Mary Swander

While I realized the author was not Amish and simply residing in an Amish community, I expected this book to to include more on the Amish community since that was the first subject heading. Instead the book fits the memoir category and only mentions the Amish incidentally as she interacts with them. The author discusses her decision to move from a California city back to her native Iowa. She purchased the former Fairview School as her residence and planted her own organic garden because of allergies to pesticides and such. The book may interest those who wish to "get back to nature." If readers seek an account of living among the Amish with the focus on the neighbors instead of the author, skip this one.… (mehr)

The play is excellent, snippets of interviews with real people affected by the farm crisis (traditional farmers, organic farmers, CAFO pig raisers, a Monsanto employee, etc.) assembled to create a dialogue that is quiet but quite telling. The play, however, is followed by several short essays--some of which are excellent and some of which I wonder at their inclusion. I really liked the collaborative quality of this book, but I thought there were problems with maintaining a consistent level of quality across all the contributions.… (mehr)