Amish novels are HOT HOT HOT!

Divia · Post by **Divia** » Thu December 9th, 2010, 1:19 am

I thought this was interesting. Ok, so they aren't hot in the dirty sense but they are hot in market sales. I'm surprised. The Amish fascinate me, but the religious aspect keep me away from reading them.

Anyway, I thought I would pass it along.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125244227154093575.html

Michy · Post by **Michy** » Thu December 9th, 2010, 1:44 am

I don't know about mainstream fiction, but in Christian fiction Amish novels have been hot for several years, now, and the trend doesn't seem to be slowing down. I haven't read any, it's not something that appeals to me.

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Thu December 9th, 2010, 3:13 am

I like the Ellie's People series by Mary Christner Bortrager. Very good reading. Started with them as a kid. There are also two books about a girl who was adopted into an Amish community and her sons Rosanna of the Amish and Rosanna's Boys--true stories, written by one of her sons I think.

Ariadne · Post by **Ariadne** » Thu December 9th, 2010, 3:29 am

I live in the middle of Illinois Amish country, though have never seen bonnet romances for sale in any of the local country shops. They're popular enough at Walmart, though!

Vanessa · Post by **Vanessa** » Thu December 9th, 2010, 8:31 am

Not HF, but I did find Jodi Picoult's Plain Truth interesting as it did give a bit of an insight into the Amish way of life. I don't know whether it's true to life or not, but it's my favourite JP book so far.

Mythica · Post by **Mythica** » Thu December 9th, 2010, 10:01 am

[quote=""Divia""]I thought this was interesting. Ok, so they aren't hot in the dirty sense but they are hot in market sales. I'm surprised. The Amish fascinate me, but the religious aspect keep me away from reading them.
[/quote]

Same here! There's currently an Amish novel available for free on Kindle for a limited time: http://www.amazon.com/Gift-Grace-Novel- ... gital-text - I grabbed it but I don't know if I'll read it. I grew up in a town surrounded by Amish farm land so I have a natural interest in their culture - but not their religion.

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Thu December 9th, 2010, 6:18 pm

Their culture is based on their religion. It's hard to separate the two.

Mythica · Post by **Mythica** » Thu December 9th, 2010, 7:14 pm

[quote=""LoveHistory""]Their culture is based on their religion. It's hard to separate the two.[/quote]

Which is why I don't think I'll wind up reading even a free Amish novel. Though I should clarify I do find their religion just as interesting as their culture - from an observers point of view. I imagine Amish novels will push their religion from a Christian, spiritual point of view so I don't think it would appeal to me as an observer. I have much respect their religion but I can't relate to it so I don't think I could relate to an Amish novel.

boswellbaxter · Post by **boswellbaxter** » Thu December 9th, 2010, 7:58 pm

[quote=""Mythica""]Which is why I don't think I'll wind up reading even a free Amish novel. Though I should clarify I do find their religion just as interesting as their culture - from an observers point of view. I imagine Amish novels will push their religion from a Christian, spiritual point of view so I don't think it would appeal to me as an observer. I have much respect their religion but I can't relate to it so I don't think I could relate to an Amish novel.[/quote]

According to the article, the authors of most of these books aren't Amish, so I don't know if they'd be necessarily "pushing" Amish beliefs.

MLE (Emily Cotton) · Post by **MLE (Emily Cotton)** » Thu December 9th, 2010, 9:05 pm

The few I've had to read for my bookgroup actually poked holes in plenty of Amish beliefs -- or at least, the rather un-Christ-like practice of them.

although if you want to see their beliefs in practice 'where the rubber hits the rosd' it would be hard to find a better example of Jesus in action than the community's response to the school shooting in 2006.

I think the appeal of Amish novels is somewhat linked to the rise in HF-- Amish plot situations are almost like having the past in a time warp.