Sunday, April 17, 2016

Simple Pleasures by Marianne Jantzie Blog Tour + Book Review

*Disclosure of material connection- I received a copy of the book from the publisher via Litfuse Publicity Group in exchange for my honest thoughts. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions are 100% my own. 

About the book: 
Simple Pleasures: Stories from My Life as an Amish Mother (MennoMedia, March 2016)

Young Amish homemaker Marianne Jantzi invites readers into her family's life on the snowy plains of Ontario.

The mother of four young children and wife of a storekeeper, Jantzi writes about her daily routines and heartfelt faith with equal measures of wit and warmth. Sewing, cleaning, cooking, gardening, and helping to manage the store take up most hours in her day, but Jantzi finds time to pen columns for the Connection, a magazine beloved by Amish and Mennonite readers across the United States and Canada. Never sugarcoating the frustrations of motherhood, Jantzi tells it like it is, broken washing machine and bickering children and all. But through her busy days, Jantzi finds strength in simple pleasures of family, fellowship with her Amish community, and quiet time with God. 

My thoughts-

I am intrigued by the Amish community. I read a lot of Amish fiction novels and I know a lot of them are not completely based in reality so it is nice to be able to have books like Simple Pleasures to really get a good look into the lives of these fascinating people. What I learned from Simple Pleasures is that the Amish are not all that different from us. Sure they don't use electronics or cars or other modern day conveniences, but they do have many of the same challenges as your average parent. Kids will be kids no matter how they are brought up and everyone is entitled to a bad mood or two. What I took away from the book was that the Amish are not perfect, nobody is. What I enjoyed most about this book was just reading about Marianne's life. About her kids helping her in the kitchen and wanting a dairy farm, about buying random chickens, and getting a pet and all of the many other adventures with her family. 

About the author

Marianne Jantzi is an Amish write and homemaker in Ontario, Canada. Jantzi, a former teacher in an Amish school, is now writes her own column"Northern Reflections" for The Connection, a publication read mainly by Amish and other plain communities in the United States and Canada. Jantzi, her husband and four children run a shoe store in the Milverton Amish settlement of Ontario.













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