Many people enjoy the "hustle and bustle" of the holiday season, such as shopping for gifts, decorating the house and Christmas tree, sending Christmas cards, baking cookies, hosting and attending parties and so on.

Curmudgeonly accountant Luther Krank is not one of these people.

After crunching the numbers, he discovers that going on a Caribbean cruise with his wife, Nora, will cost less than what they spent on Christmas the previous year. Since their daughter won't be home for the holidays, he figures there's no reason why they can't go, and Nora thinks Christmas without her won't be much fun anyway.

However, Luther's plan involves more than just taking a vacation during Christmas. He convinces Nora to skip Christmas altogether, meaning no gifts, no decorated house and Christmas tree, no Christmas cards, no cookies, no parties, etc. This is no easy feat, especially since they traditionally host a neighborhood Christmas Eve party and live on a street where each and every house is festively decorated and topped with a huge illuminated Frosty the Snowman on the roof, but the Kranks won't buckle under the pressure. Or will they?

John Grisham is best known for his legal thrillers, but in early 2001 he demonstrated his ability to write outside that genre with the coming of age novel, A Painted House. Skipping Christmas is his second consecutive non-legal thriller, and while there are no courtrooms, there are some neighborhood police officers keeping an eye on things.

At 176 pages in length, Skipping Christmas is a light and quick read, and its blend of humor, satire and sentiment makes it a prime candidate to be turned into a feature film or made-for-TV movie. Thus far, the book has received mixed reviews, but why not read it and decide for yourself? 

Skipping Christmas is shelved in the Recreational Reading Collection located on the first floor of the Library.