#COLLABOREADS: Non-Fiction November
November, I love you. Actually, I love all the autumn months, but November has my favorite holiday and the best fall foliage and it's just so great. This month's theme for #COLLABOREADS was Non-Fiction November, and it's been such a fun theme! I love non-fiction, so this was a much easier choice than last month's thrillers...
If you've never heard about #COLLABOREADS, welcome to the SIXTH month of Amber and I's fun little online book club! We've been doing this for half a year already?!?! We pick a theme every month (so everyone's reading different books) and then all link up and share our thoughts (with a handy-dandy R.E.A.D.S. acronym usually) and link up and become BFFs. You can read more about this whole thing here.
My choice for this month? FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS. Because the show is my favorite, and I just had to know where it all began. Spoiler alert: there's no Tim Riggins or Coach Taylor in the book...but it's okay. I still loved it.
Here are all my thoughts!
Riveting.
What part of the book could you NOT get enough of? First things first: I'm obsessed with the show Friday Night Lights. I picked this book up because I wanted to read where it all began...but this book is not the same as the show. The themes are similar, yes, but the characters are totally different and much about the plot varies. Once I got over that, I really loved the documentary style of this book and the way it took just one team over one season and brought a much bigger story to life. It's a world unlike any I've ever known, but I felt like I lived right along side of them, and I loved that about this book.
Elements.
How did you relate to/care for the characters? I wish Tim Riggins was in this book, to be honest...but I still connected with the main characters because of how Bissinger brought them to life. He went beyond just their tough exterior of adored football players and showed the cracks in their armor-- their fears, their family lives, their school struggles, their alcohol dependency, their egos, all of it. He made them real in a raw and unfiltered way.
What's your thought on the plot line and twists and turns? I really loved the way Bissinger wrote this book, weaving together the live-action, real-life plot of the football season with the background of the characters and life in small-town Texas. It progressed at a steady pace and kept me interested throughout. If it had just been a book about football games, I don't think I would have cared at all, but the way he made each character real and human instead of just football gods or dumb jocks made this book one I could really get my teeth into.
Associate.
What other books are like this one? I have no idea. I have never read a book about football before! But obviously the show and movie of Friday Night Lights are similar, and there are tons of other football movies too (Remember the Titans, Rudy, Blindside, etc).
Design.
What did you think of it? I think the cover is exactly right-- it's classic, nostalgic high school football to a T. Three players, hand-in-hand, walking into the stadium, looking powerful and strong. The black and white image with the bold text is striking and evocative, too. I love this cover.
Stars.
How many out of five do you give this book? Would you recommend this book to a friend? This book gets a solid 4 out of 5 stars for me. I still would choose the show over the book every time, but this was a great read and an enlightening look into a world I knew nothing about.
LET'S LINK UP NOW.
Share your post here, and go leave love in the comments for everyone else! You'll probably add a bunch of books to your to-read lists too, so get those ready.
Also, make sure you read Amber's post here!
And finally, for NEXT MONTH:
The topic for December is "A FRIEND'S FAVORITE" and we hope you'll ask a friend for a must-read recommendation, get your hands on a copy, read it throughout December, and link up with your review on December 28!