Home to Cedar Branch (A Quaker Café Novel) - Inspirational Amish Fiction Book for Relaxing Reading & Book Club Discussions

At 3 am I finished reading Home to Cedar Branch. I had not intended to stay up half the night, but I couldn't stop reading. And it lingers with me still as I contemplate the characters, and most importantly to me, the Quakers in the story.I was thoroughly captured by The Quaker Cafe. This book is edgier, however, with characters that are flawed and damaged. They live in outer valleys and abandoned textile communities of my state, and their stories appear in the papers and evening news far too frequently. The lives and motivations Remmes describes are scattered in the southern landscape, and they are haunting. Particularly in the chapter about the "roots," the ominous presence that inhabits the live oak hammocks and swamps of the rural South feels alive in the book's words, just as it does in the places themselves. Remmes got the pulse of such places; if you ever want to experience the eeriness and darkness sourthern backwater swamp, this writers gives it to you.I mentioned the Quakers. Their role in the story caused me to wonder how many times outcomes of the horrors we see in our world might conclude with a different outcome. Or maybe not. How much risk is acceptable, both individually and collectively. Just today on the news there was a story of law enforcement getting "tired" of the wait to resolve a stand-off. One law breaker died. Could more patience have worked in favor of a less violent result? I don't know. But it does ask me how often a steady, faithful presence in very volitile situations could save lives.This is a piece of southern writing through and through. If you like southern literature, you will like this book. I m recommending highly to my friends, especially those who appreciate a good southern story with interesting characters and a bit of the mysterious aura that permeates the landscape of this region.