Rating: 
Summary: Grisham belongs in court, not on the playing field
Review: I broke my general "read no Grisham" pledge a few weeks back. I was on the way back from a trip, at the airport in a hurry to catch a flight. Wow, a Grisham story not set in a court. I bit.
No having cracked the book in the store, I didn't notice until I was buckled in that the font size qualifies for a first grade reader or "large print edition." Don't be fooled into thinking it's 240 pages worth of writing, it's more like 1/2 that, had the type been a normal paperback novel size.
The upside there is, you only get stuck with 1/2 the clichés, 1/2 the transparent cookie cutter characters. 1/2 the unbelievable plot. (A championship-loving H.S. football coach hits a player in the locker room 15 years ago. Sure, I'll buy that but I won't buy the fallout, that the player and coaches have a falling out. Football is about hitting. A player dies in the heat of summer practice and the coach gets fired? OK, Bobby Knight got fired for less but he hadn't won 15 consecutive championships or whatever this character supposedly won. No, this would have been more akin to firing John Wooden after his 10th NCAA championship.)
Here's advice I never thought I'd give: thinking of reading this? Rent a movie instead. Go rent Hoosiers (or buy it, it's worth keeping).
John Grisham, make me a promise: you don't try to write any more sports stories, and I'll keep not reading your lawyer gunk.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Book
Review: i think this book was very interesting. It was nice to read a book that didn't have a lawyer as the main character. I enjoy football, so this book gets 5 stars from me.
Rating: 
Summary: A good read
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. At times, I could picture it as if it were a movie playing in my head. It involved one set, the football field, and lots of flashbacks. Grisham looked at the small town life and their love of high school football because they don't have any other claim to fame. I grew up in a smaller town and I could see a similar scenario playing out there as well. It was a short book, but I don't think it needed to be any longer, it would have just been filler. Don't hate the book because it's not Grisham's normal legal thriller. Enjoy it for what it is: a story that you can be immersed in and maybe learn a thing or two about people.
Rating:
Summary: Reminded of the old glory days
Review: If you ever played football (or any sport for that matter) for a coach that was larger than life, you will understand this book. It was a good, short read. You are reminded of the Glory days of High School sports, we all want to relive them sometime. Not the normal John Grisham but good.
Rating: 
Summary: Simple, quick and easy
Review: If you need something to fill 2-3 days between bigger and better works, Bleachers is for you. And if you want something you won't have to think about very much, once again, this book is for you. Bleachers is entertaining, but nothing in its 170 pages will stay with you long after you've finished it. And the story of small-town high school football has been done so often in books and on the big screen, that most readers probably could have written the outline for this book themselves. Let's just say you won't be re-reading a page or a paragraph to pick up on something you may have missed the first time. It's simple, straight-forward and easy to digest.
I'm not a Grisham reader, but it's not hard to see that this is merely something a big-time author puts out in his spare time between his usual writings. But with the way this half-hearted book was promoted and gobbled up, who can blame him?
It's a book you'll enjoy -- and probably pass on to others looking for a quick and easy read -- but chances are you've seen or read the story and met the same sterotypical characters before.
Rating:
Summary: Considering Reading
Review: The book is set in a small Southern town whose residents are religiously devoted to their high school football team. As the team's coach Eddie Rake nears death, several of his players throughout his coaching career gather at the field's bleachers to drink and reminisce about the grueling ways of Eddie Rake. Yet a preternaturally gifted old man who never says never, his old players wander down memory lane with their stories during and after their departure from hich school football. Grisham's little tale of bygone glories starts to resemble a half-time locker-room pep talk.
Coach Eddie Rake's old players still dont know if they love the man or hate him but one thing for sure, he was the players coach , in which they reached many achievements as a high school football team. It is a quick and good read, quick readers will finish in a few hours and if you enjoy some gridiron football then this book should be considered.
Rating:
Summary: Not your usual John Grisham
Review: This is not your usual John Grisham novel. There is a lawyer and a judge, but they are totally insignificant characters that have no effect on the story. Girsham left his law books at home on this one and picked up a football.
BLEACHERS is a trip down memory lane. It's onoe of those "you can't go home again" melodramas that is full of lost loves, shattered dreams and thought of what could have been.
The plot centers on Coach Eddie Rake and the relationship he has with his players. Football is a way of life in this small town and Rake is at its center. The saying that there is a fine line between love and hate permeates this story.
This is an extremely quick read, more akin to a short story or novella than a novel. It has its moments, particularly for those who grew up in such a football atmoshpere, but the larger than life coach of the novel really didn't seem so great to me.
Rating:
Summary: Quick, fun, and a great time
Review: This is the first Grisham book that I have read. I was very satisfied with it overall. Despite being a quick read (less than 200 pages ) it has characters that are detailed very well and a great main plot. The only blemish is that it might have been too quick of a read. With it being written so well I really couldn't out it down and finished it in less than 3 days. I would reccomend this book to anyone who has ever played organized football at a high school level or higher. But you don't have to have been involved in sport to enjoy Grisham's great style. I also recently enjoyed two other books, though they were totally different from this one. The first was Hiaasen's "Skinny Dip," and the second was "The Bark of the Dogwood."
Rating:
Summary: Poignant and emotional, but plotless and somewhat boring
Review: We wonder if this little hardback about little more than small-town high school football is somewhat autobiographical, given that the dust jacket mentions that for a while Grisham quarterbacked the Southaven High (Miss.) team? Like "A Painted House", this book is not about lawyers, and is definitely not a thriller. Rather it is a nostalgic look back at a group of boys who played football for a notorious love/hate-type coach, Eddie Rake. Rake is dying of cancer and many of the boys, some of whom still live in town, convene a vigil at Rake Field and sit on the bleachers to reminisce. That's about it. While at times the book showed insight and emotion, at others it was dull and plodding. An attempt by the central character (Neely Crenshaw, the old QB) to redeem a former love affair gone awry was pretty silly, and thankfully for the women, the girl tolerated no parts of it.Anything Grisham writes, including this novella, will no doubt sell a bazillion copies. This quick read might just as well be checked out from the library if you insist.
Rating: 
Summary: Bad Grisham
Review: When I was 18 I enjoyed reading Grisham with all the legal stuff. After that he published 'A Painted House', not a courtroom thriller and I enjoyed that too. He wrote that book so beautifully and he has proved his worth on serious literature.
With Bleashers, he sucks. Can he just get rid of all the overly imaginative numbers? Like they got paid millions for playing collage football and millions people coming to the finals, having a friend with thousands of stores in US alone and hundreds of collage offer him place bacause he excels in football. I rather stick to 'A Painted House'
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