Playing for Pizza

I picked up Playing for Pizza by John Grisham the last time I was home at my parents' house. I read this book in about three days. Although I wouldn't call this the greatest written word of all time- or even put it on the list- I believe this is a good book made for beach reading. In a stereotypical world a young woman would read one of those dime-store romance novels and a young man would read Playing for Pizza next to her in beach chairs.

The descriptions of food, wine, and the countryside are wonderful. However, the book felt like it was almost taken over by descriptions of football. While I am a fan of the sport, I am about as apathetic towards reading about football as the general Italian population in the book are towards attending the games.

I found the romantic relationships in the book to be refreshing compared to romantic relationships spouted onto the page by other popular authors (i.e. Dan Brown). Rick Dockery is jilted in every way that a man can be in this book, first out of work, a professional with an apathetic agent, and then by the most attractive woman he can find (who can speak English). Then he stumbles across a beautiful, intelligent, strong-willed, and adventurous young woman to provide him with companionship.

This is an entertaining book that is great for summer reading. I hadn't picked it up before because I had already read two or three of his books and wanted to read something fresh. Grisham's adventure out of the legal world was very successful.