Calico Joe by John Grisham

My first serious book review, because I have so many insecurities about writing one.

Read from 16th to 20th April 2014.

My fourth John Grisham book after A Painted House, Bleachers, and The Firm. It is pretty obvious that I have not been reading enough of his legal thrillers, so I basically know nothing about how good his legal thrillers are. The Firm did not please me much, but I have to admit that I am a potential fan of his non-legal books.

The story of Calico Joe is simply what it says on its cover, "A father's guilt. A son's redemption." The story is short and quite predictable, but like Grisham's other non-legal books, the emotional tone makes most of the magic.

It made tears well up in my eyes, but did not do enough to make me cry. I guess those are the special things about Grisham's non-legal stories. They are nostalgic, they bring a lump to your throat, but they don't do anything beyond that. When you put down the book, you can only say "Ahhh, that was a good book," but you just can't explain why is it so good.

I come from a country where baseball is not widely played or broadcasted. However I watch animes about baseball and played it once in primary school, and I enjoyed the game, so the baseball terminologies did not bother me, in fact made me want to know more about the sport. The introduction was a very enjoyable read and by the time I realised I was already reading half of the book, it was 2 A.M. and I knew I just had to finish it right away.

I give this book a 4 over 5 stars since I've read better books from John Grisham. I am looking forward to reading more of his non-legal stories since they have so far proven to be among the books that give me a good feeling when I finish reading.