A book review from That Guy Named David:

Bleachers (B+)

After barely making it through the Bourne series, I decided to jump over to a quick read authored by one of my formerly favorite authors (his last few "legal thrillers" have been duds). Anyway, I was recommended this book by another small-town guy who just joined our firm. As a self-proclaimed former high school football standout (setting the single-season sack record at a certain small, South Texas high school), I was intrigued by the premise of the book. In Bleachers, a former all-American football star from a tiny community returns to his roots when he learns that the town's legendary football coach is about to die. The book does an outstanding job of detailing the love of high school football and the idolization of its star players in small communities in the South. It also does a decent job of profiling the main character and demonstrating how the hype of the "glory days" is really very hollow and once gone, can leave you searching for a direction in life. There were a few story lines that I thought unnecessary (ex. the former girlfriend angle that Grisham weakly attempts to tie in to his development of the main character); however, all in all, the book was a nice, two-day read. And it reminded me of a lot of things that I had not thought about in a pretty long time.