The Litigator by John Grisham

I pulled this book from my husband's collection when I had nothing to read. It's years since I picked up a John Grisham novel; I tend to get enough courtroom drama from TV, but the book was preferable to the 300 or so war stories my husband has on his bookshelves!

I don't think it's one of Grisham's best novels (it hasn't been made into a movie) but it's still a good read. It tells the story of Wally and Oscar, two ambulance chasing street lawyers, and David, a high flying young corporate lawyer who decides that a 70+ hour week in a big firm is no life at all. The three team up and take on Big Pharma in a mass tort (class action) case. They are the little guys playing in the big leagues and soon find themselves out of their depth. Wally's love life, Oscar's bad marriage and David's disappointed family all add depth and interest to the story.

Grisham manages to make every aspect of legal work and every type of lawyer seem tarnished and unappealing. Two thirds of the way through the book it all seemed fairly predictable; the last 200 pages held a few surprises, but there was no shocking twist.


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The Good People by Hannah Kent

The book is set in a small Irish village in 1825. The villagers scratch out a living from making butter, selling eggs or spinning wool. Their Catholic faith is mingled with a heavy dose of superstition and a belief in curses and fairies or The Good People. Nora Leahy loses her husband and daughter in a year and is left to raise her four year old grandson Michael, who is unable to walk or speak, alone. Nora is ashamed of the boy and tries to hide him. She hires a young girl, Mary, to help with Michael. A local 'medicine woman' Nance Roche, along with many of the villagers, believe the boy may be a changeling (switched by evil fairies). Nora and Mary ask Nance to help them get rid of the changeling and bring back Nora's true grandson.

The story is bleak and depressing. Every character is dirt poor, and many are mean and superstitious. People are constantly looking for reasons for their misfortunes (hens that stop laying eggs, or a bad crop) and blaming it on something their neighbour did or didn't do. Pagan superstitions such a spilling milk or throwing salt are mixed up with Catholic practices such as making St Brigid crosses for protection.

Not a lot happens in the first 320 of 380 pages. I was tempted to give up and I just read the first sentence or two of each paragraph for quite a few pages. To its credit the book is well written and brings to life a lost world, though not a very nice one! The final 60 pages were more interesting, but I'll be giving it to the charity shop rather than passing it onto friends. It wasn't my thing!

The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

I knew from the first page that this was going to be a great story; sadly this was because the writing was so poor it wouldn't have made it to print if it wasn't! It's not terrible writing (12k readers gave the book an average score of 3.8/5); it's just all plot with no imagery, very little description, and no concept of 'show don't tell'. It's also written in the present tense and seems to switch between third person omniscient and third person limited (sometimes we know what a character is thinking and sometimes we don't). I found the use of the present tense annoying, but as the story moved on I got used to it and I just wanted to know what happened next.

In the opening chapter,  Anne and Marco leave their baby at home while they attend a dinner party next door. They take the baby monitor and pop back every 30 minutes to check on the baby. When they finally arrive home at 1:30am, the front door is open and the baby is missing. The police suspect that Anne and Marco have either killed the baby by accident and they're trying to cover up, or they've arranged a kidnapping in order to secure money from Anne's wealthy parents. Anne's recent battles with post-natal depression and Marco's financial problems don't help their case.

Thankfully, you don't have to wait until the last 30 pages to find out what happened to the baby; that's revealed about half way through. The plot has lots of twists and turns; some parts of the ending surprised me and others didn't. Overall, I enjoyed the book. That said, I wouldn't rush to buy another by the same author. Below is an excerpt to illustrate the writing style:

"Anne has a complicated relationship with her parents. When Marco and Anne are having issues with them, which is frequently the case, Marco tells her that her relationship with them is f****d up. Maybe it is, but they are the only parents she has. She needs them. She makes things work the best she can, but it isn't easy." (p.32)

The Good Enough Mother by Anoushka Beazley

I'm very picky about what I read and usually read a lot of reviews before I buy a book. This is probably why I never seem to write a bad review. I found this book by looking through the book choices for the Poppy Loves book club. Groups meet up (IRL) all around the world to discuss Poppy's book of the month. They can read other groups' comments and pose questions for the author via the Poppy Loves Facebook page.

The sticker on the cover describes the book as "dark, gripping and laugh out loud funny". It's all of those plus it's really well written, the comedy coming more from Beazley's careful choice of language and imagery than from the situations themselves.

The protagonist is Drea. Her plans to kill herself are put on hold when her partner absconds to France with a bimbo, leaving Drea desperate to find the fees to pay for her stepdaughter Ava's private education. The story revolves around Drea's attempts to steal enough money to pay the fees and Ava's attempts to ingratiate herself with the school in-crowd. Meanwhile, Drea's elderly father has become addicted to Tamil porn!

The book manages to combine the dark humour of The Dressmaker (Rosalie Ham), the real life observations of Liane Moriarty, and the gritty characters of Gillian Flynn or J.K Rowling (her adult fiction). There are a few cliches e.g. Drea's baking not being good enough for the school bake sale, but  the quality of Beazley's writing makes the book unique. I loved it and hope she writes some more. Below is a taster...

"The morning spilt brightly into the room like a peppy girlfiend. September was unashamedly still in bed with Summer. Another wonderful day to be alive. Maybe I could make a noose for myself out of the curtains. Roll up, roll up, and welcome everyone to the greatest show on earth. Life? Bollocks. I had limited interest in life and even less interest in the school run. Or more accurately, I f******g HATED the school run." (p. 4).

Don't You Cry By Mary Kubica

This is Kubica's third mystery thriller. In downtown Chicago, Quinn is woken at 6:30am by her flatmate's alarm, but Esther is nowhere to be found. It is only after about 24 hours that Quinn starts to get really worried. Meanwhile, 18-year-old Alex is working as a busboy at a small town diner, having turned down a college scholarship to take care of his alcoholic father.

The chapters switch between Quinn and Alex. It is not until the last 40 pages that the author reveals what has happened to Esther and how it connects to Alex.

I really enjoyed the book. I thought I knew what the big reveal was going to be but I was way off the mark. Both Alex and Quinn are multi-dimensional characters; neither being particularly likeable, but they grew on me. This is the first book I've read by the author but based on reviews Kubica is getting better with each book.

Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty

Erika and her husband Oliver are both a little odd. Cellist Clementine, Erika's best friend since childhood, and Clementine's husband Sam, endure rather than enjoy Erika and Oliver's company.

Erika and Oliver's neighbours, Vid and Tiffany, are both extroverts and have little in common with them. However, Vid and Tiffany met Clementine and Sam at a Christmas party, and really enjoyed their company. When Erika mentions to Vid that Clementine, Sam, and their two girls are coming over for afternoon tea, Vid suggests they all join him and his family for a barbecue.

The story revolves around the barbecue; the chapters switch from the present day (two months after the barbecue) to the day of the barbecue. Something dreadful happened that has left Erika with memory loss and Clementine and Sam struggling to keep their marriage together.

It takes 300 pages to find out what happened at the barbecue. There are a couple of other 'reveals' in the last 200 pages but nothing particularly surprising. The beauty of the book is not so much a clever plot but the building of the characters. Moriarty expertly paints a picture of ordinary people who may at first seem unappealing but who are, on the whole, doing their best under the circumstances.

The book explores themes of friendship, marriage and how life changes after parenthood. Erika and Clementine's friendship, Sam and Clementine's marriage, and Erika's relationship with her mother, all reveal how feelings of love and hate are sometimes hard to separate.

Unidentified Suburban Object by Mike Jung

Grade 8 student Chloe Cho is the only Asian student at her American K-8 school. She is tired of people assuming she is a high achieving student and excellent violinist simply because she is Asian. She is tired of people thinking she is either Chinese or Japanese, when she is in fact Korean. She is tired of her parents refusal to tell her anything about Korea; they don't talk about it, they don't eat the food and they don't even recognise the clothing. She is however, excited to find her new Social Studies teacher is Korean.

When Chloe finally finds out her parents' secret she stops completing assignments, falls out with her best friend Shelley, and ends up in detention. The secret is not what Chloe was expecting and not what I was expecting. The book takes something of a comic turn but still does a good job of exploring identity, friendship, belonging and racial stereotyping. Chloe and her family feel like foreigners in both Korea and America.

Discussion Questions from Scholastic

1. Why does Chloe feel like an alien at school and in her town?
2. In which ways does Chloe try connecting with her heritage? How have you connected with your heritage? Share an example.
3. Why is Chloe so excited about her new history teacher, Ms. Lee? In which ways does Ms. Lee influence Chloe?
4. Which scene from the book do you remember best? What makes it so memorable?
5. Discuss Chloe’s friendship with Shelley. How does it evolve over the course of the story?
6. Explain how the truth behind her parents’ heritage changes Chloe’s perception of herself. How would you feel if you were in her position?
7. Chloe and Shelley work together to participate in their town’s first annual Graphic Novel-Making Contest! If you created a graphic novel with your friends, what would it be about?
8. What is your family ancestry? Did your relatives emigrate from another country? If so, from where? And what was their life like there?
9. Did you ever find yourself disagreeing with a character’s choice? What did they do? What would you have done differently?
10. What surprised you most about the story? What did you learn from reading this book?

Discussion guide here