Karen Kingsbury, especially the Baxter 15 book series. I've laughed and I've cried. She is awesome. The Redemption, First Born and Sunrise Series (5 books in each series). I buy anything she writes now. I was introduced to this series when I picked up all 5 of the Redemption series books at Goodwill and fell in love with the Baxter family and then went on to buy the rest of them at the bookstore. I will buy anything she writes. This is one of the few book series that you actually feel like you know the people. I remember worrying about one of the characters in one of the books and had to remind myself that they aren't real people! lol Wonderful reading!