Waiting for the World to End is worth taking time out of your schedule to read! I did find it a bit hard to get into at first but that may have been because of my mind set and not the book itself. Once I got a bit further into the book, I found that I kept wanting to read more and more and see what happened next.

This is a fascinating book that starts out in a relatively uneventful town in Indiana. Thomas Olsen is the head coach for a basketball team and the English Department Chairman. It is obvious from the start that while Olsen is successful and well respected man in most everyone's eyes, he falls short in his own eyes. Much like most of us today being our own worst critics. Though it does sem his parents were pretty critical of him not living up to what they thought he should become.

The issue of an abortion with an ex-fiancee arises in his past, though it never becomes clear to me that it actually occurs. That is just one of the thought provoking twists in this book. Olsen belives the abortion took place and it leaves a hollow place in his heart that he has tried for years to ignore.

During his years of caoching, Olsen becomes very close to one of his players named Ben. A bond forms almost immediately between the two with Olsen feeling that this boy can somehow help fill the void left by the events of years gone by. Ben is also very much like Olsen in many respects. When Olsen meets Ben's mother, Mary, the story gets a new twist. Olsen falls for her and falls hard even though she is married and a devout Christian.

Olsen spends more and more time with Ben and Mary and realizes that something else is missing from his life and is partly responsible for the hollow feeling that haunts him. He finds that he wants to believe in something, to find faith. He begins to try to find a way to bring this into his life but struggles a great deal with it.

At one point in the story Olsen becomes a hero, but you will have to read the book if you want to know more about that! This story touches on subjects that are part of most people's lives at one point or another and brings the reality home of how things turn out in the real world.

Even the ending of this book has a twist and one that will leave you saying, "Yes, that is how it happens." There is no black and white in life and there is no black and white in this book.

You can find more information abou the book and its' author at Waiting for the World to End

See you on the court!