Out to Canaan by Jan Karon | Book Review

Out to Canaan is the fourth Mitford book by Jan Karon.  Remember my summer re-read project?  I'm getting down to the wire!  When this review is published I'll have just four short weeks to finish the first nine books of the series prior to the release of the tenth!

These books are pretty old and this is a re-read project, so there will be spoilers.  These "reviews" are more summaries.  I'm re-reading the whole series, so that should be a good indication that these are definitely excellent books!

In Out to Canaan:

*Mack Stroup challenges Esther Cunningham for the mayorship.  This is a major tension through the whole book, all the way to the last few pages.  Esther wins, but only by a coin toss!

*Dooley comes home for the whole summer!  He works at The Local with Tommy and has two girls potentially interested: Jenny and Lace.

*Father Tim helps Lace bring Harley out of the Creek when he gets a bleeding ulcer.  Harley does his convalescing in their guest room and then moves into their basement mini-apartment.  Turns out he used to be a mechanic for a race car driver, so he gives both their vehicles tune-ups.

*The vestry nearly sells the rectory out from under Father Tim and Cynthia, but they purchase it just in the nick of time.  Fernbank is sold to Andrew Gregory and his new Italian bride.  Sweet Stuff Bakery is on the market, but then Winnie Ivey decides to keep it and run it with her new beau.  Turns out the realty company interested in all three properties is owned by Edith Mallory.

*Barnabas is hit by a car, but Dooley and Hal Own save him.  He's gone for a month out at Meadowgate, healing.  When he comes home, he and Violet carefully coexist.

*Father Tim, Cynthia, and Pauline drive to FL and back over the course of just two days to get Jessie back.  Now Pauline has three of her five children back in Mitford.  She's staying sober and working at Hope House.

*Buck Leeper is back in town to turn the Lord's Chapel attic into Sunday School rooms, and while there he meets and gets interested in Pauline.

*The Bane & Blessing sale raises $22,000, but puts Esther Bolick in the hospital with two broken arms and a broken jaw.  She uses two fingers and eye blinks to communicate her famous orange marmalade cake recipe to Bane & Blessing volunteers.

Next up:  A New Song!

*I own my copy of Out to Canaan.