Ronda - reviewed on 12/26/2007 + 214 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 14

If you want to learn something about Amish culture, this book will not work for you. I deal with the Amish at markets, in their saddle and quilt shops, and have gone to their farms to purchase hay and canned goods, and as someone who has lived near Amish communities in three states, I found this book to be very sad. I hesitate to say "one-sided" as of course, she can only tell about the life she led, and as she says, her Old Order Amish family was extremely strict even by their own standards. I'm sure these people are like the rest of us, some good, some bad. You won't learn about Amish ways in this book, as she even admits she has no idea why some things are done. I took a course at Penn State on the history of Germanic peoples in America, including Mennonites, Hutterties and Amish, and the book "The Riddle of Amish Culture" by Donald Kraybill explores in depth the why of their way of life. This author would do well to read it too. It might clear up a few things for her.

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