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Jun 18, 2008

Kevin rated it:

Fifteen years after swearing he would never return, Neely Crenshaw finds himself back in Messina, Texas, awaiting final word that local legend and former football coach Eddie Rake has died. When he left, Neely had become a local legend as one of the best quarterbacks in Messina High's history, but a falling out between him and the coach left him bitter and kept him away until this moment. Now, he finds himself drudging up the specters of the past with his former teammates as well as other former More...

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Nov 06, 2011

Jared rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Dec 12, 2008

Jonathan added it

Jonathan Boyer

Mrs. Baltz

Pre AP English 10

12 December 2008

Bleachers by John Grisham

If you gave ever watched a high school football game, then you will know how they are filled with intense moments and not so intense ones. For coach Eddie Rake his life has been dedicated to high school football and some what reflects some of the high intensity moments and the not so intense moments. Author John Grisham gives you a look at a small southern More...

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Jul 19, 2008

Lynda rated it:

Couldn't put it down. And it makes you think about how people influence you and how strong a bond is between coaches and players. This was excellent.

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Aug 02, 2008

Christina rated it:

I read this on the flight to Austin two weeks ago. Totally up my alley since it is about an iconic high school football coach and the impact he had on multiple generations of players. The former players gather in the bleachers at the school awaiting the death of the old coach as he succumbs to cancer. They slowly open up to each other sharing stories of the coach, not always glowing ones and in the memories of these players, the character of a dying man comes to life. It's an easy read as Grisha More...

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Mar 08, 2009

Jaime added it

The title of my book is Bleachers. With this novel author John Grisham showed us he could write something other than a boring legal drama. I had read some of his other works such as The Firm, The Pelican Brief, A time to Kill, and The Runaway Jury and Bleachers was unlike any of them. The story tells about a high school football dynasty in Mississippi through the eyes of former all-state quarterback Neely Crenshaw. It talks about the people of the town and how life revolved around football. For More...

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Jan 26, 2009

Jeff rated it:

Bleachers, by John Grisham, is about high school football in the town of Messina and their legendary coach, Eddie Rake. The town worships the football program because of this coach, to the point where the football booster club has more money than the school itself. In his years as head coach, the team won 13 state titles and over 400 games, including a winning streak that lasted six years and 84 wins. Neely Crenshaw was one of the star quarterbacks under Rake, so good that his number was r More...

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Jan 14, 2009

Syd rated it:

Bleachers is simple book about playing high school football and the memories and friendships shared. Bleachers was set in a small town called Messina, where high school football was everything. On Friday nights the whole town gathered in those bleachers to watch their Spartans continue their dynasty.
Many old Spartan players have come back to Messina to bury there legendary coach Eddie Rake. He is on his death bed and it’s only a matter of time until he is gone. Neely Crenshaw is the ma More...

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Jan 08, 2012

Andrew rated it:

In my mind, this book stands apart from the other John Grisham novels that I have read. Those that focus on the legal world tended to hurtle along at break-neck speed, following the lives of exceptional characters in Hollywood situations. I’m thinking first and foremost of “The Firm” here, which is the most re-read of all the books I own by the author.

Bleachers is an entirely different prospect. The story is more reflective, as the characters look back and remember their past lives. More...

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Jun 09, 2011

Badiss rated it:

The Protagonist is Neely Crenshaw whose life has gone anywhere but where he hoped it would go. He had been the greatest quarterback in Messina history, but his glory days came to an end with a knee injury during his sophomore year at Tech. He had been struck by Coach Rake during halftime of the ’87 championship game, and as a result, he hadn’t returned to Messina in 15 years. He comes back for the vigil for Coach Rake, but he finds that the bleachers are the place where he can come to terms with More...

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Dec 22, 2010

Tom rated it:

Small Town Football combine to create a wonderful story.

In "Bleachers", John Grisham took me on a trip to the small town of Messina, Mississippi, where Friday night football reigns supreme. No pro football here, just the home grown college and high school teams. The story brings back lots of memories and if you enjoy football this is the story for y. In the story, Coach Eddie Rake, who has had a long career as football coach that he built into a football dynasty. Because o More...

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Nov 16, 2010

Amanda rated it:

It must be boring to have to churn out a novel a year just because you’re a best-selling author. This ennui can be the only excuse for Grisham’s latest folly, Bleachers.

What a let-down when a crime novelist who once ruled a genre turns his hand to something more literary. “An unforgettable novel,” drools the inside of the book’s jacket, which was strange as I managed to forget it immediately. I had to drag the book off the shelf to remember the main character’s name.

Neely C More...

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Oct 29, 2010

Nick rated it:

Bleachers by John Grisham was one the best sports novels I have every read. It had so much thought and detail in it. It is a very small novel but packs a pretty good punch for a book. It is about a quarter back Neely Crenshaw and his recalling of high school football with Coach Edie Rake. This was a very inspiring novel because of the main character Neely and how ha overcomes so much in his short career as a star quarterback. One example of Neely being inspiring was in the championshi More...

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Jul 20, 2010

Jerry rated it:

Poignant and emotional, but plotless and somewhat boring...

We wonder if this little hardback about little more than small-town high school football is somewhat autobiographical, given that the dust jacket mentions that for a while Grisham quarterbacked the Southaven High (Miss.) team? Like "A Painted House", this book is not about lawyers, and is definitely not a thriller. Rather it is a nostalgic look back at a group of boys who played football for a notorious love/hat More...

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Apr 24, 2010

Adisti rated it:

Category: Books
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Author: John Grisham
Ini adalah satu-satunya buku John Grisham yang gue punya. Gw nggak pernah tertarik baca buku John Grisham. Bukan karena ceritanya nggak bagus, melainkan lantaran cerita yang ia bikin itu lebih nikmat ditonton melalui film. Sisi konflik yang ia jabarkan bisa lebih terasa ketika kita melihat mimik sang tokoh secara langsung.

Namun tokh akhirnya gw beli juga buku ini. Karena buku ini termasuk sangat tipis di More...

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Feb 22, 2010

Schuster added it

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Dec 10, 2009

Robin rated it:

Definitely not what I expected from John Grisham. I went through my "Grisham phase" years ago, loving The Firm, The Pelican Brief, etc, but stopped reading when it seemed like I kept reading the same book over and over-if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I found Bleachers on my son's bookcase (he read it for a high school book report) and figured it would be a quick read. It was - I finished it in one night. It was a predictable story of a high school football program and it's former hard More...

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Dec 04, 2009

Jonny99 rated it:

A somewhat innocuous Prodigal Son story of an All-American returning to the football-obsessed fictional town Messina; the novella doesn’t offer much but also doesn’t demand much. The plot is largely told in the retrospective point of view of Neely, perhaps the best player in Messina’s history and college All-American. He has been estranged from Messina for 15 year after graduating high school because he couldn’t face the townsfolk’s disappointment about the career-ending cheap shot which destr More...

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Oct 09, 2009

D rated it:

This was one of the best stories i have ever read. Everyone should read this novel because it teaches life lessons that we all need to learn before we pass through. This story will most likely connect to you because I am sure we all have been through a similar situation to what Neely goes through. Maybe not to the same degree.
The story takes place in Messina, Texas in the 21st century. Most of the book takes place on Rake Field or in the bleachers of Rake. Neely, a talented quarte More...

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Sep 10, 2009

Chad rated it:

There is no doubt that Bleachers is not your typical John Grisham book. There is no legal intrigue. There are no courtroom heroics. Nobody is murdered. However, there is a good story here. At 163 pages, this book is closer to a novella than to a novel in length. I read the entire story in one day (I know, pretty lame) and it was a fun read. The story revolves around the return of football star Neely Crenshaw to his home town because of the impending death of his football coach Eddie Rake. Coach More...

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Aug 28, 2009

Echo rated it:

Take the town in this book, shrink the population by about 7,600 people, move it to Oklahoma, and it's almost like the town I grew up in. It was sort of surreal reading this book. Partly because it was so darn accurate to what life is like in a football town. Partly because I've hated football for years and I didn't know why I was reading this book. I still don't really know why I did, but I enjoyed it anyway. I even saw myself in a character toward the end, when Grisham introduced us to th More...

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Aug 24, 2009

Andrea rated it:

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Jun 22, 2009

Karen rated it:

Thanks to Dlora for recommending this book. I couldn't put it down. It was totally different than I expectd. Nothing about courts and attorneys.
This book touched me because of the unbelievable truth it tells. High School, even though it only lasts three or four years, has a huge impact on our lives. Whether we loved or hated it, we remember it and those memories and experiences are part of who we are. In some cases, as pointed out in the book, high school is the high point for so More...

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Jun 12, 2009

Dlora rated it:

I have read Bleachers before but I had a yen to read it again. I appreciated it even more the second time around. I was intrigued with how Grisham handled his narrative. Unlike his legal thrillers or his more recent soapbox-message novels, this story is about a legendary football coach in the small live-for-football town of Messina. Coach Rake is dying and all his football players from his long years of coaching are gathering for the funeral, including All-American Neely Crenshaw, one of Coach R More...

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Apr 19, 2009

Lucas rated it:

The story surrounds a former quarterback named Neely Crenshaw, who played high school football for Messina high school. Neely was one of, if not the best player the school ever produced. But while surrounding Neely, the novel also explores the head coach of the Messina high school team for many years- Eddie Rake. When Rake dies, most of the players that played for him- more than 700- come back to Messina for his funeral, and they try to figure out whether they loved the coach, or hated him. I th More...

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Jan 04, 2012

Melissa rated it:

About the only thing my boring than watching a football game would have to be reading about one. But in all seriousness, I actually kind of like those football movies where teams overcome odds. I thought maybe this book would be like that, and since my grandpa lent it to me I figured being related our tastes would be similar. I was wrong.

Bleachers explores the hometown of Messina, a college town where one coach "ruled" for a long time. That would be Eddie Rake, who was kn More...

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Jan 12, 2012

Carolyn F. rated it:

Audiobook.

I bought this huge box of audiobooks and it's kind of a grab bag of books. This audiobook I didn't think I'd like because first of all it's about football, not my favorite subject. And high school football, which even brings it down a rung. Then it's narrated by the author, which I thought is probably going to be terrible. Sometimes authors are oblivious to how their voice sounds to everyone else in the world.

So, I was surprised that I liked this audioboo More...

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Nov 07, 2011

Richard rated it:

I just finished reading The Bleachers by John Grisham. This book is pretty fast to read as it is very enjoyable, the characters are alive - like they are so real talking to each other - and the plot is splendid idea.

The setting is very dramatic and I like it very much. Where it all started is where Neely is a good Tuesday late afternoon. The whole town is waiting for the death of one great coach of a football team of Messina. I like it how there is a light on at the field while the for More...

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Jan 18, 2009

Brynn rated it:

I read the book Bleachers by John Grisham. The book was about a highschool quarterback named Neely Crenshaw who left his town after highschool and never intended on going back. He never wanted to go back because he ate, lived and breathed football and his coach ended up making him hate the game. He ends up returning back to his old town though and starts talking to his coach. Neely ends up realizing how much his coach had a huge impact on his life and realizes he can't regret doing what he did. More...

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Jan 24, 2010

Kim rated it:

This book was kinda disappointing. Almost the whole book was spent talking about how important football and the high school football coach was to a small town. I understand having to give background and context, but it was a little much. Football is a big deal in a small town. They didn't have anything else to do. I get it. Also, all the background was supposed to lead up to a Big Secret which wasn't really that big of a deal (in my opinion). As someone who grew up playing sports, I can un More...

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