LPHickman

Reader Advisory Resources:
Overbooked
Bookspot
Publishers Weekly
Novelist- Library Access Only - home access available through the Alabama Virtual Library
Locating Out of Print Books

L.P. and his wife Edna are the parents of
two daughters, Suzanne Phillips of Birmingham
and Sheilah Davis of Atlanta. They also have three
grandchildren. L.P. and Edna have always stressed
to their children and grandchildren the importance of
reading and supporting their public library.

When the library staff asked me about writing about my favorite books and authors, I told Dr. Spears that Sam Wright had beat me to the good ones! I do like to read many of those authors---Tom Clancy, John Sandford, Stuart Woods and others of that type, but of course there are other good books and writers!

I became an avid reader of novels, mostly fiction, when I joined a book club in 1949. I married Edna Conn in 1948 and our budget was tight, but reading was very important to me. It still is very important. I read approximately two books per month, and I do use the B. B. Comer Library.

Zane Grey is the first author on my list because he was the author I chose to read when I joined the book club in 1949. He vividly captured the look and feel of the Old West since his western novels were so descriptive and illustrative. I have received every book that Zane Grey has written, and he was a prolific writer - I've enjoyed them all! This author's writing has stood the test of time and many of his novels have been made into movies.

Larry McMurty is another favorite writer with a western theme. My favorite work of McMurty, Lonesome Dove, was made into a popular television miniseries. Dr. Spears tells me that this is one of her all time favorite movies! McMurty felt that all America lies at the end of the wilderness road and that the wilderness still lingers within us. He has eleven western theme novels, which were usually framed in Texas.

Nicholas Evans has worked in London as a film writer and producer. His first and most famous novel, The Horse Whisperer, weaves an extraordinary tale of healing and redemption; this story is an emotional journey that explores our bonds with earth and sky. A horse whisperer is an individual that can communicate with broken and injured horses.

John Grisham is the last but not the least of my favorite authors. I really enjoy the courtroom drama aspect of his novels, which always revolve around a legal theme. My interest is probably heightened by the fact that my oldest daughter, Suzanne, is married to Paul A. Phillips, an attorney in Birmingham, Alabama. Grisham was a part-time prosecutor (district attorney) in Oxford, MS when he penned his well-known novel, The Firm. He later moved to Virginia but still includes the geographical climate of Mississippi in many of his novels. He is probably one of the top contemporary writers of fiction in the country today. I believe that his book, The King of Torts, is probably the most exciting, action packed novel that he has written.