Dear Great Book Guru, In these troubling times, I find it very hard to concentrate when I read.  There is so much time and I would like to spend some of it with a good book.  Do you have any thoughts on this? Anxiously Distracted

Dear Anxiously Distracted, I very well know what you mean. I have found myself going for comfort foods and comfort books this last week.  I’m going suggest you consider John Grisham’s oeuvre.  He has written over 35 novels and - interestingly- in rereading some of them, I found there was still a strong surprise ending.  From the first A TIME TO KILL to the latest THE GUARDIANS, these legal thrillers share a common theme. The lead characters are usually young, vulnerable people - frequently new lawyers -  who find themselves in perilous situations where they should fail but somehow triumph: over mega institutions, the health insurance behemoths, the FBI, organized crime, corrupt politicians…. The endings are seldom predictable and not always happy, but the reader’s attention is kept throughout. Most are set in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Louisiana with richly colorful local details. At their core these novels reflect Grisham’s interest in social justice, particularly capital punishment and racial profiling. Another strong plus for his novels, Nassau Library System’s eBook platform LIBBY lists 48 books and 31 audiobooks  for Grisham - all available to borrow (except the latest  THE GUARDIANS).