A Book Meme

I have been tagged by Adventures in the Life of UPSTATE NEW YORK!!! to participate in a Book Meme. Here are the instructions:

Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages). Open the book to page 123. Find the fifth sentence. Post the next three sentences. Tag five people.

I'll admit, straight out, that the book I'm choosing isn't the closest book. That would be The Bobbsey Twins by Laura Lee Hope, but I don't want to do that one. The next closest book is For The Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay, which I just got in the mail today from Paperback Swap. Incidentally the price tag of $9.94 is still on the book, which looks to be brand new, and I got it for FREE! YIPEE! I haven't gotten to read it yet, so I'm not going to choose this one either.

I recently read A Midwife's Story by Penny Armstrong, and I absolutely loved it! I have been meaning to blog about it so I'll use it for the meme, but first I have to tell you that I also got this one (FREE!) from Paperback Swap. It is written by a midwife who served the Old Order Amish people in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. She begins her practice there not expecting to like her clients, but only to tolerate their strange ways. She ends up, though, becoming their neighbor, loving them and being involved in their daily lives.



Here is one exerpt I loved:

"An Amishman usually looks like something special is happening to him. He has the face of a boy who has been teaching ducks to swim in a metal tub and now he's come in to tell his mother about it, and while he talks, jumping around, she's taking cookies out of the oven.

Through an Amishman's eyes, the days look like handcrafted gifts from God - presents made of carved wood and string and parts that make a reedy whistle."

Here is another:

"The farms stopped me. They were perfect. They were absolutely exquisite. Each one was minutely cared for, as if the rows were pulled up straight each morning and the corners tucked in at nightfall. The soil was looser than at other farms; it was lighter, fluffed up, as if it had been given a good beating in a copper bowl."

I highly recommend this book, with just one small caution for one bit of bad language in the beginning. I also happen to know that it is available at Amazon right this minute, and if you plan to get it and use my little Amazon search box over on the side bar, then I would surely appreciate it 'cause I would net something like 11 cents from that transaction.

Okay, here's the part for the meme. It is from a chapter called "Getting Married":

"Their minds, I'm sure, concentrate as best they can on the promises, but as much as anything else, it is the singing voices of their brothers and sisters, voices like shuttles working open and shut, each voice crossing over the bride and groom again and again, that probably weaves them into being married.

At the bride's house, supper for 100 or 150 is nearly ready. Family and neighbors have been killing chickens, chopping celery, cutting up cabbage, scrubbing potatoes, building tables, and setting up temporary wash stations for days."

Now, for the 5 people I am tagging:

Eskimo Kisses and Air Hugs

Thou and Thou Only

A Purposed Life

At Pat's Place

Exceedingly Abundantly Blessed