Rating: 
Summary: Not what I expected
Review: Friday Night lights is about a highschool football team, Permian Panthers. Highschool football is a way of life in the town. I throught I would have liked the book better than what I did. A lot of players on the team that the author spotlighted seem to be racist, and refered to their black teammates as the n words. Most of the players were made out to be dumb jocks, that the teacher passed anyway. You will like the book ok if you are a die hard football fan, and just love to read anything to do with football like myself, but at times the book was boring.
Rating: 
Summary: Misplaced Values
Review: Basically this is a story of high school football in Odessa Texas, where the Permian High Panthers are seen as much more than football players. The players are treated like celebrities, and the pressure and expectations placed upon them by adults living vicariously through the team's success or failure becomes too much for many. It is a sad chronicle of the pressure placed on teenage athletes by adults whose own lives are unfulfilled. Their own self esteem is based upon the performance of young adults. When those young adults "fail", they are made to feel responsible for "letting the town down".Athletics and high school sports are important and teach many valuable lessons; teamwork, hard work, sacrifice to name a few. FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, on the other hand, paints a picture of the downside of sports. It is a picture that should be seen by all those who care about our youth and what we are teaching them.
Rating:
Summary: Don't knock a town you don't know!
Review: I am from Odessa, and I believe that people are wrong for thinking that this is all we care about. I went to Permian, and I loved it. I was at all the football games,and part of the pep squad. Not because someone made me join or go to the games,it was what I wanted to do. There are many people here in Odessa that are not racist. Sure many people go to church, and are religious, but there is nothing wrong with loving god and faith. We have so many people from different states, countries and religions, come to Odessa and tell us that they have never met such nicer, down-to-earth people ever. Some have even made Odessa their home. So, sure we love football, religion, and being friendly to others. But, I guess that is just how we West Texans are. People portray us one way, and you believe them. You will never know how we truly are until you visit our town. Odessa is not a very big town, but we have nice people, good community, and alot of dirt and heat. Which I like. So please think of the consideration of others and don't always believe everything you read. Like I wrote before, some is true and some is not.
Rating:
Summary: High school football and much more
Review: Odessa is a West Texas town that had a huge oil boom in its past. Now the oil is gone, and the only thing that the people living there really have left to get excited about is their high school football team. School sports play a pretty big part in the everyday lives of some people in my hometown, but I had no idea that there are people out there who take it as seriously as the citizens of Odessa. There are people that camp outside for many hours just to get a ticket to Friday's game. This book not only provides information about football, but also information about many other aspects of West Texan life. There are plenty of other important subjects to talk about when the story takes place in a town like Odessa. Here segregation between blacks and whites still remains very strong, and a school can provide the money for their football team to charter a flight to another town, but cannot afford new text books.
I gave this book five stars. It would have gotten old very quickly if the focus was only on football, but it branched off into very detailed descriptions of other subjects. This is what kept me from putting the book down. Not only did I red about football, but also about many other subjects ranging from former presidential candidate George Bush to racism in the South. That is part of the reason why I rated this book the way that I did. Another, which was my personal favorite thing about the book, was how well it described the players and the games. It went into much detail about the players on and off the field. It was like getting to know the players. I felt sympathy for Boobie Miles, who was a hometown hero one day, and instantly forgotten the next. Inside, I cheered for the team as the games grew close. The game descriptions were just like the high school football games that I have been to, but taken to another level. There are very few books that I would give the five star rating to. I would normally have at least one complaint, but honestly, I cannot think of a single one for this book. It is easily the best sports book that I have ever read. If this is a book that you have not read yet, I would highly recommend reading it.
Rating:
Summary: You have to read this book
Review: This book takes place in Odessa, Texas where the Permian Panthers are one of the most successful football programs in Texas. In this book the author H.G. Bissinger is a reporter from the Chicago Tribune. His goal is to set out and follow the 1988 Permian Panther team. Bissinger didn't only just go to Odessa to watch them play football. He also went because he wanted to see how they lived, how they were treated, how they managed in school, and he even went to church with some of them. Bissinger did a very good job on researching all of this information and writing the book. The players of the Panthers all have dreams and those are to go on to college to play for some high college like Nebraska or Texas A&M. Boobie Miles, one of the main characters in the story, is one of those players who dreams of playing for Nebraska or Texas A&M. But when he has a knee injury that makes him not playable he has to sit out for some of the season. Throughout the season a lot of the players have to either sit out due to injuries or sit out due to failing grades. It all comes down to the most important game of the year. Will the panthers win the game or will they lose the game? Well if you want to know why don't you read the book and find out. I chose to read this book not only because I love football but because the cover on the book made it look interesting. Then I read the book and it turned out to be one of the most truthful and most amazing books that I have ever read. I really would recommend this book to anyone who is a sports lover or someone who is just looking for a good book to read. At the end of the book there is an epilogue that tells you everything that happened to the players.
Rating: 
Summary: A riveting story about a football-mad town.
Review: This book gives the reader the complete story of a town(Odessa,TX), a local high school, and a season in the life of that team. Odessa is a town which takes its high-school footbal VERY seriously, many times to the detriment of other disciplines such as academics. Reading this book will give you a frightening glimpse into the obsession that some people place on football, and it becomes even further entrenched when the dreams of a town are wrapped up in the fortunes of a football team. Do yourself a favor, and get a copy of this book, as it is a wonderful, fast read.
Rating: 
Summary: Glorified Journal!
Review: I agree with what was presented in this book such as athletes being overworked and not concentrating on what really matters in life, especially after high school football, but the way it was presented was disturbing to read. To me, this book was simply Bissinger's journal romanticizing high school football. The novel has no real climax, being repetitive in many places. While the topic of segregation among athletes and citizens of Odessa might prove interesting for some, it did not provide excitement for me.
It is clear the point being made in the book is that parents are raising their children to become high school athletic machines, and because of this, they end up having a very limited future, unless of course that machine is good enough to move onto the college level. There is no concentration or push for the athletes to excell accademically; therefore, if they don't succeed in sports, they end up working on an oil field. All of these points are interesting and true in life, but it is just not stated in a way that I would like to sit down and read about for 250 pages.
If you are like me and do not like reading glorified journal entries, then I do not recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Friday night addiction
Review: I read this book and i thought when i first started 2 read it that it was going 2 prolly be the best book i have read. It interest me because of the fact that not only does it talk about the players performances on the field. It also talks about the good things and the bad things they do off the field. I Really liked how he was talking about the players past and how that affected them in the present. I liked how he did not just right about the football team. He really explained how the football team affected the town of odessa. From how there stadium seats 20,000 screaming fans to how when the coach lost to their rival and the townspeople put up seven for sale signs in his yard. And also broke his car window by throwing a pumpkin on it. It seemed as if he interviewed everyone in the town a bout thier view of the present football team, or their own experience as a football player. I also like the fact that he showed how the football players where treated like how they could practicaly do ne thing they wanted because they were football players. The only thing i did not like is the fact that i thought he talked 2 much about how the city was doing in the oil business. When i first started reading the book it explained about all of the people in the oil business losing their jobs because the plants were shutting down. But overall i thought it was a very good book.
Rating:
Summary: Friday Night Lights
Review: As an American who grew up in the foreign country of Taiwan, where football is known as a sport where you kick a ball into a goal, "Friday Night Lights" opened my eyes and gave me a real taste of American culture. Set in Odessa, Texas, "Friday Night Lights" is the story of the select members of the Permian High football team, and the town behind them whose lives depended on their Friday night results. The few young men were worshiped by the entire town, often having 20,000 people in the stands during any given game. A true story about the Permian football program, which had the highest winning record in Texas at the time, was documented by H.G. Bissinger. This book is written with great style, where every loss of the team is a loss to you, every injury hurts like it was your own. All in all a great book, which has you wanting more and more after every chapter. I highly recommend it, and I hope you like it as much as I did.
Rating:
Summary: The Reality of Texas Football
Review: Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger is a novel that tells the story of life in the football-driven town of Odessa, Texas. The story is based upon the 1988 Permian Panther football team; the team that holds the record for the most wins in Texas history. The story starts out on a dog-day Monday in the middle of August, and takes us through December where the Panthers make dreams come true. As many as 13,000 people are in attendance every Friday night, and every night the Permian Panthers put on a show. Friday Night Lights is a very well researched and well writen novel. It not only takes you through the football season, but more importantly the lives of the players, towns people, and the history of Odessa, Texas. The plot is well-developed, and the characterization is amazing. This novel isn't only for football lovers. It addresses many life issues that are important to anyone. The importance of education, family, and diversity are sprinkled throughout the book. Every Friday night from September to December, when the Permian Panthers play football, nothing else matters in the town of Odessa. And when I say nothing, I mean nothing.
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