I don’t really care for baseball and I was over John Grisham a long time ago, so I wasn’t feeling too excited about this book for my Teachers as Readers book club. (But HOORAY to me for finishing BOTH of my book club selections this month!) This one has more statistics and baseball jargon than I’d like (even after a brief stint as a professional sports writer, I STILL don’t get baseball stats), but after realizing I could skim those details without losing the plot, I was in.

Calico Joe was a quick read. I finished it in just a little more than a day while also completing a MAJOR garage project. While it wasn’t groundbreaking and didn’t get me all excited, it was worth reading. (Actually, the garage project probably wouldn’t have happened if it had been any more exciting.) The characters were a tad one-dimensional but the conflicts seemed real and believeable. Basically, this is the story of a rookie baseball phenom who gets pulled up to The Show and has to face off against a disgruntled pitcher with questionable ethics. I saw a few of the twists coming which tends to put me off and I found the eleventh hour redemption scene a little contrived, but not unpleasant.That said, it wasn’t a bad book at all.

I guess I have four main categories I lump books into:

1. Books that are so powerful that they draw me in and consume me so much that I can’t sleep or get any work done (there are far too many of these!).

2. Books that are mindless brain candy but so much fun I can’t resist them as a comfort read or to relieve stress. Much of the YA stuff falls in this category.

3. Books that I read to stimulate my brain in some way or teach me about a concept I don’t know (these sometimes feel like a chore to read and require a very different mindset than the previous two).Educational books and other work stuff regarding pedagogy and methods, technical manuals, and other nonfiction (except biographies) usually fall here.

4. And then there are those other books. They can be from virtually any genre or about any subject. They’re books that aren’t incredibly powerful or educational or fun, but aren’t bad either. They just don’t touch me in a profound way. I’m happy to read them once but never a second time.

Calico Joe is one of the fourth type and that’s not really a bad thing. Sometimes we need books that aren’t a chore to read and fill the time. I can’t love them all.