Turow has written an incredibly human approach to life in politics and the challenges that it can bring. Bringing a 20 year old vendetta to light again demonstrates perfectly how long memories can be when you've made it to the top. The human portrayal of Judge Sabich and his weakness toward wom...
We will call that a 3.25. It started a bit slow, but after the major plot twist at around page 200, I paid more attention! I always like Turow's ability to surprise me, and he did that with a bang here. There was also a lot of implausible stuff that I had trouble believing, but it was definitely ...
This is the story of two families of Greek heritage, intertwined in more ways than one would think possible, over a couple of generations: The Kronon family, and the Giannis family, the latter including Paul Giannis, just over 50 and a state senator now running for mayor, and his identical twin...
I do enjoy a legal thriller every now and then, and this one was no disappointment. Taut and suspenseful courtroom drama, a spare, no-frills writing style that does in no way lack depth or perception, gritty, realistic dialogue, compelling secondary characters and a unique side story that looks a...
For some reason, I found this book difficult to read. Mr. Turow has a peculiar way of wording sentences (some of them, not all of them), such that some sentences I find myself reading 2 or 3 times, and still not understanding what he is saying. As in PRESUMED INNOCENT, there is much insight int...
The world breaks everyone, Papa Hemingway said, and afterwards many are strong at the broken places. True enough, if the metaphor is about bones. Bones break, but bones knit, and bones can be stronger for the experience. It’s a strong metaphor, but it doesn’t cover everything, doesn’t include eve...
After about fifty pages, I was tempted to give up on this book, but I stuck it out and really enjoyed it by the end. The basic story is that a new judge (who I guess was a character in an earlier Turow novel) finds herself with a murder-for-hire case in which the defendant was once a little neigh...
ull of surprises and a darn good yarn, Personal Injuries is a fun read. Check it out. But if you want something more substantive, go back and read Laws instead.A book where deception is the game and to the main character Bobbie Feaver a chance tp show off his acting skill to the world while livin...
This is my fourth Turow novel to read, and while there is a lot that I like about it, it is probably my least favorite. I should admit a bias from the start, though, as I am a criminal defense attorney, and I have never been particularly intrigued by the malicious internal politics of high-powere...
After making many trips to the local Barnes and Nobles (and reluctantly refusing to buy new books ever since I bought a Nook), I was finally able to finish reading One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year At Harvard Law School. The book is told in a narrative style and follows the author, ...
I am on the thin book rampage, a revolution against thick books. I have these thin books. Why shouldn’t I read them? This particular is not only thin (164 pages) but is a spin off from my last book that was also about the death penalty, A Saint on Death Row. That one left me feeling a little flat...
Stewart Dubinsky knew his father had served in World War II. And he'd been told how David Dubin (as his father had Americanized the name that Stewart later reclaimed) had rescued Stewart's mother from the horror of the Balingen concentration camp. But when he discovers, after his father's death, ...
George Mason, once a trail lawyer in one of Turow’s former novels (Personal Injuries 1999), is now an appellate court judge. He is confronted by a difficult challenge as the senior member of the three judge panel crafting a decision in which the judges have differing views. The case involves four...
“I do,” George W. Bush answered, without disagreement from Al Gore. “It’s the only reason to be for it.” Mr. Bush, so far as I can tell, was wrong on both scores. There are a number of compelling rationales for capital punishment. And deterrence, upon examination, doesn’t appear to be one of them...
In the navy it is boot camp. In many walks of life there is a similar time of trial and initiation, a period when newcomers are forced to be the victims of their own ineptness and when they must somehow master the basic skills of the profession in order to survive. For someone who wants to be a l...