Rating: 
Summary: Memories of the Past
Review: With "Bleachers", John Grisham has taken a rare departure from his usual genre of fast-paced legal thrillers with murders to be solved. This short novel explores the cult of high school football, a legendary coach, and the pitfalls of small-town fame at a young age. As one of the main characters said: "When you're famous at 18, you spend the rest of your life fading away." I am sure that we all know someone who has never gotten over this early fame and it has most likely damaged their life. The following description, taken from this book, could be applied to many sports in high schools across America:
"It was silly. Grown men crying after a loss. The entire town living and dying with each game. Prayer breakfasts every Friday morning, as if God cares who wins a high school football game. More money spent on the football team than on all other student groups combined. Worshipping seventeen-year-old boys who quickly become convinced they are truly worthy of being worshipped. The double standard-a football player cheats on a test, everybody scrambles to cover it up. A non-athlete cheats, and he gets suspended." The novel takes place over four days in the southern town of Messina, as former football players gather to await the death of Eddie Rake, the former coach of the Messina Spartans, who is dying from cancer. The ex-players hold their vigil in the bleachers at the high school stadium, now named Rake Field, drinking beer and reminiscing about the hard-to-love, hard-to-hate coach who has affected them all in various ways. They talk about Rake's six-year winning streak, the 13 state titles Messina won, the tragedy that ended Eddie's career, and the legendary 1987 championship game in which the coaches never came back to the field after halftime. Anyone who has ever played on or cheered for a high school football team will appreciate the story told in "Bleachers" -- a story that will surely bring back forgotten memories. Each character is someone whom you knew in high school. All of the book's characters have evolved in very unique ways and Grisham paints them in a manner that allows the reader to fill in the blanks regarding their motivations, feelings, regrets, and flaws. Neely Crenshaw, a former All-American whose football dreams ended with a college injury, is the main character, returning to Messina 15 years after his glory on the local field. He must finally forgive his coach and himself so that he can get on with his life and stop his aimless drifting. The story progresses as Neely struggles to reconcile his past and present while he and the other players sit in the bleachers reminiscing about their lost chances and shattered dreams. This is a small book, narrow in scope, but one that encourages contemplation. John Grisham has written a personal, sentimental novel that reveals his love for football.
Rating:
Summary: touching but not gripping
Review: Not any where near the gripping thrillers readers have come to expect from Grisham...but it's a good book in its own right.As a huge fan of high school football and the way it can bring people together, i couldn't put this book down. However, it may help to know something about football as a way of life (i.e. my mom couldn't understand this book)
Rating: 
Summary: Boring!
Review: Not the best of Grisham's writtings. He has done far better than this. Skipping Christmas was far better than this. This is probably better as a man's book than a ladies book to read.
Rating:
Summary: A Grisham Shutout
Review: I wish I had read these reviews before buying this short story. As it is, these reviews uncover what appear to be polar reactions. Those who love football or lived through Friday nights with nothing else to do but cheer on the local high school football team found this story to exceed their expectations. Likewise, frustrated jocks in middle age who never moved on found this story to resonate with the good ole days. On the other hand, those who expected a Grisham page turning intellectual legal thriller were severely disappointed. I fall into the latter category. This book is boring and trudges along with only a shallow if any plot. I own and have read all of Mr. Grisham's books and am becoming convinced that when he attempts anything outside of his field of law, it's a disappointment. This one is far worse than Skipping Christmas or A Painted House. It would make an efficacious sedative for those nights where sleep comes slowly. Grisham should stick to his knitting. If it hadn't been for The Summons and The King of Torts being interleaved in between the aforementioned yawners, I would by now likely have relegated Grisham to the burned out author category. Die hard Grisham fans: skip this one.
Rating:
Summary: A Lookback at High School Football Memories
Review: Like many readers, I wait expectantly for another John Grisham book. This one is (alas!) another departure from his thrilling fiction involving lawyers. If you are a fan of John Grisham, you will appreciate his attempts to vary his material and keep reading! I read this book in just a couple hours. There are some surprises of course as this author is known for luring us on to read until the end. Place yourself back in high school, remembering the football team and how important it is to most small towns especially. Winning at any cost is the aim of the coach in this story. The star quarterback and other members of a football team meet many years later at the funeral of their coach and relate stories of their lives since high school. You may experience, as I did, your own high school memories as you read this book through the eyes of athletes. My own small town had a coach with a winning football streak through several years and my town worshipped him with a new car and other perks similar to the way this town and this coach in the story are depicted. I recommend this book as a nice diversion. It leaves much to the imagination. It contains a lot of truth and insights. You can trust John Grisham to write stories we can think about later and relate to them. I liked it.
Rating: 
Summary: Readable, but overdone.
Review: The story is short, but probably should have been shorter. As other reviewers have pointed out, the basic theme has been done before, and done better (the non-fiction book "Friday Night Lights" is excellent). Though the story was quite readable, the mythic status of Coach Rake was marred by Grisham's hyperbolic stats. Yes, there are real-life high school programs that have had long win streaks and multiple state championships. But a team that registers a shut-out in every game of a season is a bit much. Likewise, an eight-year stretch in which the team "easily" wins every game and every playoff game, EXCEPT the championship which they lose EACH of those eight years? And the big game where the players, without coaches, rally from a huge half-time deficit despite being unable to use any pass plays, just because they're REALLY, REALLY fired up? Please. (Twice it is noted the refs "could have flagged us for unnecessary roughness every play". Why didn't they?). The whole tale smacked of unreality. At least Grisham avoided the sappiness that would have ensued if Neely's childhood sweetheart had succumbed to his pathetic attempt to regain her love.
Rating:
Summary: A sad waste of time
Review: Fortunately, it is a short book. About halfway through, you'll find yourself wondering if there was any point at all to this effort, and at the end you will see that there was not. I was trapped on an airplane with nothing else to read or might not have bothered finishing it. Were it not for Grisham's fame and past successes, this one never would have seen the light of day.
Rating:
Summary: Adequate
Review: This book was a story that has been told before, there were no surprises, twists or turns. If this was a first time author, I doubt that it would have been published. John Grisham has reached a point, (actually, he reached this point about ten years ago!) where he can write anything and it will be a bestseller. Will there never be another A Time To Kill from this author? Once you get past The Pelican Brief, it is all a downhill slide. That is not to say that this book, as well as his other works, are not enjoyable, they just don't grab you and hold you like his earlier work.
Rating:
Summary: Not his best, but still fun
Review: This is an easy and relaxing read for a situation when you'd like a casual undemanding book. It's quick and has some great characters, but lacks the suspense of some of Grisham's finer books. It seems to me that is a book that Grisham wrote for fun, I'd imagine that he enjoyed writing.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing special
Review: I guess that if you are a foot ball fan like me this book is OK, but most of it is similar to listening to a broadcast of a football game over the radio. Apart from the football narration this book has little else, so if you don't like football a lot stay away from it.
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