Not the MJ song.

Book 6 - A mystery or thriller

 

The Last Juror by John Grisham

 

A brief perusal of the 2015 Reading Challenge, and a much less brief perusal of my small, yet always growing, library left me with one question: Does John Grisham write mystery's/thrillers?

Papa came to the rescue after a slightly brief-er perusal of his John Grisham collection. At first I wasn't too sure when he pulled out The Last Juror. The cover and title sure seemed ominous, and I didn't doubt it's ability to be thrilling and/or mysterious. His travel to the bookshelf had been so brief, in fact, that I wondered if he hadn't based his selection primarily on the cleverly worded critic on the bottom of the front cover.

"One of his best: a thoughtful and atmospheric thriller" New York Times

Please draw your attention to the word 'thriller'.

Alas, I have discovered, after a full front to back reading, that there are indeed thrilling themes and moments of mystery. Although, the main case that starts the thrilling is no mystery at all. The actions that come later in the novel have one sitting around with many questions and no answers. As many authors will do, pieces of the story are excluded, and the reader is left at the end of the story without the most hope of ever figuring things out. There is just too much information left out.

Upon reading the first few chapters of this novel, I found myself connecting well with the main character's new job.

A big city kid moves to little Canton in Ford County, Mississippi after attending a few unfinished years at university. He has a job as a reporter for the local newspaper and soon finds himself in a position to buy the newspaper from its slowly fading owner.

The past owner took to writing obituaries, and little else, while the paper's distribution declined steadily. With the new kid on the job, the small town paper starts to grow and evolve into something never seen before in Ford County. As a lover of writing and an admirer of words, I find the life of a newspaper reporter entirely thrilling. There was a time I thought I could take on journalism, I don't know if I could be so completely nosey though.

I won't spread too much of the story around, but after a murder occurs and a jury is ordered, the town picks a side; and isn't happy with the end results of the trial. But the real fear starts when the murderer gains parole and, allegedly (here's where the details become few and far between, and the reader is left to assume one person; but question many things), starts to gain revenge on the jury members.

I must confess, I didn't really see the thrilling nature of the novel until about half way through it. This may be because I often read novels that are rather fantastic and perfectly exciting, but I'm not so sure.

As Papa recommended this novel to me, I am now passing it along to you. Working in the field of law, I quite enjoy reading about stories that are maybe, at times, a little far fetched. If you enjoy reading about legal stories, please pick up a John Grisham, and thank me later.

 

Cause this is thriller, thriller night, this is t-bear signing off

Prayers for the Stolen

Book 5 - A book by an author you've never read before

 

Prayers for the Stolen by Jennifer Clement

 

A few months back I entered our church building and attended to the customary check of my mailbox. To my surprise, among the brochures and miscellaneous church papers, I discovered a novel.

As many of you know, I am rather a large fan of novels.

I cannot express the excitement that ensued when I observed what lay upright in my mailbox. The first thought that came upon my mind was that I was the lucky participant of a mailbox book exchange. Alas, I was specifically chosen (by my pastor) to read this specific book; and unfortunately that is as far as it has gone. I will have to bring up a mailbox book exchange idea and see how she feels about it.

This novel is based in a small town in Mexico where the girls are made too look like boys to avoid being noticed by the drug traffickers. All the fathers have left their families to make money in America and after a few brief visits home, they don't return.

I can identify with the idea that all the men had left their families to move to America in search of better jobs and more money. Every spring our town becomes home to thousands of migrant workers. Men who have come from many different countries to make more money here than they would back home; even though they are making much less than any of us would doing the same jobs. They leave their families to make a life for themselves in our little town. I wonder sometimes how many of them actually send money back to their families and how long that lasts.

Some parts of the storyline I have a hard time imagining because of the amount of fear that the characters experience. In the town that the main character lives in, there are only women and children. All the children are boys, in reality there is only one boy. When they are born they are registered as boys so the girls don't draw attention to themselves. When they hear an SUV rolling down the road, the girls hide in holes in the ground to avoid being taken.

The story follows Ladydi, but there are so many other lives lived through the 212 pages.

Although the character is only sixteen years old, she experiences many situations that are not anything someone of her age should go through. I did have to stop myself with some of that thinking though. When a novel is based in a completely different country I often have to put my mind in a very different place in order to understand the characters situation. Many of the events that occurred in Ladydi's life were probably very normal for her. After all, she lived in a small town in Mexico.

Although I had a lot of trouble identifying with Ladydi's mother's character, I still enjoyed the way the novel transitioned through Ladydi's life; even though the back and forth from past to present got a little confusing sometimes.

 

Let it snow, this is t-bear signing off