Book Description
Lewis's most popular series reveals the closed world of an Amish community. Now in a special value edition! Over a million books sold in the series!
Customer Reviews:
Heritage of Lancaster County.......2007-05-13
Beverly is a fantastic writer and so infomative of the Amish. So easy to read and once you start you don't want to put them down.
Not our favorite Beverly Lewis book.......2007-02-23
My husband and I got hooked on Beverly Lewis's excellent writing in the Annie's People and Abram's Daughters series. She's truly a master of suspense and intrigue in these books. I passed them on to my father, who loved them too. We've often visited Lancaster County and especially enjoyed this chance to "go inside" the lovely farmhouses we've admired from outside. However, we just finished Heritage of Lancaster County and both of us were very disappointed in it. The main characters don't seem to have an ounce of common sense and the plot is bit of a stretch. Katie (Katherine) comes off as stupid and selfish. Compared with Annie of Annie's People and Leah of Abram's Daughters, this heroine is a flop!
I believe this book was written earlier than the other two, which may account for the difference. We're glad we read the others first - they are wonderful!
Awesome book!!.......2007-02-14
Beverly Lewis has got to be my favorite author these days. I thoroughly enjoyed this book series (which included all 3 novels in one large edition). I highly recommend this series to anyone who loves Christian fiction - and anyone who loves to read about the Amish. Excellent series - can't wait to read more!!
Good Good Good.......2007-01-19
Whaat a good one again.YOU just have to get all of her books if you enjoy reading of intrigue,family,love,connections ,just all the things that make our world a better place.She is super talented.I wish I could write like her.I'm author of Sharper Than A Two Edged Sword-It's my true story of a hard time in my life,can be found here on Amazon also.Nadia N.Rehmani
heritage of lancaster county.......2007-01-11
I thought the book was very good, just couln't put it down
Product Description
A literary novel from Tamar Myers
The poignant, yet uplifting tale of a naïve Amish womans banishment from her community and her passage into the real world. It is the story of her struggle to come to terms with life-altering decisions. It is a novel about religious conflict and hard choices.
Customer Reviews:
The Dark Side of Heaven.......2007-05-13
Very descriptive writing. I found myself so engrossed with imaging the author's words. Author was knowledgeable about the Amish community and also the areas in Pennsylvania that was the setting for the novel. This book was selected by votes for our Community Book Club. After reading the book, we had the opportunity to meet the author. She was so gracious and entertaining telling us how the book came about and her background. I would definitely recommend this book.
Frosted Design on a Frozen Window Pane. A Dragon Flies. Crows Cry. Gateways Flash with Light........2006-08-22
Upon assimilating the first few words in THE DARK SIDE OF HEAVEN, I realized I wanted to read this book aloud. To someone. To my husband would have been perfect. I wanted to read every word through the gift of my clearest, strongest voice. But, I knew I wouldn't be able to create a parenthesis in time and space to do that.
I read on silently because I couldn't do otherwise. I kept the lamp at pillow side lit hours beyond my usual sleep time. I needed my sleep. I was too often under the weather vanes. But, I needed to read that book.
That book is now held at the top of my list of the highest works of art. Though all Tamar Myers' books feel like born-to-do products, I sense that this author was conceived to write THE DARK SIDE OF HEAVEN.
This work has the most quietly beautiful cover I've ever seen. You have to hold it in your hands and become very still to see the full spectrum of artistic vision, in mesmerizing shadows of smoke & mirrors. Yet, the voice Tamar uses, inside the subtle, silent significance of the cover, is direct, clear, and simple, using sparkling streams of syntax to develop slow flowing cream in concept.
The publisher, Bella Rosa Books, is of impeccable quality. The type style on the creamy pages gives a time-slip impression of an ages past, but well-oiled typewriter, an Olympia maybe.
If you buy the paperback version of this novel when it comes out, after you read it, you will want to return to Amazon to buy the Bella Rosa Books hardcover version. You will want to have that essence of a true BOOK in a place of constant visibility. You will be proud to carry this DARK SIDE OF HEAVEN around with you.
I always carry a book with me when I go to supper at Zack's in Hotchkiss, Colorado. A waitress was interested in what had me so engrossed this time. As I was leaving, she asked. Pausing the palm of my hand on the cover jacket, I said, "This one is very good." I made that statement with the caring conviction of each word ringing crystal bells of truth.
I had expected a book about shunning to be torturously sad. That type of sadness I rarely seek in fiction, so I was surprised when I wanted this novel the first time I noticed it on Amazon, even with the book's aura implying an emotional soul drop. I was not actually surprised when I began reading and saw that the story was spunky and sweet, elegant in being unpretentiously unadorned. My heart was awake but not crushed. My eyes were wide and attentive to the text.
Slowly, Myers dribbled in quiet, soft humor, the antithesis of the snappy style of her 2 mystery series.
I knew she could do this. I had seen flickers of a touching seriousness in a few of her other 25, nationally best selling novels, which I mentioned in my review of NO USE DYING OVER SPILLED MILK, # 4 in Tamar's PenDutch series.
The most amazing part of this story's more serious slant is that every contrasting angle flickered with a complimentary balance of soft light and shadow. No individual, no "Way" was all good or all evil there. Nothing was all Right or all Wrong. Everything just was. This type of generosity of alternate perspectives is nearly unbelievable, almost impossible to achieve in the dramatic culture clashes between Old Order Amish and New Wave "English."
I relished the Literary Lace feel in the gentle sense of order achieved by the type of transitions Myers used between each time-shift in Anna's mind when she returned thoughts to childhood scenes which "aided-and-abetted" her career as an artist. In each of these shifts, Myers repeated a significant key word in the concluding sentence of a NOW scene, using that word again in the beginning sentence of a THEN flashback.
Taken from a "then" scene during which young Anna had been interrogated sternly and preached to clearly by the bishop, and guided gently into speaking truth to the kindly questions from her father:
>> The Bishop's eyes said Daat was wrong. "Anna, there are to be no more drawings. Do you understand?"
>> I nodded.
>> "And why is that, Anna?"
>> "I have no paper."
<<
Until I had read nearly half the book, I hadn't made my usual pen marks on the pages of my copy of THE DARK SIDE OF HEAVEN. I didn't want to mar the perfection of the book's physical presentation. Finally, I had to sparingly highlight some of the excellent prose and enlightening commentary, for easy reference of returning to relish some of the passages.
My pen leaped to sketch around some of the regular, tasty doses of Anna's way of seeing English idioms, a way which reminded me of my 5-year-old-response to my Aunt Mary when she said, "Linda, you want to `have your cake and eat it, too.'"
My first thought, which flew off my ready tongue, was, "Why would you give me a piece of cake, then tell me not to eat it? That would not be nice, and it doesn't make sense."
As Aunt Mary somehow kept her lips from curling upward, she replied, "It doesn't mean that..."
My aunt had a difficult time explaining the ironies of life to a 5-year-old who still believed that speaking, wanting, and giving were clear and simple actions. But, for me that day, the grapes of reality had begun, ever so slightly, to sour, even though I saw that my Aunt's motivations were driven by caring that I grow up right, strong, and not too greedy.
So now I'm addicted to reading and reviewing culinary cozy mysteries, ranting and raving about never enough flavor hits!
And so it was that I enjoyed the misunderstood terms spiced throughout this story, as Anna put her slant on the Englisher's slang. Anna heard "cobble stones" as "gobble" stones because they sounded like turkeys when cars drove over them. "Up scale" boutiques were interpreted as "up the scale" because many of the people Anna saw in that area appeared "fat" to her eyes, compared to those living in the constantly laboring Amish communities.
With what felt like a priority to honor with grace the foundation of Amish life in which they labor to live their sacred beliefs, Myers opened the plot with a delicate touch, sketching the serious situation of shunning.
Myers accomplished this sotto voce mood by surfacing her humor so gradually and quietly that it could be easily missed, yet it effectively resulted in just the right amount of (sneak in) leavening. As I read into the novel, and as the deeply touching separation from Anna's Amish community evolved, I felt the young woman's changing situation shift gently, as Myers interjected snippets of humor, of which I caught the bare edges, warming into easy, small smiles. Later in the book, as Anna grew in her understanding of the English among whom she had begun living, the humorous inserts intensified, ever-so-slightly, beginning to draw from me deep, healing chuckles. Later, a "Ha!" slipped out here and there. And, of course, since this pen was pared by Tamar Myers, some of the lines made me laugh out loud. At a couple points, a burst of roaring laughter gave a joyous release.
Even so, this was not a comedy, nor was it a tragedy. It did offer light romance.
As THE DARK SIDE OF HEAVEN brought out beautifully, a shunned Amish beauty can make a great Cinderella. In a sense, Anna became the best Cinderella, even though her princes were not what you would expect.
Also, as I would not have expected, when Brandy visited the Amish, her nonchalant freedom with ongoing curses did not pause to consider anything. The unpredictable result, though, of her obliviousness to habitually raw speaking, was not that Brandy seemed distastefully disrespectful. Instead, her slang spice was elevated as bright honesty contrasting the sad severity (felt by both sides) of shunning. Maybe this feeling of elevation (which became endearment) was partly because, ironically, for the first time in the novel, Brandy was not driven by pain or insecurity into her slashes of sarcasm. She was brimming with love. In that new mood of natural purity, the sewer edge of sloppy speech came across as a welcome type of humor, relieving the worst type of situation.
To highlight yet another flashing gem of unanticipated value in this novel, I'll note that the way Myers described Anna's painting process and products caused each offering to come alive with such luxurious clarity, the pocket book wanted to fly through reality's gateways and buy not one but many of those precious gems of plain beauty.
This is one of the all-round-best-novels I've ever read. If it didn't have so much simple warmth and sensitive humor, I would compare its rich significance to Atlas Shrugged.
I'm thankful that Bella Rosa Books, of South Carolina, was the publisher of THE DARK SIDE OF HEAVEN. I believe it was Bella Rosa's artistic environment which enhanced the soul-flourish of the author, and of Rod Hunter, jacket design, and Blair Seitz, Buggy Photo. I've praised to high heaven some of the cover art of books I've reviewed, and I still see them up there, like silver linings in clouds. This book jacket radiates something special, which I've sensed but not quite yet described to my satisfaction.
Thank You Tamar, and Bella Rosa Books, for this treasure which quietly beacons to the highest in the kingdom of dragons, compelling them to show the weighted glitter of their scales and wings, and to roar fire in honor. Yes I call upon that most unlikely of magical images for a novel which exposes beautifully, kindly, and perfectly the Amish culture and ways, within the silver-framed setting of worldly pride and pleasures.
Working to remain in peaceful coexistence with the bumps and benefits of life's kaleidoscopic,
Linda Shelnutt
Book Description
Katie Lapp only knew the Amish ways, but when she discovers a satin infant gown in her parents' attic, her hidden past devastates the community she has always called home. Heritage of Lancaster County book 1.
Customer Reviews:
Is this the "never ending story?".......2007-09-24
I selected this book because it focused on the Amish. The author, Beverly Lewis, did a good job of introducing the customs of these prayerful people. She developed the characters quite well but, when it came to finishing the story, I was disappointed. There were too many loose ends. This may be Lewis' technique for making you want to read her next book but I, for one, wanted to hear what happened to these characters. I did not want to be launched off into the nether world trying to guess what happened. Great way to sell the next book but disappointing when the book you have on hand doesn't finish.
A satin dress reveals a horrible secret for Katie...........2007-08-23
Katie Lapp, an Amish girl was being made to fall in love and marry the bishop in their home church, who was a widower with children. Her one true love Daniel Fisher died supposedly in a drowning, and this still has her grief-stricken after much time has passed. But of course, when the Amish are of a certain age, they are expected to marry, and take a vow with the church, following the rules of the Ordnung. So Katie, strong-willed though she is, is doing what is expected of her. That is-until she enters the attic of her home, and finds a white satin dress that was hidden there, very wordly looking and katie knew this was strange. And even stranger yet was the name stitched on the back of it, "Katherine Mayfield." Completely baffled, she questions her mother Rebecca about this, and Rebecca automatically passes out. There is some horrible secret that she never ever told Katie, let alone anyone else except for her husband Samuel. The secret is of the adoption.
Katie is driven crazy by this, and wants answers, so she keeps on pressing for them. She also knows she cannot marry the bishop, and when the time comes she can't go through with this wedding. Her father is killing mad, and not only for that, but Katie had promised to give up her guitar completely as it is against the rules of the Amish. And of course she doesn't.
Katie's parents have always kept this horrible secret from her, and as it turns out, her birthmother has been searching for her. Laura Bennett Fisher hands Ella a letter, Ella who is a wise old lady. She takes the letter over to Rebecca, immediately suspecting something. And when Rebecca sees this later and reads who it is from, she destroys it immediately.
Katie is determined to find out what the dress is all about, and her mother finally gives in and tells her the awful adoption secret. In hot anger, and disbelief, Katie who is shunned anyway, moves away from her home at 23-years of age, and tries to go about finding Laura Bennett.
Laura is dying, terminally ill, and wants to meet this child she once gave birth to, and handed over to the Amish people after Rebecca had a stillborn so many years ago. And when these two women find the other, there is a lot of heartbreak.
Katie may not return to her Amish home until she is truly ready to repent of her sins. But whether or not with these life-altering events she does this, is hard to tell. Her dad never wanted her to return again under the present circumstances of Katie's strong will and disobedience to God.
Ahhhh, the simple life!.......2007-07-12
Katie Lapp is a young woman raised in Amish ways and anticipating her wedding to the local Bishop with mixed emotions. Her true love was drowned a few years earlier and her grief remains palapable. She is also troubled by her mixed feelings about living the simple lif; as "Plain." She wonders what is wrong with her that she seems to long for the fancy, the beautiful, the material; when all around her seem to be so content with their lifestyle.
And then, in the attic, she finds a beautiful, satin baby dress with the name "Katherine" embroidered on it. What can this mean?
I enjoyed this book because I am beguiled by the lifestyle. This book took me there as I had hoped it would. The story itself is well told and kept me engaged, but it was the descriptions of the traditions and surroundings that will keep me coming back to books like this time and time again.
The Shunning/The Confession/The Reckoning (The Heritage of Lancaster County 1-3)
The verdict is out.......2007-05-07
Beverly Lewis came highly recommended as an author, and I've enjoyed the stories I've read about the Amish....Plain Truth for one....I decided to pick this book up. (I made sure to start with the 1st in the series...I hate when I read a book and find out I started in the middle of a story!) So far, the verdict is out. The story is interesting enough, though a bit predictable. Without giving away too much...Katie is about to marry the local Bishop. She is an older (by Amish standards) bride, and worried that if she doesn't make this marriage she will be 'passed over'. You see, Katie has always had the problem with being attracted to beautiful, but forbidden "englisher' things....satin, guitar music, etc. She also lost her first love in a drowning accident. Days before the wedding, she finds a beautiful satin baby dress with the name 'Katherine Mayfield' inscribed...hidden away in the family attic! Her parents deny knowledge of the dress...but then hide it again. Katie has had doubts about the marriage all along, but believes she will 'learn' to love the Bishop. But chaos ensues when Katie learns the night before the wedding that she is NOT who she believes herself to be. As I said, the story is predicatable, and if you've read this far, you probably know that. If the story ended here, I would rate it as boring. But the story ends with an obvious lead in to a sequel...and for that reason is intriguing. IF that book and the next tie up loose ends in an entertaining, though possibly predictable manner, I will consider this book as one long lead in, and feel that possibly, the story could have been shortened into one or 2 books. But as I say...the verdict will not be in until I read the other parts of the trilogy.
ON The Outs.......2007-01-19
NObody likes to be shunned,but this gives a vivid replay of how it comes about and the feelings of all involved are just so real.I don't know how else to put it,but you have to get this book! Nadia Rehmani-My book Sharper Than A Two Edged Sword also found on Amazon,lets you know that i could realy empathize with these characters. Nadia Rehmani
Average customer rating:
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The Shunning: Library Edition
Beverly Lewis
Manufacturer: Blackstone Audiobooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD
 Contemporary
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General
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Science Fiction & Fantasy
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ASIN: 0786189959 |
Product Description
Hardbacks
Average customer rating:
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The Confession (The Heritage of Lancaster County #2)
Beverly Lewis
Manufacturer: Recorded Books, LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
General
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Unabridged
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ASIN: 0788727753 |
Product Description
In this dramatic sequel to the best-selling inspirational romance, The Shunning, Beverly Lewis spins a tale of love, reconciliation, and faith. Author of over 40 books, Beverly Lewis captures the power of Old Order Amish beliefs and the excitement of a family quest in The Confession. Because she has disobeyed church rules, Katie Lapp is now Katherine Mayfield. Expelled from her strict Amish home, she sets out to find Laura Mayfield, the birth mother she has never known. But even as Katherine draws near to Laura, evil plans are working to tear away their happiness and their inheritance. Can Katherine reach her mother in time? As Katherine struggles to keep her faith and communicate with her mother, narrator Barbara Carusos performance captures the young womans doubts, fears, and growing courage. By the conclusion of this inspiring story, Katherine is beginning a promising new chapter of her life.
Average customer rating:
- Painful, achingly beautiful picture of faith, and its fading
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The Shunning
Patrick Friesen
Manufacturer: Turnstone Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
20th Century
| Poetry
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
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ASIN: 0888010389 |
Customer Reviews:
Painful, achingly beautiful picture of faith, and its fading.......1997-06-04
Friesen stuns with potent, disturbing images, and awakens a yearning for the sacred. His book, which is actually one long poem, is a masterpiece. Friesen captures a longing long denied us--a thirst for a faith--and firmly pulls the reader into this story of a Mennonite farmer's destruction. The farmer is excommunicated (shunned) by his church for questioning an aspect of the Christian faith. The story is told through the eyes of the farmer's brother, usually, but occasionally we see through the eyes of the wife, the children, the townspeople, and, perhaps, a distanced, clinical god.
Before this work is dismissed as yet another "to hell with Grandpa's religion" book, it is important to note that the book pays no attention to the validity of the farmer's quandry, but instead focuses on the pain, the isolation, and the loss, of a solitary man in his microcosm
Customer Reviews:
the ice princess.......2007-06-18
Yes, Andrew Greeley once again finds a way to make me look at my fellow creatures quite differently than my socialized prejudices. Who would think that a beautiful billionaire wife who works our daily with her personal trainer is actually oppressed by her mother-in-law and in need of Father Blackie's immediate attention to prevent her murder? I did not figure out the culprit until the end -- a sign of an able mystery! I read the book in two days, because I wanted to know who did it! Worth your time. :-)
Happy are the Opressed.......2005-10-10
I have never read anything that Father Greeley has written that was not excellent.
His reach exceedeth his grasp.......2001-11-10
Father Greeley's meager literary talents are strained past the breaking point in his attempt to recreate the voice of a nineteenth century Irish servant girl. Never would she have used the English language the way this author makes her write. Unfortunately, her hard-to-believe "letters" are a very large part of the book. However, I found the Chicago history bit fascinating, and the book as a whole is a good sentimental yarn with a (for me) hard-to-guess denouement and lots of tongue-in-cheek Irish blarney. And Auxiliary Bishop Blackie Ryan is a treasure!
Happy are the Oppressed.......2000-11-16
I Have just discovered Andrew Greeley and I am busy devouring everything I can get my hands on. I throughley enjoyed the book, I thought it was interesting and informative, it kept me on the edge of my seat.
HE'S WRITTEN BETTER!!!.......1997-03-29
Hated the history lesson. One whole chapter of letters irritated me to no end. I almost fell asleep on the treadmill. I did finish it, because I just can't buy a book and not read it. The final chapters are what made me rate it a 3. They were OK but uninspired and not very creative
Average customer rating:
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Happy Are the Oppressed
Manufacturer: Berkeley Publishing Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000FADOOO |
Books:
- The Sum of All Fears
- The Warrior Prophet (The Prince of Nothing, Book 2)
- The Wife Of Reilly
- The Wolf and the Dove
- To Green Angel Tower, Part 1 (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Book 3)
- Typical American (Contemporary Fiction, Plume)
- What Dreams May Come: A Novel
- Where the Red Fern Grows
- Widdershins (Newford)
- A Box of Treats: Five Little Picture Books about Lilly and Her Friends
Books Index
Books Home
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- Literacy for the 21st Century: A Balanced Approach
- Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman: The Notes, Vol. 3
- Leonardo da Vinci: Flights of the Mind
- Post-traumatic Culture: Injury and Interpretation in the Nineties
- Dean Cornwell: Dean of Illustrators
- Feeding The Vikings
The Covenant/The Betrayal/The Sacrifice/The Prodigal/The Revelation (Abram's Daughters 1-5)
October Song
Annie's People, Vols. 1-3 (The Preacher's Daughter, The Englisher, and The Brethren)
The Brethren (Annie's People #3)
The Redemption of Sarah Cain
