Review: Wishin' and Hopin' by Wally Lamb

A sweet story, this is being billed as a Christmas story but it's really more of a story about childhood and being on the verge of growing up. Set in 1964, Felix Funicello, third cousin of the quite famous Annette, is in 5th grade at St. Aloysius Gonzaga. His family is warm and loving and his childhood is familiar ground. During the course of the novel, his mother goes on tv as a finalist in the Pillsbury Bake-Off and Felix himself is on a local Connecticut show: Ranger Andy. The mishaps and entertainment sprinkled throughout the story are charming and funny. From Felix unknowingly hitting a bat with a spitball and causing his nun-teacher to have a nervous breakdown right in class to Mrs. Funicello sweeping into the Pillsbuy Bake-Off kitchens trailing toilet paper (what nerves will do to the intestinal tract!), to the penultimate scene at the out of control Christmas pageant, this will make readers of a certain age reminisce and chuckle.

In many ways, it is a mash-up of Jean Shepherd's In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash (better known as the movie A Christmas Story) and Barbara Robinson's The Best Christmas Pagaent Ever and all memoirs of growing up Catholic so it definitely doesn't break any new ground. But the gentle humor and the time of life Lamb has captured, that time when boys are still children at play but also growing into men who will shortly understand the dirty jokes they laugh at now knowing the jokes to be off-color somehow and in some way that they will eventually discover, is a particularly enchanted time, neither child nor man but an innocent bridging from the one to the other. The good news is that this quasi-holiday offering is not overwhelmingly sugary sweet. The bad news is that it is a very slight offering that ends a bit abruptly. But it is a nice book to dip into in between wrapping presents as it is breezy and quick and cute.

Review: Christmas in Camelot by Brenda Jernigan

Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot are generally the central characters in Camelot stories but since we all know how badly that love triangle ends up, Jernigan has chosen to write her happily ever after about Nicholas the Dragon, knight of the Round Table not interested in Guinevere, and Lady Noelle, young woman being compelled to marry Sir Gavin, also a knight of the Round Table. Now Noelle is not thrilled with her brothers' interference in her unsuccessful search for true love and is even less pleased to discover that King Arthur himself has chosen Sir Gavin, a knight she's never met, for her. Given that Lady Noelle has a penchant for speaking her mind and doing as she wants, finding her the right match will definitely be difficult but she is convinced to at least give Sit Gavin the benefit of the doubt. And they will be married at Christmas if she finds no fault with the match. She wants to hold out for her true love and that's where Nicholas the Dragon comes in.

Nicholas survived a terrible, loveless childhood and as an adult left a trail of broken hearts in his wake, never wanting to open himself up to love and its possibilities. But he is captivated by Lady Noelle and despite the fact that she's bethrothed to one of his fellow knights, he can't stay away from her as he knows he should. The secondary plotline of Noelle's brother and the murderous knight who lays waste to her family castle seem destined to become the focus of a sequel to this book as they are not fully explored here.

While this seems like it should be a Christmas book based on the title, there's little to make it Christmas related. Noelle is to marry Gavin at Christmas if she finds him acceptable. And the women all decorate the hall, including with the requisite mistletoe. But in general, there are no Christmas traditions included or woven into the plot and the story could have as easily taken place any time of the year. Also, the narrative is very general and normal until Nicholas almost dies, at which point, Merlin, who had been absent from the story until now, is brought in and must use magic to bring Nicholas back from the dead in order to allow Noelle and her chosen knight to have their happily ever after. This is rather disruptive to the flow of the storyline and unnecessary to prove that Noelle is willing to chase after love. Over all, the story itself is all right if a bit choppy. However, not much about it really stands out. An average romance that will still appeal to Camelot romantics.

All I want for Christmas is a few challenges

The Christmas Reading Challenge at The True Book Addict asks participants to read 1-3 Christmas books. I can do that, even without Santa's help. Here are a few books I have just sitting about here that would qualify:

1. Christmas in Camelot by Brenda Jernigan
2. Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle
3. Wishin' and Hopin' by Wally Lamb
4. An Irish Country Christmas by Patrick Taylor
5. The Last Noel by Michael Malone

And that's without much effort.

And then there's the Winter Holiday Reading Challenge #2 hosted at Book in Hand. This one allows for the participant to choose how many books to read. So in the spirit of cross-overs, my list is just going to say: Ditto above. ;-) (And no, that doesn't mean I am committing to the whole list--or even to the fact that I won't change it mid-stream, cause I might--but it is nice that I can complete two challenges together.)

And yet a third I can do alongside the other two: Holiday Reading Challenge 2009 at All About {n}. This one says between 1-5 books so the list is a ditto, ditto. ;-)