by MarianBeaman | Nov 30, 2022 | blog, book review, Literature, popular culture, Quotations, Romance, Uncategorized
“Bam! I start, the dogs leap up. The windows rattle. The whole house shakes.” As Dani Shapiro’s memoir begins, the author, warm and toasty in her office spies her husband “in the dead of winter, in the driveway wearing nothing but a white terry-cloth bathrobe,...
by MarianBeaman | Nov 9, 2022 | blog, book review, Cliff Beaman artist, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Mennonite History, Quilt, Uncategorized
Yumiko Sekine, author of Simplicity at Home, grew up in northern Japan, learning traditional crafts and quilting from her mother and grandmother. Just as I did growing up in rural Pennsylvania, Yumiko appreciated quilting and hand-crafts. She still does, and so...
by MarianBeaman | Oct 19, 2022 | blog, book review, Cliff Beaman artist, Literature, Mennonite Lore, Quotations, Reflection, Uncategorized
“Go home and finish writing your new book. I want to read it!” Barbara and I are leaving our Monday morning Bible study. She is only half-kidding when she delivers this quip. Barbara has read Mennonite Daughter: The Story of a Plain Girl. She is looking forward...
by MarianBeaman | Oct 5, 2022 | blog, book review, Coming of Age, Education, Literature, Neighborhood / Environment, Nostalgia, Quotations, Recipes, Travel, Uncategorized
Cranes, roosters, snakes and an antique yellow Olds! These are among the attractions (or distractions) in Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park, the home of the Pulitzer-Prize winning author of The Yearling, made into a movie by the same title. In late...
by MarianBeaman | Sep 21, 2022 | blog, book review, Cliff Beaman artist, Mennonite History, Recipes, Uncategorized
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...
by MarianBeaman | Aug 3, 2022 | blog, book review, Cliff Beaman artist, Coming of Age, Conflict, Family / Nostalgia, Literature, meditation, Memory, Quotations, Tips, Uncategorized
The Emerald City lies in the center of the Land of Oz, at the end of the yellow brick road in Frank Baum’s fabled story, The Wizard of Oz, first published in 1900. In the center of the city is the fairy-tale Palace where the redoubtable Wizard resides. ...
