the “Great Secret” woven throughout human history — the law of attraction.
Water for Elephants is the story of a Great-Depression-era circus told through the memories of ninety-something-year-old veterinarian, Jacob Jankowski. Sara Gruen’s exhaustive research into the traveling circuses of the 1930s and 40s gives us a rare look into the fascinating, secretive subculture of that era’s big-top performers and roustabouts. Many of the most compelling anecdotes in Gruen’s well-told story are based on actual events.
The story of John Bul Dau’s childhood and early adulthood could be summarized by this prophesy: “This will be a black-haired time.” Which means: None of the people in Sudan will live long enough to have gray hair. It’s easy to turn off the news and lose interest in story after story of death and destruction in other parts of the world. We are inundated with images and stories about terrible pain and suffering all the time, and can become somewhat desensitized to it. Reading “God Grew Tired of Us” cuts through any desensitization and brings those feelings of sorrow and happiness, of pain and love, back into focus again.
Some people hibernate and lick their wounds after a difficult divorce. Not author Elizabeth Gilbert, who self-prescribed a year of exotic travel and convinced a publishing house to pay for it with a book advance. The result is Eat, Pray, Love, Gilbert’s journey of self-discovery in Rome (the eating leg of the trip), on an ashram in India (the praying portion) and love (in Bali, where she reconnected with joy).
Living History provides Hillary Clinton with a 566-page opportunity to describe her roller coaster ride as a bright young lawyer and working mother whose husband rose through the ranks of Arkansas state government, only to win two terms in the grand prize of American politics – the presidency. This book gives the reader a detailed, insider’s look at the high-stakes, power-driven world of political warfare. It makes for fascinating reading and more than justifies Hillary’s claim that her life is a work of Living History in progress.
John Grogan spun this engaging book from his years with the ill-mannered, psychologically-challenged Marley. Through the touching stories about this needy creature, Grogan shares meaningful observations of life, marriage and fatherhood — not to mention the unconditional love familiar to anyone who has ever befriended a dog. In this exploration, we examine that mysterious bond between dogs and their people.
For Dr. Jeannette Potts, a Cleveland Clinic specialist in male urology and holistic healer also known as “Dr. Tango,” nothing compares to dance — and one dance in particular. Find your tango, she writes, and you’ll discover your bliss. In her very approachable book, she guides and encourages readers to find their own tango — danceable or otherwise.
The Dangerous Book for Boys is not only a spillway of information on growing up boy, its contents for the intended “Boys” takes hold of the adult who has fond recollections of having been there and done that or wishing he had been there and done that. Taking the book, turning through the pages, the chapters melt into your hands, going beyond the scope of the intended “BOYS.”
In his first novel The Kite Runner, and now A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini writes about the Afghans caught in the middle of a seemingly endless string of wars and battles for power. Both novels paint a grim and moving picture of life in a war-torn country, and of lives lived in the face of hunger, death and a bleak future. Hosseini makes you realize that, even while bombs rain down and people are dying of hunger, people still fall in love, seek friends and, mostly, try to remain human.
