A Month of Giveaways: Week 1

Many of you are familiar with Dorcas Smucker; I have followed her blog and social media accounts for years. You may remember that I've given away several of her books, one being the giveaway where everyone who entered received a book! Today, I have a book for you that was written by her daughter. 

I'm not sure when I started reading Emily's blog. I'm thinking it may have been the first time Dorcas and her daughters collaborated to post every day for a month? At any rate, I've followed along there for a while now; if not reading every single post, usually going back and playing catch up. I even joined her patreon account, which I rarely ever do. And, I pre-ordered her book, which is also a bit unusual for me. 

How honest do you get in a book review?

Emily and I have very different personalities. Granted, I've never met her in person but some things are pretty obvious. Following along with her blogs, there have been plenty of times when I rolled my eyes at her adventurous and (to me) impractical spirit. Her writing isn't always necessarily my style and I even confess that when I heard she was writing a book, I didn't think it would be that great. 

So why did I buy it?

I think it was when I signed up for her patreon posts that my feelings began to shift a bit. I discovered a depth to her heart and a connection with some of her beliefs and feelings that I hadn't seen before. Then, she wrote a post about the story behind the book and described how her editor encouraged her to dig deeper than just, "I did this crazy thing, and then I did that thing, and then I locked my keys in the car again." And instead asked, "But how did that make you feel?" Something about that intrigued me and I made the decision to pre-order the book. 

I must say, my earlier thought that a book by Emily would not be that great was completely and totally wrong. My deepest apologies. I loved The Highway and Me and My Earl Grey Tea; loved it. And I think I loved it because of Emily's hard work in asking "how did it make me feel".

The book is about Emily spending a year traveling around the United States, living in a different Mennonite community every month. It was fun to read about many communities and names and events that were familiar to me. Emily's candid impressions had me laughing many times. I learned about Mennonite expressions and habits that I'd never heard of before. It was intriguing to read about different communities and the way they socialized. But Emily's book also made me cry. 

The underlying theme in Emily's book is connection. She writes, "At the beginning of the year, I thought I wanted to escape, but what I really wanted was connection. I thought I wanted to find myself, to figure out where I wanted to live, and to figure out if I could be a real writer. But what I really wanted was to understand my place in this world." Who of us can not identify with that?

Reading through her journey, I found my own heart throbbing with the same questions she was facing -- Who am I? Where do I belong? What do I really want? Her poignant conclusion at the end of the book had me wiping tears again the other day as I re-read it: "This year had taught me that relationships and connections are what really matter. And you can't grow connections when you're always escaping."

When I decided to do another month of giveaways, I reached out to Emily, and she  has graciously agreed to give away a copy of The Highway and Me and My Earl Grey Tea to one of my readers! You can also order a copy of her book here. I am pretty sure you will enjoy it as much as I did. 

Connection is an interesting thing, made even more complicated by the fact that we don't all find it in the same way. I have learned that the things that make people feel connection are as diverse as the people themselves! For example, my husband feels the most connected with people when they engage in disagreements with him. I on the other hand, feel the most connected with people when they say things like, "Oh, yes. I can understand why you feel that way!" 

So, I'm curious. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment telling me what makes you feel connected to other people. Or if that is too difficult to describe, I'll accept any comment...

Winner will be announced a week from today, February 8.

**The winner must have a US address the book can be shipped to.