Book Learning

The night before last I was having a right good pity party for myself and I've been working really hard on changing that behavior in my life so I turned to something that almost always makes me feel better: reading. I escaped into a novel that was new to me and written by author Beverly Lewis. I was drawn to pick up her books out of the Barnes and Noble clearance section because the cover of her first book said that she was writing about Lacaster County, PA.; a place that I'm pretty familiar with.

There's no hiding the fact that I'm from Pittsburgh; either I'm screaming it about me or something about me is screaming it for me. It flumoxes New Yorkers when I carelessly say the word iron (which if I don't watch it often comes out "arh-n") or if I accicently ask what kind of pop they have at a restaraunt instead of saying soda. What you might not know about me is that I spent a few years living in Harrisburg, PA which is just down the road from Lancaster County. Some people refer to this area of PA as "Amish Country" and it's true as there are many Amish settlements in the area. It really is an experience to be late to a meeting in Lancaster and get stuck behind an Amish buggy on a main road. It's a clashing of cultures - you in your car trying not to have road rage in your rush to get where you're going and their absolute bafflement of why you're so worked up and why you think you need to get anywhere that fast or that stressed out.

So when I saw the books on the clearance rack I scooped them up in an impulse buy and when the world was getting to me the other night, I escaped into theirs. I love that about books and I was fascinated about the Amish life and "living plain". I'm glad that God put me right where I am and that might of been the hidden lesson in this book. To tell the truth, I'm hoping my copy was missing a few chapters at the end because she left us with a lot of questions This post is less about the book and more about the experience of leaving behind the world I was in and the mood I was in to find myself in the rolling hills of Lancaster County in an Amish buggy trying to understand why shunnings happen. It was fascinating and it was fun and it reminded me why I was addicted to all of those Lit classes in college.

For now, this is all the news that's fit to knit.

PS - Updated to let you know that I've found out that there are two more books in my series; I'll get those answers I want!