The Innocent Man - John Grisham; Weekly Geeks #2

Title: The Innocent Man
Author: John Grisham
Date Finished: May 4, 2008
Yearly Count: 24
Pages: 360
Rating: 3/5

[Edited Note: this book is NonFiction--Grisham's only nonfiction work]
In a small Oklahoma town, Ada, in the early 1980s, Debbie Carter was brutally raped and murdered. The police began an investigation into Carter's murder, but they soon found that they did not have any leads as to who the killer was. The police received a tip, however, that Ron Williamson was involved in the murder.

Williamson was once a star athlete with a promising future, but after he sustained an arm injury, he slipped into a steady decline. He began drinking and was arrested several times for various crimes--some he committed, some he did not. The police began building a case around Williamson for Carter's murder--but he wasn't formally arrested until years after the murder. It seems as though the police were desperate and under immense pressure to solve the crime and exaggerated the little evidence available.

It is difficult for me to write my thoughts on this book without letting my feelings get in the way. I found myself angry at the police and the DA for charging Williamson and his friend, Dennis Fritz, for a murder they did not commit. The crime scene did not yield much evidence and in a time without DNA testing much of the evidence was circumstantial. Things were omitted from court, shady character witnesses were used, and neither man had a strong defense lawyer.

This book opened my eyes to the many injustices that occur in the legal system--it is not perfect and innocent men were put on death row (there are a total of five innocent men discussed in detail in this book). Williamson suffered from severe mental disabilities, and his condition throughout the story angered me and saddened me--especially as his mental condition was not presented in court during the time of his trial.

Overall I believe that Grisham did his research and presented a compelling story. The way that the story was told, however, was at times muddled and confusing. For the first 100 pages, numerous characters enter the story and it is difficult to keep track of them all. Grisham inserts small paragraphs in the middle of his narrative that have little relevance and the only purpose for them seems that he just wanted to get the information out there. While the information was usually interesting, it was distracting and made the book have a jumpy feel. Bottom line - a fascinating story that could have used a heavier red pen.

They reviewed it too:

Joy at Thoughts of Joy
Becca at The Inside Cover

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WEEKLY GEEKS #2

To be honest, I'm a little overwhelmed by the idea of including links even though I really like the idea. I will do a google reader search for books that I write about (starting with The Innocent Man) and include what I find. If I somehow miss you, please leave me a comment and I'll revise my post to including your link [not to be snarky, but it won't really thrill me if ALL you leave is your link!! *evil little laugh*]. Another great resource to find out about other blogs that have posted on the same book, Natasha from Maw Books has created a wonderful website that contains numerous books and their blogger reviews: Book Blogger Book Reviews.

To find out more about this week's Weekly Geeks--click the link above to take you directly to the post.

Happy reading! :)

Six Random Things About Me and Weekly Geeks #1 Part 2

First, I want to thank everyone who responded to my last post about the challenge questions. I've got something going going and I hope to make my challenge annoucement in the next few days! I'm so excited (and a little scared). Eeeeks!

I was tagged earlier today by CJ and ThisRedHeadReads to provide six random things about me. So, here goes:

1. Although I am a Texan through and through, I wasn't born here (born in Utah) and I lived in Toronto from ages 2-9. When I moved I could sing the Canadian National Anthem in French!


2. My husband, Scott, and I met in College Station when we were next-door-neighbors. We only lived next-door to each other for two months before he moved away to Corpus, then Harlingen, then Tahoe. It was almost two years before we lived in the same town again (College Station), but I guess those first two months sealed the deal.


3. I was never a great student in English. I was good, but I didn't particularly care for it until Senior year when I read Wuthering Heights. I've always loved to read, though.


4. I am a Texas A&M Aggie--I bleed maroon. Scott is a Texas Tech Red Raider, so he bleeds red. I guess our kids will bleed a combination of red and maroon (hopefully more maroon! At least it won't be orange...). Whoop!


5. If you've been reading my blog long enough--I think there are a few of you--then you already know that Bridget Jones is a type of heroine in my eyes. Yup, it's true.


6. You've seen the pictures of Maggie, my cat, but we also have a dog, Lexi. She really didn't want me to take her picture and she has scary eyes in the photo, but otherwise isn't she sweet? I'm told she is an English Lab, so she is much smaller than regular labs. I like to think that her and Maggie are friends, but truthfully, Lexi is very scared of the cat. Silly dog!

Weekly Geeks #1 Part Two--yes, you read that right--I'm not onto Week #2 yet!

On Friday I was a little pressed for time, so I wanted to take a few minutes and talk a little more about my new discoveries:

Andi - Like many of the bloggers below, I've seen Andi's name a lot as it seems we read the same blogs. I had to laugh a little when I chose to visit her for weekly geeks and saw my name as one she selected (I had no idea!). I guess we Texas girls need to stick together!

Debi is an organizer like I am. She has a number of different blogs and I browsed through a lot of them amazed at her thoughtfulness that she puts into her daily routine.

Valentina - As soon as I visited Valentina's blog, I was thrilled to add another book to my wishlist--The Declaration. What can be better than that? She writes great reviews and reads a variety of different books.

Ravenous Reader - I enjoyed reading through her bookish ravings. In addition to reviews, she also speaks her mind on anything a bibliophile like me can think of. Definitely a great blog to browse.

Gautami Tripathy - as I browsed through Gautami's blog, I quickly realized that we have similar tastes in books. She's also a challenge addict like me. Strength in numbers?

*****Stay tuned for the challenge annoucement. I need to make a few final tweeks to my button (thanks to everyone who offered to make one for me! but I decided it is high time I figure it out!). I hope to have the post up soon.

Weekly Geeks #1 and Challenge Questions for YOU

WEEKLY GEEKS #1

I've procrastinated--again. This is not to say that I'm looking up five random sites on Friday morning before work. I wish I could spend some time writing up a few things about these bloggers, but I have that pesky thing called work... I've visited many and spent some time browsing around and found these gems:

Andi from Tripping toward Lucidity

Debi from Nothing of Importance

Valentina from Valentina's Room

Ravenous Reader

Gautami Tripathy from My Own Little Reading Room

And I want to make a special mention of the following blog. She's not new to me, but she's new to blogging. Most of my family and friends kind of look at me funny when I tell them that I have a blog--even my reading enthusiast friends. But Laura was curious and interested and now she has a blog of her own! Go check her out:

Laura at Reading Reflections

CHALLENGE QUESTIONS FOR YOU!

I'm thinking about hosting a challenge and have a few questions for all of you challenge goers:

1. What format of challenge entry do you prefer?
* Separate blog where you can post your actual review
*Separate blog with Mr. Linky
*Mr. Linky on hostesses blog

I have found that I don't post my reviews anymore on challenge blogs just because I don't have the time, so I'm thinking one of the last two. But...I don't know whether to do the Mr. Linky on my blog or the challenges own blog. What do you think?

2. How the heehaw does one make a button?? Is special software required?

Um, I guess that is it! I'm thinking of a challenge between July and December, but I haven't decided for certain. I'm getting a little pressure from Laura (see above) to host one, but really...it scares me a bit. :)

Alright--off to work (and an hour in traffic!). Hope everyone has a great Friday!