Wednesday, October 01, 2008

On... Familiy and Found by Karen Kingsbury

Part of me wishes that I could respect Karen Kingsbury more than I do. At one point I collected her books avidly because I enjoyed them so much. Kingsbury writes with great skill and creates very believable, sympathetic characters.

However, a few years ago I read an article where she was interviewed about a recent book that did not mention God at all. Now, I do not believe that Christians are limited to writing only for the Christian market. I do believe, though, that a person cannot write from any perspective or world view other than that of a Christian. In the article, and I wish I could remember her exact words, Kingsbury basicly stated that it did not matter if she did not mention God because as long as she included some sort of love that would be alright because God is a God of love.

I agree. God definitely is a God of love and a Christian is not forced to mention God or preach a sermon in his or her books but at the same time I disagree with Kingsbury's mindset behind her writing.

For that reason I sold all of my Kingsbury books and will not buy any more.

On the other hand, I still enjoy reading the books and returned to Kingsbury with Forgiven, the second in her Firstborn series. Family and Found are the third and fourth books in the series.

I really enjoyed the book. Kingsbury crafted fully believeable characters that make me want to read both the first series that chronicled the Baxter family and the series that comes after the Firstborn series.

For the above stated reasons I cannot recommend these books but on the basis of writing alone I can recommend the books. If you disagree with me about the above than I can give you a strong recommendation for these books.

No comments: