The Associate

by John Grisham | 384 pages, published 2009

Another standard Grisham novel. Young aspiring lawyer working for a big, bad firm – but this time, he has a questionable incident in his past that leaves him open to blackmail. He gets to steal secret documents from a secret case! Sadly, this lacked adequate resolution. It just . . . ended. I guess Grisham was getting too close to his 400-page limit and had to call it good. I recommend sticking to a classic, like The Client.

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The Litigators

by John Grisham | 400 pages, published 2011

You know the format of a Grisham novel, right? An honest and fundamentally good lawyer is working for a big, bad firm. In this particular novel, the good lawyer quits the firm and joins a small, poorly-run litigation firm that takes on a huge case. Not surprisingly, they lose the case, but they win where it counts. Happiness and good fortune come to the good guys. The bad guys are still rich, but that’s not important!

I did like the book, though. I confess to having a weakness for legal fiction . . .

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Elantris

by Brandon Sanderson | 496 pages, published 2005

I hesitated to read another Brandon Sanderson book after finishing the Mistborn trilogy. Here’s why I’m reluctant to read more by an author I enjoyed: not every book is going to be great writing. Somewhere along they way, there’s going to be something mediocre. (It can happen because the editors gave the author too much leeway, like with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, or because the author wasn’t as experienced in his or her early days, or because sometimes mediocre books just get published.) I dearly love A Wrinkle in Time, and a lot of Madeleine L’Engle’s other work, but I read Many Waters last year and it was – you guessed it – mediocre. For that reason, I haven’t read any of Lloyd Alexander’s non-Prydain books. And I wasn’t convinced that I wanted to read any more Brandon Sanderson books, considering how much I liked Mistborn. I didn’t want to ruin my idea of him as a great author.

Fortunately, Elantris didn’t ruin it. Reluctant as I was, I loved the book. If you don’t want to spend time on a 1500+ page trilogy, Elantris is a wonderful stand-alone book with likable, believable characters, a really good magic system, and a great plot structure. So if you aren’t ready for the Mistborn trilogy, try Elantris! I don’t think you’ll regret it. I didn’t.

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