Playing for Pizza - John Grisham

John Grisham, what an author. gritty, gripping, controversial and up with the times. He writes with such a legal brain that we often suspect he has been to law school himself. But occasionally, Just occasionally, he writes a book, purely it would seem for his own bit of fun. Gone is the tight concentrated writing style of his legal thrillers and in comes a loose, almost sloppy, but completely refreshing "on a whim" tale. It would appear that Grisham occasionally veers away from his legal writing in order to catch a breath air and keep his enthusisam for writing alive. In all honesty I don't mind a jot that he does. Light reading books such as ...  Read the complete review

John Grisham's forte, over the years of his highly successful literary career, has been unequivocably his legal thrillers, and these are without doubt my favourites of his novels. However, he has also written a number of novels which are more of a story-telling nature, documentary-style and telling of a stage in someone's life as opposed to giving us a thriller based on a courtroom case and its surrounding events. From the semi-autobiographical The Painted House, to the nostalgic Bleachers and the funny Skipping Christmas, Grisham has done very well in branching outside of the legal aspect of his books, and Playing for Pizza is perhaps the one I enjoyed the ...  Read the complete review

Background: Having recently read 'Bleachers' by John Grisham, I was keen to try another by this author, as I believe you cannot judge an author on just book. About this author: John Grisham has written 18 best selling novels. He lives in both Virginia and Mississippi with his family. 'Playing for Pizza' was written and published in 2007. Storyline of the book: Rick Dockery is in hospital having suffered concussion from the American Super Bowl Final. However, his prospects are bleak as his performance in the match as 3rd choice Quarterback makes him a laughing stock to most Americans. He is sacked by his club ...  Read the complete review

I borrowed this book from my local library, and due to me not being fully aware of what I was doing I actually borrowed the large print format, which to be honest was much easier on my eyes, but at the age of 26 I feel was not necessarily the format I needed! However, I digress. The book I had was a hardback version it is 303 pages long with 2 pages of authors notes at the end split into 31 chapters. I have read many John Grisham books and this is the first one where I felt slightly let down. When I picked the book up I read the back and saw that it was about an American football player called Rick Dockery, but I wrongly assumed that there would ...  Read the complete review

The Writer. John Grisham is well known for his legal thrillers; past examples of his books being The Client, The Runaway Jury, The Last Juror and The Firm. All of the aforementioned found their way to the large screen so he is an author of some stature. Many people, me included, have enjoyed this particular genre because of the tense courtroom settings and the legalistic twists and turns to his plots this is what Grisham is best known for. Playing for Pizza is a whole different ball game! In fact that's what it's about a ball game!! American Football to be precise. The Story. The central character, Rick Dockery (who becomes better known ...  Read the complete review