Owning two homes, attached to each other, still keeps the same separation alive, and it’s only when embarking on a fateful camping trip, and following Cynthia’s enthusiastic instinct for any kind of exploration, that truly leaves both characters open and vulnerable to the nature of relationships and the risk that is love – a sightless walk in the dark while holding onto the reassurance of another lost hand, a warm body that sightlessly groups and loves and protects and journeys alongside you. In this particular volume, Father Tim is coming to terms with Cynthia’s hilarious penchant for furniture rearrangement – the heavier and more difficult to move the piece, the better it seems to be for trying out in new places. Once you know and accept these chronological facts, and push them gently aside, the verve of Mitford, supposedly sleepy little Southern Town and the undertow of contentment even in the face of life’s very real trials, will once again wrap you into a safety blanket that softly, gently, lulls you into a mindset where all things come of God and everything, even the sadness of life, has a soft, loving quality.

What you Internet savvy die-hard book fans also probably know is that fans were less than pleased, eventually resulting in a back-in-time book, book six in the series specifically, which is just wedding focused and ultimately less than pleasing. Of course, as any Internet savvy book reader knows, These High, Green Hills instead catapults us forward to Father Tim’s post honeymoon bliss, settling with his eccentric and endearing love, Cynthia for more of the regular and dynamic activities of Mitford. Here then, we expect wedding bells and Father Tim’s continued grappling with this penultimate life’s decision. Returning to the charm of Mitford, this time glowing in the health of Spring, Jan Karon follows the previous novel, A Light in the Window, in which the frustrated and yet lovable bachelor priest, elderly Father Tim, confronts his fears and proposes to his next door neighbor and true love.

These high green hills by jan karon