Jan Karon

My intent was to read the first of this series. Not sure how I managed to get the most recently published--but I didn't feel lost. At least not lost in the sense of not knowing who people were. I did feel a bit lost at times with the style of writing. It's a style somewhat dependent on the visual cues of print--the breaks between paragraphs with pretty squiggly lines that tell you that while this isn't a chapter break, there's been a transition of scenes, characters, or time. There's not a lot of "Cynthia said" type introductions to communications between characters, so you just have to be aware that at any moment we could suddenly be in a new conversation between different characters, or describing the activities of a different group than we were just engaged in. Never-the-less, I loved this book. It reminded me of the old TV series, Mayberry RFD. But instead of a wise and friendly Sheriff named Andy, there's a wise and friendly (retired) Episcopalian priest. I was already thinking this quite early on, when about 14 hours into the book one of the characters actually mentions Mayberry and Sheriff Andy, so I guess it's no accident that I was reminded of it prior to that.
It's a great inspiring book--full of love and grace.… (meer)