Customer Reviews

A Light in the Window

5 star:		(61)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This book was every bit as delightful as At Home in Mitford, and I look forward to reading the rest of the series. Jan Karon has created the perfect small town in which we would all like to live, and it is a joy to visit there, even if only for a little while. Esther Cunningham, the mayor of Mitford, says that Mitford always takes care of its own, and I think that is what we all love about the place. It's a place where the community love God and love their neighbors, with all their faults and eccentricities. It is also wonderful to read a about romance between mature adults Father Tim and Cynthia. I applauded Karon's way of communicating Christian values without hitting us over the head with them. I always leave Mitford a little more aware and a little more kindly disposed toward my own neighbors. If only we could create such a community in the real world.

It had been over a year since I read the first Mitford book, so I figured it was time to take another visit. I will admit I wasn't too excited about reading Mitford #2 because I knew there wouldn't be much action in the story. However, after about 50 pages or so in A Light in the Window, I realized what I was missing. I was finally home once again...

This second installment is chock-full of happenings. We have recent widower, Edith Mallory, setting her eyes (and hands) on Father Tim; a mysterious Irish cousin who comes to stay in the rectory for questionable reasons; and we meet a new character, Buck Leeper, the hardened, unpleasant building supervisor hired to build Mitford's new nursing home. But the most important part of this book is Father Tim's growing feelings toward his neighbor, Cynthia, and his struggle to accept them, be happy, and let nature take its course. And naturally, Cynthia has a word or two to say about that!

I enjoyed A Light in the Window much better than the first one. I found myself reading this novel until the wee hours of the morning because I couldn't get enough of the characters or heartwarming storylines. No action, no plot twists, no shocking endings -- but I simply didn't care. Jan Karon has a way of telling a story that makes all those other page-turning qualities seem unimportant. Mitford is a home away from home, a fictitious account of REAL life, and a place where I will look forward to visiting in the books to come.

I have zoomed through the first 4 Mitford books and am now midway through the 5th. The characters grab you and transport you to a town where I think, deep down, we would all like to call home. Father Tim is a "real" person with very human characteristics. Yet his basic goodness will restore your faith in humanity. The theology is not shoved down your throat, but rather is grasped between the lines. All the characters are memorable. Cynthia and Dooley in particular help shape the wonderful story line. The huge dog, Barnabus, who is disciplined only by hearing Bible verse, worms his way into your heart. I am so glad I discovered this series, and I recommend it to absolutely anyone!

I am totally engrossed in this series. I have already purchased the next two available. My first thought in reading this series is what a peacful feeling it leaves with me. It's an easy read and a welcome change from the violence and depressing thoughts prevailing in so many of the books today.

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.

I saw a program advertised that a librarian friend of mine was doing on the Mitford series. I couldn't go, but remembered the series when looking for a new book. The store only had the first in the series. I bought it and was hooked within an hour. I have read all her books about Father Tim and am so enchanted and yes, addicted! I passed mine on to my daughter who is now rationing her reading to make them last longer! I ordered a set for a gift, but am seriously thinking of not giving them away. Will pre-order her next book due out in April of 2001. These books are wonderful gifts for any age. Everyone I have talked to has loved them.

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.

I must confess that I had seen the Mitford series of books in the stores and never even picked one up. So it wasn't until I received the first book in the series as a gift that I discovered what a treasure this series of books are! After reading the first one, I could hardly wait to read the second....third...etc, and I wasn't disappointed. If you're looking for the action and high drama of something like the Left Behind series or a John Grisham novel, this may not be to your taste. But it has a sweet, gentle and wonderful quality to it that makes you not only like the characters, but to love them as well. There *is* action and drama, but it has a gentleness and "next-door neighborly-ness" that makes it so easy to relate to. My only disappointment is that I have read all of the books in the series, and given them to others to enjoy so I can't go "visit" the characters in them again!

I liked this one better than the first book, At Home in Mitford. The story lines in this book seemed more compelling, more interesting. Father Tim deals with the long absence (most of the book) of his neighbor, Cynthia, while she writes her new book in New York. He also deals with Edith Mallory, a recent widow with her sights set not only on the rector but on a well-known Mitford establishment too. Sadie Baxter tells more of her interesting life stories while she arranges for the long-closed ballroom in her house to be fixed up for the wedding of a relative she didn't know she had. And the man in charge of construction of the new Hope House seems to be quite a rough old sourpuss. The usual charming cast of characters is back and if you liked the first book, you'll like this one even better.

After loving "At Home in Mitford" I was sorely disappointed in this next installment. Instead of being charming and heartwarming, it was annoying and frustrating. Father Tim, so lovingly developed in the first book, becomes ineffective, brainless, and spineless. And the downfall is that the book concentrates so much on his reverted character, and so little on the wonderful townspeople and small miracles that happened in the prequel. Ms. Karon creates unbelievable, comic book characters (i.e. the widow after Father Tim) and then drags on and on about so few folks. How disappointing, I am not sure I will ever start the third book in the series.