Christmas Jars

This is going to be a short and sweet book review. Not only do I feel goofy writing about Christmas at the end of January, but this book also did not stimulate very much conversation at our book club meeting--in fact, it was only mentioned in the final few minutes as we were all leaving (and it wasn't for lack of time; we hung out for well over two hours! We just found plenty of other things to talk about and the book didn't exactly leave us dying to talk about it).

That being said, it is still a good book and definitely worth the (quick!) read. The biggest issue we had with the book, though, was that it seemed the author took a great idea--a Christmas Jar--and built a story around that (A Christmas Jar is a jar of money--loose change--that is collected over the course of the year and then gifted to someone in need). At times, the narrative seamed far-fetched or stretched to keep the novel from getting too long and thereby distracting from the concept of the Christmas Jar. And truthfully, I don't exactly fault the author for doing that--I think the world would be a much better place if every family implemented some version of a Christmas Jar--but just know that the book seems to be more about the idea than the story at times.

One serious pro about the novel being on the short side and not overly bogged down by "extra" narrative details (since I feel bad about possibly sounding a little judgmental in the previous paragraph)? It would make a great Christmastime read for a family with teenagers/pre-teens. Easy enough to read a few chapters a night, and a great way to foster a discussion about reaching out to those less fortunate. And now that I've written that out, I'm seriously considering buying the book so I can do that as William (and potential future kids) get older. Definitely sounds like a great family tradition--and truthfully, it would probably make a good tradition for any person or type of family. There's nothing like a quick, heart-warming read to keep you in the spirit of the season.