Book Review: Senior Year

Title: Senior Year   
Author: Dan Shaughnessy  
Genre: Biographical, Short Story

Ease of Reading: This one took me a little over four hours to conquer.  In all, it totals two hundred twenty-five pages of fairly easy text to flip, much in the mold of Shaughnessy's writings for The Boston Globe.
Synapse:The book covers the twelve month period of the senior year of Dan Shaughnessy's son, Sam.  Throughout the book Dan reflects on his own high school experience and tries to relate his teen years to Sam's.  There are many parallels, but there are some major differences including Dan's lack of an athletic ability and Sam's recruitment to play baseball at the collegiate level. Generally, the book is about a father, a son, and high school baseball, but a few interesting tangents find their way woven into the text as well.
Comments: I think I'm going to pass this book on to the baseball coach at the high school I teach.  He has a son who will be entering eighth grade next year and you know how time flies.  Before long he'll be a senior as well.
I found this book at a used book store in the heart of Texas while on vacation and I almost knocked it out in one day of air travel. 
Grade: Overall, I felt the book was a fairly quick read and it kept my interest, but it was lacking a true climax.  The life of a high school senior is one big roller coaster, but I don't know that any of the given peaks are higher than any others: drinking, girls, grades, prom, and baseball.  Shaughnessy touches on all of the aforementioned, and he does it with style, but I didn't feel like any of them kept the pages turning for me. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the book, and I was glad I found it before jumping on my return trip home, but it was not 'A' material to this reader.  I think a solid 'B' is fair though.