Happy Monday! The purpose of memorable Monday is to showcase a book that you’ve read in the past and share how/why it has stuck with you.
This week I’m featuring:
Amazon | Goodreads
Anyone else ready for some warmer weather to come back? I keep thinking about this book whenever I look outside waiting on all the “white stuff” to go away. Thankfully it’s supposed to warm up this week 🙂 I know I share a lot of Janette Oke books for these posts, but I just can’t help it because I love her stories! Once Upon a Summer was the first book in the Seasons of the Heart series. It’s another one I highly recommend if you haven’t given it a read yet!
About the Book:
Josh Jones realizes his family isn’t typical, but it’s the only life he’s ever known. Aunt Lou, Gramps, Uncle Charlie, Grandpa–they all have shaped the young man he has become. But as he grows into manhood, Josh begins to face important questions about life, love, and faith. Three million books sold in the series!
About the Author:
Janette Oke writes with a profound simplicity of what she knows best—real life, honest love, and lasting values. With over 23 million in sales, her historical novels portray the lives of early North American settlers from many walks of life and geographical settings. She also writes engaging children’s stories and inspiring gift books that warm the heart.
Janette was born during the depression years to a Canadian prairie farmer and his wife, and she remembers her childhood as full of love and laughter and family love. After graduating from Mountain View Bible College in Canada where she met her husband, Edward, they pastored churches in Canada and the U.S., and they raised their family of four children, including twin boys, in both countries. Edward eventually became president of Mountain View Bible College and recently established a coalition of colleges that became Rocky Mountain Bible College.
During her earliest years, Janette sensed the desire to write. Though she yearned to be a published novelist, she devoted herself to being a wife and mother because, she says, “there is no higher honor—that is my number-one priority.” She began serious writing when her children were entering their teens.
Her first novel, a prairie love story titled Love Comes Softly, was published by Bethany House in 1979. This book was followed by more than 75 others. She reaches both religious and general markets, telling stories that transcend time and place. Her readers of all ages and walks of life can identify with the everyday events and emotions of her characters. Janette believes everyone goes through tough times—the key is to be prepared with a strong faith as the foundation from which decisions are made and difficult experiences are faced. That perspective is subtly woven throughout her novels.
After Love Comes Softly was published, Oke found her readers asking for more. That book led to a series of eight others in her Love Comes Softly series. She has written multiple fiction series, including The Canadian West, Seasons of the Heart and Women of the West. Her most recent releases include a beautiful children’s picture book, I Wonder…Did Jesus Have a Pet Lamb and The Song of Acadia series, co-written with T. Davis Bunn.
Janette Oke’s warm writing style has won the hearts of millions of readers. She has received numerous awards, including the Gold Medallion Award, The Christy Award of Excellence, the 1992 President’s Award for her significant contribution to the category of Christian fiction from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, and in 1999 the Life Impact Award from the Christian Booksellers Association International. Beloved worldwide, her books have been translated into fourteen languages.
In recent years, Janette and her siblings lovingly restored their parents’ prairie farm home, and it now serves as a gift shop and museum of prairie life. Please see below for a special invitation to the Oke Writing Museum and The Steeves’ Historical House. She and her husband live nearby in Alberta, Canada, where they are active in their local church. Visits from their families, including their grandchildren, are their delight.
Now it’s your turn!
Share the name of a book you read in the past and why it was so memorable to you in the comments! You can also click the icon below to visit more Memorable Monday folks and/or add a link to your own post!
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I’ve never read a Janette Oke novel before. These books were BIG when I was in high school, but back then I was in my King Arthur and Jane Eyre phase. Those were the types of books I was reading back then.
We need one of those time winder thingys Hermoine uses in Harry Potter so we can read a book and the wind the time back so we can read another… in another room of course so we don’t scare our other self 😉😂
A time turner! Yes, that’s what I need for sure. 👍🤣