Mennonite Daughter: The Story of a Plain Girl
From Amazon: What if the Mennonite life young Marian Longenecker chafed against offered the chance for a new beginning? What if her two Lancaster County homes with three generations of family were the perfect launch pad for a brighter future? Readers who long for a simpler life can smell the aroma of saffron-infused potpie in Grandma’s kitchen, hear the strains of four-part a capella music at church, and see the miracle of a divine healing.
Follow the author in pigtails as a child and later with a prayer cap, bucking a heavy-handed father and challenging church rules. Feel the terror of being locked behind a cellar door. Observe the horror of feeling defenseless before a conclave of bishops, an event propelling her into a different world.
Fans of coming-of-age stories will delight in one woman’s surprising path toward self-discovery, a self that lets her revel in shiny red shoes.
Publisher Description: Take an intimate look into one couple’s fifty-plus-year marriage in author Marian Beaman’s My Checkered Life: A Marriage Memoir. Using a quilt motif, the author stitches together stories that make up the fabric of their daily lives: the clash of cultures, crisis in a travel trailer, surviving a robbery, and enduring financial hardship.
My Thoughts: Divided into four sections, this marriage memoir is a patchwork of stories from the author’s childhood (also referring to her charming earlier book, Mennonite Daughter) and lots of photos and illustrations by her husband Cliff. There’s even a recipe for Apple Orange Brownies.)
With honest and a sense of humor, Marian describes how a Mennonite girl, still wearing her “plain” garb (simple dress, cap, sensible shoes) as a teacher meets and marries a “fancy” man who grew up across the country.
Along with quotes from Madeleine l’Engle and Homer to Anne Lamott and Scripture verses, the stories are chatty reflections, from the good times to the difficult, and even an explosion in their curio cabinet. And plenty of relatives’ stories from both sides of the family. Indeed, a checkered but amazing life.
Marian Beaman
Award-winning teacher turned story teller, Marian Beaman is enjoying her encore career as a writer. A former college professor, the author records the charms and challenges of growing up plain in mid-twentieth century Pennsylvania in Mennonite Daughter: The Story of a Plain Girl. This memoir tells the story of her transformation from a provincial young woman in a sheltered environment who finds her authentic self. Along the way, she discovers a path toward forgiveness of childhood abuse. She also shows how one’s growth can include respect for the past. My Checkered Life: A Marriage Memoir takes an intimate look into one couple’s fifty-plus-year marriage.
The author blogs regularly at marianbeaman.com
You’ll enjoy getting acquainted with this “plain” girl who became a “fancinating” woman!