Amish People: Plain Living in a Complex World

They were going to kill the conservative right wing. - Pizza Huts, hamburger stands, no school past 14, Protestant, German, Martin Luther, Lord's Prayer, early Sunday worship- They own Pizza Hut. It all went down at my church. More and more people can't afford to live in today's world. Know your race- don't fill your face. It's awesome.

Author Carolyn Meyer grew up in Lewistown Pennsylvania, and had a lifelong fascination with her Amish neighbors; this book is the fruit of her years of studying the Amish. The book takes Ms. Meyer's considerable knowledge about the Amish, and puts it into the form of a narrative of life in the Amish community. In it, we follow a year in the life of the (fictional) Beiler family, as they live their lives, go to school, worship, work their farms, and observe the rituals that cover everything from birth to death.This is a really nice book, one that doesn't just talk about the Amish, but actually puts the facts into the context of real life. If you have a younger reader who is interested in the Amish, or even an older reader (such as myself), then you should get this book. I highly recommend it!

I read this book as a class project. I found it was very accurate description with the author's account of the way of life of the Amish. It is a nonfiction book, but she added some "fictional" characters to show the reader how it would be like as an "Amish person." It made the reading interesting to have these characters in the story. It made you wonder--What did Sam Belier decide to do? Will he stay Amish? I think so. At least that is my conclusion from reading the book. He likes a girl in the story, so this makes sense. He also likes to farm. If an Amish person didn't like to farm or like the girls, he might be tempted to leave their life. But then he would be shunned for life. So, why leave? IF they don't leave, they will be part of their community and respected still. I thought the book was well organized--putting the chapters into parts of their life from Farming, to Church life, and to marriage. Their life cycle may seem boring, but the Amish do have fun sometimes like at "Singings" and things like that. They just take life a little more seriously. Their life is ruled by the Ordung (rules) of their CHurch. Sometimes the ORdung is different in different districts. There are some Amish who are more "wild" (called "Beachy Amish"). While most districts just have more stirct vs. milder rules. However, even if a person wants to leave one district for another--then they may be shunned. That is why it is hard for me to imagine anyone wanting to "convert" to Amish. I think it is very rare.