"Skipping Christmas" by John Grisham

I really don't remember why I picked up this book at a library book sale a couple years ago.  My husband describes me as "determinedly Christmasy," so a book about people who decide NOT to celebrate Christmas in any way seems kind of like the opposite of something I'd enjoy.  Maybe I was going through a fit of "I should read something by a popular modern author now and then to maintain a balanced diet" or something.  Dunno.

Anyway, in Skipping Christmas, a married couple's only child goes to Peru for a year to do volunteer work.  Her parents decide not to spend several thousand dollars on Christmas stuff in her absence, but instead will go on a cruise.

Their lives fall apart.  Their neighbors harass them with Christmas carols.  Their friends worry about their mental health.  They have to work terribly, horribly hard to keep convincing themselves that this is a good idea.

And then.  Their plans all fall apart.

In the end, this was an amusing book, but not one I loved. I know the movie Christmas with the Kranks (2004) is based on it, but I've never seen that, so don't know how good of an adaptation it is.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for a couple of very minor curse words and some vague spicy content, like a brief mention of a previous office party that involved male strippers.  Not a book that's gonna interest kids, anyway.

This is my first book read and reviewed for the Literary Christmas link-up hosted by In the Bookshelf.

This is also my twelfth and (presumably) final entry into the Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2017.  Yay!  I achieved my goal of reading 12 books that I have owned since 2016 at the very latest.