Rating: 
Summary: A Little different.
Review: You pick up this book, open it, and start to read the jacket that covers this book.The first thing you realize is that there is no mention of a lawyer. And that is a little scary considering his past books. But don't put this one back. The book starts off slower and milder than his other books but it does start to pick up steam and you can tell this is a Grisham novel. A 7-year old boy, Luke Chandler, is the main character/narrator of this story. He works on a farm in Arkansas with his parents and they get help from other sources to pick cotton. Things start to change when he witnesses a murder. As the book goes on, you notice the boy is starting to grow up and realize exactly what the real world is like. Though this book has familiarity to it, it is like nothing Grisham has ever done before.
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Summary: A Painted House
Review: I have read all of John Grisham's novels and have liked every one of them. In "A Painted House" Grisham once again proves that he ranks among the best story-tellers writing in America today. What a sweet, moving, touching and often laugh-out-loud-funny little book. They'll make a movie out of this one, folks. Loved it!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Worst Grisham Book Ever
Review: There is no plot. The descriptions of mundane tasks go on and on and on.
Rating:
Summary: CHANGE OF PACE
Review: As with most of Mr. Grishams work, I whipped through this story in just a few sittings. Unless mine is the first review you`ve read, it is now obvious this story is unlike his previous novels. I found A Painted House to be thoroughly entertaining and engrossing. Although I myself was born some twenty years after the time this story takes place and light years away from its setting, I found the similarities to my own childhood comforting. From Lukes hours of "pop-ups" in the backyard, to his butterflies in the belly in Tallys presence, we could very well have been brothers. I highly recomend this book to anyone who simply wants to retreat to a more simple time for a few hours in our hectic lives. I think any and all Grisham fans will enjoy this tale.
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Summary: A comparison to Where the red fern grows.
Review: I thought this was a great read. My son and I read Where the Red Fern Grows and it was alot like this. I wourl like to thank Mr. Grisham for writing something else besides courtrooms and lawyers. This book I think will become a classic for all to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Story Never Takes Off
Review: Grisham leaves the courtrooms for cotton fields in what appears to be an attempt to write a Faulkner-type tale. The author does live up to his reputation as an inventive, plot-driven storyteller, but bottom line is this book does more exploring the fact that farming is a tough gig than it does creating a riveting work of fiction.
Rating:
Summary: an easy entertaining hollow read
Review: I have read all the Grisham novels and have enjoyed them without exception including the present offering. My opinion is that the forte of the authors writing is his character development and the descriptions of those involved in his stories. I was especially enamored of the protagonist in The Client, another child. Thus I was looking forward eagerly to another book with a youthful narrator and descriptions of his escapades. The book provided many enjoyable and interesting players interacting during a six week period that concluded the cotton harvest in 1952 Arkansas. While I found all of the characters as fascinating as I'd hoped I was disappointed in the culmination of the story. I felt unfulfilled as the story ended with no finality or resolution to the varied plots that had been developed. Like always the variety and accomplished descriptions of these different personalities made it worthwhile reading, but I finished lacking a finality to it all.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful "coming of age" novel
Review: What a wonderful read! John Grisham recreates the world of the 1950's deep South with intricate detail and skill. Seeing this world through the eyes of little Luke Chandler was a pure delight. After finishing the book in two days, I was disappointed to see the end!
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Summary: A Needed Departure.
Review: "A Painted House" is a definite departure for Grisham, and I am glad it has come. With "A Painted House" he proves that he is a "southern writer" which is even more difficult than being a popular writer. He proves that he has "literary" abilities and that he is not just another spinner of suspenseful, movie script yarns-- which is not to say the book is not suspenseful. It is quite suspenseful, and the way it is told is charming. The boy is an endearing character. First published in "The Oxford Review" as a serial, "A Painted House" gave us a taste of old fashioned serialized fiction-- something for which most people do not have the patience now days. Read this book, and if you like Grisham, be double sure and catch the utterly suspenseful short novel by southern writer Rhett Ellis titled "Castle of Wisdom," which is a truly amazing story.
Rating:
Summary: Weak Narration
Review: At the beginning of Grisham's fourth novel, two packets of papers written in Chinese calligraphy fall into the hands of Ruth Young. One bundle is titled Things I Know Are True and the other, Things I Must Not Forget. The author? That would be the protagonist's mother, LuLing, who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. In these documents the elderly matriarch, born in China in 1916, has set down a record of her birth and family history, determined to keep the facts from vanishing as her mind deteriorates. A San Francisco career woman who makes her living by ghostwriting self-help books, Ruth has little idea of her mother's past or true identity. What's more, their relationship has tended to be an angry one. Still, Ruth recognizes the onset of LuLing's decline--along with her own remorse over past rancor--and hires a translator to decipher the packets. She also resolves to "ask her mother to tell her about her life. For once, she would ask. She would listen. She would sit down and not be in a hurry or have anything else to do. In all, this is a weak pretext for plotline and it ultimately fails in the end.
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