Ask my friend Val and she will tell you that I'm fairly interested in small, unusual, minority religious groups living in America - as is she. We share a fascination with Shakers and Quakers and the Amish, etc. So when I heard about this book, I was super curious. The author grew up Mennonite in California, left the community to become an academic and marry an atheist, got a divorce after her husband left her for a guy named Bob, survived a serious car accident, and then decided to return to her parents' home for a while to convalesce. She's a fairly funny writer and obviously very smart, and I was definitely intrigued by having a peek into the lives of modern Mennonites, their Germanic culture, and as she calls them, their "shame-based foods" (recipes included!). I'd have to say this memoir beats Elizabeth Gilbert's any day.
