ethereal reads

My in-laws, knowing how much I love to read, sent me a pair of fun holiday reads as part of my Christmas presents! Both are books that currently have movies out right now (and both are movies I really want to see, if possible this holiday) so I’m extra glad to have an opportunity to read the books first, for fun, before seeing them on the big screen.

Both Helen Fielding’s The Edge of Reason and John Grisham’s Skipping Christmas were really quick reads and lots of fun, though some of Bridget’s more harrowing adventures this time around, to say nothing of the frustration of having her dream relationships go up in smoke so quickly after its initial consumation made for some rather bleak moments at times.

Helen Fielding’s entertaining writing style keeps me hooked; Bridget is so incredibly endearing that it’s almost unbearable when you come to the end of the book and have to forego sneaking any more peaks from her diary. While it’s absolutely no surprise that everything comes out alright in the end, getting there was a nail biting episode for me. I started this book about midday Christmas day and plugged through it, despite various distractions , right to the very end, even though it was early in the morning and I was physically exhausted from too little sleep already, the past several nights. I… cannot… WAIT to see this movie. I don’t know how they managed this story in movie form but I am dying to find out!!!

And now for the terrible, awful confession about John Grisham. I am, perhaps, one of the view people on the planet, who doesn’t get into Grisham novels. I have read at least one of them ( I believe it was The Client not even certain ~ how scandalous is that????) and I know it was well-written but I just don’t share the same enthusiasm for thriller/suspense/crime/law and order type stories that I know that the world at large is obsessed with, so I just haven’t been all that interested in reading that genre.

But this book was just so much fun to read! No doubt this one is a complete departure from his other books, but if he wrote more like Skipping Christmas, I know I’d be reading them all with joyous abandon. I haven’t laughed this hard in months! An extremely quick read (227 pages), I devoured this book in an afternoon and I kept wishing that it would extend right on through New Year’s. Or that he would follow up with another story about a certain lucky couple’s cruise! But no such luck there. The comedy of errors that ensues because of one slightly unorthodox plan about Christmas makes for a deliciously disastrous romp through the holidays. Gotta go see this movie as well; with a cast that I absolutely adore (Jamie Lee Curtis, Tim Allen, Dan Ackroyd), I’m dying to see where they take these loveably crazy characters.

The only thing is that I’m wishing Christmas wasn’t over because it would have been extra-fun to see both of these movies during the season. But that is how it works around here, all too frequently, and that’s partly my fault for not being more pushy about trying to get everyone motivated enough to deal with the holiday crush and hit a couple of good movies. Ah well. Both books were a lovely way to wind down this beautiful Season of Light!