Reviews
Review: Publishers Weekly - September 1, 2013
“The author-memoirist describes growing up Mennonite; her story affords glimpses into this religion’s traditions and rituals. This memoir will interest readers who want to learn about growing up Mennonite.”
Review by: Bill Moyers, journalist and commentator - August 4, 2013
“Not since Kathleen Norris’s Dakota: A Spiritual Geography have I read a more beautifully written or movingly told story, one whose minute particulars become a portal into universal significance. I promise: you will be transported.”
Review by: Julia Spicher Kasdorf, author of The Body and the Book: Writing from a Mennonite Life - August 4, 2013
“Recalled with fairness and wit, this tale of growing up after World War II shows how Mennonite life in Dutch Country—and all of America—changed.”
Review by: Donald Kraybill, coauthor of Amish Grace - August 4, 2013
“Shirley Showalter tells a compelling story of spiritual and cultural formation. Hers is a delicate dance between the tug of the outside world and the restraints of her birthright community.”
Review by: Ann Hostetler, professor of English, Goshen College - August 4, 2013
“Whether she is wearing her new letter jacket or biting a worm in two on a dare from her father, the young Shirley will win your affection.”
Review by: Mark Nepo, author of Seven Thousand Ways to Listen and The Book of Awakening - August 4, 2013
“Shirley Showalter is both a thoughtful historian and a balanced, inner journalist. She affirms—with detail, honesty, and humility—the need to break our own trail while honoring tradition.”
Review by: Hildi Froese Tiessen, professor emerita, Conrad Grebel University College - August 4, 2013
“Showalter’s portrait of this extraordinary little girl who wants to be ‘big’ will captivate and enchant readers of all generations.”
Review by: Saloma Miller Furlong, author of Why I Left the Amish - August 4, 2013
“This memoir provides an authentic rendition of a plain Mennonite girlhood, so rich in sensory details that it magically transports us into that world.”
Review by: Tom Beech, president emeritus, Fetzer Institute - August 4, 2013
“Shirley’s stories resonate powerfully with the tension we all live with—between our own aspirations and the expectations of others. You must read this book, and when you do, hang onto your hats and prayer coverings!”
Review by: Dora Dueck, award-winning author of This Hidden Thing and What You Get at Home - August 4, 2013
“She’s a smart, sweetly blushing, baseball-loving, convertible-driving, taking-on-the-bishop kind of girl who delights and inspires.”
Review by: Suzanne Woods Fisher, author of Amish Peace - August 4, 2013
“Blush is a collection of memories by a woman born with a knack for flirting with boundaries.”
Review by: John Ruth, author of The Earth is the Lord's - August 4, 2013
“With spunk, candor, authentic color, and page-turning style, Shirley Showalter takes us into a girl’s experience of the threshold between tradition and cultural shift.”
Review by: Joanne Gabbin, professor of English, James Madison University, and director of th Furious Flower Poetry Center - August 4, 2013
“Like a blush, Showalter’s engaging story deepens and intensifies as we discover that there is no such thing as a small life.”
Review by: Ervin Stutzman, author of the Return to Northkill series - August 4, 2013
“Shirley Showalter drew me in with the very first lines of her introduction—an audacious confession that sounds the depth of her endeavor.”
Review by: Jennifer Louden, author of The Woman's Comfort Book and The Life Organizer - August 4, 2013
“Reading Blush is like eating the most delicious hot apple pie served with something tart, fresh, and zingy. Read it to be inspired by a brave woman willing to find her own voice.”
Review by: Darrelyn Saloom, coauthor of My Call to the Ring - August 4, 2013
“To read Shirley Showalter’s beautifully written memoir is like stepping into a childhood as far from mine as the moon. Her story is one I longed for my whole life.”