Crazy Quilt

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: inherit>With bare-knuckled honesty and humor this memoir follows a young woman's search for a way out of her despair. Leaving her husband and their lives in New York City Yoder moves to the countryside where she collects stories from her aging Pennsylvania Dutch Mennonite grandparents. With her marriage hanging by a thread she faces her demons to make peace with a heritage she has felt at odds with. </span><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Yoder's account of that year is one of the first Mennonite memoirs of its kind.</span><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: inherit> </span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: inherit>Normal...had gone out on a long walk without saying when she'd be back the author writes in the first chapter. As she listens to her grandparents and works with a therapist Yoder begins to understand what she needs to do to save herself and her marriage. As she searches for a semblance of peace apart from the religion she has left she discovers unexpected answers. </span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: inherit>Home is simply a memory a place that no longer exists in the real world after you've been away for a long time Yoder writes. But you can try to return... with a little of you just that teeny part that agrees to go. Both her project and the rural surroundings help her slow down the pace of her days: Sitting and listening to my grandfather talk with the many silences that filled the spaces between his thoughts time took on a different meaning. I didn't have to be anywhere but here... Exploring at this new pace she embraces the unexpected nourishment she finds. Originally published in 2003 </span><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>the book includes favorite traditional Pennsylvania Dutch recipes from Yoder's grandmother including Dutch Goose (Pig Stomach) and shoo-fly pie recipes.</span><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: inherit> This 2025 version includes book club questions an original mixed-media drawing by Yoder's sister artist Juanita Yoder as well as minor revisions.</span></p><p></p>