Playing For Pizza
Posted: 2018/11/02 Filed under: Book Reviews, Fiction, Lust To Go | Tags: 2018, book lust iii, book review, Fiction, football, italy, John Grisham, october, sports Leave a commentGrisham, John. Playing for Pizza. New York: Bantam Dell, 2007.
Reason read: the Verdi Fest in Parma is traditionally held in October.
When we first meet Rick Dockery he is laid up in a hospital bed after a nasty American Football Conference championship game collision. After this latest concussion third string quarterback Dockery’s career is more than over. His agent, Arnie, is told over and over no one will touch him with a ten foot pole. Don’t even ask. Like many athletes with a less than stellar career, but the passion to play, Dockery heads to another country to continue playing the game he loves so much. He arrives in Italy with the stereotypical chip on his shoulder. Where are the cheerleaders? In his mind, it’s only a matter of time before he’ll be back in the States, playing for the NFL…or so he dreams. What follows is Dockery’s slow acceptance of Italy, his education of what Europeans consider football, and (gulp) what true loyalty means. Grisham keeps the plot light and uncomplicated for a quick and easy read.
Confession: when Dockery gets tangled up in a budding romance with a woman already involved in a seven year relationship I thought I would see more drama. Not so. I think that plot line was designed to introduce opera and not much else.
As an aside, Grisham’s descriptions Italy made me want to plan a visit. I made a list of every region and landmark he mentioned.
Funny quote, “Later he learned that Sly and Trey had been driven away by a drunk uncle who couldn’t find Parma” (p 101).
Author fact: Grisham makes a huge departure from his legal mysteries with Playing for Pizza but he didn’t go into it blind. Parma really does have a football team with a few American players.
Book trivia: Playing for Pizza is short enough to read in a weekend.
Nancy said: Nancy called Playing for Pizza “captivating” and described the plot a little.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter simply called “Parma” (p 172).
Turn the Page October
Posted: 2018/10/10 Filed under: audio books, E-Books, Early Review, Fiction, NonFiction | Tags: africa, Bosnia, Bryce Courtenay, cats, Doris Lessing, Dorothy Dunnett, Early Review, family, Fiction, Hal Roth, Henry Roth, historical, immigration, Ivo Andric, Jan Morris, John Grisham, librarything, NonFiction, Nora Roberts, Oxford, Robert Wilson, romance, sailing, series, South africa, sports, time travel, travel Leave a commentFiction:
- The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson – in honor of October being Star Man month.
- Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric (EB) – in memory of Mehmed Pasa Sokollu’s passing. He designed the bridge over the Drina river.
- Playing for Pizza by John Grisham (EB) – in honor of the Verdi Fest in Parma that takes place every October.
- Call It Sleep by Henry Roth (AB) – to remember the Tom Kippur War.
Nonfiction:
- Oxford Book of Oxford edited by Jan Morris – in honor of Morris’s birth month.
- African Laughter by Doris Lessing – in honor of Lessing’s birth month.
- Always a Distant Anchorage by Hal Roth – October is Library Friend Month & I had to borrow this from a distant library.
Series continuations:
- Tandia by Bryce Courtenay – to finish the series started in September in honor of Courtenay’s birth month.
- The Race of the Scorpion by Dorothy Dunnett (EB) – to continue the series started in August in honor of Dunnett’s birth month.
- Finding the Dream by Nora Roberts (EB) – to finish the series started in August in honor of Dream Month.
Fun:
- Joey Goes to Sea by Alan Villiers – a gift from my aunt Jennifer.
Early Review for LibraryThing: nada. I have the promise of three different books but they haven’t arrived yet.
