eponymous sentence:
p5: On Friday nights, the entire town of Messina waited for the gate to open, then rushed to the bleachers where seats were claimed and nervous pregame rituals were followed.

The football aspect flew right over my head but the eulogies were definitely moving.

Segundo livro consecutivo do John Grisham... e para n��o variar, excelente história. Pequeno, consiso e num desgosto completamente diferente do que até agora.
Gostei desta mudança para várias do tema recorrente dos advogados, prisões, pena de morta, conluios, traficastes, criminosos e inocentes a injustamente condenados...
Um livro que fala de paixão, desporto, meandros do desporto, a ligação treinador/ jogadores, momentos altos, decepções e perdão.
Foi bom para variar! Next..,

Quick easy read (had to pick something for entering the Valentine's Day 'win a box of chocolates' contest, hey I'll do most things for chocolate).

The gay guy (and cafe bookshop owner)and the journey and transformation of the hero coach (man Yanks are so obsessed with high school football, Friday Night Lights?) at the end was pretty good.

The unrequited love interest was a lil bit of a tear jerker too but aren't they all? Unrequited love is the worst.

Moral of story: if you're in a small town, get out of there and don't come back! They're shitholes.

John Grisham has decided to wander off the path and write something set outside the courtroom. Which is great, the only problem is that he has essentially lifted the highlights from the TV show Friday Night Lights and, well, that's a bit cheeky.

It is well written and is an easy read with no challenging plot twists or complicated relationships - but because of that it is a bit dull. The essence of this book is about regret and one wonders why JG wrote it? He must have more money than God - what possible regrets must he have? That he didn't choose to write vanilla melodramas that are barely novel length?

Get over it, John. Buy a Maserati or two and keep churning out the legal thrillers, that's a good boy. You're good at them.

Me gustan los libros y me gustan el deporte. Por adición... me gustan los libros de deporte. Grisham se aleja de los juzgados para llevarnos al funeral de un entrenador de fútbol americano reuniendo a sus ex-jugadores que irán recordando sus días de gloria y sueños robados. Sé que no soy objetivo, pero me pareció especial.

I was never involved with high school sports when I had the chance, and I don’t know why. Those years are very formative, and after reading this book, I believe I missed out on some opportunities to learn some very important life lessons. Feel the fear and do it any way. What do you have to lose. Thank you John Grisham for allowing me to see what I missed.

La notizia che già circolava prima dell’alba era che Rake fosse ancora aggrappato alla vita. E la città era ancora aggrappata a lui.

Era tempo!
Finalmente un libro che ha saputo emozionarmi e commuovermi.
La traccia la potete leggere tutti, quindi è inutile parlarne. Però...
Pur non conoscendo praticamente nulla di football americano, delle regole e dei termini tecnici che ne scandiscono ruoli, tempi e gioco, di fronte ai ricordi e agli aneddoti degli ex giocatori, mi sono ritrovata a fare il tifo, a trattenere il fiato, a tirare un sospiro di sollievo, a gioire e quasi a piangere, insieme ai personaggi protagonisti di questa storia che mi hanno catturata, portandomi in un mondo (sportivo) che non mi apparteneva.
Quanta (dis)umanità!

Fuori dai suoi tribunali, Grisham è in grado di dare molto, molto di più.

Chapeau!

Nice 100 page read. If you've played high school football for a coach that you thought was "tough", but you still respected (and loved?) the guy, this read is for you. There is something special about high school football when it's done right ... and there's nothing special about it when it's done wrong. This book makes you think about this just a little bit.

I’d probably say it’s 2.5 maybe but because it was so short it was pretty easy to get through.

Read in 2016, I think this "dnf-maybe-try-again" didn't appeal because of its American Football theme, but I honestly cannot remember! :) Safe to say I am unlikely to 'try it again'!

This was my first Grisham book and I wish it weren't as I had high expectations from what I have heard. My wife and others have had better experiences with his books, so I don't think this discounts him as a writer or any of his other books, this just wasn't a great story. Like Greg Universe says, "If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn't have hot dogs."

It started somewhat dark and foreboding, but was maybe the most anticlimactic story I've ever read or seen. Seriously, nothing happened no drama, no plot not anything. Even the turns that he took a hundred pages to reveal were more tame and obvious than any child could imagine. The only drama then was that the audience didn't really know nothing happened until the very end. A secret that nothing happened isn't much of a secret...

In some of the other reviews I get this was maybe meant more as a reminiscing story for people who played team sports or had a domineering coach. So maybe it just wasn't a book for me. Still, nothing happened and I cannot recommend it.

Probably the best book I've ever read.