Gray Mountain by John Grisham

"Gray Mountain" by John Grisham. This book is published by Hachette India And Hodder & Stoughton in 2014 and has 416 pages.

Despite being graduate of Ivy league law school and working as associate in a high profile law firm, Samantha is laid off after Lehman Brothers goes down. She decides to work as legal associate in Braidy, a small town in the south, in coal county. She hates trials. In Braidy, she meets Donovan, a handsome, brilliant, dashing and reckless lawyer and his brother and side kick Jeff. She also comes across people in need, the meth addicts, black lung cases and rape of mother nature by coal mining companies.

Will Samantha like her new job? Can she adjust to the slow life? Will there be a romance? Will she take help from her high flying father or powerful mother? Will she return?

Author has portrayed blatant abuse of mother nature by strip mining for coal. Strip mining is a process of shaving off a mountain top and extracting coal. How powerful coal companies steamroll the laws, regulations & miners and how a number of miners suffer from black lungs. Black lung is a situation where fine coal dust is deposited in lungs causing breathing problems and eventual death. Once coal dust enters lung there is no way to remove it.

It's a fight between rich-poor, powerful-weak and have's-have not's. Here it is presented from lawyers perspective.

The story is good and evenly paced. The twist in the tale is predictable. The story shows that there are also a few lawyers who do not run only after money and power.

Experienced readers can guess the end of this book by the time they have read 20-25%. So then on its not 'what happens' but but 'how does it happen'.

It's a good book. Read if you are interested in lawyers.

Akra koti gallon pani (अकरा कोटी गँलन पाणी) by Anil Barve

Akra koti gallon pani (अकरा कोटी गँलन पाणी)", by Anil Barve. This Marathi book is published by Urja prakashan and has 134 pages.

This book is a collection of two long stories. First story is called Akra koti gallon pani (110 million water) and second story is called Studfarm.

Bhadrapur is a coal rich area. Seth Jamnadas Mehta is the owner of a mine called 'Shaitani Khadan (Devil's pit)'. Swami is the brilliant mine engineer who has succeeded extracting coal from Shaitani Khadan. Upon greedy Seth Jamnadas' instructions, when coal was removed, instead of filling the pillar by a mixture of sand and water, it's filled by only water and subsidy is obtained for sand. Due to carbon monoxide and methane in the mine, 11 crore gallon water has become poisonous. To hide this misdeed, the mine was set on fire and sealed off. Wrong maps were prepared to show smaller size of excavation than actual.

Now mines are nationalized and Swami has retired. A new coaleary is dug close to Shaitani Khadan. Swami is terrified by the thought of coleary connecting to Shaitani khadan due to wrong maps and 11 crore gallon poisonous water entering mine and killing everyone instantaneously. This terrible disaster is a distinct possibility.

What will Swami do? If he speaks, he may be arrested. Will his good sense prevail? Who will he approach? Seth Jamnadas? Union leaders? Politicians? Newspapers? Manager of coaleary? Will he get any help? Can he avoid the disaster?

Gyaniseth has a number of businesses. However his real hobby and passion is his stud farm. Horses are his life. He thinks about horses, dreams about horses and does not spare any expense on horses. His stud farm is considered the best in India. He spots a pony (Chanda) on the beach of Karnala that is used to ferry children. Gyaniseth's expert eyes recognize the potential future winner. He buys the pony and employs it's owner, Yesu, as the caretaker of horse. He wants to create a history by making a winner out of a pony without pedigree. Chanda is trained by an expert trainer. He is renamed Grand Galloper. Three people love Chanda like a family member. His former owner and now caretaker, Gyani seth and his small daughter. Chanda loves them too.

Racing season begins. No body wants to bet on Chanda. He is called horse good for drawing carriage. Chanda wins first race in a photo finish. No one can believe this. Then Chanda goes on to win every race of the season, setting record on the way. The grand finale will be the race where the award will be given by the queen of England.

The plane carrying Chanda develops engine fault and one of its tyre bursts. Can the plane land? Will Chanda survive? Who does Gyani Seth care for, Chanda or staff on the plane? Will Chanda run the race of his life? Will he win?

Anil Barve is known to present various social issues through his novels and stories. He has a knack of blending the issue with story to create a homogenous tale. He has shown his command in demonstrating various human emotions like love, hate, empathy, ruthlessness without sacrificing the story line. Both the stories are compact and crisp.

I would have preferred the first story to be about ten pages longer. This would have allowed author to create the background and climax better. Since the book is small even those who are not avid readers can read it.

A very good book. Recommend reading.