A new Jan Karon book!

I am on Goodreads, though I don’t write reviews or even comment on my friends’ reviews very often. I like using it as a kind of notebook to keep track of what I want to read. The other day I got an email from them which said:

#1 New York Times—bestselling author Jan Karon returns—and invites you to join her again in Mitford in Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good, on sale September 2. Here’s a special message from Jan to you, her loyal readers:

Dear reader,

Here's hoping that you will be moved to much laughter—and a few tears—as I surely was when writing Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good. My characters are flesh and blood to me; I regard even the worst of them with love, and believe this is how God thinks of us, his own wayward, restless, comic, striving and endearing characters.

Of the twenty-three titles of my books, this is my favorite. I believe it expresses in just five words what we all long for.

Warmly, 

Jan Karon

I am incredibly happy about this. I love the Mitford series. I love the characters, the locale, the stories. Recently I’ve been thinking about the books, and how nobody talks about them anymore. For those who don’t know, they were HUGE in the 1990s into the 2000s. Anywhere people were talking about books, you would hear or read Jan Karon’s name. They had a religious basis, but not in a pushy, ‘i am right’ sort of way. Her main character, Father Tim is an Episcopalian priest, and try as the Episcopal church might we are just not really good at evangelizing; at drawing attention to ourselves. In general, we are a humble bunch which probably goes a long way in explaining why we aren’t such a powerful force, or a big church, in this country. I haven’t gone to church in a long time, and I do have other beliefs besides Christianity, but still I am, as they say, a ‘cradle Episcopalian’ and the church is in my heart and soul and mind, even as I don’t attend services. 

Anyhow, I am just so thrilled there is a new book coming out. I've missed this town and these people.