Rating: 
Summary: Well researched; well written.
Review: "Friday Night Lights" is a piece about the quasi-religious fervor and fanaticism over high school football that possesses one small city, Odessa, Texas, situated on the dusty plains of West Texas. It is also a study of the lives, hopes, joys, and dissapointments of the people living in the town. H. G. "Buzz" Bissinger was a sucessful journalist before moving his family to Odessa in order to reseach and write this book, and it is his journalistic expertise that shines through each chapter with brilliant clarity. One of the book's most striking qualities is the great detail and insight that the author offers readers. Appearently Bissinger went to every meeting, practice, game, classroom, home, and social event in town for an entire year in order to properly familiarize himself with the people, their town, and their team. Bissinger sketches imtimately detailed portraits of the players and their families, and an equally intimate image of the town itself, all of which are at times very flattering, and, at times, quite damning. This a tremendously well researched and written book, and it engages readers in a powerful way, however, it does not receive a "five star" rating for one reason: At times Bissinger takes liberties that many others, particularly a lot of historians or anthropologists, may me unwilling to take. For example, when writing of the difficult race relations present in Odessa, which were and continued to be extremely segregarian, Bissinger writes that Odessa is "just like every other town in America." I am a historian and I am uncomfortable, when attempting to describe the behaviors and biases of all people everywhere, speaking in terms of "all - every - always - never." Certainly there are too many towns in America that have some or many or all of the racial characterisitcs that Bissinger described in Odessa, but clearly and honestly not each and every city and town across the entire land. This is an occasional folly that appears in only a few places in the book and is probably a result of Bissinger's journalistic background, or more precisely perhaps his journalistic bias, coming through.
Rating: 
Summary: Great, and not just for football fans.
Review: I'm sure I am not the first to say this, but Friday Night Lights succeeds on many levels for the same reason the documentary Hoop Dreams succeeds. Both are about athletes, but both ultimately examine much larger issues. Bissinger does what great writers do; he takes a particular place, and particular people, and paints a picture so vivid that, once the image becomes clear, we realize how universal the truths in it are. Yes, this is a book about football and what it means to towns in West Texas. Yes, it's a book about the impacts of economic booms and busts. It's also about race relations, adolescence, socioeconomics, the price of winning, education. It is about disillusionment, hope, the need for escapism, family dynamics, and the impacts of "stardom" on teenagers. What more could you want?
Rating:
Summary: Racial Issues and Sports Make Great Combo
Review: I really enjoy reading Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger because of the many aspects of life it looks at. The story takes place in Odessa, Texas; a quiet desert town still segregated in 1988. The author traveled to this west Texas town to observe the people and write about them. Specifically he wanted to concentrate on their high school football team, the Permian Panthers. All the black people live in the poorer part of the town and have to go to a certain school until recently. The whites all live in the "better" part of town and attend a nicer high school. Even though these events happened only 15 years ago, segregation still has a tight hold on Odessa. The only time the town truly comes together was during the football games. Everyone goes to the games; it didn't matter whom you were, everybody who was anybody attended them. Living through the high school players and show immense support for both black and white players. The story takes the reader through personal stories, injuries, wins, losses, and the history of Odessa. No one person takes on the role of main character, the whole team and the townspeople assume it together. The book takes a little while to get started due to the prologue, long recollection of the town's background and long preseason description. Once past this I fell in love with this book because as far as sports go, football is the best and racial issues, intrigue me. Any readers who enjoy sports or the events in an up and down town ruled by the oil business, should read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Pure Texas Football
Review: What a book! If this doesn't describe high school football in Texas.....I don't know what does.
Rating:
Summary: Great Read
Review: Friday Night Lights was a great book. I've always hated reading because it was so boring. When I started to read this book I couldn't put it down which was very good. My high-school English class recomended it and I'm very glad that I chose it. You should read this if you like sports, especially football. It is a great book for school and easy to write reports on.
Rating:
Summary: A town and a team coming together
Review: Friday Night Lights: A Team, a Town, a Dream is the story of the 1988 Permian High School football team in Odessa, Texas. The book covers a year in the life of the team, from the ending of the 1987 season through the conclusion of the 1988 season. This book remarkably explains how high school football can pull a small town together. The book starts off describing Odessa's history on how it was an oil boom town. Then it moves on to the season. During the time that the book was set Odessa was known for its high crime rate and poor education system. What makes this book so powerful is that everyone who went to the games forgot about all of their town's troubles and enjoyed high school football. The book explains that Odessa was a boring small town and high school football was about all there to do. The town is very obsessed with the team and tries to be involved in everything. Everyone in the town knew who was on the team almost personally and when the team won the town felt like they won too. This compelling story tells how the town and the team fought through all the economic, racist, and crime struggles and still knew that anything less than a state championship was not an option. H.G. Bessinger does an outstanding job of getting inside of this small town and writing such a great story. As he follows the life of a team full of high school students, Bessinger doesn't only tell us about the game, he puts us in the shoes of the players. The overall theme of this inspirational book is that this town and this team ignored all their troubles and chased a dream.
Rating:
Summary: Friday Night Lights
Review: This is the best football book that I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Truthful account puts you in the game
Review: Having grown up in the South, I know all about high school football. After all, no one wants to be a social outcast. I have talked to players, I have felt the excitement, I have let the feelings of comraderie engulf me. H.G. Bissinger's book "Friday Night Lights" is the most accurate description of high school football I have ever read. As he follows the life of a teamful of high school students, Bissinger doesn't only tell us about the game, he puts us in the shoes of the players. Bissinger has a talent for relating his characters to someone in our lives. Everyone knows an Ivory Christian, the kid who thinks maybe there is more to life than football. As I read this book, I started to compare its characters to people that I know, people that go to my school. I started to compare the school, Permian High School of Odessa,Texas, to my school, St. Thomas More of Lafayette, Louisiana. Sadly, I was also able to compare the racial tension of Odessa to that of Lafayette as well.This is another aspect that Bissinger dwells on. Race relations have always been very important in the South, and often come up in the world of football. Odessa appears, at least to me, to be a town of great wealth fiscally, but not quite so socially. Many of the townfolk, particularly the elderly, are opposed to the African American students of Permian six days a week, but on Friday night, none of that matters. This is a great hypocrisy that is prevailent in the Southern United States, and one I have witnessed too many times. Over all, Bissinger's account of a year of football is very well written. It is extremely engrossing, and I highly reccomend it to anyone who has ever even been to a high school football game and witnessed the magic that happens under the Friday Night Lights.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth it
Review: I loved reading this book-once I got started, I could not put it down and I don't consider myself a fan of football at all. This book is an intimate look at one town's personality- but this situation occurs in towns across the country, the only thing that may change is the sport. The author does a good job at pulling the reader in and making them care about the players, coaches and the game...by the end I was in the stands too, hoping for the win. I was amazed at the townspeople's actions after a loss, the support that they show for a game, the callous treatment of players who are "finished". I'm from a small Texas town myself and it was an eye-opening experience for me. I think that anyone interested in society would want to read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Is H.S. Football Really That Big in Texas?
Review: This is an awesome look at a season of what was then one of the best high school football programs in the United States in a town crazy about high school football.
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