CHRISTMAS JARS, By Jason F. Wright

CHRISTMAS JARS is the story of a young lady named Hope Jensen. The story begins with a woman finding Hope as an infant with a note from the birth mother telling the finder to take good care of the baby. The woman ends up adopting Baby Hope, and together, they have a wonderful life. The story then fast forwards to Hope as a grown woman. At this point, her adoptive mother has recently passed away, and to make matters worse, she one day walks into her apartment to discover she has been burglarized. She is further taken by surprise when she discovers that someone has left a jar full of money at her doorstep. Being a journalist, she starts digging into past newspaper records to see if she can find any stories about people receiving a mysterious jar full of money. She finds a few instances of this occurring, but oddly, the recipients of the jars aren't very willing to talk about it. Eventually, she's led to a particular family that might be the originators of the Christmas Jar tradition. She approaches the family by telling them that she is a college student writing a report on small businesses, but all the while her intent is to earn their trust and find out the details of the Christmas Jar.

This is a story of the transforming power of giving. Its a story of how the giver of the gift is changed just as much as the receiver of the gift. True giving does not seek attention because it is it's own reward.

The book said "Major motion picture coming in 2008", and since this is 2009, I started googling for information on the movie. I came across the author's blog, which gave a quick update on the movie. The movie has been delayed, and the best guess is for a 2010 release.

CHRISTMAS JARS was a pretty quick read - only 150 pages. But it had the feel of an inexperienced author. It was a good story, but I felt as if I was reading facts, and not at all like I was being drawn into the story or getting to know the characters. It had potential to connect with the reader on an emotional level, but it never quite reached that point. I didn't feel as if the characters were fully developed. I also didn't think Hope was all that likable, but that can also be attributed to lack of character development. I think the movie might be good - I imagine it might be a feel-good movie similar to The Ultimate Gift.

Mr. Wright is a well-known editorialist and also the founder of PoliticalDerby.com. He's published four novels at this time, with his most current book being The Wednesday Letters, which reviewers say is reminiscent of The Notebook. CHRISTMAS JARS is his second published novel, and was on the New York Times bestsellers list. I think he created an interesting plot, but the writing was lacking a bit. I sincerely hope he improves as his writing career progresses, and I would definitely give him another chance by reading his more current books.

THE CHOICE By Nicholas Sparks

Nicholas Sparks is probably a familiar author to you - if not, I'll just mention a couple of movies that were based on his books and you'll know him for sure - A WALK TO REMEMBER and THE NOTEBOOK. While I didn't see A Walk to Remember, I did see The Notebook (loved it - sniff, sniff!)

But this was my first Sparks book. It was very reminiscent of The Notebook, in that is was a love story that started out in the present, and then went back to the past and worked it's way forward. The description on the jacket gives nothing away, and I loved that I read it without any preconceived idea of how the story would unfold. In fact, it's kind of a challenge to review it without spoiling the beauty of the story!

It begins with Travis and Gabby meeting, and falling in love, although she is involved with another man. But we get to see how they are first drawn to each other, and how she is torn with the decision she has to make regarding the two men she "loves". At that point, we shoot to the present again and the story of what has happened all these years later unfolds.

I always look at things in life and think to myself, "what would we have done if we could have looked in the future and seen this ahead?" That's what Sparks seems to do as well in this story and in The Notebook. It makes me wonder what his other books are like - are they all like this, or was it a coincidence that I've saw and read the two similar ones? I don't know - but I know that I will be looking for more of his books to read so I can find out!

The Choice was a good book - a very touching love story. Enjoyed it and recommend it!