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Books by John Grisham

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Long before his name became synonymous with the modern legal thriller, John Grisham was working 60-70 hours a week at a small Southaven, Mississippi law practice, squeezing in time before going to the office and during courtroom recesses to work on his hobby—writing his first novel.

Born on February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to a construction worker and a homemaker, John Grisham as a child dreamed of being a professional baseball player. Realizing he didn't have the right stuff for a pro career, he shifted gears and majored in accounting at Mississippi State University. After graduating from law school at Ole Miss in 1981, he went on to practice law for nearly a decade in Southaven, specializing in criminal defense and personal injury litigation. In 1983, he was elected to the state House of Representatives and served until 1990.

One day at the DeSoto County courthouse, Grisham overheard the harrowing testimony of a twelve-year-old rape victim and was inspired to start a novel exploring what would have happened if the girl's father had murdered her assailants. Getting up at 5 a.m. every day to get in several hours of writing time before heading off to work, Grisham spent three years on A Time to Kill and finished it in 1987. Initially rejected by many publishers, it was eventually bought by Wynwood Press, who gave it a modest 5,000 copy printing and published it in June 1988.

That might have put an end to Grisham's hobby. However, he had already begun his next book, and it would quickly turn that hobby into a new full-time career—and spark one of publishing's greatest success stories. The day after Grisham completed A Time to Kill, he began work on another novel, the story of a hotshot young attorney lured to an apparently perfect law firm that was not what it appeared. When he sold the film rights to The Firm to Paramount Pictures for $600,000, Grisham suddenly became a hot property among publishers, and book rights were bought by Doubleday. Spending 47 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, The Firm became the bestselling novel of 1991.

The successes of The Pelican Brief, which hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list, and The Client, which debuted at number one, confirmed Grisham's reputation as the master of the legal thriller. Grisham's success even renewed interest in A Time to Kill, which was republished in hardcover by Doubleday and then in paperback by Dell. This time around, it was a bestseller.

Since first publishing A Time to Kill in 1988, Grisham has written one novel a year (his other books are The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Chamber, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury, The Partner, The Street Lawyer, The Testament, The Brethren, A Painted House, Skipping Christmas, The Summons, The King of Torts, Bleachers, The Last Juror, The Broker, Playing for Pizza, and The Appeal) and all of them have become international bestsellers. There are currently over 225 million John Grisham books in print worldwide, which have been translated into 29 languages. Nine of his novels have been turned into films (The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, A Time to Kill, The Rainmaker, The Chamber, A Painted House, The Runaway Jury, and Skipping Christmas), as was an original screenplay, The Gingerbread Man. The Innocent Man (October 2006) marked his first foray into non-fiction.

Grisham lives with his wife Renee and their two children Ty and Shea. The family splits their time between their Victorian home on a farm in Mississippi and a plantation near Charlottesville, VA.

Grisham took time off from writing for several months in 1996 to return, after a five-year hiatus, to the courtroom. He was honoring a commitment made before he had retired from the law to become a full-time writer: representing the family of a railroad brakeman killed when he was pinned between two cars. Preparing his case with the same passion and dedication as his books' protagonists, Grisham successfully argued his clients' case, earning them a jury award of $683,500—the biggest verdict of his career.

When he's not writing, Grisham devotes time to charitable causes, including most recently his Rebuild The Coast Fund, which raised 8.8 million dollars for Gulf Coast relief in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. He also keeps up with his greatest passion: baseball. The man who dreamed of being a professional baseball player now serves as the local Little League commissioner. The six ballfields he built on his property have played host to over 350 kids on 26 Little League teams.

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Author: John Grisham | Narrator: Michael Beck (Amer.)
Imprint:
BOT Essentials
Genre: General Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense | Release Date: January 29, 2008

In a crowded courtroom in Mississippi, a jury returns a shocking verdict against a chemical company accused of dumping toxic waste into ... (more)

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CD 10 CDs
Unabridged
9781415943588 Download Marc Record $100.00  
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Trade Paperback 576 pages 9780739327661 $27.95  
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Author: John Grisham | Narrator: Erik Singer (Amer.)
Imprint:
BOT Essentials
Genre: General Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense | Release Date: January 27, 2009

The newest legal thriller from bestselling author John Grisham–expect high demand in all formats!

Following the eno ... (more)

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CD 9 CDs
Unabridged
9781415958896 Download Marc Record $100.00  
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Trade Paperback 512 pages 9780739328231 $27.95  
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Author: John Grisham | Narrator: John Grisham (Amer.)
Imprint:
BOT Essentials
Genre: General Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense | Release Date: September 9, 2003

John Grisham makes a departure from the legal thriller in this unforgettable novel about fleeting youth, high school football, legends ... (more)

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CD 4 CDs
Unabridged
9780736696593 $32.00  
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Author: John Grisham | Narrator: Frank Muller (Amer.)
Imprint:
BOT Essentials
Genre: General Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense | Release Date: November 1, 2002

Trumble is a minimum security federal prison, home to an assortment of criminals - drug dealers, bank robbers, swindlers, embezzlers, t ... (more)

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CD 10 CDs
Unabridged
9780736689045 $80.00  
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Trade Paperback 528 pages 9780375727962 $22.00  
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LISTEN (MP3)


Author: John Grisham | Narrator: Michael Beck (Amer.)
Imprint:
BOT Essentials
Genre: General Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense | Release Date: January 11, 2005

America's #1 bestselling author, John Grisham, delivers another legal thriller of unparalled suspense. With fourteen years left on a tw ... (more)

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CD 10 CDs
Unabridged
9781415916469 $90.00  
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Trade Paperback 528 pages 9780739325650 $28.00  
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LISTEN (MP3)


Author: John Grisham | Narrator: Alexander Adams (Amer.)
Imprint:
BOT Essentials
Genre: General Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense | Release Date: November 1, 2002

Format: ISBN:   Price: Qty.:   Order History: (?)
CD 14 CDs
Unabridged
9780736689090 $112.00  
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Library Exclusive

Author: John Grisham | Narrator: John Macdonald (Amer.)
Imprint:
BOT Essentials
Genre: General Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense | Release Date: November 11, 2002

In New Orleans an attorney, depressed and suicidal, does himself in. But it is neither deft nor private and in fact is witnessed by Mar ... (more)

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CD 12 CDs
Unabridged
9780736689106 $96.00  
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Library Exclusive

Author: John Grisham | Narrator: Scott Brick (Amer.)
Imprint:
BOT Essentials
Genre: General Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense | Release Date: December 1, 2002

Grisham dishes up a real corker. Mitch McDeere, a Harvard Law School graduate, has a beautiful, loving wife and a sharp, ethical mind. ... (more)

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CD 14 CDs
Unabridged
9780736688604 $112.00  
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Author: John Grisham Narrator: TBD
Imprint:
Large Print
Genre: General Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense | Release Date: May 4, 2004

At the top of his class at Harvard Law, he had  his choice of the best in America. He made a deadly  mistake. When ... (more)

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Hardcover 704 pages 9780375433467 $26.95  
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Author: John Grisham | Narrator: John Grisham (Amer.)
Imprint:
BOT Essentials
Genre: General Fiction | Release Date: November 3, 2009

In his first collection of short stories John Grisham takes us back to Ford County, Mississippi, the setting of his first novel, A T ... (more)

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CD 7 CDs
Unabridged
9780307702128 Download Marc Record $60.00  
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Trade Paperback 464 pages 9780739377383 $24.00  
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Author: John Grisham | Narrator: Craig Wasson (Amer.)
Imprint:
BOT Essentials
Genre: General Non-Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense | Release Date: October 10, 2006

When Ron Williamson signed with the Oakland A’s in 1971, he said goodbye to his hometown of Ada and left to pursue his dreams of ... (more)

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CD 10 CDs
Unabridged
9781415933077 $90.00  
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Author: John Grisham | Narrator: Michael Beck (Amer.)
Imprint:
BOT Essentials
Genre: General Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense | Release Date: February 4, 2003

The office of the public defender is not known as a training ground for bright young litigators. Clay Carter has been there too long ... (more)

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CD 9 CDs
Unabridged
9780736689892 $80.00  
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Trade Paperback 592 pages 9780375433115 $16.95  
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LISTEN (MP3)


Author: John Grisham | Narrator: Michael Beck (Amer.)
Imprint:
BOT Essentials
Genre: General Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense | Release Date: February 3, 2004

In 1970, the future of one of Mississippi's more colorful weekly newspapers, The Ford County Times, looked bleak until Willie Traynor, ... (more)

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CD 10 CDs
Unabridged
9780736697408 $90.00  
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Trade Paperback 592 pages 9780375728297 $21.00  
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Author: John Grisham | Narrator: David Lansbury (Amer.)
Imprint:
BOT Essentials
Genre: General Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense | Release Date: November 1, 2002

Inspired by the author's own childhood in rural Arkansas, the story is narrated by a farm boy named Luke Chandler, age seven, who lives ... (more)

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CD 10 CDs
Unabridged
9780736689434 $80.00  
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LISTEN (MP3)


Author: John Grisham | Narrator: Frank Muller (Amer.)
Imprint:
BOT Essentials
Genre: General Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense | Release Date: November 1, 2001

Patrick Lanigan was once a well-liked, well-paid young partner in a thriving Mississippi law firm. Then he stole ninety million dollars ... (more)

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CD 10 CDs
Unabridged
9780736689076 $80.00  
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Author: John Grisham | Narrator: Alexander Adams (Amer.)
Imprint:
BOT Essentials
Genre: General Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense | Release Date: November 1, 2002

Late one October night, Justice Abe Rosenberg, at 91 the Supreme Court's liberal legend, is gunned down in his Georgetown home. Two hou ... (more)

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CD 9 CDs
Unabridged
9780736689113 $72.00  
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Author: John Grisham | Narrator: Christopher Evan Welch (Amer.)
Imprint:
BOT Essentials
Genre: General Fiction | Release Date: September 25, 2007

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CD 6 CDs
Unabridged
9781415946633 Download Marc Record $60.00  
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Trade Paperback 416 pages 9780739327753 $21.95  
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LISTEN (MP3)


Author: John Grisham | Narrator: Frank Muller (Amer.)
Imprint:
BOT Essentials
Genre: General Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense | Release Date: November 1, 2002

In his final semester of law school, Rudy Baylor is required to provide free legal advice to a group of senior citizens, and it is here ... (more)

Format: ISBN:   Price: Qty.:   Order History: (?)
CD 14 CDs
Unabridged
9780736689083 $112.00  
-



LISTEN (MP3)


Author: John Grisham | Narrator: Frank Muller (Amer.)
Imprint:
BOT Essentials
Genre: General Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense | Release Date: November 1, 2002

This blockbuster from the king of legal thrillers features twelve men and women who are swept up in a multi-million dollar courtroom ba ... (more)

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CD 11 CDs
Unabridged
9780736689137 $96.00  
-
Trade Paperback 704 pages 9780375433443 $22.00  
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Author: John Grisham | Narrator: Dennis Boutsikaris (Amer.)
Imprint:
BOT Essentials
Genre: General Fiction | Release Date: November 5, 2002

John Grisham abandons the legal genre and turns his attention to that most sacred of American cows, Christmas. When their daughter Bla ... (more)

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CD 4 CDs
Unabridged
9780736688574 $32.00  
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Hardcover 320 pages 9780375431623 $16.95  
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