Overview: Amity is a story told inclusive of whimsy, mystery, spirituality and the holy ordinariness of daily life that mingle together in this delightful collection of short stories.

Verdict: As noted, Amity - Stories from the Heartland is a collection of short stories by well-known Quaker writer Brent Bill. Each story is set in the Midwest of the United States, a region known for its honest, hardworking, plain-speaking, religious people who are as complex and thoughtful as the most urbane city dwellers.

These stories are about 1930s housewives, modern day priests, 1960s kids, and more -- as well as the varieties and vagaries of their lives’ trials, triumphs, failings, joys, sorrows, and surviving -- and the beauty and mystery of it all.

Inclusive of characters, places, and spaces that are as imaginatively mesmerizing as most anything I have personally had the pleasure to read over the past few years, this wondrous collection Amity: Stories from the Heartland from author J. Brent Bill veritably leads you gently by the hand into a series of worlds that, collectively bring forth a tapestry of family resonance that should ignite a heartwarming nod of familial understanding within us all.

Reminding us how to live, let alone why we should live, through these retellings of small town America, Amity is delightfully impassioned, along with being warm and funny in equal measures, and is a must-read, of that you have my word.

About the Author - John Brent Bill is Quaker minister, author, retreat leader, conservationist, and photographer. He has written many books, articles, and fiction pieces and teaches writing at the graduate school level and in adult continuing education courses. He has also served as a writing coach to a number of published writers. He lives in Mooresville, Indiana.

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