ACT IT OUT. Interview with an author Chris(ta) Ansley interviews Ms Jennifer Plain for the Book World Magazine. Ms Jennifer Plain is the best-selling author

Interview with an author

HAVE YOUR SAY

Tell the class about your favourite author.

III

Read the blurbs below and say which of these books you’d like to read or would recommend that your friend should read. Explain why.

" COMPELLING... MAGICAL... JOHN GRISHAM CONTINUES TO DAZZLE with each new legal thriller. His latest, The Client, is richly textured, cunningly crafted, and poignant, and boasts a refreshingly different hero: an 11-year-old boy. Mark Sway is unforgettable... Everything rings true, from the authentic milieu and vividly portrayed supporting cast to the behind-the-scenes view of the criminal justice system."

The Milwaukee Journal

" This newest legal thriller... is as solidly plotted and masterfully suspenseful as Grisham's earlier The Firm and The Pelican Brief. Grisham uses his knowledge of the law to advantage, making his stories a notch more complex than most crime adventures... The Client should please both loyal fans and those new to the author's work."

The Sacramento Bee

" GRISHAM KEEPS THE PAGES OF THE CLIENT TURNING faster than lawyers can scribble on legal pads... He has built his very own sub-genre of courtroom thriller... An engrossing fictional look at the American legal system at work, for better or worse."

San Francisco Chronicle

" The evidence is mounting. Lawyer-turned-writer John Grisham certainly knows how to please a crowd... Grisham smoothly mixes the ingredients that have made his previous novels successful - insider legal knowledge and heart-pounding cat-and-mouse chases... The kind of fast-paced yet largely credible entertainment readers have come to expect from Grisham."

The Orlando Sentinel

" There may be a few folks out there who haven't read The Firm yet. But it's unlikely that anyone will escape The Client. [Grisham] puts a new spin ontothe standard legal thriller, tapping into primal fantasies and primal fears. It will scare you enough to keep you up past midnight, when it gets even scarier."

The Boston Globe

" THIS IS A GRAB-YOU-QUICK AND HOLD-YOU-FAST STORY.... In The Client, Grisham has combined his awareness of timely issues with his ability to weave a tale of intrigue and suspense while making you laugh out loud... Grisham can look into the soul of his people and make you love to love or hate them. He knows them inside and out, knows the law, knows his territory and his craft. At the end of this one, he even made me cry. You're going to love this book."

The Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville)

Sleep, Pale Sister, a powerful, atmospheric and blackly gothic evocation of Victorian artistic life, was originally published before Joanne Harris achieved worldwide recognition.

Henry Chester, a domineering and puritanical Victorian artist, is in search of the perfect model. In nine-year-old Effie he finds her.

Ten years later, lovely, childlike and sedated, Effie seems the ideal wife. But something inside her is about to awaken.

Drawn by her lover, Mose, into a dangerous underworld of intrigue and blackmail, she meets Fanny Miller, the brothel-keeper, and her shadowy daughter, Marta murdered ten years ago on the day of Henry's weekly visit...

And as friendship becomes possession and Henry's secret past is revealed, Effie and Marta plan their revenge together.

A harrowing journey into the dark side of childhood

From her secret perch at the top of the stairs, seven-year-old Gabriella watches the guests arrive at her parents' lavish Manhattan home. The click, click, click of her mother's high heels strikes terror into her heart. Her world is a confusing blend of terror, betrayal and pain, and she knows that there is no safe place for her to hide.

When her parents' marriage collapses, her mother abandons her to a convent, where Gabriella's battered body and soul begin to mend amid the quiet safety and hushed rituals of the nuns. And when she grows into womanhood, young Father Joe Connors comes into her life. Like Gabriella, Joe is haunted by the pain of his childhood, and with her he takes the first steps towards healing. But their relationship leads to disaster as Joe must choose between the priesthood and Gabriella.

She struggles to survive on her own in New York, where she seeks escape through her writing, until eventually she is able to find forgiveness, freedom from guilt, and healing.

In this work of daring and compassion, Danielle Steel has created a vivid portrait of an abused child's broken world which will shock and move you to your very soul.

“STRONG, INTENSE… A HAUNTING VISION GIVEN ITS GREATEST LIFE.”

Kirkus Reviews

Imagine America devastated by a vast killer plague- that moves from coast to coast. Imagine the countryside destroyed and great cities decimated as the entire population desperately and futilely seeks safety. Imagine then an even greater evil rising to threaten the survivors - and a last embattled group of men and women coming together to make a last stand againstit.

Here is Stephen King's most terrifying vision, most stirring story, his most magnificent cast of characters, his ultimate tale of good versus evil, his supreme triumph published at last in its complete, uncut version.

" THE STAND, COMPLETE AND UNCUT...IS A BOOK FOR THE 1990s...ТНЕ ВООК THAT HAS EVERYTHING… ADVENTURE, ROMANCE, PROPHECY, ALLEGORY; SATIRE, FANTASY, REALISM, APOCALYPSE...GREAT!

The New York Times Book Review

According to the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter - the world's only totally reliable guide to the future - the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just after tea...

'A superbly funny book. Pratchett and Gaiman are the most hilariously sinister team since Jekyll and Hyde. If this is Armageddon, count me in'

James Herbert

GOOD OMENS is frequently hilarious, littered with funny footnotes and eccentric characters. It's also humane, intelligent, suspenseful, and fully equipped with a chorus of " Tibetans, Aliens, Americans, Atlanteans and other rare and strange creatures of the Last Days." If the end is near, Pratchett and Gaiman will take us there in style'

Locus

'Wickedly funny'

Time Out

'Hilarious Pratchett magic tempered by Neil Gaiman's dark steely style; who could ask for a better combination? '

Fear

'Not quite as sinister as the authors' photo'

The Times