The Great Christmas Bowl

By Susan May Warren

Book Overview

A small town story of one woman's hilarious effort to save ChristmasMarianne Wallace dreads the empty nest. She loves her husband, but she's thrived on being a mother, and nothing will stop her from... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1414326785
• ISBN13: 9781414326788
• Release Date: August 2009
• Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.51 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.3" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

A Funny, Touching, Heartstring-Tugging Kind of Story

Family, church and traditions galore surround Marianne Wallace's holidays, and Christmas is no exception. From cutting down a fresh tree to indulging in Christmas clam chowder, the holiday rings true with creating family memories. But her children have become adults, and she's had to drift with the winds of change. As another Christmas nears, Marianne's son reminds her of a very special holiday season that altered not only the Wallaces' Christmas, but also the perspective of an entire town. It begins with a joyous occurrence nearly too good to be true: Marianne's youngest son joining the high school football team. While this may not seem monumental to the average person, to Marianne it's huge. A die-hard football fan, she'd been sure that at least one of her three sons would don a helmet and shoulder pads as she cheered wildly from the stands. But one by one, her hopes were dashed until only the youngest, Kevin, is left. It is soon evident, however, that Kevin is focused on very little besides video games. When he joins the team his senior year, Marianne is ecstatic. And when the school mascot, a trout, has a heart attack near the end of a winning season, Marianne steps in. Thus begins the year of the fish. Little does Marianne know as she squeezes into a too narrow, too tall fish costume that her husband is busy volunteering her as the church's hospitality chairperson. In other words, she is to be in charge of the annual tea --- a major event in her small town. Marianne shines as a mascot but finds herself floundering in the hospitality arena. The older church ladies on her committee want the tea to conform to age-old traditions: the same foods, fancy china, decorations and hymns. But the younger women want something new. Stuck in the middle, Marianne decides to serve her family's clam chowder, a decision that equally offends everyone. When her team wins the "big game" and reporters want to interview the "trout," Marianne mentions the church tea, saying it is open to everyone and announces they'll be serving soup. Her words are misinterpreted, and the next day's newspaper announces her church will be running a soup kitchen on Christmas Eve. Already unpopular with the church ladies, Marianne becomes a walking target for snubs and glares, causing her to call the whole thing off. She had asked God for help, researched the true meaning of hospitality, and done her best...but it was all in vain. To make matters worse, her grown children are calling one by one to say that they will not be able to come home for Christmas. Alone on Christmas Eve, Marianne packs up a holiday dinner for her trout predecessor, who is still recovering from the heart attack he suffered on the football field. But as she heads over to deliver it, she discovers a Christmas miracle. God had been taking her down a far better path than the one she had chosen. THE GREAT CHRISTMAS BOWL is a funny, touching, heartstring-tugging kind of story that is wonderful to read and must be

Ho, Ho, Ho

This charming, feel-good Christmas novella reads quickly. I completed it in one twenty-four hour period and found it filled with humor, wrapped with good common sense. Scenes such as when Mike walks in on Marianne as she struggles to wiggle out of her trout suit gave me a chuckle. Christmas hospitality is the theme. A quote I liked enough to copy states,"Christmas isn't just one place and one way" (108). If you choose to read it, it'll help put you in the holiday mood.

One of my favorite books this year, easily

Love it, love it, love it. This book cracked me up and has a great storyline. Her writing style is very relatable and I really recommend this one...

Classic!

Marianne loves the holidays, especially all the traditions she's created for her family over the years. And she's looking forward to this Christmas, with all of them together! But things don't go exactly as planned. It all starts with a fish - when she makes the ultimate sacrifice of becoming the trout mascot for her son's football team. And along the way, she learns what hospitality is all about. And realizes that she AND her kids have done some growing up, which can be a good thing. The resulting Christmas is one of her most memorable ever. A delightful, light-hearted book that I thoroughly enjoyed, I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a way to get into the Christmas spirit. It's short enough even to fit into the busyness that consumes many of us in December, and I suspect it will become a Christmas classic. This is the first book of Susan's that I've read, and I will definitely be on the lookout for her other books now.

Christmas Hospitality

I do not know whether to consider this a novel or a short story at less than 200 pages, but no matter what category it fits in, it fits under the title of Fabulous! In starting the book, knowing that it was about a woman with five children practically grown, I was unsure that it would be for me as I am a new mom of an 8 week old. I highly doubted that I could relate to someone with so much experience and was uncertain if I would enjoy the read. Yet I love Susie's writing and could not turn it down. Oh my am I glad that I read this! It is an eye opener and even in such a short page amount one can really find some introspective. The book is full of humor and real life. What I love about this story is that everything that happens one can imagine and relate to in some manner or another. This is a novel about family and the true meaning of Christmas spirit through hospitality. Each page contains humor and a little bit of sad truth of life yet even more joy and reasons for things we are capable of doing. I highly recommend this read for everyone this Christmas season and suggest that you share it with your friends as well. This is one that will not leave you too quickly. I'm so glad Susie decided to publish it.