Christmas Sucks – Joanne Kimes

A Mini Book Expo Review

Christmas Sucks – What to Do When Fruitcake, Family and Finding the Perfect Gift Make You Miserable
Joanne Kimes

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Adams Media
• ISBN-10: 1598698125
• ISBN-13: 978-1598698121

Shipping within Canada and US sponsored by Adams Media

In Christmas Sucks, author Joanne Kimes gives a her humorous observations about the entire sphere of insanity that seems to surround the Christmas season every year.  From what gifts to give people who show up on your doorstep unannounced, to what to make when you’ve been caught short on food – the author presents problems and gives amusing tips on how to solve them.

Kimes writing style is very accessible and flows well.  Her chapters and subsections are presented as short snippets with several clever anecdotes thrown in.  Although I must admit I smiled quite a few times while reading this book, it seems a bit of strain to stretch this flimsy premise to 160 pages.  At times, I found myself thinking, “Alright…I get the joke.”  “Christmas Sucks” seems to function better as a reference book than as a straightforward read from the first page to the last one.  Also, the book appears to be somewhat of a mishmash of information already familiar and known to the audience; not in a plagiarised manner, but in a sort of old style humour kind of way.  The way Milton Berle’s jokes all seem to have a welcome (and sometimes unwelcome) ring of familiarity to them.

“Christmas Sucks” is an easy read that should provide a few chuckles, but not much more.

~ by seangstm on October 8, 2008.