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Reading Room:  The Believers  |
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
 Posted - Feb 13 2006 : 7:24:04 PM
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by Janice Holt Giles. just finished reading this one. lordy i do love that woman's writing! this one is about Shakers and WOW .. don't think i would have wanted to be one! they surely served a purpose for some .. but the lifestyle was way too rigid for me. no wonder they 'died out'. anyone else read any books on Shakers? (novels .. i have quite a few on their communities and furniture and arts).
True Friends, Frannie |
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SmallTownGirl
True Blue Farmgirl
117 Posts
Rose
USA
117 Posts |
Posted - Feb 13 2006 : 9:02:40 PM
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I'm going to have to check my library for this one, sounds great.
Remember what you now have was once among the things only hoped for. |
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Celticheart
True Blue Farmgirl
811 Posts
Marcia
WA
USA
811 Posts |
Posted - Feb 13 2006 : 9:26:27 PM
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I haven't read that one but I'll look for it at my library. It sounds good.
Have you read The Peaceable Kingdom by Jan de Hartog? It's an older book about Quakers and the beginning of the Quaker movement in England. I've read it at least twice. In fact if you can find it it's the beginning of a triolgy and all three of those books are good. I think the other two are The Lamb's War and Peculiar People.
Marcia
"I suppose the pleasure of country life lies really in the eternally renewed evidence of the determination to live." Vita Sackville-West
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Nancy Gartenman
True Blue Farmgirl
9093 Posts
Nancy
West Seneca
New York
USA
9093 Posts |
Posted - Feb 14 2006 : 10:45:32 AM
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FRANNIE
Just ordered Miss Willey buy Janice Giles. Have you read that one? I need ten more things to do so what the heck.
NANCY JO |
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thehouseminder
True Blue Farmgirl
361 Posts
USA
361 Posts |
Posted - Feb 14 2006 : 12:39:27 PM
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I haven't read the book but I know that they "died out" because two of their major emphasis were: celibacy and not allowing converts into their sect. Kinda hard to be fruitful and multiply that way.
A large part of my family is Quaker. It is not at all the same.
Lucinda
When we were young, there were moments of such perfectly crystallized happiness that we stood stock still and silently promised ourselves that we would remember them always. And we did. --Holly J. Burkhalter , "Four Midwestern Sisters' Christmas Book"
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Feb 14 2006 : 1:05:20 PM
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lucinda .. in 'their day' .. the way they built up their membership was through converts .. as they started dying out .. perhaps they didn't accept new members .. it just wasn't feasible toward the end .. and probably people were joining for some of the wrong reasons. early on .. it is my understanding that they accepted everyone .. and often had what was called: Winter Time Shakers .. this is families that were hungry and cold and had no way to feed their children .. so they would all join the shakers .. UNTIL springtime .. when they could often be seen sneaking across the fields early in the morning heading back to their farms. and often .. only to return the next winter. while the shakers knew this .. they welcomed them back. it was a VERY hard life .. almost what would seem to be a 'cult' by today's standards i believe. the celibacy would also often lose young couples who joined but just couldn't stay apart. they DID have to leave if they were caught co-habitating!! goodness knows, they surely did accomplish making many beautiful things during the time they did exist. here in kentucky, we have shakertown (pleasant hill) .. and it is LOVELY! i had SUCH an experience there ... went to a primitive run-hooking camp for a week .. and i SWEAR .. i was visited by ghosts .. a BRIGHT LIGHT! my room-mate did NOT wake up or see it! it FLASHED and disappeared .. SEVERAL TIMES! a WHITE LIGHT .. i thought i was having a STROKE! I Swear I did! I KNOW i saw it .. but it amazed me that the woman in the next bed DID NOT! The next morning, i asked if anyone else saw it .. and at breakfast, i was asked by a lady who works at Shaker if i was in a certain building and in a certain room .. i told her YES!!!!! she said i was not the only person to report this occurrence over the years! AND .. a couple years later, i went back with some friends (their first visit) .. i told them all about my 'ghost' on the way to shakertown while riding in our car. We all took a 'tour' of the farm in a wagon pulled by horses. Our guide told us so many facts and as we passed the building i had been in .. he told us that there was a room in that building where BRIGHT LIGHTS will sometime appear in the middle of the night! I swear .. we about all fell out of the wagon!
(i thought maybe it was an electrical short or something .. or a 'joke' that was being played on us). but he said, "no .. there is a woman here who has done research on the ghosts of shaker village and she has had it checked out!" WOWZER! someday i will return and find this woman and talk to her!
i guess GHOSTS would be enough to send me packing if i were a shaker! Do get the book .. it is such interesting reading.
Nancy.. you will very much enjoy Miss Willie. BY THE WAY .. do you know that her older books (and most were written during the 30's and 40's .. sell for upwards and more than a hundred bucks each here in Kentucky. I occasionally find them very reasonably priced on e-bay though!
True Friends, Frannie |
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ashcordes
True Blue Farmgirl
197 Posts
Ashley
Roann
IN
USA
197 Posts |
Posted - Feb 15 2006 : 06:38:55 AM
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Frannie,
Another good quaker novel is "The Friendly Persuasion" by Jessamyn West. Loved that story. |
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thehouseminder
True Blue Farmgirl
361 Posts
USA
361 Posts |
Posted - Feb 15 2006 : 08:16:51 AM
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Hi Ashley!
"Except for me and Thee" by the same author is also wonderful.
Lucinda
When we were young, there were moments of such perfectly crystallized happiness that we stood stock still and silently promised ourselves that we would remember them always. And we did. --Holly J. Burkhalter , "Four Midwestern Sisters' Christmas Book"
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ashcordes
True Blue Farmgirl
197 Posts
Ashley
Roann
IN
USA
197 Posts |
Posted - Feb 15 2006 : 09:18:35 AM
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| Yep, read that one too! |
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SmallTownGirl
True Blue Farmgirl
117 Posts
Rose
USA
117 Posts |
Posted - Mar 16 2006 : 08:18:59 AM
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Well Ladies I checked this book out and I read it last week. I really liked it. The insight on a shaker village was amazing; I never knew their lifestyle was that rigid. And the wife's struggle between being a good wife and listening to her own heart was crazy. I almost gave up on her until I got the part where she became a teacher. I would love to visit Kentucky and see their homes. Thanks for a good recommendation Frannie; I will have to check out more of her books.
Remember what you now have was once among the things only hoped for. |
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Mar 16 2006 : 4:00:32 PM
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rose .. GILES is my favorite author! i just got a great SHAKER GARDENS book .. and it is verifying so much of what was written in The Believers. ALL of her books are great .. try to get Hannah Fowler .. she is the 'beginning' ancestor in most of Giles books. had me hooked right away!
True Friends, Frannie |
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