More book reviews . . .

Crossposted from 50bookchallenge

28. Bleachers, by John Grisham.

I got the strongest feeling I wasn’t supposed to like this book. A non-courtroom quickie from Grisham, readable in a day at the beach. Lot of clichéd characters . . .

But I absolutely loved it. Definitely a guy book on the theme of "The older I get, the better I was." High school football hero, who was injured in college and never made the big time, returns to his small hometown to join others waiting for the legendary - and disgraced -- football coach to die.

I really liked the characterizations, even though they started as clichéd characters (the flashy quarterback, the little guy who made good, the big guy who was loved and hated by the coach, the criminal linebacker, the tough brothers, etc.), but I really like the way Grisham works with them. I can see people I know in this novel. That is especially true in the case of the protagonist.

And for those of us involved in high school football over the years, it rings true.


29. The Cheating Culture, by David Callahan.

The extended title is: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead.

A change for me. A serious book in the middle of a summer of mostly light reading. A solid sociological look at why cheating has become so common in our society. There’s a lot on the corporate cheating culture and the abuses of some top executives.

Of course, I really enjoyed the parts about how and why kids cheat in school, but Callahan offers what is almost a justification when he goes on to detail (in his opinion) how getting into -- and through -- Harvard, Yale, etc., really do give those students huge advantages over others. He also touches a good deal on using drugs in sports and plagiarism by journalists.

This is a very readable book and would be good for classroom discussion in a variety of areas. He relates a lot of it to economics. His opening example, about people abusing Bank of America by vastly overdrawing their accounts (because the bank couldn’t track it accurately and didn’t want to shoot everyone down) after Sept. 11, is fascinating.