I recently picked up the last two John Grisham books and read them both in the last couple weeks. I really enjoy reading his books and the last two, Playing for Pizza, and The Appeal were good. They are both totally different styles.
The Appeal took about two weeks to read. I thought that it was a little slow starting, but as I read more and more of it, it made sense why it started as it did. The stage and story line were being set up and the characters were all being introduced. On the jacket cover, it is mentioned that while fiction, it will make you have a different look at the legal system and the way the supreme court justices are nominated, among other things. I am still not totally sure how I feel about the book. I liked it and found it interesting, but somewhat depressing in how it turned out. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because like life, things do not always work out as we wish they would. That’s how life is.
Playing for Pizza was a great book, in my opinion. While most of Grisham’s books are legal thrillers, I was kind of tired of that style of writing and enjoy his books that take on a different style.
The story is about a third string NFL quarterback that happens to get in the game in the NFC Championship with his team up by something like 20 or more points. He goes on to throw a couple interceptions and some other crappy plays and his team loses the game. He is hit hard on the last play of the game is ends up in the hospital, unsure of what exactly happened. He is booed out of town and his agent ends up finding him work in Italy with a team in the Italian NFL. The characters are easily likable and the story is easy to follow. Overall, I thought it was a great book (even though it only got an average of 3 out of 5 stars on Amazon). I read the book in about 3 days.
Well, I would recommend them both. If you are a reader, you will probably like them. I read an interview with John Grisham and he said that his plan is to write a legal thriller type book every year for the next several years. I look forward to adding them to my collection.
