Some novels about football to tackle—October 14, 2011
Fall is in the air and football season is well underway, and whether you are a diehard fan or would rather escape when the game is on, you can find something fun to read in this selection of novels with football themes.
If you like a little romance with your football, try Susan Elizabeth Phillips' "It Had to Be You" or Karen Kingsbury's "Between Sundays." Phoebe Sommerville had been a bad girl all her life but her unexpected inheritance of a professional football team makes her re-examine who she is and what she wants. All eight-year-old Cory has ever wanted was a whole family. He knows his foster mother loves him but he is convinced that the San Francisco 49ers star quarterback is the father he has never known. You will have to read "Between Sundays" to find out if Cory's wish comes true.
For a football scene that is a bit different, follow down and out quarterback Rick Dockery as he starts over on the only team that will take him - the Panthers of Parma, Italy. John Grisham takes the reader to a place where American football is definitely a second class sport but provides a first class read in "Playing for Pizza." An even further out game called football is central to the action in "Unseen Academicals" by Terry Pratchett. Step into the magical world of Ankh-Morpork where the wizards must revive the ancient sport of football at Unseen University to keep a major legacy intact.
The ugly underbelly of the game is explored in Boomer Esiason's novel "Toss." Rookie quarterback Derek Brody seems to have the world by the tail until two people are murdered, his team is falling apart and his past is trying to catch up with him. Football at the University of Notre Dame is as traditional as it gets and rife with rivalries, but when an administrator is murdered, it falls to Philip and Roger Knight to solve the crime before it disrupts the big game in Ralph McInerny's "Lack of the Irish." E. Lynn Harris also takes the reader into the dark side of college football in "Just Too Good to Be True." Brady Bledsoe has gotten to the top through his own hard work and the focus of his dedicated mother. But will the deceit of a beautiful woman and an unscrupulous agent bring all Brady's hard work crashing down around him?
Score some leisure time reading at the Hastings Public Library.
