Thank you for visiting my blog today.
Curious about my blog title? The plain part describes my first 24 years as a Mennonite girl in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and the fancy follows as I move south: first to Charlotte, North Carolina, and then to Jacksonville, Florida.
Watch for stories about faith and family knitted together by memory. You have stories too—or responses to what’s happening now. Do comment. I love words. Share some of yours!
Expect me to post Wednesdays weekly. Subscribe now, so you don’t miss a one.
Find Marian’s second memoir here!
My Checkered Life:
A Marriage Memoir
Take an intimate look into one couple’s fifty-plus-year marriage in author Marian Beaman’s My Checkered Life: A Marriage Memoir. Using a quilt motif, the author stitches together stories that make up the fabric of their daily lives: the clash of cultures, crisis in a travel trailer, surviving a robbery, and enduring financial hardship.
Discover how the author and her husband learn the art of the argument with explosions both literal and metaphorical. Observe how they find common ground through their shared faith and commitment.
Readers of Marian’s first memoir, Mennonite Daughter: The Story of a Plain Girl can especially relate to her insider narrative, a closeup of one couple’s companionable union.
This volume contains excerpts from autograph books and diaries of the early 1900s, treasured family recipes, original artwork, and restored photographs—the legacy of multiple generations as two American families merge, one from the East, the other from the West. The author connects the dots of her life backwards, with detailed reverse engineering of events to discover meaning in her life as a wife.
Read the Latest
Stay Sane: Escape to a Book + Snaps of a Slightly Wild Birthday Party
One Way to Stay Sane The author of Cherry Cola Book Club remarks, “Going to the library to check out my novels has always been my great escape. I get to explore someone else’s mind for a while. It’s a very sane exercise.” 219 Of course, you can find great...
How My Dad’s Knife Sharpening Lessons Became a Tool in my Life Kit
Looking back Seven years ago, in 2019, I wrote my first memoir. One of my goals was to discover the source of my father’s anger, often directed to me. I had a mostly happy childhood because of close ties with my extended family. Yet, over a dozen pages in Mennonite...
Christmas Caroling from the Bed of an Open Truck, 1950s
I enjoyed Christmas caroling from the bed of an open truck when I was a teenager at Bossler’s Mennonite Church in the 1950s.
Get your copy of Marian’s book
Mennonite Daughter:
The Story of a Plain Girl
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About Marian Longenecker Beaman
I publish my blog Plain and Fancy Girl on Wednesdays. Whether you are a commenter or reader only, I appreciate your noticing.
Book Reviews
Stay Sane: Escape to a Book + Snaps of a Slightly Wild Birthday Party
One Way to Stay Sane The author of Cherry Cola Book Club remarks, “Going to the library to check out my novels has always been my great escape. I get to explore someone else’s mind for a while. It’s a very sane exercise.” 219 Of course, you can find great...
Too Hot to Handle
What’s Too Hot to Handle? The horror of books ablaze in a library. That’s what! Susan Orleans’ The Library Book (2018) is a portmanteau of story, true crime, and riveting journalism Before the Great Fire of April 1986, the Central Library of Los...
Armchair Anthropology – Cheap Travel
I wonder how you enjoy traveling these days. Maybe you travel by car, boat, or plane. But you can also open books, a simple and inexpensive way to experience other times and places. Ipso-presto you are there!
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