Shon Hopwood was a good kid from a good Nebraskan family, a small-town basketball star whose parents had started a local church. Few who knew him as a friendly teen would have imagined that, shortly after returning home from the Navy, he'd be adrift with a few prospects and plotting to rob a bank. But rob he did, committing five heists before being apprehended.
Only twenty-three and potentially facing twelve years in Illinois's Pekin Federal Prison, Shon feared his life was already over. He'd shamed himself and his loving family and friends, and a part of him wanted to die. He wasn't sure at first if he'd survive the prison gangs, but slowly glimmers of hope appeared. He earned some respect on the prison basketball court, received a steady flow of letters from hometown well-wishers, including a note from a special girl whom he'd thought too beautiful to ever pay him notice - and, most crucially, he secured a job in the prison law library.
It was an assignment that would prove his salvation.
Poring over the library's thick volumes, Shon discovered that he had a knack for the law, and he soon became the go-to guy for inmates seeking help. Then came a request to write a complex petition to the Supreme Court - a high-wire act of jailhouse lawyering that had never before met with success.
By the time Shon walked out of Pekin Prison, he'd pulled off a series of legal miracles, earned the undying gratitude of numerous inmates, won the woman of his dreams, and built a new life for himself far greater than anything he could have imagined.
A story that mixes moments of high adrenaline with those of deep poignancy, Law Man is a powerful reminder that even the worst mistakes can be redeemed through faith, hard work, and the love and support of others.
my thoughts:
DNF!!!! I absolutely disliked this book and could not stand to read another page. A guy who gets bored and decides to rob banks isn't exactly worth reading about. I could care less that he wound up in prison and turned his life around, because he had a good life that he chose to throw away. He had a good family, a great childhood, played football in high school, joined the Navy, and had friends. Yes, he came back home and didn't feel like he had any career prospects, which can be frustrating, but why didn't he go and talk to his family or a therapist!?! Why must he decide that robbing banks sounds like a great idea? Am I supposed to empathize with the fact that he made a mistake and paid for it? Am I supposed to be 'wowed' by the way he turned his life around? Because, I didn't and I wasn't.
This is a book that I just could not read and that's all I can really write about it. And, if I hadn't agreed to review this book, I wouldn't have written this post.
Thanks to Crown Publishing (a subsidiary of Random House) for providing me with a copy of this book!
1 comment:
Now I know I can believe your recommendations. Thank you
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