If truth is truly stranger than fiction, readers should find John Grisham's latest novel to be his most riveting yet. For the first time, the best-selling author turns to a nonfiction subject and tells the story of Ron Williamson, a former baseball star arrested for the rape and murder of a waitress in 1987. Williamson was placed on death row, but because of a lack of physical evidence, his case became a favorite of crusading legal eagles. Even if the title and the book jacket are major spoilers, fans of the Grisham formula will have no objections: The Innocent Man is a film-ready race against time, filled with late night stake-outs and peppered with legal jargon.
The View from Castle Rock, by Alice Munro. (Knopf, 2006)
For those who look hard enough, a Scottish grandfather explains in this collection's opening story, the view from Castle Rock extends all the way to America. The same could be said of Munro's eponymous short story collection. Whether writing of apple trees in Illinois or in the breathtaking glacial landscape of Lake Huron, Munro uses personal histories--including her own--as reverse prisms illuminating the national experience. This new offering by the prize-winning author is just as enthralling and lush as her thirteen previous works, and suitable evidence of why she's considered one of the best authors of short stories written in English language.
