A Book Review by Mark van Dijk:
This was a fantastic book. It is also the first Grisham book I ever read. Every time Krank does something, you know it goes wrong. This is a book everybody should read once – at Christmas!
Order your signed edition of Skipping Christmas by John Grisham here.
See Mark’s other reviews here
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VJ Books has just received: Martin Limon – G.I. Bones, John Grisham – Ford Country Stories, David Poyer – The Crisis, Ken Bruen – London Boulevard, Lisa Scottoline – Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog, Norb Vonnegut – Top Producer, and Larry Bond – Red Dragon Rising: Shadows of War.
A Commentary On Price Wars On Bestselling Books
We love books, we promote books, and yes, we sell books. Our mission statement is to deliver to our customer an innovative approach to bookselling that recognizes the love of books that resides in all collectors.
Now this may seem like a trivial point, but we sell books because we love books . . . not the other way around. From this vantage point we do not discriminate between blockbuster titles by bestselling authors and the new author delivering his or her first novel. In fact we rely on the new author to fuel the excitement that brings our customer back to see what’s new.
This year we have brought you Abandon by Blake Crouch, Crush by Alan Jacobson, A Quiet Belief in Angels by R. J. Ellory, and The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny, just to mention a few. These are all noteworthy books that would normally get lost in the big market stores who use their clout and buying power to push more James Patterson, John Grisham, Michael Crichton, and other mainstream titles at us in attempt to gain or secure market share.
Similarly, NY publisher editorial staffs select for publication those authors and titles that fit this limited view of “what will sell,” driving market trends rather that listening to what the reader really wants to read. The result is a “dumbing down” of literature, and we end up with what I refer to as “airplane reads,” books that get read and thrown away.
For the record, we also rely on big selling books to provide us with the capital we need to offer a broader selection to our customers. Sales of those big books allow us to comb through the hundreds of new titles each year and bring understated, infrequently advertised quality writing to your attention. Michael Connelly was unknown when Little, Brown introduced us to Harry Bosch in The Black Echo, and John Grisham sold A Time To Kill from the trunk of his car to independent bookstores across the south. We believe that tomorrow’s hottest authors are now residing in the new release flyers we send to you twice a week.
A lot of talk is spreading throughout the industry, outrage over the predatory pricing being used by Wal-mart, Amazon, and Target to gain a larger share of the market. Unfair practices by these behemoths threaten the future of bookselling. They can sell books either below their costs, or through backroom agreements with publishers, to bring customers to their stores to buy other products that they offer. “Loss leaders” are not new, but this goes beyond such practices. They are robbing the small independent bookstore of profits necessary to enable them to bring the full range of titles worthy our consideration to their shelves.
So we are asking you to refrain from buying these two or three books from the superstores. Please buy these titles from your local independent bookseller. Reward them with your business and they, like us, will guarantee you more to choose from in the years ahead.
All best wishes and good reading,
John
John Grisham’s newest release returns the author to familiar ground, that of Ford County, Mississippi. Originally made famous in the Grisham’s first novel, A Time to Kill, Ford County serves as the centerpiece for a collection of short stories about life in Mississippi.
Legendary writer Pat Conroy praises John Grisham as the worthy heir to William Faulkner as the defining voice in southern literature, “His short stories were a surprise to me. All of them are very good; three of them, I believe, are great. One of these stories should find its way into the anthologies of the best short stories of 2009. It might not happen, but I for one think the stories in Ford Country are that damned good.”
For the last eight years, VJ Books has been proud to offer their clients each new book released by John Grisham. Mr. Grisham does not tour as far and wide as he once did, making VJ Books one of the few outlets for autographed copies of his works. VJ Books has become the standard for offering the finest in collectible fiction on the Internet. To preserve this reputation, they consistently inspect and grade each book using professional standards. Every dust jacket is placed in acid-free archival quality acetate. Prior to leaving their warehouse, each item is carefully prepared to ensure safe delivery.
Click to order your signed copy of Ford County Stories by John Grisham
Here’s a look at Publisher’s Weekly fiction bestsellers as we reach the half-year. It’s become increasingly hard of late for authors to hold onto the #1 spot, but this year seems tougher still. Of the 18 authors who have nabbed that perch, only three – John Grisham, The Associate; Janet Evanovich, Plum Spooky; and Jodi Picoult, Handle with Care – have exceeded a week’s stay. Such bestseller veterans as Michael Connelly, James Patterson, Harlan Coben, Mary Higgins Clark and others have managed only one week on top. Of this year’s fiction newcomers, the five longest-running tenures to date are David Baldacci (First Family, nine weeks and counting); James Patterson (Run for Your Life, nine weeks); James Patterson (The 8th Confession, seven weeks); Maeve Binchy (Heart and Soul, seven weeks) and W.E.B. Griffin (Black Ops, seven weeks).
(Publisher’s Weekly, June 29)
(Publisher’s Weekly, Mar. 23, by Dermot McEvoy and Michael Coffey )
Familiar voices crowd the top in fiction; in nonfiction, the fundamental rules apply—plus all things Obama
John Grisham‘s aptly titled Appeal had the most of it, as far as the novel-buying reading public went, earning the #1 slot on our hardcover fiction list last year—just enough to beat out the beloved Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski, which sold 1.3 million. Our top 15 fiction titles this year look much like last year’s, with the notable absence of Khaled Hosseini, who was top dog in ’07. The prolific James Patterson racked up three in the top echelon, and Nicholas Sparks, Patricia Cornwell, Dean Koontz and David Baldacci made returns. The new kids on the block, in addition to Wroblewski, were Stephenie Meyer, seamlessly crossing over from the YA genre with The Host, and Glenn Beck, whose Christmas Sweater apparently warmed the hearts of his faithful. (more…)
According to Publisher’s Weekly, John Grisham‘s The Appeal and Dan Brown‘s Angels & Demons are this year’s longest-running mass market titles to date. The Appeal comes in at 16 weeks and Brown’s Angels & Demons is at 177 weeks.
Great reads, both!
See signed John Grisham and Dan Brown titles at www.vjbooks.com
(Publisher’s Weekly, Feb. 23)
William Monahan, who won an Oscar and an Edgar for his film adaptation of 2006′s The Departed, has been signed by Paramount to adapt The Associate as a star vehicle for Shia LaBeouf. Monahan’s most recent writing credit was last year’s Body of Lies, which starred Leonardo Di Caprio and Russell Crowe.
Order your signed copy of The Associate by John Grisham at www.vjbooks.com
(Publisher’s Weekly, Feb. 16)
A January 30 Huffington Post article noted that officials at Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University were “upset that Grisham mentions the school in connection with a fictional gang rape in The Associate, which deals with a character who attended the private Catholic college and was involved in a drunken rape scene in an off-campus apartment in 2003. A Duquesne spokeswoman. . . said it was unfortunate Grisham ‘chose to use our name and associate it with a fictional incident of this nature.’ Grisham told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he chose the school because he saw it once, and has been to Pittsburgh for Steelers and Pirates games.”
Order your signed copy of The Associate by John Grisham at www.vjbooks.com
Long before his name became synonymous with the modern legal thriller, John Grisham was working 60-70 hours a week at a small Southaven, Mississippi law practice, squeezing in time before going to the office and during courtroom recesses to work on his hobby of writing his first novel.
Born on February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to a construction worker and a homemaker, John Grisham as a child dreamed of being a professional baseball player. Realizing he didn’t have the right stuff for a pro career, he shifted gears and majored in accounting at Mississippi State University. After graduating from law school at Ole Miss in 1981, he went on to practice law for nearly a decade in Southaven, specializing in criminal defense and personal injury litigation. In 1983, he was elected to the state House of Representatives and served until 1990.
One day at the DeSoto County courthouse, Grisham overheard the harrowing testimony of a twelve-year-old rape victim and was inspired to start a novel exploring what would have happened if the girl’s father had murdered her assailants. Getting up at 5 a.m. every day to get in several hours of writing time before heading off to work, Grisham spent three years on A Time to Kill and finished it in 1987. Initially rejected by many publishers, it was (more…)