My week in books

/ Lisa R. Howeler

I’m in the midst of the same books I’ve been reading, so I don’t have a lot to report on the book front for this week for the weekly “Sunday Salon”.

First a little bit about when I read and how (playing off my brother’s post from last week). I read any hardcopy books during the day and books on my Kindle I read mainly at night so I can use the backlight on the Kindle, but not use the way-too-bright book light I bought on Amazon for my hardcopy books. So, I usually have at least two books going at a time – one hardcopy and one Kindle.

This week I’m reading the fourth book in The Cat Who series (The Cat Who Saw Red) on the Kindle and the fifth book in the Mitford series by Jan Karon in hardcopy version. I could have bought the Jan Karon book on the Kindle, but it was $5 more on Kindle than a paperback and I got stingy and bought a used copy of it online instead. I bought that used copy and then realized I actually had a copy of the book in my collection so I didn’t need to buy it after all. Oops. Now I have two copies.

I read the Mitford series years ago – or so I thought. It turns out I missed a few books so I’m going back and rereading them. Book 5, ‘A New Song’ takes place on White Cap Island, which is obviously not the main character’s hometown of Mitford. Actually, Mitford isn’t Father Tim’s hometown, but it’s where he’s lived for 16 years since becoming the parish priest of the local Episcopal Church.

If you haven’t already guessed, or don’t know about the Mitford series, the books follow the everyday life of Father Tim Kavanaugh and the characters he meets, adopts, or has becomes friends within the small North Carolina town of Mitford. I can relate to these books because my mom is originally from North Carolina and she is even familiar with some of the towns mentioned in the book, except for Mitford, which is fictional. Plus I live in a small town and some of the characters in the fictional Mitford remind me of real-life characters in the small town I grew up in.

Almost all of the books in the series take place in or around Mitford, with exception of A New Song and A Home to Holly Springs (when Father Tim returns to his hometown). In A New Song, Father Tim has retired from his parish in Mitford and has been assigned, temporarily, to a church on an island, so we are introduced to an entirely new cast of characters, while also hearing from the old ones.

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I won’t mention too many other characters other than Father Tim or I’ll spoil some of the books for you. If you’re looking for something hard hitting, you won’t find it in these books. They do feature some tough moments, some moments that will bring tears of sadness to your eyes, and maybe a cringe or two from the seriousness of the subject, but for the most part, you’ll take a peaceful walk with Father Tim, with a bit of drama thrown in from time to time. In other words, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry…etc., etc. You get the drift. I find I run to Mitford when the rest of the world seems to be crashing down around me. It’s a great, often light-hearted escape (unless Mrs. Karon decides to kill off a favorite character or two and then I end up bawling about how her books are too stinking real and life sucks and hand me the chocolate ice cream already!)

The Cat Who books by Lillian Jackson Braun are similarly fairly light, but are mysteries. As I’ve mentioned before, the books follow Jim Qwilleran and his two Siamese cats Koko and Yum Yum. Koko is mysteriously brilliant for a cat and always seems to help Qwill, as he is called affectionately throughout the book, solve mysteries that Qwill shouldn’t even be involved in. Braun refers to Qwilleran as Qwilleran throughout the books. He’s a newspaper reporter who often gets assigned the lame beats, like fashion or cuisine, or something else he deems as beneath him because his start was in the crime departments of bigger newspapers than where he is working now.

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I can relate to the Cat Who books for a couple of reasons. First, Qwill is a newspaper reporter, which I was for 14 years and my husband still is. Second, Qwill is in his mid-40s and I’m almost in my mid-40s. Braun does seem to describe him a little too often as graying and old, which reminds me I’m graying and old, but Qwill’s quirky cats and personality make up for that for me.

So how about you? What are you currently reading this week? Want to see what others are reading this week? Then join Readerbuzz’s Sunday Salon, Or Caffeinated Book Reviewer, where other readers (most of them really cool book bloggers, unlike this blogger who is sort of a “whatever blogger) and if you want, add your own post about what you are reading, watching, doing, thinking, eating, or whatevering this week.

For those of us who celebrate Easter – I leave with you one of my favorite Easter songs, adaptly titled “The Easter Song” by Keith Green.

 

13 thoughts on “My week in books”

    • It seems easier to have a couple books going in this world of ours. But also, I have an issue with reading whatever I pick up so I’m always juggling a couple (or three) books at a time.

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  3. I often have a physical book on the go, a kindle book and an audiobook. I switch between them depending on where I am, so I understand the hardcover = daytime kindle = evening thing. 🙂

    I haven’t heard of any of your books but it when they transport you somewhere better to escape the day to day.

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  4. I haven’t read A Cat Who Title in quite a few years, I do enjoy cozies but rarely get a chance to read them partly because they are difficult to find. I’m not familiar with the Mitford series though.

    Have a great reading week

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  5. I do the same thing! I’m reading The Woman in the Window hardcopy and The Handmaid’s Tale on Kindle. I just finished reading Them That Go by a local author and I loved it! It was cool to read about places I know. 🙂

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    • I haven’t read those but the titles alone sound good. Your comment reminded me I have a book by a local author I should read too. Not fiction, but it would be interesting to read about his life as a small town vet.

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  6. I’ve been hit and miss with the Mitford series, and that is a shame. I need to go back and read all of these. They are gentle and uplifting books, without falling into the trap of becoming in-your-face Christian fiction. (I need to think a little more about why I avoid Christian fiction. It probably has something to do with my dislike of others telling me what to do or be.) I’ve been reading a lot of big, dense books lately, and I think I would like something more gentle. And goodness knows we could use something uplifting in our world.

    Thank you for sharing the music today. It’s absolutely perfect for today.

    And thank you for joining in on Sunday Salon. I hope we will see you here often.

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    • I don’t blame you on the Christian fiction. A lot of it is really lame. It’s too pushy. But I don’t think Jan’s books are really pushy. She focuses a lot more on character, in most of the books anyhow. I was reading one Christian fiction book and it was so good but then in the middle it was like a 20 page Bible lesson and I was thinking “I could read this in the Bible. Is this really necessary?” It ruined the book for me and it was a shame because it was an amazing book otherwise and full of adventure and romance.

      I could read more dense books, but I worked in newspapers for 14 years and I think covering murder trials and fatal car accidents and writing obits finally got to me so now I avoid dense books a lot, which is a disservice to my brain, really.

      I won’t lie that I feel like a dork on the Sunday Salon because I don’t read anything too in-depth often, but reading the other posts are helping me find some deeper books, so who knows!

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    • Just be warned that the Hallmark movie grossly misrepresented the books. Father Tim is in his mid 60s and it sets a totally different tone than the movie. I actually refused to watch the movie because they Hallmarked it. Ew! Haha! The movie was actually probably pretty good, because I’m a Hallmark movie fan, but I hate when they mess with a book like that. I forgot to mention in this post that there are 14 Mitford books. I should probably update that. Anyhoooo…thanks for stopping! I’m catching up on blogs tonight and am heading over to check out yours!

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  8. Oh, The Easter Song is one of my favorites, and especially by Keith Green. I’ll have to plug in the headphones later to listen to. Right now listening to Sleepy Hollow on XPN on our Google Home Mini.

    For not having “a lot to report on the book on the book front for this week”, you sure had a lot to say about the books you are reading. 🙂 I don’t think I knew that the Mitford series is/was set in North Carolina. Has Mom read them? Or does she? I didn’t realize The Cat Who series was about a newspaper reporter. Now that I do know, I’ll be avoiding. Again 🙂 But I do like cats.

    And lots of whatevering this past weekend. “Whatever, loser.” I have a feeling that’s what you’re saying now…with you gesturing the L sign on your forehead.

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    • I love the Easter Song. We lost Keith way too early. What a talent.

      Mom has read all the Mitford books and we were both sad because Jan finished the series this years after 14 books. That’s probably because she’s like 80 now and has been writing them for like 20-some years now.

      The Cat Who books don’t focus on the newspaper business as much as the mystery stuff. The cat parts of the story are entertaining. I actually think that you would relate to Qwill because of his relationship with his cats and their personalities.

      And no comment on the “loser” part. 🙂

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