Book Rec: The Amish Midwife

I re-registered for the county's public library in the first few weeks of the stay-at-home order, because I wanted access to their e-books if I wasn't going to be able to go to Barnes & Noble. They were very kind to issue me a temporary library card, and told me to come by a branch as soon as they were opened again, to get a real one. (They're still not open, but the bowling alleys are! This makes no sense whatsoever.)

Anyway, the selection on Overdrive is not always ideal. The most current books are typically on a wait list for quite a long time. So for my first check-out, I found a book called The Amish Midwife, by Mindy Stearns Clark and Leslie Gould, authors I'd never heard of before. I took a chance. And I loved it. It was like the Amish version of the once-so-popular At Home in Mitford. A world that's so calming and peaceful you can almost smell dew on the grass.

And besides that, I simply love anything about the Amish. [Any faith tradition other than my own, actually. I am always drawn to fiction/historical fiction about the Amish, the Shakers, Judaism especially, the Mormons, and even going so far as the fundamentalist versions of those, up to and including all the seriously whackadoodle cults (well, not the violent or truly sick ones, but you know). I am equally creeped out and fascinated by Leah Remini's TV series on leaving Scientology, for example. I've watched the documentary about Jim Jones and the Kool-Aid thing more than once. I know it's weird but I can't help myself.]

Particularly in this coronavirus time period, but anytime, I find the Amish way of life so soothing to think about. Tend the garden. Raise the kids. Hang the laundry out to dry. Don't worry about looking fashionable. Rock the babies. Baking. Farming. Community. Sure, the lifestyle has its issues and problems (insular families, much-too-young brides, patriarchy), but we can skip past those. Slow-paced life working from home is suiting me right now, and intrigues me all the time. So anyway, this book was a total comfort. Lucky for me it's the first in a series of 4. I've already downloaded Book #2, because I'm not ready to leave that world just yet. I may get tired of it before reading all four, but we'll see.

Book #1, incidentally, tells the story of a 26-year-old Oregon girl, who discovers that she is related to an Amish family in Pennsylvania, and goes there to find out more about those family ties. There were things that frustrated me about both her character and the Amish family members, and one plotline specifically that was very obvious but kept a "secret" for the entire story -- but mostly, it was just great storytelling, well-written, with believable relationships and irresistable vignettes of Amish culture.

I think it falls into the category of "Christian fiction," which isn't always a good recommendation, but the spiritual stuff wasn't heavy-handed; maybe because the Amish way is gentle and non-confrontational. I recommend it if you think something light and comforting might be good for you right now.