John Grisham - Playing for Pizza

Pros: Football. Great food. Questions on that?
Cons: Approach without seeking one of the world's great books.

Reviewer's note: I contacted one of the category leads to see if she could change the title listing for this book. Inexplicably, Epinions, at the date of this writing, had it listed as: John Grisham - Beloved Bible Stories / the Creation / Noah ...

Pros: Amiable and amusing
Cons: Utterly without substance. Not enough sex.

John Grisham is best known as the author of legal-oriented thrillers on topics ranging from corrupt law firms to the murders of U.S. Supreme Court justices to class actions gone wrong and all points in between. I stopped reading him years ago when the ...

Pros: Easy to read; not hard to turn the pages.
Cons: Not much meat on those bones. Thin storyline.

Third-string Cleveland Browns quarterback, Rick Dockery, is called to duty in the AFC Championship game. With a 17 - 0 lead over the Denver Broncos with 11 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, all Rick has to do is burn the final minutes and the ...

Pros: A good introduction to Italian culture, cuisine and American football as played in Italy.
Cons: The love plot is weak and some of the characters were not fully developed.

Imagine being an NFL quarterback, third string, and coming into a game with a comfortable lead. All the coach wants you to do is not turn the ball over and lose the game and a shot at the Super Bowl. Then imagine that happens, and not just in any NFL ...

Pros: Lush, vivid descriptions of Italian food, wine, and culture; full of football action
Cons: Several unnecessary subplots could have been cut

Third-string quarterback Rick Dockery is hounded by humiliating losses on the field (and scandal off of it), none more so than his most recent disastrous botching of an AFC championship game. The sports media in the US are having a field day ripping Rick ...

Pros: A great story line from start to finish.
Cons: Different for Grisham, but not in a bad way.

Every professional athlete has the fear that one day their professional career will come to a screeching halt. We all here about the college students opting out of school early and we think to ourselves and perhaps even out loud what would happen to that ...

Pros: Entertaining characters, quick read
Cons: padded in more than one section with unnecessary expository

This is a sporting novel where you don’t need to be a sports fan. John Grisham is best known for his taut (albeit predictable) legal thriller novels. He has left this genre more than a couple of times with some good results. I didn’t read Bleachers ...

Pros: Great story, good characters
Cons: Some subplots were unnecessary

Usually John Grisham writes about courtroom dramas and other legal aspects but he left his comfort zone with PLAYING FOR PIZZA. This is a heartwarming tale of American Football in Italy and has all of the things a good book has: football, drama on the ...

Pros: an engaging little tale about a likeable character
Cons: too many dropped plot threads, too much travelogue

Back in the carefree days of the mid-1990s, before people started flying planes into office buildings, we frequent fliers joked that, "It won't be long before airlines start denying boarding to anyone who doesn't present his Grisham novel before entering ...

Pros: Fun, thoughtful look at the other kind of football, fun football.
Cons: Some usage of Italian.

Rick Dockery had been a great quarterback in high school and college. But being a third string quarterback, the NFL was unkind to the young man. When he helped Denver win the last game of the season that prevented Cleveland from going to the ...

Pros: A wild batch of characters.
Cons: The story tends to the frivolous side. Nothing deep here.

I don't usually read novels that involve sports to any great degree. I'm just not a fan of professional sports, and I tend to find something else to do if confronted with the choice to watch or say, go scrub the bathroom. The bathroom usually wins. ...

Pros: Interesting story, easy to read, quick read
Cons: Abrupt ending, leaves a lot to be desired

John Grisham is not known for his books about football or travel.  That is a statement that most of us already know, so then the question we must ask is; how well did Grisham tackle the subject?  So, enough of the puns, what about the book itself...  When I started this book, I really liked it.  I loved visiting Italy and thought that reading a tale of a complete outsider who is not even trying to conform to his new surroundings was very interesting.  Reading about his trials and tribulations was entertaining, and very easy to read.  The worst part of the book was the ending.  Without giving it away, the best way I can put it is; the book just ends.