Rating: 
Summary: You can go home again . . . to Mitford
Review: 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.
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: better than the first book
Review: 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.
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Summary: Another great trip to Mitford
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: The Little Town With The Big Heart Strikes Again!
Review: Once again, Jan Karon outdoes herself with A Light In The Window. This book, about Father Tim, a not-too old bachelor who finds himself in the funniest predictaments, Dooley, "a loveable but unloved boy" and Cynthia, Father Tim's lively neighbor who Father Tim finds himself strangely in love with. Father Tim in A Light In The Window, has come home from a trip to Ireland to find himself once again involved in the worst, and the best, of Mitford. A casserole-cooking widow trying to catch him alone, Miss Sadie offering to pay for Dooley to go to boarding school, Dooley uspetting every teacher around, a not-exactly related cousing Meg popping out from no where, and Cynthia, his attractive neighbor who Father Tim can't identify his feelings for (until the end of the book). All over again, Father Tim is surrounded by thousands of situations that he must solve, and does
Rating:
Summary: A Light In The Window (The Mitford Years)
Review: 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!
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Summary: Mitford is Like Coming Home!
Review: In this continuing book, (sequel), of At Home in Mitford, Father Tim's attractive neighbor Cyhthia Coppersmith is at his door, pursuing Father Tim with hot casseroles. Then, his cousin Meg has moved into the rectory for the long haul, disturbing his whole household! Dooley, the boy Father Tim has taken under his wing in the first story, is still living with Father Tim and causing problems in school. They can't seem to locate his mother, and his father is a terrible drunkard. This book is truly as enjoyable as the first one was, and well worth the reading time!
Rating: 
Summary: Returning to small-town heaven
Review: Jan Karon's second tale of Mitford is not quite as good as her first. Her characters don't display as many of those little quirks in their personalities and as much of that homespun philosophy that made me fall in love with the town in her first book ("At Home in Mitford"). And frankly, this entry in the series shows definite signs of belonging on the same shelf as your basic Harlequin romance. But there was enough of the original charm from the first book to allow me to recommend this one. The spiritual and emotional center of the town is still the local Episcopalian minister, Father Tim Kavanagh (whose last name we finally learn at the end of this book!). His relationship with his next-door neighbor, Cynthia Coppersmith, is still going down the same road as in the first book - although there are a lot of bumps and potholes along the way - and his bond with the boy Dooley is only getting stronger. Aside from Father Tim's pursuit of Cynthia (and vice-versa), it would be impossible to describe all the little episodes that make up this book. But there are some that stand out. The town's latest widow, Edith Mallory, shows a definite mercenary streak - she's in shameless pursuit of Father Tim and also wants to close down the local diner and replace it with a dress shop that's willing to pay double the current rent. Miss Sadie, the town millionaire, is literally pouring her millions into repairing her home, just so she can give her newfound niece the wedding of her (and Miss Sadie's) dreams. And a redhead comes to Father Tim's door claiming to be his cousin Meg from Sligo, Ireland. I do wish Ms. Karon had gone more deeply into the "Cousin Meg" sequence, but I can live with what she gave me. Overall this is a worthy sequel to a fascinating tale of small-town life.
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"
Rating:
Summary: just as good as the first
Review: A Light in the Window is the second book of the Mitford series. Sometimes sequels are never as good as the original, but in this case, the second book was just as delightful as the first. The book begins with Father Tim returning from a summer vacation to visit relatives in Sligo, Ireland. While the first book, At Home in Mitford, was more of an introduction of the characters, this book has more action. On the very first page Father Tim is almost run over by a guy talking on the phone in a red pickup truck. Later his dog, Barnabus, gets stolen and has to be retrieved. The relationship between Father Tim and Cynthia begins to grow, even though she is in New York for most of the book and he is in Mitford, North Carolina. Their letters to each other show his fear of committment. He is sixty years old and never been married. Jealousy abounds as the hearts grow fonder with the distance. He wonders who the man is on the other end of the phone saying that Cynthia is getting dressed and will call tomorrow. And Cynthia gets jealous when she finally returns home and sees the "beautiful" Irish cousin who has come to stay with Father Tim indefinately. To find out what happens in the end, read A Light in the Window.
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