Does Little House on the Prairie leave you misty-eyed? Have you collected every episode of The Waltons on CD? If the simplicity of the past summons your spirit, Living Simply by Joanne Heim may be for you.
Heim writes that what she's searching for and sharing with her readers is "a life filled with more meaning and less stuff, and I'm finding that simplicity is a means to finding a better quality of life" (p. 28). She breaks the book into chapters on life, family, home, friendship, meals, celebrations, Sabbath, pleasures, and changing seasons.
Written in a friendly casual style, the author uses illustrative quotes, many of them from children's books, to make practical points. She includes a few recipes and some good ideas for Easter, but Heim sprinkles ideas in rather than listing them. She surprised me with her perception in a couple of areas: the importance of the influence of parents' friends on their children and that the cost of being God's friend is obedience. You don't hear either of those points often enough.
Living Simply is pleasant, restful reading. Heim invites rather than compels readers to continue on. Except for a few good ideas, Heim didn't really meet my needs, but I'm a fifty-something, stay-at-home mom with a very quiet lifestyle. Given the busyness of so many younger women, I think the book would appeal more to women in their twenties and thirties. Heim includes a resource list at the back. She and her husband have written several books, and she has been interviewed on prominent Christian radio shows. Debbie W. Wilson, Christian Book Previews.com
