why all the buzz?

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: historical fiction
Challenges: 100 Book Challenge 2011, 2011 Page to Screen Reading Challenge
Review: Occasionally, a book lives up to the hype.  I'm not completely sure that this one does, but it comes close.  I can certainly see where all the hype comes from.  The characters (for the most part) are well-drawn and realistic, the plot is compelling, the tension believable, and the premise interesting.  So, I definitely enjoyed this book, but I'm not sure it deserves all the buzz.  I can't quite put my finger on why.

vote no on judicial elections

The Appeal by John Grisham
Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction
Review: This is a book with an agenda, one Grisham doesn't try to hide, to his credit. In his afterword, while assuring us that all the people are completely made up, Grisham also assures us that the problem he depicts is all too real. The issue is an elected judiciary and the effect that special interests can have on a judicial election.

Grisham seems to have recovered his ability to write with this book, and although none of the character are particularly well fleshed-out, this is a plot-driven book, and the plot moves along nicely.

I have to say that I wasn't altogether enamored with the ending. As things look worse and worse for the good guys, the plot takes a sharp turn, but not necessarily for the better. The turn itself is unpredictable, and makes the ending even more unpredictable, but I felt that the turn itself came from so far out in left field that it took away from the plot, which, until that point, had been running very smoothly, if somewhat depressingly.

Despite that, this is a good effort by Grisham, and one worth reading if for no other reason that than to read about a fictional, but all too possible and pernicious threat to justice and democracy that is seldom discussed.