My favorite books

It's coming to the end of reading season around the farm (aka spring is here) so I thought I'd share a few of my favorite books.  Now, keep in mind that I read A LOT!  And therefore, these recommendations are the best of the best.  These are the ones I read every year.  These are the ones that I give as gifts.  These are the ones that if our house was on fire, I would grab on my way out the door.

The Cherokee Trail by Louis L'Amour is my favorite of the L'Amour westerns.  (A close second is any book that has Chick Bowdrie in it.)  This one tells the story of Mary Breydon who heads west with her young daughter to run a stage station after the Civil War destroys her family's plantation.  I love strong women characters and Mrs. Breydon is one of the best!  Even if you're not a western genre fan, this book crosses those borders.

 At Home In Mitford is the first book of the Mitford Series by Jan Karon.  My mom, sister and I will quote these books often with Mitford-isms.  Father Tim is the main character and an Episcopal priest in the mountain town of Mitford, North Carolina.  These books will make you laugh, cry and giggle out loud.  Jan Karon does an excellent job of character development and her dialog is absolutely awesome! All of the books in the series are wonderful, you'll be transported to Mitford!

If I'm forced to choose just one Janette Oke series (SERIES, mind you, not just book) it would be the Seasons of the Heart series.  The story of Joshua is so sweet and tender and heartwarming, you just can't but laugh and groan and cry at his life experiences.  It's wonderful tale to read aloud to your kids. I also love the Canadian Rocky series and the Love series.  My mom read these books aloud to us multiple times in the car as we drove to various places.  There were no DVD players in cars back then, just my mom and great books!

Debbie Macomber writes romance novels, but the sweet kind.  No smut here, thank you very much.  Her stories are captivating, her characters endearing, the love stories sweet.  I love her stories on a cold winters night snuggled in with Hubby.  And they almost always talk about knitting, even better!

I'm a book lover more than a movie lover.  So I had read The Notebook long before the movie was released.  And I do like the movie.  But I LOVE the book.  It's a tear jerker every time.  I read it on a busride with my science olympiad students back in my teaching days and scared them a bit with my tears.  The sequel The Wedding, is just about as good.  This one is dog eared and the cover is a bit worn, the best kind of book!

And lastly, my new favorite!  Ann Voskamp will change your life.  You will see your life in a new way, a better way, they way it was meant to be lived.  I couldn't read this book straight through.  I had to read it bit by bit and process what she was saying and how it related to me right now.  I can't wait to read it again and absorb more.  I love when I am changed by a book.  You need this one.

So, there you have it, a wonderful reading list to get you through the summer reading season.  (My current reading season has me reading seed packets.)