Paul: A Man of Grace and Grit - Chuck Swindoll

I've always liked Swindoll and his Profiles in Character series are some of my favorites.  This one is on the apostle Paul.  This goes through the life of Paul as we see him in the Bible, from the time he was known as Saul and persecuting the early followers of Christ to his imprisonment and execution at the hands of the Romans.  We follow him as we move through the Book of Acts and through the letters that Paul wrote.

One thing we learn about Paul from this look at Paul is how he persevered throughout his trials and triumphed despite them.  He stayed positive throughout, despite his certain execution and showed his deep love for those he ministered too and through them his love for Christ.  Very inspirational when we look at our own tough times and how we often find defeat even though we deal with lesser tribulations than Paul had faced.   

Once again Paul, brings us a great look (though perhaps not as in depth as it could have been) into one of the great people of the Bible.

The Lost Tomb - David Gibbins

I picked up this book in the Baltimore airport, needing something to read on my flight back to Cleveland. In a hour of flying, Jack Howard, a marine archeologist, had discovered a shipwreck of the apostle Paul, and flies to Herculaneum to explore a recently-discovered villa, and ultimately a lost library complete with scrolls that could still be read. That was in the first hour of reading. Jack goes on to discover the tomb of a pagan princess in London, to decipher a WWII German code (in California), and to find the cave where Christ was supposedly buried. This book suffers from its own ambition - 2,000 years of lost sites are miraculously found by the same guy in three days. Likewise, many of the dialogues are painful - Jack explaining to his colleagues as an excuse to expose items to the reader. Entertaining? A bit, but I won't be seeking out this author again.

The Legal Limit - Martin Clark

Phenomenal! Mason and Gates Hunt grow up under an abusive father in Patrick County, but dad vanishes once his boys are old enough to challenge him. Mason goes to law school, but Gates goes a different way, and one night they're together when Gates kills a man on a dark road. The brothers escape detection, and as the years go by, Mason becomes a partner in a major firm before returning to Patrick County as its prosecutor. Gates ends up in jail for 44 years, convicted for drug trafficking, and grows increasingly bitter that his brother won't manipulate the system to get him out of jail. The end is foreseeable, but nonetheless fantastic and satisfying. The characters iare the best developed that I have seen, and the author has managed to create many layers of conflict that keep the story going. I've just ordered Martin's previous two books! Excellent read!

The King of Torts - John Grisham

This is the first Grisham book I've read.  I just never envisioned myself as reading Grisham, however, when I picked up a dozen Grisham books cheap at a thrift store, I thought I might as well give one a try.  This one was pulled at random from the pile so I'm not sure if I picked a good one to start with or not, but overall I was pleasantly surprised.  It held my interest long enough to finish and it wasn't much of a chore to get through.  Not really my style of book, but I'll be back to try more Grisham in the future. On to the story.  This was a novel that got me emotionally involved unlike many.....and I'm not really sure why.  I was rooting for the main character, yet hated him as well.  It fascinated me to see how the class action lawyers functioned (if it really functions like  this) and yet how dirty the whole process was.  Grisham really spun a tale that brought to light the seedy side of law and the greed that sudden masses of money can bring.  For the most part this was well plotted, yet a few threads were left hanging and the novel just seemed to wrap up too quickly and cleanly. Not too bad thought and an enjoyable read, so I'll try some Grisham again in the future.  6/10

Supreme Courtship - Christopher Buckley

President Vandercamp has sent two highly-qualified jurists to the Senate, but Dexter Mitchell, the chair of the Judiciary committee covets the position for himself, and ensures that neither nominee is confirmed. Sound like a dry beginning? Not at all! The president goes a different direction with his third nominee - Judge Pepper Cartwright, star of TV's Courtroom Six (think Judge Judy here). Cartwright's husband is also her producer, and not exactly supportive of losing his start meal-ticket. This book is a well-written piece of comedy which brings the mysterious and often cannibalistic world of Supreme Court confirmations into a first-class bit of humor.

Lightning - Dean Koontz

It's been awhile since I've read a Koontz book even though I have quite a few on the shelf. This was a pleasant read. I wouldn't really consider this in the horror genre as he's typically grouped, but more of a suspense novel with a touch of sci-fi thrown in for good measure.Without giving too much away, it's basically a time-travel story with good character development. I really felt for the characters and was intrigued how things turned out for them. There was a twist about 2/3 in that I didn't expect though looking back, may have been hinted at and I was just not paying enough attention. This is also not a typical sci-fi time travel novel in that time travel is purely a plot element to move the story forward. So for you hard-core sci-fi readers, nothing new here and in fact there are some inconsistencies in the time-travel that you may pick up on if you pay attention.I did enjoy this and this just affirms why I enjoy Koontz so much. 9/10