Reviews

Calico Joe by John Grisham

colemanwarnerwriter's review against another edition

2.0

2.5

tfrankman62's review

emotional inspiring mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Readers unfamiliar with major-league baseball in the 1970s might find this book tedious.  For those who grew up in that time, it is a comfortable return to that era.

o_watson's review

emotional inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Blood, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Physical abuse, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Cancer, Grief, Alcohol, Abandonment, Cursing, Death of parent, Infidelity, and Terminal illness

jsalwen's review

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I’m a huge baseball fan who grew up in the 70s, so this book was written with me as a target audience. And it hit the mark.

jamielouh's review

3.0

Listened to audio. It was good. Classic baseball feel good story, although there are some sad parts in it.

sue_su's review

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

5.0

heidisreads's review

5.0

More than a book about baseball, this is a timeless story of the fragile relationship between fathers and sons and heroes.

nekreader's review

3.0

I liked it. It's a little thin, but is a good story, basically a sad story, with what I would describe as a fairy tale happy ending or at least as happy as it could be. If you are the parent of a boy who is a reluctant reader, you might want to give this story about baseball and fathers a try.

adambongobooks's review against another edition

4.0

A great read for any baseball fans. Easy to read, but also contained a lot of fiction with non-fiction. Joe Castle is such a likable character, and Warren Tracey is simply the opposite. John Grisham does an amazing job at making this book a very simple, easy read, yet it's so believable that you truly end up rooting for Joe Castle's character to recover even though it's impossible and you already know the outcome. I love books when the narrator has a bigger story to tell than just talking about their own experience, and Paul Tracey's character does an amazing job with helping us understand the story of Joe Castle is bigger than his own.

jbarr5's review

5.0

Calico Joe by John Grishma
Love baseball stories and this one is a good one.
Story of not only the professional life of a baseball player but his personal home life.
Love the 'fresh from the garden vegetables' when Paul is home for a meal.
Such honor when the player returns rather than playing on the team the field/organization has hired him in his handicap state to take care of the field and scoreboard for life.
The incident that ended one person's life, Joe Castle on the field Warren Tracy won't even come to terms about. His son Paul wants him to apologize to the old dying man before it's too late. He knows and his father knows what happened.
Things really get scary when the police are called for a threat to kill the family cuz of what happened.
The abuse and what the family puts up with are uncalled for and now I realize there's more to the story of what really happened with the pitch.