Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

Sad but sweet, rough but beautiful, innocent but wise—these were my impressions of this touching story about faith and fatherhood. It is the memoire of a small-town preacher, reminiscing about his own life and the lives of his father and grandfather, his best friend, and his best friend’s children. The memories are written for his son, and the book is full of fathers and sons loving and misunderstanding and sometimes rejecting each other and each other’s faith, but always connected by a special bond. Mixed in with it all are some startling, sometimes funny, and sometimes shocking and heart-wrenching, historical anecdotes. And through it all runs the current of a deep love of life, the natural world, and the people who hurt and help and shape and bless one another.

Cape Light Novels by Thomas Kinkade and Katherine Spencer

If you enjoy feel-good stories in a small town setting, you are likely to enjoy this series, full of picturesque scenery and happy endings. There are ministers and medical students, mysteries and miracles, cranks and cooks, calamities and career changes… There are singles, married couples, and familes. There are people to love and to laugh with as they overcome obstacles, find romance, persevere through hard times, and find joy in helping others.

The books are sequential, as follows.

1. Cape Light
2. Home Song
3. A Gathering Place
4. A New Leaf
5. A Christmas Promise
6. The Christmas Angel
7. A Christmas to Remember
8. A Christmas Visitor
9. A Christmas Star