Dear Great Book Guru,  Sea Cliff is filled with the holiday spirit- I just came back from the Tree Lighting on the Village Green and now I am looking forward to the Hanukkah Happening on Tuesday, December 16, 6:30pm at the Fire House. Friends and I will be getting together at a favorite spot- the Sea Cliff Bistro- known to all as Lily’s- this week to discuss books we have read over the last couple of weeks. The problem is I haven’t read anything in quite a while. Do you have something I could read quickly, but also worthy to bring " to the table" ?  Holiday Sprite

Dear Holiday Sprite, After years of looking forward to John Grisham’s newest legal thriller- I found myself losing interest and eventually I stopped reading them but in the last couple of years, I feel his books have improved.  His latest GRAY MOUNTAIN came out this fall and it is indeed an important work.    Samantha Kofer is a 29 year- old third year associate at a prestigious New York law firm, whose career takes an abrupt turn with the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers. The novel contrasts the excesses of her former privileged existence with her new position at Mountain Legal Aid Clinic in the ravaged town of Brady, Virginia in the heart of the Appalachian mountains- a town rife with poverty, illness,  and injustice.    Grisham’s characters – good and bad- are vividly described, but it is Big Coal that receives the most devastating indictment as we learn of its corruption of nature, community, and the legal system.  A hard but necessary book to read!