Rating: 
Summary: Best-selling series!
Review: Plan to buy the whole series--you will not want to wait to get the next one! Jan Karon has mixed delightful characters of all kinds with conflicts, mystery, romance, danger, and spread over all plenty of humor. No matter what your favorite genre, you'll love this continuing story. I keep wondering what's happening next. There were plenty of young people to follow in a 6th book. Maybe next year...
Rating: 
Summary: good, but a bit too leisurely
Review: Reading "A Light in the Window" is a bit like catching up on gossip from your hometown. The going is slow, and you get lots of tidbits about people you don't ever think about between visits. While the overall effect is still a warm glow and you're happy to hear the latest about the people you really care about, you still wish your maiden Aunt Isabel would get to the point a bit faster and not get mired in minutia.
Also, Father Tim can be a lot like a dithering Hamlet in priestly garments, and he can be such a doormat! He undergoes some needless discomfortures because he either doesn't think it through or he doesn't know his own mind.
"A Light in the Window," like its predecessor, is a sentimentalized account of life in a North Carolina mountain town. People are kinder and race relations better than anywhere in the real South. However, if you can get past that -- and the overly leisurely pace -- you'll enjoy Karon's second installment in the much-adored Mitford series.
It's a bit slow for me to say that the books are great, but all three of my sisters-in-law love them and can't wait for the next one. It's a good enough read, but I wish Jan Karon would pick up the pace a bit and not drag every episode out. Less can be more.
Rating:
Summary: VERY UP-LIFTING
Review: READING THE MITFORD SERIES WAS A VERY UP-LIFTING AND PEACFUL EXPERIENCE FOR ME. I COULD NOT PUT THE BOOKS DOWN. I ENJOYED THE WAY THAT FATHER TIM HAD A HAND IN HELPING SO MANY TRUE TO LIFE PROBLEMS REACH A CONCLUSION. THE SITUATIONS CREATED IN THIS SERIES COULD HAVE BEEN LOCATED ANY WHERE IN AMERICA.
Rating:
Summary: A Feel Good Book with a Lesson
Review: Sometimes trilogies are trying. The first book has to have an ending but not so much of one that the reader won't want to follow the characters they have learned to know on to the next book. The author faces the same task with the second.
A Light in the Window is Jan Karon's second in a series. It was originally a trilogy (at least in the set I purchased), but is now a series. Karon does serialization very well not only because her characters are likeable but also because she understands that, if a book can't have a nice, tight ending, then at least it had better have a satisfying premise. "Light," the second book in the series about a small town in the Carolinas, is really about commitment and fear. Although the characters and place seem almost to be from another century, the theme is well-grounded in the problems that many of us face today. The story does seem to unfold gently in another time and another place, even though it is firmy let in the present. Still, it is not "only" a tender tale but contains a lesson or two for most lives today.
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of "This is the Place" --This text refers to the Paperback edition
Rating:
Summary: A nice, peaceful book!
Review: The covers on these books are wonderful--they attract attention instantly, even if you know nothing about the books. This book was as wonderful as the last--the only thing a little annoying was Cynthia and her expectations of Father Tim. I kept thinking, "What do you expect? He's a man! Get over it and marry him! " One of the few book series that hold your interest in an "older" romance. I do hope Ms. Karon intends to devote the rest of her life frantically scribbling around the clock during her every waking moment and continuing this series, until all the characters get old and die (along with the rest of us). How could she do any less, now she's gotten us all hooked?
Rating:
Summary: A Visit to a Charming Town. Strong Christian Themes
Review: The Mitford Series is a collection of incredibly simple books about small town life. Told from the point of view of a preacher in a mythical town in the hills of North Carolina. Everybody knows everybody else, and not much happens. These are the perfect books to curl up with for some summer porch or beach reading. Like life the plots are winding and not necessarily purposeful but by the end of the stories your can think back and realize how things developed to an inevitable conclusion. You basically follow a 60 year old preacher through his travails. Since he is a Christian man there is quite bit of bible quotation, but otherwise the story is not about his church so much as his efforts to keep life in order and cope with being a single man, past his youth yet surrounded by a small town that loves him - sometimes too closely. One warning..this is very much a "sweet" book. It challenged me to forgo my natural skepticism. I put this in the category of a read that won't tax the reader all but may instead impart a little smile. Also be aware that a stong Christian message plays throughout much of the dialogue and thinking.
Rating:
Summary: Like going home...
Review: The second installment of the Mitford books is refreshing yet thought provoking. It picks up where the first book ended, with Father Tim struggling with his relationships with Dooley and Cynthia, while trying to meet all the various needs of his congregation at the same time. I found Father Tim's anguish in trying to reach beyond his fears and deepen his romance with Cynthia realistic and probing. Their love letters to each other reflect great courage on both their parts. Dooley continues to exasperate and delight Father Tim as their trust in each other grows. Reading this book is like going on a vacation...you want to savor every minute but can't wait to see what happens next!
Rating: 
Summary: Great story - Bad cover
Review: The story is great, but the book cover could really use some major improvement. When it arrived, the cover was already curled up before I took it from the box. Since I've been reading it, the cover remains curled and seems to get worse with time. I usually pass my paperbacks on to others for their reading enjoyment, but this one is a bit embarrassing to pass on due to the curled book cover. So, it will probably go into File 13 or collect dust somewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining
Review: These series are simple, light, enjoyable entertainment! Coming from a small town, it is quite easy to relate. Karon writes in such detail. At times I find myself laughing aloud at the predicaments the characters find themselves in. Being a series, I was somewhat leary that the 2nd book would not be as good as the first. This is not the case in this the 2nd of the series. It is just as enjoyable as the first.
Rating:
Summary: Turn all worries over to God, even the little stuff, Funny,
Review: This book is a lesson in everyday life. It teaches us to honnor the difference in people not shy away from them. It teaches acceptance with a smile. Relates to my life in so many ways. Wish I could turn everything, including my selfwill and a sick dog, over to God and have the patients to wait for an answer. Wonderfully sweet and I feel after reading all 5 books that I have another family that lives in Mitford and I would dearly love to go visit them. Wish I had a friend like Miss Sadie, all full of wisdom and starch. A blessing to read and hopefull retain.
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