How have I gotten to this point in my life without reading a book by John Grisham? I can tell you that I have seen many of his books-turned-movies like The Firm, The Client, and The Pelican Brief. All wonderful movies, and I’m sure even better books. My husband is a huge fan of his and on one of our weekend trips, he had us listen to the audio book of Playing for Pizza, which I have to say was really interesting. But nothing compares to when reading something that is what I consider, essentially John Grisham, a story about a trial.
So, when my reading group decided on Sycamore Row for our book for the month of February, I jumped at it! It was going to be a new experience and I couldn’t wait. I admit, I was a little nervous because sometimes when you hear about a famous author you come into their books with these high expectations. You know? So needless to say, mine were really high with this one…but I didn’t need to worry. This book was everything I expected and then some! I wouldn’t have thought that there was so much about wills that I didn’t know about, or that you could even make them that interesting, but trust John Grisham to give you a story that catches you immediately and seamlessly keeps your attention throughout almost five hundred pages!
Image courtesy of http://www.jgrisham.com
I read the synopsis of this book and realized that it was a prequel to the book/movie, A Time to Kill. I rented the movie to make sure that I understood this new book and I was shocked by how much that story moved me. I was glad that Grisham kept the interesting characters of Jake Brigance and Sheriff Ozzy. I guess the only disappointment that I had with the story was that I hoping for an appearance, even if it was small, from Carl Lee Haley, but that’s okay. It’s still an awesome story.
If I had to say just one thing that I liked about the book (and there were many), I would have picked that I really liked how you didn’t even know where the title of the book came from until you got to the end. It was a clever way, I think, to keep the story rooted with you when it was done. I’ll certainly never forget the importance of Sycamore Row. *smiles*
What about you? Have you read this book? What did you think? Have you read John Grisham before? What’s your favorite?
