BOOK REVIEW: Grisham knocks it out of the park with A Time for Mercy

To be honest, I had not read a John Grisham book since Sycamore Row. When I learned that A Time for Mercy, the sequel to his first book, A Time to Kill, was out, I couldn't download it onto my iPad fast enough.

Photo from jgrisham.com

I've followed Grisham's career for several reasons, but we'll get into that later.  You may recall that A Time to Kill featured young lawyer Jake Brigance. Good old Jake returns in this sequel having been appointed by Judge Omar Noose (Don't you just love it.  Judge Noose, ha!) to defend a young, skinny, shy teenager—Drew Gamble. The kid is accused of fatally shooting a local deputy at point blank range, and the community is demanding the death penalty.

Drew, his mother, and sister have been living with the hard-drinking and abusive guy for some time. Jake reluctantly accepts Noose's appointment to defend Drew. But when he starts digging, he uncovers more than the obvious about the case. That's all I can tell you, except that the characterization was so real, and the plot was brilliant, and the dialogue very believable.

The book is a page a turner—that's for sure. Jake is played by Matthew McConaughry in the Time to Kill movie. There is speculation that he might do an encore if this is made into a film. Problem is—The two cases are five years a part in book time.  In real time, the first movie was released in 1996, and now it's 2020. If anyone can pull this off, Matthew can. He credits the first movie with jump-starting his film career.

Well, back to the other part of this story. Why am I interested in John's career? Yes, I can call him by his first name. We are the same age, and we happened to be at then Northwest Junior College in Senatobia, Miss., at the same time. For me, those years were 1972-73 and 1973-74. 

Grisham in the 1974 Rocketeer,
the Northwest yearbook.

Herein lies the irony. I didn't ever run into John, that I know of during that time. I'm sure he would have remembered me. He came back to his alma mater soon after the release of The Firm movie, probably around 1994. That was my only face-to-face meeting with him.  He set up in the conference room in the McGhee Building to sign copies of his books.  His real reason for being there was that he had donated a short story to the Northwest Review, the literary magazine.

And it was at that event that he told the students that he had taken Freshman English from the late Miss Frances Smith, a no-nonsense English teacher who spoke with perfect diction. He did not make a good grade. When he got to Northwest he had planned to be a stand-out player, but his grades put a damper on that. He left Northwest and transferred to Delta State University.

"I decided I needed to leave," Grisham joked. "I could not trust such a promising career to coaches with such limited vision." This, from a July 3, 2015 article in The Clarion Ledger.

We, I, too am a published author. Since retiring from Northwest in 2010, I have written a three-book series including The Carving Place, The Bargain—Paulette's Story, and Finding Marian.

Like Grisham, I sold books from the trunk of my car, at local shops, and even a few from Square Books in Oxford. I think I read that he sold 50 books at his first signing. I sold 5 at Square Books. Grisham has made millions, an estimated $300 million on his writing career. I have barely broken even. And when I took Miss Frances Smith's English class at Northwest, I made an A.

Movie Review: Rebecca classic wins my vote

I was in junior high school when we had to do our first real book report.  I chose Daphne du Maurier's 1938 book, Rebecca. It helped that I could watch it on television when Alfred Hitcock chose the story for his first American film in 1940.  No, I wasn't born then. I had to wait and catch it on a late movie.

Now considered a classic, Rebecca, was doomed to be a hit. It was produced by David O. Selznick (Gone with the Wind, 1939) and starred Laurence Olivier as the handsome widow Maxim de Winter and Joan Fontaine as the second Mrs. de Winter.

Hitchcock's version was in black and white, which made the grand house of Manderley even more creepy. That film won the academy award for Best Picture and one for Best Cinemotography,

Jump to 2020 to the Netflix version. Armie Hammer is certainly the dashing Max de Winter. In this version he is much closer in age to his new bride.  Speaking of the bride, she is played by Lily James (Rose in Downton Abby).  

Mrs. Danvers, the evil housekeeper who is obsessed with Rebecca, makes life miserable for the new bride. Danvers is played by Kristin Scott Thomas. Sorry to say she reminds me of the villain Cruella de Vil, the fictitious character of 101 Dalmations, come to life.

All-in-all, I must say that I was not in the least scared by this new version set in modern day time. Manderley was not spooky, the color was too hot, and I'm sticking to the classic.

Old oak stirs memories

Our treeline view to the South has changed. The tallest tree was felled this week. Back in the early spring we had a severe thunderstorm. We heard a scary-close clap of thunder followed by lightening that lit up the sky.  Not long afterward, the weather alert on my phone told me, "lightening has struck 0.0 miles from your location."

I guess my big oak tree took the hit. It wasn't obvious until this summer when a huge scar was visible on her trunk and leaves began to drop far too early. This tree is special to us. It is known by our family as "the Girl Swing tree."

When our grandchildren were small, Howard and I went to Lowe's and bought rope and hardware to construct two swings. The Boy Swing had a round seat with one strand of rope. Garrett would hook his feet together under the seat and with a big push, he'd fly so high it made me nervous.  The little girls were about 3 so they couldn't yet be trusted on that swing.

Their swing had one wide seat with ropes on both sides and anchored to the perfect limb on the oak tree. The seat was wide enough for two little butts to sit on it side-by-side. They laughed and squealed as granddaddy pushed them higher and higher. That made me nervous too. Now I know it was magical.

The trees also served as markers in our Easter scavenger hunt. I would hide clues in various places on the property. The first clue sent them to the Girls' Tree. Clue number two sent them all the way back to the house, and three was a trip to the Boy's Tree. You get the idea. After several clue stops, they ended up at the location where the prizes were hidden.  They thought it was great fun, and the hunt was successful in burning up some of the energy created by too much Easter chocolate.

All that remains of my tree is the bare trunk. Our friend who cut the tree for the firewood, hauled off the massive limbs yesterday. 

I have a great respect for our trees. After all, I wrote a three-book series based on our family name tree (thecarvingplace.com). Even though our treeline is different, the upside is that I can see more of our pond. The kids are almost grown. I hope those tree swing memories stick with them.

Perfect Design

Hey guys. Take a look at this photo. Kinda gross, right. Hint: It's not a sea creature, not an alien creature. It belongs to one of our most beloved creatures, especially to me. In my opinion it is just one of the examples of proof that God loves all animals, and that man and beasts are beautifully designed.

https://honesttopaws.com/newborn-foals-hooves/

These are the feet of a newborn foal. This is eponychium, the soft capsule that protects a mare's uterus and birth canal from the sharp edges of the foal’s hooves during pregnancy and birth. The term also refers to the thicker skin around the fingernail and toenail in human anatomy. They are also referred to as “golden slippers” or “fairy fingers."

Without this soft tissue, the foal's sharp hooves would damage the mare's uterus and do damage going through the birth canal. 

Lyn Scruggs with Scruggs Quarter Horses agrees. "The ones we see are not this extreme. We call them feathers. We normally don't notice them after the first few hours. I imagine once they (babies) stand they start to disappear. That hoof hardens pretty quickly. And those front feet//legs are pushing out so hard during labor it's good there is softness there on the bottom of those feet"

These look almost like a strange variety of drooping lilies.

We raised many colts on our farm during the 1960-79 period.  But daddy did it the old fashioned way—usually leaving the mare in a pasture by herself and let nature take its course—and finding a new baby early in the morning. Such a sweet surprise. So I never saw this miracle since the feathers has disappeared by the time I saw the baby.

Another instinctive miracle—Have you ever wondered why our babies take a year or so to walk, while foals and calves and other animals walk right after birth? Being animals of prey, horses know that predators are attracted to the smell of the placenta and blood and will track to the site of the birth. That's why the mother and foal need to be able to travel and get away from that site as soon as possible. (https://www.horsenation.com/2016/03/21/what-the-muck-is-that-eponychium)

I know all my readers are not horse people. But I can't deny this perfect design is by the hand of God.

Job 12:7-10
7 "But ask the animals, and they will teach you or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; 8 or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. 9 Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this: 10 In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.