Bob the Book Reviewer

My niece, Melanie Cremins, hosts a blog with the clever title of Overreader in which she occasionally muses about what’s going on with her and her family, but mostly posts a string of reviews of the unbelievable number of books she consumes. If you haven’t seen her blog, you should.  It is well thought out and cleverly written.

My one complaint is with the title. 

I like the double entendre – in my mind, there is no such thing as a bad pun – but the truth is that Mel reviews so many audio books that it’s a wonder she doesn’t have chronic tinnitus and cauliflower ears.  Call me a dinosaur, but with the possible exception of books in Braille, it is my firm belief that books should be read visually.

With that out of the way, let me assure you that I am not going into competition with Melanie, but I just read a book that I had to tell you about.

I almost missed this book completely. 

It had it’s time on the Best Seller lists, and has been optioned by Warner Brothers for a movie, but somehow I had never heard of it until I found a paperback copy on the reduced price rack at Wal-Mart.

It is a murder mystery/courtroom drama  that has been favorably compared to Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent.  Various reviewers give it four to four and a half stars on a five star rating system.

All of that is true enough, but if that’s all it was I wouldn’t be writing this. 

The book concentrates on the effect on the lives and emotions of the people involved, and although I couldn’t wait to see what happened next, the emotions conveyed – and engendered in this reader – were so strong that I was forced several times to put it down and walk away for a while.  It is actually that well done.

I won’t go into specifics;  I don’t want to ruin the experience.  Let me just say DO NOT WAIT FOR THE MOVIE!  Find this book on Amazon, your used book store or the library, and read it at your earliest opportunity.