I couldn't find the first book of the Harmony Series, so I was advised to just pick this one up and get started, that this series isn't really written to be read in a certain order. This part is true.I loved this. I read it in about two days. It's quite a different writing style than I'm used to, it's very concise and neat. It reads more like a good newspaper column than a novel. And each chapter has the feel of its own short story. So it's a very easy put-down book (not for me, though).Philip Gulley is an excellent storyteller. As I understand it, he's a Quaker minister in Indiana, so he sets his story around a Quaker congregation, presumably in Indiana. Gulley's fictional preacher, Sam Gardner, is the main man of the stories, but the entire congregation really carries the stories.Sam is a quiet, observant preacher who has grown up in Harmony and ministers to the Friends church. We meet some of the members of that church, the Peacocks, the Hinshaws, the Hodges, just some people of Harmony who shape small-town life into what it is...and only a small-townee could capture Harmony so sweetly.And only a preacher's eye could capture the telling of People like this. I laugh and (want to) cry at the same time. Because while my favorite stories feature Highlanders, boy wizards, games of thrones, teenagers in dystopian war games, fallen angels and vampires and werewolves...I've never MET any of those. They are entirely up to my imagination.The churchfolk in Harmony...I KNOW them. I don't know Fictional Fern Hampton...but I KNOW her. I know Dale Hinshaw. I know good, quiet, salt-of-the-earth folk like the Peacocks and the Gardners and the Hodges. I know what it's like to sit in a church planning meeting and want to bang my head on the table. I know what it's like to answer a church telephone and have people "fishing" for information.I already know, after this first book, that I will be grabbing up and devouring every other Harmony book I can find. Recommended for anyone who wants a quick, funny read, a regular churchgoer who needs a laugh, or people who enjoy small-town America stories with a nostalgic feel.
I have to say that so far (about a 100 pgs into), I am really disappointed. If I had not read Home to Harmony within the last month, I may have very well forgot some of the things that made it funny. But having just read it, the stories in this book are the same funny stories, just from 3rd person perspective instead of 1st person. Seriously? Why did your editor let you write the same book?! I was planning on reading all of them, now I am not quite sure. Maybe too much of a good thing really is just too much.Ok done with it now, which seemed like it too me forever for such a short book. I had this picked as our book clubs June book and am changing it. There were a few funny stories, but not enough to make my poor friends suffere as I did! Dont get me wrong, it didnt stink or anything, it just really didnt hold my interest for more than a few pages at a time. Not something that I couldnt put down, which is what I really enjoy in books, escape your own world and get into theirs. Which I felt Gulley did with the first Harmony book. Again, maybe I read that, plus the Harmony Christmas and this all close together.
What do You think about Just Shy Of Harmony (2006)?
I think the only reason I am not rating this "Harmony" series a 5 is because I know it will not appeal to everyone. I will say, though, that after reading this second in the series, I believe I like it even more than the Mitford series by Jan Karon. Lots of humor but also some valuable lessons. That even the greatest of believers can have doubts, that often the best way to draw close to God is to slow down and that God often uses people and circumstances that we may feel are unworthy to do His will. I'm looking forward to the next in the series.
—Julie
Sequel to 'Home to Harmony', this is another sequence of anecdotes surrounding the life of Quaker pastor Sam. In this book he becomes rather cynical, feeling that he's lost his faith, and decides to stop preaching for a while, allowing his elders to speak instead. One of them is convinced the Lord has led him to feed his chickens with Scripture verses, to pass out eggs for evangelism... There's humour in this book, there are also some quite moving scenes. There's not a whole lot of plot, just several stories as time moves forward in the lives of the mixed bunch who interact with Sam. Slightly annoying that the tense changes apparently randomly from past to present and back again, but overall this is very enjoyable light reading that gently manages to explore issues of faith and hope, of church unity and struggles, of the priorities that are - or perhaps should be - part of the Christian life, and in the end, an awareness that God can work through the most unexpected of circumstances.Not for everyone, but for those who like the Jan Karon style of small town American church anecdotes, this is recommended.
—Sue
