Tag: Karen Kingsbury

Have you ever read a series of novels from start to finish?

Bookish Question #351 | Have you ever read a series of novels from start to finish?

This question could be read two ways:

  1. Have I ever read an entire series of novels from start to finish i.e. read all the novels in a series? or
  2. Have I ever read an entire series of novels from start to finish i.e. back to back without reading anything else in between?

I’ve read a lot of trilogies and longer series as they have released.

The longest single series I can remember reading is Karen Kingsbury’s Baxter series, which might not count because it was actually divided multiple series. I stopped reading around halfway through the second four-book series because the story was straying away from the original characters.

Back when I used to buy lots of paperbacks, I would often reread a series from the start every time a new book was released, partly to remind me of where the story was up to, but mostly because I enjoyed reading but was on a budget so couldn’t buy endless paperbacks (there was also the small problem of storage). I don’t have the cost or storage problems so much now I read ebooks, so reread less.

What about you? Have you ever read a full series of books? What series?

Bookish Question #142 | Which authors or novels to you think best illustrate healthy Christian family relationships?

This is another excellent question.

Fiction is about conflict, and that conflict is often in the context of a family relationship. It may be a stage-of-life thing, but I’m over books where the teenage protagonist has #FirstWorldProblems with their (in my opinion) reasonable parent or parents. I’m also not keen on books where the parents are made out to be some kind of ogres … who have magically produced a well-adjusted child or teenager. #YeahRight.

But there is more to family relationships than parents and children.

There is also siblings … and there are a lot of stories which feature siblings.

Susan May Warren’s Christiansen Family series features the Christiansen siblings (and their parents). Now, it has to be said that they aren’t always “healthy” family relationships, but the emphasis is on acknowledging problems and doing whatever you can to fix the relationships. That’s healthy.

Dee Henderson’s O’Malley romantic suspense series features seven adopted siblings, so that’s a different kind of family. They also disagree, but they’re all noble adults who would do anything for each other.

And, of course, there are Clarke and Marty’s family from Love Comes Softly by Janette Oke, and the Baxter family by Karen Kingsbury, as I mentioned last week.

It’s interesting that all the examples I can think of are series.

Can you think of any standalone novels that do a great job of showing healthy Christian family relationships? Or any series I’ve missed?