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Thursday, May 5, 2011

"Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home"

Hello Dear Readers!

In order to help facilitate our newly organized book club and to put in our eager hands the title of the first book of our little club, S-B asked if I could post the information for said book.

So here it is dear friends!


Mennonite In a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home 
by Rhoda Janzen





A hilarious and moving memoir--in the spirit of Anne Lamott and Nora Ephron--about a woman who returns home to her close-knit Mennonite family after a personal crisis

Not long after Rhoda Janzen turned forty, her world turned upside down. It was bad enough that her brilliant husband of fifteen years left her for Bob, a guy he met on Gay.com, but that same week a car accident left her with serious injuries. What was a gal to do? Rhoda packed her bags and went home. This wasn't just any home, though. This was a Mennonite home. While Rhoda had long ventured out on her own spiritual path, the conservative community welcomed her back with open arms and offbeat advice. (Rhoda's good-natured mother suggested she date her first cousin--he owned a tractor, see.) It is in this safe place that Rhoda can come to terms with her failed marriage; her desire, as a young woman, to leave her sheltered world behind; and the choices that both freed and entrapped her.


Written with wry humor and huge personality--and tackling faith, love, family, and aging--Mennonite in a Little Black Dress is an immensely moving memoir of healing, certain to touch anyone who has ever had to look homeward in order to move ahead.

 

Rhoda Janzen holds a PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she was the University of California Poet Laureate in 1994 and 1997. She is the author of Babel's Stair, a collection of poems, and her poems have also appeared in Poetry, The Yale Review, The Gettysburg Review, and The Southern Review. She teaches English and creative writing at Hope College in Holland, Michigan.

(taken from:  http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/rhoda-janzen/mennonite-in-a-little-black-dress/_/R-400000000000000180938)




I know that the recent storms have changed our daily lives, but I still think we should try to read this one within the next month.  What say you?

I've ordered a copy to be here next week.  If you would like to share my copy, let me know!  I usually donate all of my books to the library after reading them, but I think slipping one in the USPS would be equally or maybe a little more fun :)

7 comments:

S-B said...

Thank you for taking over. Times are, indeed, dark, but hopefully this will lighten the mood. Life does march on......

Kim said...

I'd just like to say that I love the fact that I have seen Anne Lamott and Elizabeth Gilbert's names associated with this book. If you don't know Anne Lamott you should! ("Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith")

Mandy Mc said...

Anne Lamott IS da bomb! And, this book is laugh out loud funny. I sent my copy to a friend or I'd offer to loan it. Can't wait to discuss.

Christy Ross said...

hurray. I'm picking up my copy at the library tomorrow. I'm excited to get started.

Kim said...

Got my copy today! Hurray!!

Criddy said...

Rita...since you will have it read in 2 minutes you should send it to me and then I'll get the next one!! :)

Kim said...

I'll be finished tomorrow! Send me your addy and I'll pop it in the post.