Mitford

I just finished the final book in Jan Karon's Mitford series. I've mentioned before that I reread the first book, At Home in Mitford, around Christmastime and it spoke to me in a way it hadn't done before. So I made it a project to read the entire series. I even broke my vow not to buy any more books in order to pick up the rest of the series.

I feel it was well worth it. The books were consistent in quality, the characters were all individual and interesting, the settings completely imaginable. A couple of the books were a little short, but both were themed so that the length made sense.

What I'm particularly appreciative of is her timing. As I closed the pages of the last book, I felt that while I wanted to know what happened to the characters, I was content to imagine their future lives. And the cast of characters was growing large enough that I can only imagine how difficult it would be to continue trying to follow all the storylines. (As a writer or as a reader!) Few people are willing to leave a popular series at the right time, and I think Karon picked exactly the right spot to let hers go.

Overall, it was an extremely enjoyable series, and spoke to me in a lot of ways. I'm already looking forward to rereading it!