Fluffity fluff fluff

I just read a book that was pure fluff, but not a complete waste of time. "Playing for Pizza" reminds me of "Bleachers" another fluff football books that came out some years ago. John Grisham hasn't written a fabulous legal thriller in a while, now that I think about it. He did write the gritty non-fiction book, "The Innocent Man" not too long ago. Honestly, I wish he would write another book like "The Painted House", about a young boy growing up in rural Arkansas during the 50s. It was exciting, had his fun style of writing, but had nothing to do with lawyers. Good stuff.

Back to fluffiness. It's not just for rabbits and kittens, apparently. Even my old standby favorite author who delivers every time, Orson Scott Card, engages in fluff. I spent one short evening reading his latest "book" that was more of a bookette, "The War of Gifts: an Ender story". I'm not trying to say it wasn't a good read, because it was. Full of complicated personal histories of people, insightful looks into what motivates the villains, etc. etc. Typical Card good stuff. But wouldn't this have been more appropriately published in his online magazine, The Intergalactic Medicine Show? He writes Ender-related stories there fairly regularly. For those of you who are Ender fans, I'd highly recommend shelling out the $2.50 four times a year for the magazine. Anyway, publishing his little story (Christmas themed, no less) during the holidays seems out of Card's character. Like when Grisham wrote "Skipping Christmas" one holiday season (only to be butchered by Tim Allen in the film version not long after) you had to wonder if the payment on his yacht was getting behind. But Card? A yacht owner? Maybe his agent's yacht needed some updates? I hate to get all cynical, but that's what it felt like to me. Maybe he's going to come out with another Shadow book soon and this is to warm us up to it. Huh.

Don't think I'm discounting fluff because there are definite times I need some fluff to lighten my mental load. Not like I'm reading Tennison or Thoreau, but sometimes the day-to-day workings of life needs a little fluff to round off the edges. I think I'd rather read some fluff by an author that usually writes really amazing novels than one that only writes cotton candy. I'm looking at you, Richard Paul Evans.