#82

I don't think I'm going to make it to 100 books this year but I guess I'm doing okay. John Grisham's "The Litigators" was an excellent read. He never disappoints. David Zinc is a small fish in the pond of 600 lawyers working for a big firm and making $300K a year but has no life. International finance is not doing it for him. One day he snaps, gets drunk and finds himself in a two man boutique law office of ambulance chasers and decides that this is what he wants. The spiral down is when one partner decides to take on a big drug company in a mass tort suite for people who are supposedly dying from a cholestoral medication. No one at the new firm has ever tried a federal case and David has never tried any case. The whole story is great!

#50

Cute little story by John Grisham in his teen series called "Theodore Boone: The Abduction." This time lawyer wantabe Theo is helping to solve what happened to his best friend who dissapeared late one night and she was thought to have been kidnapped. With his investigative skills and his knowledge of law at the young age of 13, he is able to do what the police couldn't.

Waiting for the latest Patterson book. I think it's his 4 millionth!

Latest Grisham

Once again John Grisham has hit one out of the park with his latest "The Confession." Wrongly accused of a murder 9 years earlier, Donte Drumm awaits his execution in Texas. In Kansas, an ex-con shows up at a local church and confesses to the minister that he was the one who did the murder all those years ago. To get the confessee to Texas in time involves driving through the night and then hoping that they can make the deadline to prevent the execution. Can't say more of the novel would be ruined but it's a great ride.

I'm only half way through the day and my book is finished so I'll have to fire up one on my iPhone and start reading.

a new sequel

John Grisham has been writing excellent novels for many years. He's written a kid's book called "Theodore Boone Kid Lawyer." I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm anxiously awaiting the next book so I know what happens since I was left hanging. Theodore is a 13 year old lawyer want-a-be. He helps his friends and in this case he's helping solve a murder investigation. Good story!

Short stories

As I've said....I'm not a fan of shortstories but John Grisham's new book is wonderful. "Ford County" is filled with stories about a southern town in Ford County. Lots of stories that are so John Grisham! Definitely one to pick up and enjoy.

My hubby and I decided to go out to eat and we headed to Maryland to a restaurant we hadn't been to in 20 years. I went there 40 years ago and other than an addition to accommodate the waiting crowds and a gift shop, it's the same. Friendly Farms Restaurant is an all you can eat place. You order your "meat" choice and then they bring the old fashioned farm goodies for as long as you can eat them. Just one serving of the meat but everything else keeps coming. Been in business for 50 years. Don't think we'll wait another 20 years till we go back.

A day off.........

After working for 8 days straight I finally get tomorrow off. I put on the pajamas and I'm not taking them off all day tomorrow.




I finished John Grisham's "The Associate." Really enjoyed the book until the end. The main character is Kyle and he grew up in York, PA. That was an interesting little fact since that's close by. He's a new grad from Yale Law School and been threatened into taking a job with a top law firm in NYC. Not what he planned but he's paying the price for some misbehavior in college that has now come to light and could be the end of his career. I don't want to ruin the book for anyone. I enjoyed it right up to the last page and then I was disappointed. It could have gone one for many more chapters. Grisham doesn't do sequels so we're left hanging. It's like he had to write 373 pages and then go for groceries or something so that was it. I did find one point that he didn't do enough research on. He mentioned that Kyle went home for Thanksgiving and went hunting that morning with his Dad for "buck." Everyone knows that in PA there is no "buck" hunting until the Monday after Thanksgiving and it's like a major holiday. Schools are closed!

The next one will be "Run for Your Life" by James Patterson. With luck, I'll finish it tomorrow.

No Settlement

I got an email from the mortgage rep saying that he was trying everything he could to hold the deal together but I've already figured it's over and buried. He won't be doing business in my office or in the office of the listing agent which means he's pretty much done for in the little town he hung his shingle in. He's had since November 3rd to get this deal done and apparently he's totally incompetent to do what he's doing. Nice guy, but doesn't have it together in the mortgage business. Things are so bad right now that no matter what "they" tell us about business picking up, the writing is on the wall that they'll be a lot less realtors come the end of this year. I guess I have to make the decision as to which retail business I'll try to get into. At my age there aren't many job openings even with a degree.

I finished "The Appeal" by John Grisham. I had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen since I saw two interviews that he gave on television. He gave away too much information in those interviews and kind of spoiled the read for me. I won't do that here. In the first chapter you learn that a large corporation is sued and there's a large award pending due to an appeal to the state supreme court. The rest of the book shows us what extent that big business will go to in order to try to keep from having to pay out that award. I'll say no more so that the book won't disappoint you. It's definitely a good read as Grisham's books always are. I'm starting Elizabeth Berg's "Dream When You're Feeling Blue."

"Playing for Pizza"

Okay, I'm not a lover of sports like golf or football. Stupid games and make no sense to me. I'm a big fan of John Grisham and he wrote his latest novel based on an out of luck football player who ends up playing on a league in Italy where football American style is catching on. The story is great but if you aren't fond of the sport than you kind of need to grit your teeth and barrel through the actual descriptions of the games that are played on their way for the big prize. The story just re-inforces what I feel about the stupidity of the sport but the story was fun. A different kind of book than the usual Grisham novel.

Met with my cousins from Mom's side of the family today. Still have an Uncle surviving (well, really two, but we don't have anything to do with the one in Denver)so he joined us with his wife. The widow of another uncle was there, too. There are 10 first cousins that range in age from 53 to 63 and 7 of them were there today. One is in Texas, one in Florida, and one in Texas and they didn't make it. The one from Germany and the one from Kentucky came and joined the ones that are within a three county area of central PA. It was a combination of 4 generations. Several of our children and their children came and it made for a wonderful day. Unfortunately a restaurant isn't the greatest place to have a reunion but that's what we had to deal with. We'll see if it's best to continue this route or go back to meeting at each other's homes on a rotational basis. It was funny that when we did that we didn't have a big turnout but when we went to a restaurant more people came but the younger ones (that didn't come before) thought it would be good to have it at someone's home so it would be easier to visit. Can't please everyone! Just glad that we had such a good turn out.

Still haven't gotten the tree! Wishing I didn't have to but with everyone coming here for the big day, I need to do it. Hubby insists on having a live (ball) tree instead of a cut tree but it's gotten so difficult to get it in and out of the house because of the weight. It's such a struggle. I have a little 18 inch live tree already in a cute little pot but my oldest granddaughter says that's not big enough. Where is she when I'm trying to get the bigger tree in here and decorating it.

Good news is that I get to start a new book tonight. Still haven't decided which one.