A Painted House

John Grisham

©2000 Published by Bantam Dell
465 pp.

From the cover: “Until that summer of 1952, Luke Chandler had never kept a secret or told a single lie. But in the long, hot summer of his seventh year, two groups of migrant workers – and two very dangerous men – came through the Arkansas Delta to work the Chandler cotton farm. And suddenly mysteries are flooding Luke’s world. A brutal murder leaves the town seething in gossip and suspicion. A beautiful young woman ignites forbidden passions. A fatherless baby is born…and someone has begun furtively painting the bare clapboards of the Chandler farmhouse, slowly, painstakingly bathing the run-down structure in gleaming white. And as young Luke watches the world around him, he unravels secrets that could shatter lives – and change his family and his town forever.”

John Grisham does a wonderful job telling the story of a poor cotton farmer’s family from the viewpoint of a 7-year-old boy. The Chandler’s are poor, barely making a living from their rented 40 acres of cotton. The family is made up of Pappy and Gran, their son, his wife, and their grandson Luke. They hire migrant workers each year to help pick the cotton by hand. In 1952 those workers include 10 Mexican men and the Spruill family from the Ozarks who pick cotton to supplement their income - Mr. and Mrs. Spruill, oldest son Hank who's a mean S.O. B., daugher Tally who's cute and 17, teen sons Bo and Dale, and the youngest, Trot, who's 'not right'. The Mexican men are housed in the barn loft and the Spruill family of 7 sleep in tents in the Chandler’s yard. Life is hard for all of them as they work sun-up to sundown 6 ½ days a week. Even Luke is expected to do his share in the field, as well as helping his mother in her large garden and doing chores. Their main recreations are going to town on Saturday afternoons to shop and catch up on local gossip and to church on Sundays.

Luke learns a lot as he watches the actions of others on the cotton farm and in town. He sees things he shouldn’t and is told to keep quiet. He has to decide to tell about them or keep secrets for the good of his family. Any trouble could cause the migrant workers to leave, the cotton wouldn’t get picked, and the family wouldn’t have any income. People are killed, others disappear, a baby is born, and the crop is threatened by bad weather. Things aren’t easy on the farm but you’ll enjoy getting to know the Chandlers and learning about their lives.

A short while after I started reading this book, I realized I had read it before. I went ahead and read it again and I enjoyed it just as much the second time. I bought this book at a garage sale.



The Friday Night Knitting Club

The Friday Night Knitting Club

© 2007 by Kate Jacobs

ISBN: 978-0-425-21909-6

Publisher: Penguin Group
SRP: $14.00
360 pp. plus readers’ study guide

About the book: “Once a week, an eclectic group of women comes together at a New York City yarn shop to work on their latest projects – and share the stories of their lives…

At the center of Walker and Daughter is the shop’s owner, Georgia, who is overwhelmed with juggling the store and single-handedly raising her teenage daughter. Happy to escape the demands of her life, she looks forward to her Friday Night Knitting Club, where she and her friends – Anita, Peri, Darwin, Lucie, and K.C. – exchange knitting tips, jokes, and their deepest secrets. But when the man who once broke Georgia’s heart suddenly shows up, demanding a role in their daughter’s life, her world is shattered.

 

Luckily, Georgia’s friends are there for encouragement, sharing their own tales of intimacy, heartbreak, and miracle making. And when the unthinkable happens, these women will discover that what they’ve created isn’t just a knitting club: it’s a sisterhood.”

This book is great if you like stories about adult women’s friendships, problems and triumphs. Ms. Jacobs does a wonderful job of digging deep into the characters feelings and showing their strengths and weaknesses. She made me get to know these ladies and wish they were my friends. The book hits all the highs and lows of emotions and I was almost reaching for a tissue at times. No mystery or thriller here, just a very good women’s story with an unexpected ending. I hope you’ll love it as much as I did.

I borrowed this book from my sister Anne.

The Weatherman

I don’t have any new books to review right now so it’s back to ones I picked up second hand.

The Weatherman
© 1995 by Steve Thayer

ISBN: 0-451-18438-6
Publisher: Signet, the Penguin Group

410 pp.

About the book: “Andrea Labore is a beautiful, ambitious Twin Cities TV newscaster, hungering for an anchor chair, and with two men hungering for her. One is Rick Beanblossom, a star reporter who hides his disfigured face behind a cotton mask and his scarred soul behind a cynical shield. The other is the channel’s uncanny weatherman, Dixon Bell, a gentle bearlike genius whose claws are as concealed as his past.

 

When Andrea goes after the story of a serial killer of pretty young women, it becomes clear that the monstrous murderer is after her. Trusting the wrong man with her love can cost her life. And as the clouds of suspicion darken, the only sure forecast is that death will strike like lightning again and again…closer and closer…”

This book has an interesting and different plot. The killer strikes young women once per season usually around the time of a big storm or weather change. The press starts calling him the Calendar Killer. The only clues are a partial fingerprint and size 14 shoe prints so the police are baffled. The characters in the book were unusual, too, with Rick Beanblossom wearing a blue cotton mask all the time to cover burn scars suffered in Vietnam. He surrounds himself with beautiful things but doesn’t have a mirror in his home. I kept thinking of the Blue Man Group. Can you imagine being like that ALL the time? And Dixon Bell is never wrong with his weather forecasts even when the National Weather Service disagrees. The author worked at a TV newsroom for 3 years to do research and does a great job describing what goes on behind the scenes. The book kept me guessing (wrongly) right up to the last few pages and I was totally surprised.

I picked this book up at a flea market.

Absolute Power

Absolute Power
© 1996 by David Baldacci

ISBN: 0-446-60358-9
Publisher: Warner Books
SRP: $7.99
505 pp.

About the book: “ABSOLUTE CORRUPTION - In a heavily guarded mansion in a posh Virginia suburb, a man and a woman start to make love, trapping a burglar behind a secret wall. Then the passion turns deadly, and the witness is running into the night. Because what he has just seen is a brutal slaying involving the President of the United States.

ABSOLUTE DANGER – Luther Whitney is the career break-in artist who’s in the wrong place at the wrong time. Alan Richmond is the charming U. S. President with the power to commit any crime. And Jack Graham is the young attorney, caught in a vortex between the absolute truth – and…….

ABSOLUTE POWER – A tale of greed, sex, ambition, and murder, this is the novel everyone has been talking about….the shattering, relentlessly suspenseful thriller that will change the way you think about Washington – and power – forever.”

This is the second Baldacci book I have read, the other being First Family. That was good but I liked this one even better.

I totally enjoyed this book. It had just the right mix of interesting characters and a suspenseful plot that captured my attention from the start and held it until the last page. It’s not a whodunit because you know from the beginning who commits the crimes and the suspense is in the outcome. It starts right out with a crime being committed by the President and members of his staff and witnessed by a man who just happened to be burglarizing a home at the same time. Knowing no one would believe what he saw and heard the burglar waits for his chance and escapes but not without being noticed. The story progresses with the President and his Chief of Staff trying to keep things quiet and the burglar trying to figure out how to expose them. More and more crimes are committed and people assassinated as the President uses the power of his office to escape detection. Just how far are the Secret Service willing to go to protect the President?

This book was a flea market purchase. The edition of my book is different than the one shown.

The Lumby Lines

The Lumby Lines
© 2005 by Gail Fraser

ISBN: 978-0-451-22139-1
Publisher: New American Library
SRP: $14.00
315 pp.

About the book: “Nestled in the Northwest is a quaint little town that its quirky residents are proud to call home. With charming shops lining its one main thoroughfare, Lumby has the oldest apple tree in the county and the smallest bank in the state. And though it's hours from the nearest big city, you'll always find Lumby close to your heart . . .

Nearly destroyed by fire, Montis Abbey remains a ruin on the outskirts of Lumby. Once home to a resourceful order of monks, it stands abandoned, surrounded by its overgrown orchards. Then Mark and Pam Walker, a vacationing couple from the East Coast, stumble upon it -- and upon the answer to their prayers. Leaving behind their hectic lives to restore the monastery and turn it into an inn is a dream come true.

But some residents of Lumby take a while to warm up to outsiders. One of them is irascible William Beezer, owner of The Lumby Lines -- the newspaper "worth the paper it's printed on." At every turn, he tries to hinder the Walkers' efforts. The couple soon learns that for every citizen like William, there are many more willing to lend a hand, and that Lumby isn't just a place -- it's a way of life.”

I’ve lived all my life in and around small towns but nothing quite like Lumby. The beautiful northwest setting and the 'quirky' people are brought to life wonderfully by Ms. Fraser. She does a good job showing how sometimes it’s hard for newcomers to fit in until something happens that breaks the ice. After reading about the town and restoration of the Montis Abbey and orchard, I wish it was real so I could stay there. This was a very well-written novel with likeable characters, a good story-line, and it’s the first in a series. You can read more about them at http://www.lumbybooks.com/

This book was provided for review by FSB Associates.

Lost Love Found

Lost Love Found
© 2010 by Tim Gomes

ISBN: 978-1-4401-4867-5
Publisher: iUniverse
SRP: $15.95
211 pp.

About the book: “Although two years have passed since the September 11 terrorist attacks, Dan Jagger is still fraught with grief over the loss of his wife who was killed in the crash of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. Dan buries himself in work, family, and gardening while facing the harsh reality that he may never again experience another love like Alia.

One day Dan receives a phone call from Charlene, his high school sweetheart, whom he hasn't heard from since she broke his heart and sent him into the arms of Alia. Against his better judgment, Dan agrees to meet his former lover for dinner and soon learns that Charlene has lived a sordid life—twice married to a drug dealer and incarcerated herself. Despite all he has learned, Dan becomes involved with Charlene once again, setting in motion a course of events that leaves him vulnerable to danger. As he is unwillingly drawn into life-threatening scenarios executed by Charlene's former husband, an ex-convict focused on revenge, Dan receives the shocking news that his only son, an Army Reservist, has gone missing in Iraq.

As fear, unease, and peril surround Dan, he must act decisively before he loses everything he has ever loved.”

I think most romance fans will like this book. I liked the plot, it was interesting enough I wanted to know what happened, and it had a different ending, but there were several things that detracted from the story for me. There were too many acronyms which all had to be explained (CIB, CO, FSB, RTO, OCS, FNG, NVA, LZ, VC, FNG, PO, PTO, DEA, CONUS among others), too many street names every time the characters went somewhere (who cares about street names?), and I just didn’t think the main character was too believable. Yes, he was a great guy but how many people these days think it’s terrible to date after your wife has been dead for 2 years? And I wondered how he ever became such a business success when he let people walk over him like he did when it came to Charlene. AND, how many sons could walk into their dad’s home and bedroom unannounced, catch them in bed with a girlfriend, and the dad doesn’t react? Just not very believable to me but please remember, this is just MY opinion.

This book was provided to me for review by Bostick Communications and Tim Gomes.

She-Rain

She-Rain

© 2010 by Michael Cogdill

ISBN: 978-1-60037-702-0 (paperback)

Publisher: Morgan-James Publishing

SRP: $24.95

345 pp.

First, I have to say the author’s choice of title threw me. I guess he expected that since he gives a definition in the front of the book. “She-Rain. Scraps of fog, adrift on the ridges of Appalachia. It appears as lacy mist blown off the clouds of a high-mountain rainy day. The expression comes from the lexicon of folklore. I heard it during my early boyhood from my grandmother, Dovie Ella Crowe Keys, who adored and seemed to draw peace from the sight of it. “A little tear off a heaven gown. Fine as it can be. A little lace off the rain.”

About the book: “In the early 20th century, a pair of North Carolina mountain children sow the seed of a love that becomes their only solace in the hard yet beautiful world they know. They grow it from steep ground of poverty, ignorance, and violence. A landscape so brutal it can kill hope before claiming life.

Bloodshed years later finally sends Frank Locke on the run, deep into wilderness, abandoning his extraordinary love, Mary Lizbeth. When a whitewater river washes this desperate soul into the hands of Sophia, he discovers a luminous woman steeped in mystery, trapped in a tragically brilliant life. Far ahead of her time. Secreted from the world. As she awakens Frank’s mind, they rise to meet a love that binds three people for a lifetime.

This love triangle forms a beauty no one sees coming. From the wilds of Appalachia, crossing nearly a century, it runs deep into a lush American fortune, and lives in letters of adoration and hope of the least expected.

In a rhapsody of Southern voices, mingling hilarity and sorrow, She-Rain speaks of lives soaring beyond heartbreak, fundamentalism, and self-destruction. Through the most graceful longing, two women in love with one man ultimately prove the power of human hearts to answer high callings. They show us all how to heal – and thrive – to the very end.”

If you are a fan of Southern novels, stories of redemption and survival, you will like this book. Coghill’s portrayal of a southern mill town full of people struggling to eke out a living in the 1930’s is very vivid. Add to this the racial intolerance of the times, illiteracy, and domestic abuse. In all this chaos, Frank finds love and hope. The lessons Sophia and Mary L. teach Frank about friendship, love, respect, compassion, and tolerance help him as he tries to overcome a childhood of poverty and abuse. The book was excruciatingly sad at times and the plot turned in ways I didn’t expect towards the end but altogether it was an enjoyable story.

Michael Cogdill, the author, grew up in North Carolina and does a wonderful job setting the scenes of his book. He also had an abusive, alcoholic father (who later achieved sobriety) and was able to add so much realism to the character of Frank’s drug-addicted father.

This book was provided for review by FSB Associates.

A Simple Plan

A Simple Plan
© 1993 by Scott B Smith

ISBN: 0-312-95271-6
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
417 pp.

About the book: “Two brothers and a friend find $4 million in the cockpit of a downed plane. The pilot is dead. No one is looking for the money. To keep it, all they have to do is wait. It all sounded so simple…

But from the moment their plan is set in motion, Hank Mitchell’s well-ordered life spins out of control, sending him on a downward spiral of deceit, treachery, and blackmail – total chaos leading to the unthinkable…cold-blooded murder. Doomed keep the secret of the money safe, Hank will kill and kill again, helped by the most calculating accomplice of all – his pregnant wife, Sarah.
 A Simple Plan plunges you into the world of a seemingly rational man whose descent into madness and murder will chill you to the bone. A masterpiece of psychological suspense, it will leave you wondering how far YOU would go to hold onto a dream.”

This story starts out innocently enough as Hank, Jacob, their friend Lou, and Jacob’s dog are headed to the cemetery. They swerve to miss a fox, the dog goes after the fox, and the men go after the dog. They find a lot more than they expected when they come across the downed plane. When they find a duffle with more than $4 million all in $100 bills, it doesn’t take long for them to make plans to keep it. Hank, the only educated one of the three, decides to hold the money for 6 months and if no one finds out they have it, then they’ll split it up. Can you imagine living your life wondering each and every day if someone is going to find out you have over $4 million stashed under your bed? Who would you trust? Lou has gambling debts and doesn’t want to wait 6 months. Jacob wants to buy back the family farm and stay in the area with his share. Can Hank hold things together long enough to spend the money? There is a wonderful  twist at the end that finished the book off well. After reading this book, all I can say is, if you find something, give it back! Money may not buy happiness, but it can certainly buy a lot of hell.
This book was a flea market find. ( FYI, the cover pictured is different than my copy.)