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Hi ladies! I have an off topic question for you. I'm so sorry, Carrie, if this is not ok. Just delete if you need to.

I am looking for some good books/ book series suggestions for moms. Nothing heavy, just some light entertaining stories with a good message.

Let me first say that when I was a kid, I loved to read! I think that I have forgotten how much, though. By the time that I was a teenager, our family had 5 tvs in the house! So, as you can imagine, not a lot of reading (other than what was required by the public school) went on. And, believe it or not, my parents still have all 5 of them and it's just them there now since all 3 kiddos have gotten married and moved out. Since my husband and I have been married, we have had 2 tvs in our house, one in the family room, and one in our bedroom. Although we don't watch much tv, we do watch separately from our kiddos a lot of the time. They will watch a video before bedtime, and we will watch the news or a movie. The TV is mainly off all day. I didn't really worry about it too much until this last year. We had a super school year with Little Hearts for kindergarten with my daughter. I am really trying to teach her to have a love for reading but, I discovered that I'm not leading by example. My kiddos do see me read my Bible, but other than that, I hardly ever pick up anything else unless its a homeschool or parenting article/book. The small amount of tv watching that I usually do is right before bedtime for some wind down time after a long day. I'm sure that a lot of you know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, we are having a garage sale this weekend and we are getting rid of the tv/dvd player from our bedroom! We are all going to share the 1 tv in our family room. Hopefully this will cut down on all of our tv time. And, it will be more special having movie nights, and things like that.

So, back to my original question. I am looking for some good books/ book series for me. I like all kinds of stories: adventure, romance, comedy, etc, and with a good message. I like the Janette Oke (Love Comes Softly series) stuff. You will laugh-I have not read any of her books, just seen the movies on the Hallmark channel. I love historical stuff, but any suggestions that you have for me would be great!

Thanks so much for your help!

Have a blessed day,
Christy

I'm not sure if this will be considered 'light' (probably not) but I LOVE any books by Ted Dekker, especially the Martyr's Song series. I have also enjoyed many books by Francine Rivers over the years....both authors write Christian stories. Janet Oke is great too, I agree. I'll be checking back with this thread to get some ideas for myself. Can't wait to see what everyone recommends!

If you enjoyed the Love Comes Softly movie series you will really like the books! And of course Janette Oke has written many other good books as well.
Jane Austen's books like Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma and others are great classics too.
I'll be anxious to hear other people share too!
Great question!

Jan Karon has a series called At Home in Mitford that I have really enjoyed and Thomas Kinkade has a series called Cape Light. Both are light and easy to read with loveable characters.

I loved the Love Comes Softly series, too!

I love, love, love to read! It is one of the ways I de-stress! If you would like some "light" Christian fiction, I love the Yada Yada Prayer Group series by Neta Jackson. Kristin Billerbeck also has a great Christian chick lit series. I also enjoy any of Karen Kingsbury's books. Anything by Francine Rivers is awesome too! I could go on and on...

I have also really enjoyed Jeanette Oake's books. I have read the Love Comes Softly series and several of her other series as well. They are all great. I also enjoy Francine Rivers, especially Redeeming Love and the Mark of the Lion series. Both were very good. I also enjoy Beverly Lewis, Wanda Brunstetter, and Cindy Woodsmall. The three of them all have several different series about the Amish. Hope that gives you some ideas!

I love all the books that have been mentioned! Francine Rivers's books are great-I LOVE The Last Sin Eater and dh loved the movie to it. Just be careful because her books before Redeeming Love (the first book by her that I read!) are supposedly not Christian. I've never read them, but was forewarned by a librarian. These were written before she became a Christian, from what I understand, but like I said, I don't know first hand.

I think it's great that you're trying to read more! It's so good for our kids to see us love reading. We recently got rid of all our tvs except for a computer in the school room (on which we occasionally watch shows on Netflix like Liberty's Kids) and then the TV in our bedroom, which dh and I occasionally watch in the evenings.

I've always been an avid reader, but for the past several years all my reading has been non-fiction and school/self-help/Bible related. I have recently developed such a fascination with the Amish since we have a large community of them around us buy our milk/produce from an Amish farm around the corner. I LOVE Beverly Lewis' books. Also Eicher (can't remember his first name...John perhaps?). Just love the Amish fiction. Makes me almost wish we could live a simpler life.

I have actually been enjoying pre-reading books from the book lists that Carrie has for our kiddo's. At least I have the time to finish the books, being form another country I have not yet some of these classics as a child! So that is another option if you have them anyway, you can even read ones that your kids are not yet ready for
We don't own a TV at all so in our house reading is one of the quiet time things we do

I have enjoyed Jan Karon, Karen Kingsbury, and lately Jane Austen as well. I'm in the middle of "Sense and Sensibility" - loving it. I also loved "Stepping Heavenward". I too have only watched the Oake movies, but loved them. I need to read them as well. If you want a good safe laugh, Becky Freeman's books are great. I really liked Elizabeth George's "A Mom after God's Own Heart". "Fairest" was a good clean fairy tale type book I enjoyed. I actually am trying to read from different genres, rotating between them, as I've found this is refreshing to do. Frank Peretti's books "This Present Darkness", "Piercing the Darkness", and "The Oath" are gripping, also the "Left Behind" series - no light reading there, but they gave me a new understanding of spiritual warfare, hard to put down! CM herself is wonderful to read - either her volumes if you are up to the challenge - or Andreola, Gardner, Levison - for nonfiction. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

I loved "First We'll Have Coffee" by Margaret Jensen!
http://www.amazon.com/First-Have-Coffee ... 1565074246
A very heartwarming and pleasant story.

Also Stepping Heavenward...great story.

I know the 'Love Comes Softly' series has been mentioned a few times. I just had to mention that the movies are good and I enjoy watching them, but the books get into so much more and are a bit different in content, e.g., in the book, Missie was practically a baby when Marty married Clark, and Clark and Marty have more children than on the movies, Belinda being one of them. She was not an adopted daughter of Missie's in the book. Also, they had a son, Luke, who became a doctor. The books take you through so much more of the individual lives of each family member. Also, the books are very good at giving the gospel message, as different people come to Christ. Clark is a very Godly man. You are missing a lot by not reading the books. It's like reading Little House books vs. watching the TV show. Janette Oke's 'Canadian West' series is very good as well.

I'm a big Jane Austen fan, and I recently discovered Elizabeth Gaskell (Wives and Daughters is a great book, I haven't read any others yet). So if you like that genre, she's another author to try.
I also read a book called An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott this year-- loved it. Sometimed I enjoy classics for young adults that are very well written but are a relaxing read. (Confession: I still read the Anne of Green Gables series every 5 or so years.)
A Christian author I enjoy is Cindy Martinusen McCormick Coloma (or any variety of those names)...especially Orchid House. (Also Francine Rivers but she's already been mentioned Stepping Heavenward by Elisabeth Prentiss is an all-time favorite!)
Hmm...this is fun to think about, and I'm glad for some great new ideas for summer reading!

Oh ladies - I am so excited to have new reading material ideas! It is how I unwind and travel to other worlds, all while I'm within my own home (preferably in a hot bath). Thanks for these ideas - I'm printing them.

In Christ,
Julie

my3sons wrote:I actually am trying to read from different genres, rotating between them, as I've found this is refreshing to do.

What a great idea, to read different genres! We need a DITHR for Moms, with activities such as "take a bubble bath and read", "brew a cup of tea", "sit on a porch swing and enjoy a chapter", or "read the same book as a friend and discuss"