Skipping Christmas & The Christmas Thief

For True Book Addict's Christmas Challenge, I'd decided to read at least one book and then move on to the Obesity Help Rants & Raves book club pick of the month. I just couldn't get into that book, though, and so I went back to the Christmas challenge and read another book. Now I've read books 3 and 4, Skipping Christmas by John Grisham and The Christmas Thief by Mary Higgins Clark & Carol Higgins Clark.

I'd seen Skipping Christmas with TB at the movie theater when it first came out. I thought it was hilarious ... at first. Then something happened that bothered me and it sort of "spoiled" the movie for me. I realized I had a copy of the book here and I'd never read it. I picked it up and wondered if I would feel the same way about the book ... and I did. Here's why:

Luther and Nora Krank are a couple of empty nesters who find themselves facing a Christmas without their adult child, Blair. Blair's joined the Peace Corps and is going to be away, starting with the end of the Thanksgiving holiday. The parents are understandable down-spirited about this. Luther is drawn to a travel agency one day and is totally sold on the idea of a vacation cruise in lieu of staying home to celebrate Christmas. He convinces his wife by saying it won't be the same without Blair and they can afford the trip by cutting out all the expenses of Christmas. I think, in their case, it was like $7,500.

I'm thinking, great idea. Since they are leaving on Christmas day, I don't get why they have to totally forgo the celebration since they obviously have money but I won't argue that point. Nora likes the idea although she's not totally convinced about giving up the tree, the yearly Christmas Eve party, cards, and so on.

Once they put their plans into action, the Christmas terrorists come out of the wooodwork--overbearing neighbors who try to dictate when and how they decorate the outside of the house, employees that don't get the concept of not going to corporate parties or giving meaningless gifts to each other, police/boy scout/other organizations travelling around trying to force their wares (calendar/trees/other) on homeowners in the name of charities, and merchants looking for business (the guy who sells Christmas cards and so on). They think the Kranks are crazy, selfish, or grinchy for not celebrating the way everyone else does and for breaking formation.

So far, it's all funny as all get out and the Christmas Nazis are obnoxious as well as amusing. So what goes wrong?

On Christmas Eve, Blair decides to come home ... and she's bringing a fiance. She asks her mom if the usual party will be happening ... and her mother says YES.

That's what bugged me. A lot.

Luther and Nora are running around like lunatics trying to find Christmas dinner, put together a party, get a tree and yadda yadda yadda. I didn't find it funny. It was pathetic. I was annoyed. I didn't enjoy the story anymore.

I guess if Nora had said, gee, no dear, I'm sorry, we decided to take a cruise instead ... maybe it wouldn't have been "funny". Or maybe it would. Maybe we'd see what kind of daughter Nora and Luther really had. Oh well.

Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark have a few characters they've been reuniting the last couple of years to tell a new Christmas story. The books have been cute and predictable. It's a little too complicated for me to get into all the characters of the book because it was just an enjoyable little bit of fluff. Bottom line: the group is headed to Stowe, VT for a weekend around Thanksgiving. It turns out that the Christmas tree going to Rockefeller Center is being cut down right in that area and they want to go see it. Also headed to Vermont is a recently released con man who hid his stolen loot 12-1/2 years ago in a tree ... guess which tree? It's a nice little story, light hearted and with the usual happy ending.

A Christmas Story by Jean Shepherd

I just finished the second of 3 books I definitely chose for the Christmas reading challenge.

I've always enjoyed A Christmas Story, a low budget film released in 1983. My first husband and I saw it while we were dating. At that time, I thought it focused too much on kids' "gimme gimme" attitude but it's grown on me over the years. I didn't realize until years later that it was based on a story written by Jean Shepherd--well, actually, a series of stories.

Because I've become so fond of the movie, I picked A Christmas Story up one year from one of the bookstores, probably Borders.

It's rare for me to say this but ... the movie was better. Here's why:

Jean Shepherd reworked three or four of his other stories to fit in with the actual Red Ryder BB gun/Christmas story piece. I thought they were all part of the same story or, at the very least, they all took place around Christmas time. Ahem. No.

Second, two of the short stories start out with occurrences that have nothing to do with the story that follows. For example, in the first one he's eating in an Automat with an elderly woman sporting a button that says "Disarm the toy industry". His conversation with her eventually leads to his look back at his obession with getting a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas. It didn't feel right and didn't "fit" in my opinion. I thought it detracted from the story.

Third, it just wasn't as funny as the movie was. The movie really seemed to tell the story from the boy's point of view. The short stories were told by an adult. There's a big difference between the two perspectives. One is charming and one ... isn't.

Lasstly, the Christmas story piece came first in the book. That was a real let-down. After that, where do you go? Oh well ... I've still got the movie to look forward to!

I'm reading Skipping Christmas by John Grisham next. The story was also made into a movie just a few years ago, called Christmas With the Kranks. I sure hope I like the book better!

Push/Precious by Sapphire

Wow. What. A. Powerful. Book.

I first heard about the book on another forum, Obesity Help. The poster read it and wanted to know if anyone had. The synopsis she gave sounded really depressing but I was intrigued and so I went to request it from the library. That was in *June*. The waiting list was miles long.

Since then, I forgot about it.

The book is actually called Push originally but I understand the author, Sapphire, renamed it to match the name of the heroine and the title of the newly released movie. Yes, a movie has been released, called Precious and I am scared to see it!

The heroine is a 16 year old girl named Precious Jones. She lives with her mother in Harlem and has a harsh, depressing life. She's been traumatized and severely abused by both her parents and at the beginning of the book, she is pregnant with her second baby by her father. Her mother, one of the most hateful and despicable characters I've ever had the displeasure to read about, not only blames Precious for "taking" her man away she also engages in some really perverted abuse of her own--on her own child.

Precious is illiterate but still goes to school. She sits in the back and tries to learn and actually has a good aptitude for math. No one can reach her, although she does like her math teacher.

She's suspended (or was it expelled?) from school for being pregnant. The story starts in 1987 and since when was that a reason for expulsion anymore? Anyway, the principal (if that's who it was) has a change of heart somewhat and comes to Precious' flat in Harlem to tell her about an alternative school.

That's really when Precious' life begins. She shows up to apply for admission to the program and is placed with a wonderful teacher. She is in a class with others who are struggling with their own demons and trying to learn too. The teacher wants everyone to write everyday in a journal. At first Precious is very skeptical. How can she write if she doesn't know how?

But she starts with just a few letters she knows from the words she wants to say. The teacher writes in the spelling of these words below and then adds a response. For the first time, Precious feels she's made a connection with someone and can communicate.

You would think that this is one of those feel-good books that starts out so miserably and ends on a happy note. I wish that was the case but in this story, life keeps getting in the way of Precious' plans. It's sad but it's also inspiring and more true to life this way.

It's not a big book and so I was able to finish it in just a couple of days.

Back to the Christmas challenge...although in its own way, this book was part of that too. It was a gift to read it.

Christmas Challenge

I found a blog called Word Trix and learned about the Christmas Challenge on The True Book Addict. I love book challenges--especially Christmas ones! This particular challenge is easy--read 1 to 4 Christmas books. I thought of one I could do, up to 5 if there was no Obesity Help Rants & Raves Book Club choice for December.

Today, I finished the first book I picked: A Christmas Blizzard by Garrison Keillor. I've completed the challenge and yet I can go further if I want! I chose this book because it's new and I love Garrison Keillor. He writes funny stuff, very down to earth and true to life. Well...usually.

As I started to read the book, I wondered if this would be yet another variation of the bah-humbug-find-the-meaning-of-Christmas types. They're good but enough already, you know? Anyway, James Sparrow is a 42 year old successful self made man (by a lucky meeting with a down-in-his-luck chemist). Sparrow has it all--tons of money, a lovely loving wife, a successful business...but there's just one thing. He has this "thing" about cold weather, Christmas and iron water pumps.

He really wants to go to his home in Hawaii with his wife to celebrate Christmas. She's one of those people, though, that loves the traditional holiday and weather and helping people. She gets the flu. On top of that, he gets a call from his cousin. Apparently his favorite uncle is dying and so he has to fly to North Dakota.

He's only planning to go for a few hours but stuff happens, you know. Like ... a blizzard. Up until this point, the story was coherent and kind of funny in places. I started to get lost, though, when Sparrow was on his way through the snow to the uncle's but ended up back at the airport somehow. The plane is snowed in and no one's going anywhere so he decides to go stay in a fishing shack.

At that point, I felt like I entered Wonderland. I kept wondering if James was having some kind of drug trip or blizzard hallucination but some of the strange things that happened actually were real. Other things...well, were they real or were they like the scenes with Clarence the angel in It's A Wonderful Life?

I won't give away the ending but I will say I wasn't especially crazy about the story. Oh well. Better luck next time.