A family. A farm. A heart. All in need of repair.

Suzanne Woods Fisher’s book The Keeper tells the story of a young Amish girl struggling to keep her family’s farm going after her father develops heart problems. Dreaming of her wedding to her fiancé Paul, she is devastated and angry when he calls off the wedding – for the second time. And she’s sure she knows whose fault it is that Paul has got cold feet.

I loved this book. It’s full of interesting (and sometimes infuriating!) characters, who are all really well evolved people. This isn’t a book which has a few central roles, with the rest of the ‘cast’ merely cameos. It tells an involving and entertaining story with energy and a good side dose of fun. I especially liked the character of Fern, and enjoyed wondering about the significance of ‘the man with the panama hat’. M.K. and Menno were both super characters too. By this you can see that the book is more than simply ‘Julia’s love story’, and for me this makes it a much more interesting read.

I read a lot of books, but not all that many of them keep me reading far too late into the night. This one did.

Highly recommended – I’m looking forward to the next already.

Price: £8.99
UK Publication Date: February 2012
Video trailer

Harvest Thankfulness

“Having received the gift of daily bread from your gentle hand, O Lord and heavenly Father, and been satisfied with it – this gift which you give to us in such abundance, just as you do all your other gifts – we ask you through Christ, your Son, to make the power of the Holy Spirit complete in us. We desire to love you with our whole hearts and bless you with our mouths so that we who receive your gifts do not become proud and arrogant, nor forget your love and sacred commandments. We desire to love you with our whole hearts, not just with our mouths and lips but with our works and deeds and all that is in us. We thank you; we honour, praise, and bless you as our Creator and Sustainer, not just in this life but also in the life everlasting. Amen.”

Last weekend I visited my Dad’s church, where they were celebrating Harvest Festival. Successful harvests have been celebrated for hundreds of years by decorating churches with gifts of food which are then given to people in need. I once attended a wedding which took place during the Harvest Festival weekend. The church windowsills were decorated with onions and potatoes and there were stooks of wheat at the doorway. Unusual decorations for a wedding, but striking and memorable!

On Sunday the church held a lunch after the Festival service, to raise money for the charities Compassion and Operation Agri. Perhaps the way we bring our food offerings to church for Harvest Festival has changed over the years: we see more packets and cans and less bread and home made goods, but it is right that we are still reminded to provide for those in need, and that this is still a fundamental part of our harvest thanksgivings. The Amish have been praying for many years: “We desire to love you … with our works and deeds and all that is in us.” A reminder of the importance of living an active faith.

Bill Coleman and a Quilt

Pray for a good harvest but continue to hoe.
Amish Proverb

Bill Coleman ran his own photography studio for thirty years, before a friend took him to visit a remote Amish village.

That journey changed his life.

At the age of fifty, he closed his studio and began photographing the Amish. Now eighty-five, he continues to photograph the same village as often as he can. His work is acclaimed and exhibited around the world. Yet his interaction with the Amish people and their values and ways has altered his own values in ways he believes are for the better.

You can read his story in Amish Values for Your Family: What We Can Learn from the Simple Life. And yes, an Amish quilt does get a mention!

In this engaging book you can learn from the Amish about prioritising what is truly important, simplifying decision making, safeguarding time together, letting go and slowing down.

You can read a sample chapter here.

By the way, if you enjoy Christmas novellas, as I do, you are likely to spot a link between this story and the forthcoming A Lancaster County Christmas, due for UK release in October.

A review of this is coming soon, but if you would like a sneaky peek, click on the link for a sample chapter. The sample chapter doesn't give away the connection, so you'll have to read the whole book to find out what it is!


If you'd like to see some of Bill Coleman's photos (they're well worth a look), you can find them here.

Amish Values for Your Family
Price: £7.99
ISBN: 9780800719968
Published by: Revell (Distributed by Lion Hudson)
Available through any good bookshop or online