64. Fields of Corn by Sarah Price

An Amish Christian Romance (believe it or not!!)
read on my iPhone
2010 published
272 pgs.
CRF - I have read that Amish Fiction is now considered a genre on its own
Finished July 18, 2018
Goodreads rating: 4.25 - 641 ratings
My rating:  2.5
Setting:  contemporary Lancaster County, PA

First line/s:  "The horse, a brown Morgan with a thick black mane, trotted down Musser School Lane, effortlessly pulling the black, box-like buggy."

My comments:  There's a fascination and pull towards the simplicity of the Amish life that more-than intrigues me, especially as I know live near numerous Amish communities.  But my sprirtual beliefs and those of the Amish are so very different that it makes books like these particularly difficult to digest.  The last quarter of the book pulled my rating way down, very hard for me to take.  Or understand.

Goodreads synopsis:  Shana Slater doesn't realize that her life is about to change when she pulls into the Lapp farm in Leola, Pennsylvania, to inquire about renting a small apartment over a mule shed. Yet, the price is right and the rolling fields of corn present a peaceful place for her to retreat when she is not working in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
          Her curiosity about the Amish way of life is piqued when she befriends Emanuel Lapp, the son of her landlord. As she learns about the Amish through his eyes, she quickly realizes that the Amish way of life is more than just religion and a plain way of living. She also discovers that the more she learns, the more she is unexpectedly falling for much more than their plain and simple lifestyle. When two worlds collide, which will survive and at what cost?
          Based in part on the author's experience living on an Amish farm, Fields of Corn presents a sweet and authentic love story.

12. The Buried Book by D. M. Pulley

listened on Audible
read by Luke Daniels
2016 Lake Union Publishing
412 pgs.
Adult Historical Fiction/Mystery
Finished 2/28/17
Goodreads rating: 3.99 (3,515 ratings)
My rating: 4.5
Setting:1952 Michigan farm country just outside of Detroit

First line/s:  "Jasper."
"Mmmm," he mumbled.
"Jasper, wake up."

My comments:  Although this book was somewhat slow-going at times, I couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen next.  There were many things to like about the book:  the storyline, the setting, the point of view, and the characters.  Set in 1952, mostly in the rural farmland of Michigan, the story is told through the eyes of a nine-year-old boy, a nine-year-old who is trying to make sense of his very complicated world.  The world of 65 years ago is very different from the world of today...but it is also very similar.  Corruption, drugs, moonshine, degenerate (in this case) males taking advantage of young females, horrible treatment of Native Americans, poverty, dishonest cops, holier-than-though Christians....oh my, there were some very bleak parts.  But well worth the read.  All in all a very well told story that I will not easily forget.

Goodreads synopsis:  When Althea Leary abandons her nine-year-old son, Jasper, he’s left on his uncle’s farm with nothing but a change of clothes and a Bible.
          It’s 1952, and Jasper isn’t allowed to ask questions or make a fuss. He’s lucky to even have a home and must keep his mouth shut and his ears open to stay in his uncle’s good graces. No one knows where his mother went or whether she’s coming back. Desperate to see her again, he must take matters into his own hands. From the farm, he embarks on a treacherous search that will take him to the squalid hideaways of Detroit and back again, through tawdry taverns, peep shows, and gambling houses.
          As he’s drawn deeper into an adult world of corruption, scandal, and murder, Jasper uncovers the shocking past still chasing his mother—and now it’s chasing him too.

76. Solomon's Oak - Jo-Ann Mapson

2010, Bloomsbury
TPPL
371 pgs.
For: adults
Rating: 4

I remember my friend, Carol, talking about Jo-Ann Mapson, so when I was this sitting on the "New Books" shelf at the library, I decided to try it. Thanks, Carol!

I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the setting, which is in the farmlands east of Monterey, California. I enjoyed the characters, although I couldn't quite get into the protagonists head, although Mapson tried really hard. I am not an animal lover and this is a book about animal lovers....horses, goats, and dogs, particularly. However, I didn't mind it at all, and enjoyed learning bout the different personalities of each.

Three people with emotional wounds are brought together. The protagonist, a farm woman who lost her dearly beloved husband of 20-or-so years unexpectedly the previous year, a New Mexican crime lab photographer that has been injured in a shootout and must learn to live with intense pain - physically and emotionally - for the rest of his life, and a teenage girl with a huge chip on her shoulder and even more loss. Her sister disappeared four years before, and that led to her mother's death and her father's abandonment. Whoa!

The story is well told, though almost repetitious in places. However, it went fast and was entertaining and made me think....deeply. The widow, Glory Solomon, is coping with money problems and begins a small business holding weddings and the reception at the chapel her husband had built, and in their barn. The cop, Joseph Vigil, is making a photographic studies of trees, and the teenager, Juniper McGuire, complete with multiple piercings and even a tattoo, is quickly put to work helping with catering the weddings and lots of farm chores.

These people, and people like them, are everywhere. Out there. In our world. Trying to live with the heartbreak and anxiety and unfairness of life. Parts of each of them are in many of us. It doesn't hurt to be reminded of this once in awhile.

The Very Best Pumpkin - Mark Kimball Moulton

Illustrated by Karen Hillard Good
A Paula Wiseman Book, Simon & Schuster, 2010
$12.99 (no dust cover)
32 pages
Rating; 4 (Illustrations are a 5!)

Peter's grandparents grow pumpkins, and people come to pick their own. The grow all over the farm, but one long.....long....................long tendril looping way around behind a rock is growing a tiny pumpkin. Peter lovingly tends it as it grows into a really beautiful speciman.

Next door, Meg has just moved in. She is a reader, quiet and shy, and she watches Peter care for this lovely pumpkin in secret.

It's the pictures I love. They're cute and clever and give a feel-good autumn sense of time and place. There's very, very little white. Lots of greens and browns and oranges. Curlicew black lines. Excellent font. Simple faces. Love it all!