Customer Reviews

The Great Christmas Bowl

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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 shared. This is the kind of book that will get passed from daughter to mom, friend to friend. Susan May Warren truly possesses the heart of a storyteller: her characters are likable, flawed and very real, with natural-sounding dialogue and relatable emotions. She gathers up her favorite things --- family, Christmas and football --- and blends them beautifully into a sweet novella with a message that sparkles brighter than tree lights.

--- Reviewed by Susan Miura

Marianne Walace's children are growing up and leaving home. She loves her family, and has worked hard to establish traditions they will treasure, but the one they remember the most is the year she became a fish. Marianne loves football, and her son plays for the home team. Their team name is the Big Lake Trouts. Yep, Trouts, like in fish. Bud Finlaysen is the team mascot. He even wears a fish costume, black and silver, with a head and a tail that almost drags the ground. Then Bud gets sick, and Marianne's son volunteers her to fill in for him and wear the costume.
A warm, funny story that will leave the reader smiling. Celebrate the season by reading The Great Christmas Bowl.

First, I will admit, it's a bit different than Susan's usual style. I was delighted and surprised with this book.

Susan does a great job at making her characters come to life. There are moments I was in tears and moments I laughed out loud. It was also inspirational. I really felt like I got something out of it. The mother in me could really relate to Marianne. The emotions, the feelings of being torn about Christmas because of how it changes over the years.

Anyhow, The great Christmas Bowl does not disappoint. You'll be enchanted with Susan's new book and fall in love with it. (I'm hoping that maybe there will be future books with her new characters??? hint hint --- if you're reading this!)

Normally I skip over holiday-themed books. They just don't do much for me. But Susan May Warren is an author that typically entertains as well as encourages me. I knew that any story she'd write about the holidays would be funny and realistic. So I tried this story and I wasn't disappointed. It wasn't sappy or goofy. Rather, it was hilariously cute and a bit sentimental, but in a good way. I loved the trout theme and the motherly sentiment and reflection. I could totally see Susan's personality in this story, and I loved how it was written in the witty and charming style of her Josie series. One thing I particularly enjoyed was how the mother realized that God had somehow matured her grown children by story's end. She instilled in them the value of giving and the Lord did the work in their hearts. My two sons are almost finished with high school and they are a lot like Kevin. Her relationship with her son made me smile because it looks so similar to mine.

Nothing I like better than reading a good book and experiencing sudden outburst of emotions as I turn from one page to the next. Laughter through tears, breath holding anxiety that leads to sudden relief; these mark some of my favorite reading encounters. Susan May Warren serves up just this kind of entertainment in `The Great Christmas Bowl'.

Like so many mamas's facing empty nests, Marianne Wallace is grappling with a myriad of change that threatens to overrun her Rockwellion life. Sporting lots of courage but not so much grace, Marianne Wallace tackles son Kevin's last year of high school with a mother's great heart and unabashed enthusiasm.

Through trial by trout, Marianne and her neighbors of Big Lake, Minnesota have the season of their lives while discovering some of the greatest joys of community and Christmas.

A book for anyone who loves family, football and Christmas (and even those who don't), Susan May Warren's, `The Great Christmas Bowl' is good reading! This book will keep you in stitches while touching your heart in ways usually reserved for greeting card commercials.

This is probably one of the best Christmas novellas I've ever read. Yes it's short, but it gets to the point and it's sweet and funny and it totally gets you in the mood for Christmas. The way the book started, I was worried that it would fall in the trap of moms who find themselves empty nesters and make everyone else feel sorry for them. The other potential overused storyline trap would be a mom who does too much for everyone else because she can't say no and has a weak backbone. However instead I read about a mom who loves her kids and will do anything for them including potentially humiliating herself in front of the whole town. Would you (or your mom) dress up as what could possibly be the worst mascot of all time, a trout? I love reading about Marianne's adventures as as fish, from starting out being self conscious and scaring kids to just hamming it up in front of the crowd. She obviously love her kids very much and I did feel sorry for her when they didn't come home from the holidays. It made me think about how next time, I should give my parents at least some notice if I can't make it for the holidays.

Plus there's a yummy clam chowder recipe featured in the story and as a huge clam chowder fan I swooned. The recipe is included so you can try it out for yourself. If you're itching to get into the Christmas mood now, this book is perfect for you. It packs a lot of punch for a short story but by the end you'll clearly get the point. Along the way, it'll bring a lot of laughs, a lot of love, and a lot of trout.

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.

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.

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.

The Great Christmas Bowl by Susan May Warren is everything that a holiday novella should be! Marianne Walker lives for Christmas when her children are all home and they fulfill the traditions they've spent a lifetime building. But this year promises to be a bit different: her youngest son, Kevin, has made the high school football team which is on its way to the state championships, her husband, Mike, volunteers her to the the church's hospitality chairman which puts her in charge of the annual Christmas Tea, and one by one, her children start to cancel on her plans for Christmas. When Kevin volunteers her to serve as the team mascot, a trout, she has two choices: go into it with anger and bitterness or embrace the role. Lucky for Big Lake, Minnesota, and the reader, she embraces it, making for plenty of hilarious pratfalls. Only a Scrooge could make it through the last couple of chapters without tearing up! Most holiday novellas, go for sentiment or a message over content, but Warren shoots right for the heart with humor and faith. She keeps it true by remembering the reason for the season, but also by creating a real character in Marianne.