book review - John Grisham. Playing for Pizza

It hurts me to write a review like I am about to because I am perhaps the biggest John Grisham fan ever to walk this planet. Any form of criticism of him or his work feels like disloyalty- betrayal even.

This is is worst book by some margin.

The story is about a major-league NFL star who can no longer play in the NFL after an embarrassing match and is ‘forced’ to play in Italy where the football league is almost unknown to the rest of the world- even to the locals. Rick, (the uncolourful main character), learns all about teamwork, romance yackety yak while in Parma, Italy, and to tell you more of the story would be to uncover basically nothing of a pretty weak story line.

The most disappointing part of the book for me was the failure to develop the characters in the book. Perhaps there were just too many Italian names being thrown about but I struggled to remember who was who, even on the last page of the book. The characters were names, not people. I have always really enjoyed Grisham’s ability to make his characters come alive. I always find myself making friends in the pages of his books but even Rick was just a name.

Grisham is still my hero, but this was just a disappointing read. I’m about to start reading ‘The Innocent Man’ now and I’m sure my confidence in Grisham will be refreshingly restored.

kirby

kirby sits still

he looks at the rain
he loves it when it rains
but he misses her too

waking up when it is raining

unremitting
soaking
intermittent rolling thunder

there is not much better than lying in bed as the steady drip drips steadily
every sound of a splatter might as well be the note of something classical-
together they sing to me something philharmonic

moleskine

the pages the right tint
the weight feels measured as i hold it

it invites the pen
technology with history

i’ll always have a moleskine
i wish i could type on it

the apprentice

so last night was the start of the new season of the apprentice with donald trump. (the man who gives the winning team a prize of having lunch with him- that’s right... )

i can’t tell you much yet as i don’t even know the contestants’ names, but i can tell you one thing: the man who used the word ‘paramount’ when talking to trump in the boardroom is going to do exceptionally well.

mark my words.

disclaimer: i would go on the net to find his name, but in doing so i would probably see who won and thus spoil the show for myself- please forgive me... i will look out for him next week and catch his name then. a man with his vocabulary and poise will probably be team leader next week ;)

negative faith

i accept it as truth only because i have felt the lie and truth is the only acceptable alternative. call it negative faith if you will. either way it’s something and it beats the lie.

carlsonomics

for anyone who’s interested in learning more about the economy and such things... join me on my travels. looking at basics and also at some complex stuff along the way, carlsonomics aims to give insights into the South African and global markets and how they affect all of us...

http://carlsonomics.blogspot.com/