Thursday, August 18, 2011

Amish Values For Your Family by Suzanne Woods Fisher - Blog Tour and Giveaway


Click here for Blog Tour Schedule


About the book:
For readers who long for strong families that know how to truly enjoy life together, there is much to learn from the Amish. Values like community, forgiveness, simple living, obedience, and more can be your family legacy--without selling your car, changing your wardrobe, or moving out to farm country.

In Amish Values for Your Family, bestselling author Suzanne Woods Fisher shows how you can adopt the wisdom of the Amish when it comes to family matters. In this inspiring and practical book readers will find charming true stories interlaced with solid, biblical advice about parenting, marriage, and all aspects of family life. As readers get an intimate glimpse into the everyday lives of real Amish families, they will learn to prioritize what's truly important, simplify decision-making, slow down as a family, safeguard time together, and let go when the time comes.


About the author:
Her interest in the Amish began with her grandfather, W.D. Benedict, who was raised Plain. She has many, many Plain relatives living in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and travels back to Pennsylvania, as well as to Ohio, a couple of times each year for research.

Suzanne has a great admiration for the Plain people and believes they provide wonderful examples to the world. In both her fiction and non-fiction books, she has an underlying theme: You don't have to "go Amish" to incorporate many of their principles--simplicity, living with less, appreciating nature, forgiving others more readily-- into your life.

When Suzanne isn't writing or bragging to her friends about her first new grandbaby (!), she is raising puppies for Guide Dogs for the Blind. To Suzanne's way of thinking, you just can't take life too seriously when a puppy is tearing through your house with someones underwear in its mouth.

Suzanne can be found on-line at: http://www.suzannewoodsfisher.com/


My thoughts on the book:
This was such an easy, lovely book to read. While I'm certainly not Amish nor do I wish to become Amish, there are so many simple, yet powerful, messages in this book that can be easily applied to my own family life. Today, many families are so busy running here and there with overbooked schedules that it's often difficult to find time just being together as a family. I love how the Amish have such deep family bonds and strong family traditions. The Amish values of simple living, forgiveness, community, and more can all be helpful to those of us wishing to create a more meaningful family life.

One chapter that really made an impact on me talked about the fact that the Amish believe in their children and know that good habits start at an early age. Bill Coleman, a world-famous photographer, said that in all the years he has spent visiting and photographing the Amish, he has never once heard an Amish parent raise their voice to a child. The Amish children are taught by example and from an early age become willing workers, eager to do their tasks without any complaining (wouldn't that be nice!). There is also much respect between siblings and a sense of teamwork among them. This is one principle that I would definitely like to incorporate into my own family life.


Go here to buy the book

Giveaway:
Enter 8/15 - 8/31!


To celebrate the release of Amish Values for Your Family, Suzanne has teamed up her publisher Revell Books to giveaway a Kindle, and with Bill Coleman (the amazing photographer used on Suzanne’s book covers) to give away a signed Bill Coleman original.


One Grand Prize winner will receive an Amish Values Prize Package (valued at over $200) and includes:

* A brand new KINDLE
* A Signed Bill Coleman original
* Amish Values for Your Family (for KINDLE)

Click on one of the icons to enter. Winner will be announced on 9/2 at Suzanne’s blog. Be sure to stop by the blogs on Suzanne’s blog tour – many have copies of Amish Values for Your Family to give away.

But, wait there's more! Suzanne is running a Bill Coleman caption contest during the month of August on her blog. Title one of Bill’s gorgeous photos for a chance to win a print from Bill’s Amish Photo site and/or a copy of Amish Values for Your Family.


As a participant in this blog tour, Litfuse Publicity Group provided me with a free copy of the book Amish Values For Your Family as well as some of the information used in this post. All opinions expressed are my own and no monetary compensation was received.





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1 comments:

Suzanne said...

Thank you, Kari, for being a part of the blog tour for Amish Values! So glad you enjoyed the book--I loved your point about Bill Coleman. I felt the same way...that comment jumped out at me as I interviewed him. Enjoy the last little bit of summer! Warmly, Suzanne