$2.99 Kindle sale, Nov. 29, 2019: bio of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. My law firm has about a dozen women attorneys in it, and we had a memorable evening last$2.99 Kindle sale, Nov. 29, 2019: bio of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. My law firm has about a dozen women attorneys in it, and we had a memorable evening last year when we went as a group to see the RBG movie about her life. Regardless of your political leanings, she's an intelligent, fascinating and accomplished lawyer and person. ...more
Kao Yu is a middle-aged judge in ancient China, renowned for hFree online Tor short story, available here. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Kao Yu is a middle-aged judge in ancient China, renowned for his fairness and honesty. He spends much of the year traveling from town to town to assist with legal cases. Kao Yu is sometimes assisted in making decisions by a chi-lin, a multicolored Chinese unicorn who will suffer no dishonesty in its presence. [image]
More than once—and the memories often returned to him on sleepless nights—he had pleaded with the criminal slouching before him, “If you have any hope of surviving this moment, do not lie to me. If you have some smallest vision of yet changing your life—even if you have lied with every breath from your first, tell the truth now.” But few there—tragically few—were able to break the habit of a lifetime; and Judge Kao Yu would once again see the dragon-like horned head go down, and would lower his own head and close his eyes, praying this time not to hear the soft-footed rush across the courtroom, and the terrible scream of despair that followed. But he always did.
Now it so happens that on one trip Kao Yu is asked to pass judgment on an imprisoned pickpocket, who turns out to be a young woman of surpassing beauty named Lanying. He is instantly entranced by Lanying, and unexpectedly tempers his judgment of her with mercy, cutting her sentence in half. He spends many sleepless nights thereafter dreaming of Lanying, and grumping at his devoted servants during the day. When he next passes through the area, he arranges to have dinner with Lanying, and ends up spending the night with her. But Lanying, though lovely and refined in her manners, is a hardened criminal, and the judge’s heart will end up conflicting with his duties and his devotion to justice.
“The Story of Kao Yu” is a melancholy tale, another story of love and loss, and the choices we make when any choice will bring pain. Peter S. Beagle has told a tale of a very different unicorn here, one who embodies justice. Beagle effectively and respectfully captures the style of an ancient Chinese legend, while making some timeless points about our human weaknesses.
A man jogging down a lonely road in Brazil is kidnapped and tortured, accused of being Patrick Lanigan, an American lawyer who was thought to have beeA man jogging down a lonely road in Brazil is kidnapped and tortured, accused of being Patrick Lanigan, an American lawyer who was thought to have been killed in an automobile accident four years earlier--about the same time that $90 million disappeared from his law firm's offshore account. If he really is Lanigan, everyone wants a piece of him: his former partners, the client that the money came from, his wife, the insurance companies, the feds . . . Everyone. So is this guy really Patrick, and if so, what's his plan?
I thought this was a highly entertaining legal thriller--implausible maybe, but who cares as long as it's fun?--until the very end. It lost a whole star with that ending. If you're going to pull off a twist like that, it needs some additional foundation. Foreshadowing. Something.
It felt like a cheap shot, manipulative and tacked-on, and left me more annoyed than an insurance company out a few million dollars. Or at least as annoyed as a reader out several hours and $26.50.
My recommendation: rip the last few pages out of the book and pretend they were never there. *plugs ears* Lalalala!...more
2.5 stars. One of my least favorites of Grisham's books, and that's saying something. Actually I kind of liked The Pelican Brief and one or two of his2.5 stars. One of my least favorites of Grisham's books, and that's saying something. Actually I kind of liked The Pelican Brief and one or two of his others, but mostly they strike me as mediocre writing combined, more often than not, with pulpit-pounding and breast-beating about some particular legal issue.
In this case the setting is a murder trial for a African-American man who gunned down his 10 year old daughter's rapists, who are stereotypical Southern white trash racists who tried to murder this little girl and left her for dead. The legal question is whether jury nullification is sometimes justified, since the father's defense lawyer, Jake Brigance - having no other legal options - is trying to convince the jury to find the father not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. Grisham, as par for the course, loads the dice on that issue. (Biggest clue: the KKK getting involved.)
I've only read as many of Grisham's books as I have because my father-in-law (another voracious reader) thought that because I was a lawyer I would automatically like Grisham's books, so I regularly received them from him as birthday and Christmas presents. I never had the heart to tell him I'd prefer another author. My FIL is gone now, may he rest in peace, so no more Grisham for me....more
Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽
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