This is my first and only John Grisham book. It's a cute, short novel about an empty nest couple who decides to "skip" Christmas trappings and go on a cruise instead. So far, I'm with them. Then they realize those trappings are not so easy to shed, and their neighbors and friends give them a lot of grief, much of which is funny. It wraps up neatly (no pun intended) with some clever plot twists. But I was rooting for them to get past all the meaningless rituals that they wasted so much energy and money on, and to find something of infinite greater value in celebrating Christ's birth, or at least just go on their damn cruise! Instead the message seemed to be "conform, conform"!

I really liked the whole world Alice McDermott set her story in--early 20th C Brooklyn, and somewhat reminiscent of Call The Midwives. Most of the story revolves around the Little Sisters of the Sick Poor and their work caring for members of the community. Annie, a young widow, works for the sisters in their laundry room, and her little girl Sally grows up among them. All the characters are 3-dimensional, none all good or all mean, which is saying a lot when someone writes about Catholic nuns. McDermott seemed to have no ax to grind with the Church, at least not the nuns. But she had a story to tell, first of Annie's loss of her husband to suicide, the good milkman she becomes friends with, and raising Sally as a single mother. Sally seems destined to take vows herself, but we know through some foreshadowing in the novel that is not meant to be. I thought about the ending for a couple of days before I realized what had happened. This story stays with you.