I’m throwing five full turnips at John Grisham (and five turnips is great) for his novel Playing for Pizza. The book’s not particularly long, and not especially deep. Instead, it’s an extremely charming jaunt through the salvation of a failed NFL quarterback in Italy (NFL Italy). If you’re a fan of football, you’ll love this book; if you’re a fan of gold old, heartwarming stories, you’ll really like this book.

In recent years, I’ve grown somewhat tired of the lawyer-laden catalog from Grisham. Sure, he’s good, but I don’t really like lawyers (even though I’ll confess to having read every one of his offerings). This book is a complete departure from his norm, and had enough of my attention to justify polishing it off in a couple of days.

If your New Year’s resolution list includes being more like me (or maybe just reading more), be sure to check it out.