BOOK: Skipping Christmas by John Grisham

During first day of my Christmas vacation, I read "Skipping Christmas" by John Grisham. John Grisham "skips" (pardon the play on words) his usual legal plots/courtroom drama and shares a short, yet funny yuletide story. He writes about Luther, a middle-aged man, who is disenchanted with Christmas and convinces his wife, Nora, to simply skip Christmas, and join him on a luxurious 10 day-cruise to the Caribbean. Their only child, Blair, has just left for South America so the couple are alone for Christmas which triggers the brilliant idea of dispensing with the expensive & stressful yearly traditions & events. Simple ... I think NOT, as there is nothing simple for the Krank family once co-workers, friends, neighbours & the community catch wind of their plans & make them feel like "scrooges". Basically, Luther and Nora KRANK are about to find out about the true meaning of Christmas -- whether they like it or not.

I do not want to give away too many details as it is a short story - only 176 pages. This is a very simple story which is told without a lot of blah blah blahing. Arnie purchased this book more than 2 years ago but I just got around to reading it. I wanted to save it for Christmas so that I could gradually build up my holiday spirit. The ending of this book did give me a cozy, warm feeling and at one point, I did tear up during one of the last chapters during a super touching scene. I did enjoy this book but it is not the greatest read - simple but with funny moment.

We noticed on line, during a google search that "Skipping Christmas" was turned into a film called Christmas with the Kranks staring Tim Allen & Jamie Lee Curtis as the "famous" Kranks. We were curious & ordered it via Amazon so we had it in time for Christmas.