Amish Values For Your Family by Suzanne Woods Fisher ~ Litfuse Blog Tour and giveaway

About the book:


It offers loving ways to bring your fractured home back to life-Amish style. Read it and apply generously! It's a beautiful book-funny, charming, soulful, and beautiful."
-Mary-Ann Kirkby, author of I Am Hutterite
For readers who long for strong families that know how to truly enjoy life together, there is much to learn from the Amish. Values like community, forgiveness, simple living, obedience, and more can be your family legacy--without selling your car, changing your wardrobe, or moving out to farm country.


In Amish Values for Your Family, bestselling author Suzanne Woods Fisher shows how you can adopt the wisdom of the Amish when it comes to family matters. In this inspiring and practical book readers will find charming true stories interlaced with solid, biblical advice about parenting, marriage, and all aspects of family life. As readers get an intimate glimpse into the everyday lives of real Amish families, they will learn to prioritize what's truly important, simplify decision-making, slow down as a family, safeguard time together, and let go when the time comes.

My take on this book:
I have always admired and respected the Amish way of life. The slower pace of living always gives me a peaceful feeling whenever I visit one of thier communities. One thing that really stands out is the fact that they are very family oriented and seem to have mastered the skill of raising strong families that actually enjoy being together. In "Amish Values For Your Family," the author breaks the book down into four sections,
1. Children are to be loved but not adored.
2.Great Expectations
3.Daily Bread
4. Letting Go
In each section there are several short chapters consisting of a few pages that shares a story or tidbit from an Amish family and then she gives us ideas on how to incorperate those ideas into our daily lives. Each chapter opens up with an Amish Proverb and closes with "In their own words" are snippets from the Budget, an Amish newspaper that I read often.

One of my favorite chapters in the book is titled Read,Read,Read. Its about an Amish boy named David Kline who grew up in the 50's and 60's with a speach impediment. His stuttering was so bad that he believed he would never marry, so he turned to books and read, read, read! Well turns out young David grew up, married and wrote two books about nature which I had the great pleasure of reading several years ago. It was actually his books titled "Scratching The Woodchuck," and "Great Possessions," that got me excited about bird watching, a pass time that isn't only relaxing but has also allowed me to spend quality time with my family.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn some practical but worthwhile ideas on how to strengthen their families. Its also a great book for anyone who wants a closer look at Amish family life and their values.


About the author:

Her interest in the Amish began with her grandfather, W.D. Benedict, who was raised Plain. She has many, many Plain relatives living in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and travels back to Pennsylvania, as well as to Ohio, a couple of times each year for research.



Suzanne has a great admiration for the Plain people and believes they provide wonderful examples to the world. In both her fiction and non-fiction books, she has an underlying theme: You don't have to "go Amish" to incorporate many of their principles--simplicity, living with less, appreciating nature, forgiving others more readily-- into your life.


When Suzanne isn't writing or bragging to her friends about her first new grandbaby (!), she is raising puppies for Guide Dogs for the Blind. To Suzanne's way of thinking, you just can't take life too seriously when a puppy is tearing through your house with someone's underwear in its mouth.

Suzanne can be found on-line at: http://www.suzannewoodsfisher.com/.

To purchase a copy of the book click here.
 

 

Now on to the contest:
To celebrate the release of Amish Values for Your Family, Suzanne has teamed up her publisher Revell Books to giveaway a Kindle, and with Bill Coleman (the amazing photographer used on Suzanne’s book covers) to give away a signed Bill Coleman original.

One Grand Prize winner will receive an Amish Values Prize Package (valued at over $200) and includes:
* A brand new KINDLE
* A Signed Bill Coleman original
* Amish Values for Your Family (for KINDLE)

Click on one of the icons to enter. Winner will be announced on 9/2 at Suzanne’s blog. Be sure to stop by the blogs on Suzanne’s blog tour – many have copies of Amish Values for Your Family to give away.

But, wait there's more! Suzanne is running a Bill Coleman caption contest during the month of August on her blog. Title one of Bill’s gorgeous photos for a chance to win a print from Bill’s Amish Photo site and/or a copy of Amish Values for Your Family.