Amish Books

Grace Leads Me Home by Marlene Miller Marlene C. Miller grew up Marlene Bailey in a little town on the edge of the Holmes County, Ohio Amish settlement.  One day while ice-skating, Marlene meets Johnny Miller, an Amish boy five years her senior.  She would later marry Johnny, join the Amish church at age 23, […]

Continue Reading Joining the Amish: 45 Years Later

As luck would have it I am doing the above on two blogs this week. First, Saloma Furlong is running a Q-and-A with me as well as a giveaway of my book Success Made Simple.  A snippet: You have several overall messages in this book — I like the one that we do not need […]

Continue Reading Talking Amish business

Today we’ve got 6 winners of Ira Wagler’s Growing Up Amish.  If you missed the original interview, in which Ira discusses Amish life, family relationships and how he ended up in Lancaster County, you can read it here: Growing Up Amish interview. Growing Up Amish winners I’ve tallied up all additional Facebook and blog entries. […]

Continue Reading Growing Up Amish winners and Chapter 1 excerpt

Commenting on a post last week, Donna Godfrey recommended reading books by Donald Kraybill.  I’d second that.  The Riddle of Amish Culture was one of the first I read and I think essential to understanding the Amish. The very first book I read on the Amish was Amish Society by John Hostetler, another good one, […]

Continue Reading What’s your favorite Amish book?

From a Lancaster friend’s home: Sharpening minds and no. 2’s: Sigh.  I remember spending a bit more time with these, once: Here’s the full list of Amish home interior photos.

Continue Reading Inside an Amish home: Library and reading room

A few odds and ends for your Friday.  Enjoy! Mexican Mennonites Here’s a link to a recent piece on Old Colony Mennonites in Mexico.  Old Colony Mennonites are the second-largest Plain Anabaptist group after the Old Order Amish.  They share certain similarities with the Amish.  Great photos and more info at the link. Growing Up […]

Continue Reading Friday odds and ends

The Martyrs Mirror is revered by Amish and other Anabaptists.  It’s a 1,000+ page book recounting the stories of Christian martyrs.  In addition to Biblical-era martyrs, it includes tales of the many early Anabaptists persecuted in Europe. The Martyrs Mirror is in the news because a very old (1748) German-language edition is up for sale […]

Continue Reading Why do we treasure old books?

Which Bible do Amish use?  Typically, the Amish use the German Martin Luther version, particularly for church readings.  For an English version, the most favored translation is the King James edition (KJV). Some Amish use the New International Version (NIV) as well.  Often, the Bible Amish read in the home will have a dual format-German […]

Continue Reading The “Amish Bible”, and the appeal of Bible story books

Since the mid-1800s, the Hutterites have comprised 3 main groups–the Lehrerleut, the Dariusleut, and the Schmiedeleut. The Lehrerleut are considered the most conservative, with the Schmiedeluet being the most progressive, and Dariusleut somewhere in between. However, in 1992, The Schmiedeleut experienced an internal division, creating 2 separate Schmiedeleut groups. Donald Kraybill’s Concise Encyclopedia of Amish, […]

Continue Reading The 3 Hutterite Groups

We use them all the time, but ever wonder how reference books and resources get put together? In a guest post today, Donald Kraybill offers a peek into the writing and research process for the Concise Encyclopedia of Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites: Compiling the Concise Encyclopedia was a daunting task. In fact if I […]

Continue Reading Does anyone really care about beards? Donald Kraybill on writing the Concise Encyclopedia