To write this book, Lorilee Craker dives into Amish culture to see what she can learn about how the Amish deal with money. She'd noticed that, when the rest of America was in a financial tailspin, the Amish were managing to thrive and her aim was to find out how. Craker uncovers "secrets" of the Amish that can be pracitcal even in our "fancy" lives and that can help us put some money in the bank and live with less stress while doing it.
I found many of the secrets to be things I do already, but having grown up in a down-to-earth Mennonite home may have something to do with that. I imagine not everyone would be doing these things already. And despite some of these tricks not being new to me, I still found the book inspiring and a helpful reminder to be intentional about where my money goes.
A downside to the book is that Craker is a journalist by trade and, as a result, I found there to be many "catch lines" and "hooks" that are so common in journalistic writing. It does come across a bit cheesy at times. It also seemed that there were a few repetitions of information in the book, almost as though Craker didn't have quite enough material to write a whole book rather than just an article on this topic. That said, it didn't detract too much from the overall content of the book, which I found to be interesting and fun to read.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone hoping for a few tricks to help them save money, or even to anyone who just plain enjoys reading a bit about the Amish culture.
