Skipping a Beat: A Novel

From the author of the acclaimed The Opposite of Me, a poignant, witty novel about marriage, forgiveness, and the choices that give shape—and limits—to our lives.

What would you do if your husband suddenly wanted to rewrite all of the rules of your relationship? This is the question at the heart of Skipping a Beat, Pekkanen’s thought-provoking second book.
From the outside, Julia and Michael seem to have it all. Both products of difficult childhoods in rural West Virginia – where they were simply Julie and Mike – they become high school sweethearts and fall in love. Shortly after graduation, they flee their small town to start afresh. Now thirty-somethings, they are living a rarified life in their multi-million-dollar, Washington D.C. home. Julia is a highly sought-after party planner, while Michael has just sold his wildly successful flavored water company for $70 million.
But one day, Michael collapses in his office. Four minutes and eight seconds after his cardiac arrest, a portable defibrillator jump-starts his heart. But in those lost minutes he becomes a different man. Money is meaningless to him - and he wants to give it all away. Julia, who sees bits of her life reflected in scenes from the world’s great operas, is now facing with a choice she never anticipated. Should she should walk away from the man she once adored – but who truthfully became a stranger to her long before this pronouncement - or give in to her husband's pleas for a second chance and a promise of a poorer but happier life?
As wry and engaging as her debut, but with quiet depth and newfound maturity, Skipping a Beat is an unforgettable portrait of a marriage whose glamorous surface belies the complications and betrayals beneath.

...and a chocolate cake/ soufle?
...and cheese & ham to go with the bread?
...and marmelade for the second half of the bread?

...indulging and enjoying food in the morning is definetely much healthier than doing so throughout the day...especially with an empty stomach,
...as the more often we eat, the more active our digestive system is, therefore really working effectively and doing what it is supposed to do...
...supply the organism with nutrients & vitamins and burn the calories.

Even those times in my life that waking up so early as 5:30a.m in the morning was required, breakfast was a meal to certainly not miss and tried to enjoy as much as possible...
...back then I found that having the table set since the previous night and having made some preparations was an encouragement to not skip breakfast by saying that there isn't enough time...

Quality of life doesn't only rely into living in the next more beautiful and bigger house, into having the next more fancy and modern car or which other belonging,
but also and rather moslty into celebrating every moment like the treasure that it is....a real present!
...after all, such moments are carried with us wherever we are and go.

Product goods definetely add to our quality of life as well, but nothing can happen unless we cherish life for the simple joys...

There have been sadly so many wealthy but unhappy, unhealthy people, past my life, and so much fewer who can combine both internal and material wealth...I'm reaching slowly to the conclusion that it probably goes from inside out, in order for there to be a meaning and true happiness.

What we have inside will be expressed in our realities...

Did you have a nice breakfast this morning?
-> Yes?...splendid!
-> No?...would you probably like to try it once?

I feel a bit tired and blank today...
I am skipping the theme because after a really long day most of my inspiration and creative ideas fall short. I tried, took a shot and it is not to my personal standards...

However, I have been tagged so many times and never completed them.
So here it goes!

15 songs on my Iphone shuffle.

1. Empire of the Sun - Walking on a dream.
2. Sleepy Head - Passion Pit
3. Kings of Leon - Arizona
4. The Naked and Famous - Young Blood.
5. The Shins - Sleeping Lessons
6. The Xx - Infinity
7. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Dull Life
8. Whitest boy alive - Burning
9. Metric - Give me Sympathy
10. Santigold - Starstruck
11. Mumford and Sons - Timshel
12. Crystal castles - Courtship dating
13. Death cab for cutie - What Sarah said.
14. Tegan and Sarah - Back in your head.
15. M83 - Teenage Angst

& 10 wishes....

10. For more money than I would ever need to make my family never worry about anything financial ever... Like Oprah rich! haha
9. A chance to travel the world and see all the wonders our planet has to offer.
8. I would like to become a vampire like the ones in the movies that can just live off of animal blood and never age...sweet!
7. To live in a high rise with floor to ceiling windows facing the ocean.
6. I want all gallons of nutella without all the fat and calories.....haha
5. To have a really good singing voice.... Im tone deaf.
4. To know the cure for Cancer.
3. To know the real answer to questions like is there life in other Galaxies.
2. A time traveling delorean!
1. To go to a really good art school for photography.

Yeah my wishes were quite unrealistic, but Hey they are wishes! haha
It's hard to think of them all at once too....

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Imagine a year without Christmas. No crowded malls, no corny office parties, no fruitcakes, no unwanted presents. That’s just what Luther and Nora Krank have in mind when they decide that, just this once, they’ll skip the holiday altogether. Theirs will be the only house on Hemlock Street without a rooftop Frosty, they won’t be hosting their annual Christmas Eve bash, they aren’t even going to have a tree. They won’t need one, because come December 25 they’re setting sail on a Caribbean cruise. But as this weary couple is about to discover, skipping Christmas brings enormous consequences—and isn’t half as easy as they’d imagined.

A classic tale for modern times from a beloved storyteller, John Grisham’s Skipping Christmas offers a hilarious look at the chaos and frenzy that have become part of our holiday tradition.

John Grisham turns a satirical eye on the overblown ritual of the festive holiday season, and the result is Skipping Christmas, a modest but funny novel about the tyranny of December 25. Grisham's story revolves around a typical middle-aged American couple, Luther and Nora Krank. On the first Sunday after Thanksgiving they wave their daughter Blair off to Peru to work for the Peace Corps, and they suddenly realize that "for the first time in her young and sheltered life Blair would spend Christmas away from home."
Luther Krank sees his daughter's Christmas absence as an opportunity. He estimates that "a year earlier, the Luther Krank family had spent $6,100 on Christmas," and have "precious little to show for it." So he makes an executive decision, telling his wife, friends, and neighbors that "we won't do Christmas." Instead, Luther books a 10-day Caribbean cruise. But things start to turn nasty when horrified neighbors get wind of the Krank's subversive scheme and besiege the couple with questions about their decision.
Grisham builds up a funny but increasingly terrifying picture of how this tight-knit community turns on the Kranks, who find themselves under increasing pressure to conform. As the tension mounts, readers may wonder whether they will manage to board their plane on Christmas day. Skipping Christmas is Grisham-lite, with none of the serious action or drama of his legal thrillers, but a funny poke at the craziness of Christmas. --Jerry Brotton, Amazon.co.uk