Wanda's Book World

Kirk Neely is author of the award-winning A Good Mule Is Hard to Find. Now, he brings his knack for spinning a yarn to Santa Almost Got Caught: Stories for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year.

Guiding us through the holiday season from Thanksgiving through Epiphany, Neely takes us into the woods in search of the perfect red cedar Christmas tree. He’ll remind us of the real reason sweet potatoes were part of holiday meals. In this long anticipated volume, we’ll hear tales about a flaming Advent wreath and the Christmas tree emergency that required an exterminator.

In each chapter, you will enjoy the wit and humor we have come to expect from Kirk Neely. You will find spiritual depth, wisdom, and insight garnered from his pastoral and personal experience.  Sometimes you will chuckle, sometimes you will shed a tear, and sometimes both will come within the same reading.

Walter Edgar, author of South Carolina: A History and The South Carolina Encyclopedia, as well as the genial host of “Walter Edgar’s Journal,” heard regularly on National Public Radio (NPR), has called Kirk Neely an old-fashioned Southern storyteller.

This collection includes several of Kirk Neely’s best loved stories: “Santa Almost Got Caught,” “A Kentucky Thanksgiving,” “G. I. Joe and Baby Jesus,” and “Christmas at Croft.”

Many of these tales are joyful accounts of personal experiences that will make you laugh out loud. Others are poignant, gleaned from years of pastoral ministry. Kirk Neely gives us a clearer vision of the season, reminding us that for some people the holidays are a time of absence and grief. Even in the face of heartache, he helps us find comfort and joy.  He also shares from his own pilgrimage those epiphany moments that are highlights in his journey of faith.

These stories will help us take a deep breath and seek a less hectic pace so our holidays can become holy days. Each brief reflection can be read in one sitting while waiting in a carpool line to pick up a child, lingering over a morning cup of coffee, or before turning in at night.

This book is a treasure you’ll want to give to everyone on your shopping list. Keep a copy for yourself. You’ll come back to it year after year. Santa Almost Got Caught promises to become a holiday classic.