Rating: 
Summary: WAKE ME WHEN IT'S OVER.
Review: "A Painted House" is definitely not a page turner and not John Grisham at his finest. I think he made a mistake when he deviated from what he does best, and that is writing stories about law and order. "A Painted House" is the kind of book that is easy to put down and not pick up again for days. I found it rather slow and at times downright boring. People slave in the cotton fields day after day and fall into bed completely exhausted every night, only to get up again the next morning to repeat the whole process over again. This is not to say that there weren't some interesting pages in the book about migrant workers and mountain people who came to pick cotton so that they could make ends meet and put food on their table. However, in the final analysis, I thought this tedious tale would never end.
Rating: 
Summary: Wow!
Review: I will start by saying I am not a reader. Yes, I can read, quite well, in fact. However, my wife is the reader in the family, and I borrowed the book while waiting for a flight. All I can say is WOW! Each chapter dares the reader to read the next. Having a 5 year-old child, I could not imagine her having to suffer what the young boy had to in the story. The secrets he had to keep to protect himself, his family, his friends. Read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A down-home look at 1950s Arkansas
Review: I eagerly purchased a copy of *A Painted House*, being a long-time fan of John Grisham and the descendant of Arkansas farmers. I love Grisham's courtroom dramas but was ready for this turn of themes from him.Young Luke Chandler narrates the tale of the cotton harvest in 1952 Black Oak, Arkansas. He lives in a small unpainted house with both his parents and grandparents. His uncle Ricky is off fighting in the Korean War, and the beginning of the cotton harvest has just arrived. The story begins when the Chandlers hire a hill country family, the Spruills, and a group of Mexican workers to help pick cotton. The Chandlers own a hundred and twenty acres, so additional help is necessary. Unfortunately, this particular harvest will be like no other. As the family and the workers pick cotton daily, young Luke becomes more and more aware of events surrounding him. Girls, family fights, financial difficulty and even murder circle in and around him these few months. If you thought farm life was dull, you didn't visit the Chandlers. I loved the book and would have loved to learn more about what happened after the novel closed. I hope Grisham continues to venture into other types of fiction, though I hope he'll go back to the courtroom once in a while.
Rating:
Summary: My first Grisham novel
Review: For some reason this is the first John Grisham book that I have ever read. I have seen lots of movies about his books but never read one until now. I must say it is nothing like the movies he has had put out, but this but was one hell of a page turner. I couldnt stop reading it and it was about a family name the Chandler's that picked cotton. Now picking cotton didnt seem to compelling of a reading source for me, but the book was about Grisham himself as a boy. The book was very interesting and took me through a time I never thought would be interesting to read about. The book had action and some blood as well as a 7 year old John Grisham that had one hell of an experience during that harvest of cotton. The book is worth reading and will make a lot of people respect John Grisham a little more, and also give you an idea of where all those mysteries came from for his books!
Rating: 
Summary: Just OK
Review: I loved the character and thought they were very well developed. My complaint is that nothing much happened, and the ending was very disappointing. I wanted to know how things turned out for the characters but everything was left in the air. When I finished I felt like the last chapter must have been left out of my book.
Rating:
Summary: A PLEASANT CHANGE
Review: I HAVE READ MOST OF GRISHAMS BOOKS BUT THIS ONE WAS DIFFERENT AND VERY REFRESHING. YOU COULD PICTURE THIS 7 YEAR OLD LEARNING ABOUT LIFE. IT WAS SWEET, SUSPENSE FUL AND FUNNY. I WOULD LOVE TO READ A SEQUEL. GOOD GOING JOHN GRISHAM.
Rating:
Summary: THIS BOOK WAS HARD TO PUT DOWN
Review: I have to say I was really surprised how good this book was. I had to keep thinking "now this is John Grisham writing here?" I think that this is the best book he has ever written. It is down-to-earth, and tells a great story from a little boys point of view. Now don't get me wrong, there is still alot of mystery and action, but the story is based on his life, a life of cotton-picking and relying on the Mexicans and the hill people for help. It goes back to the days of morals and religious beliefs and how the simple days were still enjoyable without the tv and the internet. I definitely recommend this book, it was a good read and I hope that John Grisham will write something similar to this book soon.
Rating:
Summary: Descriptive Writing at Its Best
Review: I went to town knowing where the dirt roads gave way to gravel which gave way to pavement. I have seen Black Oak and the unpainted house in the bottom lands with a garden on the east and cotton to the west. I have heard the river and the thunder in the distance. I have smelled the rain coming and the tortillas cooking near the barn. All of my senses were saturated because of Grisham's excellent disciptive narrative. There was some action and a loose plot, too, but these were not even necessary for a completely satisfying read. And, by the way, the droll southern humor was not lost on me. I was sorry about only one thing: it was over far too soon.
Rating: 
Summary: Not what I expected
Review: I am a huge John Grisham fan but I enjoyed John Grisham's past books much better than A Painted House. I, like so many other reviewers, purchased this book in anticipation of reading a gripping book that you just couldn't put down. It took me forever to read this book and the only reason I finished it was by sheer determination. It is John Grisham's choice to change his writing style and it was probably refreshing for him but it is not the style that his fans want and not the style that will sell the next time.
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Summary: Who Needs Heart-pounding Plot Twists
Review: One reviewer said this book was short on plot and short on characters. I agree. A Painted House is about setting. It is a simple story about about the lives of simple people over a brief period of time. But when I read this book, for one cloudy afternoon, I was plucked from my chair and quickly transported to and totally immersed in a different world. I've read all of Grisham's books, although I usually lose interest about halfway through most of them. Make no mistake about it, this guy is special. Like in A Time to Kill, his only other good book, John Grisham really knows how to put your fingertips on the eyelashes of a small southern town. You can feel the heat of the September sun, smell the slow moving river, hear the hillbilly laborers, feel a young boys awe for a pretty teenage girl, taste the excitement of Saturday afternoon in a farm town, bask in the laziness of a Sunday afternoon, sit on the porch in the summer twilight listening to a baseball game on the radio. No murders, no mafia, no heart-pounding plot twists. But who needs them when you've been transported to another world. It is amazing how such a simple story can be so captivating.
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