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Summary: Best books I've read since All Creatures Great & Small.
Review: The Mitford books entertain us with small town life. But more important than that, when Father Tim is driving down the road and begins to count his blessings, I put the book down and started to count mine. And you know what? I have quite a lot to be thankful for. It doesn't matter if my battery went dead this morning - the sun was shining and the crocus and forsythia were blooming all around the statue of St. Francis. What a good morning !
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Summary: Small town America through misty glasses
Review: The author tells the story of a small-town American way of life which doesn't exist and never did, peopled by angelic, humbling, loving citizens, where the alcoholic, violent, criminal are all reformed by a prayer, where evil people conveniently die or leave town, where a destitute boy, whose mother has disappeared, becomes a millionaire. Very pleasant reading, but all the time the reader is aware that it is just a fable. These books are the latest in a long line of standard books about English village life, centered around the vicar, the church, and the women's organizations.
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Summary: A worthy addition to a beautiful series.
Review: There is no letdown in this fourth Mitford book. Those who have read the others will love this one. However, if you have not read the others, I highly recommend that you get the first, "At Home in Mitford," and read them all in sequence. If anyone thinks that Karon's novels are strictly women's literature, I disagree. As a male myself, I find the masculine characters and their dialogue completely believable. The overall tone of the series is warm and uplifting, with a delightful understated humor, but the writing is not unrealistically syrupy. There is a strong religious undertone, since the main character is a priest, but the style is never preachy. The author has a finely balanced approach to every situation that the plots touch. I am hoping that there is another Mitford novel in progress.
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Summary: Home Town of Joy
Review: If ever there was a better place to live than Mitford, I've surely never heard of it! Jan Karon has created a home town so warm and inviting I've promised to move there the next time my reality check bounces!
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Summary: This book is Terrific!!
Review: A girl at our local public library recommended the Mitford books to me as she knows my taste in reading. After I read the first book in the series I was hooked! They are some of the best books I have ever read. I hope Jan Karon keeps writing about Father Tim, Cynthia, Dooley and the rest of the Mitford people for a long time.
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Summary: I love these books!
Review: I had seen the packaged set of "The Mitford Years" in the stores at Christmas time. I vowed I would find the time to read them sometime soon. I borrowed them from the library but had to start with the 3rd book. I loved it and immediately read the 4th. As soon as possible I got books 1 and 2 and just finished them. I love these books! They are warm, funny, real, and a boost to my spirit. I am recommending them to many people. Fr. Tim is such a gentle but strong character who is so REAL and Cynthia is a great match for him, a strong woman in her own right. I anxiously await book 5. If these books ever make it to the big screen, I recommend John Lithgow for Fr. Tim's character.
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Summary: Sweet, lovely, touching and at times hilarious!
Review: I stumbled upon book two, "A Light in the Window" while browsing at a book store and liked the looks of it but it was over two weeks with searches in two states while on business before I was able to purchase and begin book one, "At Home in Mitford". Immediately, I was hooked and didn't stop until I finished book four, "Out to Canaan".I laughed, chuckled, smiled aplenty and even shed some tears, knowing from the first chapter of the first book that I had to share these gems with my parents. My parents were born and raised in the same small town I was and imagine my surprise while reading page 94 of "Out to Canaan" and finding that former parishioner Albert Wilcox was found over the internet in my home town...Oak Harbor, WA! Where my parents still live, I might add. I let that be a surprise when I sent them the complete set of books so we could each have our own. Jan Karon's Mitford books are truly a delight and would bring a smile to almost anyone's face as well as a lift of their spirits!
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Summary: Philippians four thirteen, for Pete's sake!
Review: Just as Father Kavanaugh's rectory is overcrowded (Wife, dog, convalescent, teenagers, babies), so too is this fourth novel by Jan Karon. It is a happy business, this crowding--it means more life and more love for Timothy Kavanaugh, our erstwhile Episcopalian priest. But the addition of at least a half dozen new characters means that loyal readers may find themselves missing the comfort of the loving exchanges grown familiar from the previous three Mitfordian heartwarmers. Why, I don't think anybody vows to be "et for a 'tater." And Cynthia gives us only one list of what she doesn't love. (Dust on ceiling fans, grumpy husbands) But after all, these ARE Timothy Kavanaugh's books, and these new people are his new challenges. Even as we regret not learning more about the previous supporting characters, we feel the town of Mitford expand as we become closely acquainted with Winnie Ivey (runs The Sweet Shoppe), meet yet another ancient but irrepressible old man (Harley is his name. He lives in the rector's basement, drives a truck with 320 horsepower, is prone to toothless but angelic smiles), and find surrogate son Dooley's baby sister Jessie curled up in Father Tim's lap. Readers may observe that characterization is significantly more complex in "Out to Canaan" than in any of the other Mitford books. Ron Malcom, for instance, a stalwart of the parish council, hurts our very human minister so deeply in a tricky real estate manuover that Father Tim must reach for forgiveness over and over and over...How very real those exchanges are! How comforting it is to know that even in Mitford people confuse each other, wound each other, and don't always exhibit supreme strength of character. But for the most part, they, like us, try their very best. This novel leaves us yearning for more news of Mitford, for yet another book. (And surely, we will have one, because Dooley's two remaining siblings have yet to come home!)
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Summary: A story of the heart to the heart!
Review: Living in a small town myself I could give each character a face in this wonderful series(Mitford Years)by Jan Karon. After reading Home in Mitford, I went to check out A Light in the Window, the second of the series, and found the book missing from the local library. I found out my neighbor had it and begged her to please let me have it while she finished another book she was reading. You can do this in a small town. The Mitford years are the most heartfelt and relaxing books I have ever read. Jan has a way of speaking to your heart and making you feel very much a part of Mitford. Jan please don't stop here, your books are absolutely the best ever. These books have renewed my faith in God and made me value my friends even more.
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Summary: Everyone who despairs of modern life needs this book!
Review: I discovered the Mitford books quite by accident.I found the third book in the series at my local book store (my aplologies to Amazon for being there) and my logic is that if there's three in the series then the first two must have been fabulous. They were and I have become a devoted Mitford fan. Would you rather read the local paper with its horrid stories about child abandonment and criminals or would you prefer to snuggle with a glass of wine and Father Tim? No contest! The fourth is as good as the first and I lie in wait for the fifth. Please, Jan!
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