DVD Review & Giveaway: Beverly Lewis' The Shunning

I was pretty excited when I got the e-mail offering me the chance to review "The Shunning"  on DVD. I've been a fan of Beverly Lewis for years, and I think I have read all of her books. Here's a little background on Beverly Lewis: 

BEVERLY LEWIS - Author of "The Shunning"

Beverly Lewis, born in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country, is The New York Times bestselling author of more than eighty books.  Her stories have been published in eleven languages worldwide.  A keen interest in her mother's Plain heritage has inspired Lewis to write many Amish-related novels, beginning with "The Shunning," which has sold more than one million copies.  In 2007, Lewis' "The Brethren" was honored with a Christy Award.

Lewis has been interviewed by both national and international media, including Time magazine, the Associated Press, and the BBC.  Lewis lives with her husband, David, in Colorado. 

The Shunning is the first book in a series called "The Heritage of Lancaster County." The movie stayed pretty true to the book, telling the story of how Katie Lapp struggles to stay within the strict confines of the Amish Ordnung. Her first love, Daniel, shared his love of music with her, even though musical instruments like the guitar and any songs not in the Amish hymnal (the Ausbund) were strictly prohibited. Even Daniel disappears and is assumed drowned in the river, Katie finds that her love for him, and her love for the forbidden music, haven't died. 

Beverly Lewis' The Shunning - About the Movie

Before she succumbs to cancer, the dying wish of Laura Mayfield-Bennett is to be reunited with the daughter she never knew. Unfortunately, that daughter, Katie Lapp, is a member of the Amish order. Katie is about to be married, but uneasy about the path ahead.  Now she discovers the secret her parents have kept from her: she's adopted. 

The film is based on the celebrated first novel of the best-selling "The Heritage of Lancaster County" book series from author Beverly Lewis. Stars Danielle Panabaker & Sherry Stringfield.

Here's a trailer of the movie.

I really enjoyed this movie. I don't want to give too much of the plot line away, and spoil it for people who haven't seen it yet! It was a good, clean family movie...although one family member who had not read the book was a little confused by the flashback scenes that introduce Katie's first love, Daniel. I think the movie captured the struggles Katie had in staying true to her faith. I loved the woman who played Ella Marie Zook, the elderly Amish midwife who has befriended Katie. She played the character with just the right blend of quirkiness and grandmotherly love. 

The only problem with this movie is that it followed the book so closely. The book is the first in a series of three, and leaves you with a lot of questions at the end. As the film ends, you are left with a lot of the same questions: Does Katie find her birth mother? Does Katie ever get over Daniel? Will she return to her Amish roots? 

I hope that there's another movie soon to follow Katie's story from the second book in the series, "The Confession!" I'm keeping an eye on the Facebook Page for the movie to watch for an announcement about the next movie! 

The Giveaway! 

I have the chance to give away a DVD of the movie "The Shunning" to one of my readers. There are two ways to enter: 

1. By leaving a comment below (leave your e-mail address if it doesn't show up in your Google profile, so I can contact the winner)

2. Or, if you would rather not post your e-mail on a public blog, you can send me an e-mail at FreeCellPenguin@gmail.com - with the subject line "The Shunning Giveaway"

Giveaway ends on Monday, October 3rd at 11:59 PM. Limited to U.S. residents only, age 13 and up. Limit one entry per person per day. 

The winner is: Louis (Raven in a blue room). Congratulations! 

"Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services
mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I
only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.
I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: 

"Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising." 

A day in my life...

Ah, Saturdays. There are Saturdays when I wake up and say "It's been a busy week. I think I'm going to take it easy today!" And then there are Saturdays when I hit the ground running, determined to knock the stuffing out of my to-do list. Today was one of those days.

I started out cleaning up the kitchen, and starting a batch of yogurt. This is my first time trying to make yogurt. I printed out detailed directions from the internet... got the milk warming up on the stovetop, and cleared out the dehydrator for keeping the milk/yogurt mixture warm later.

Dehydrator ready to go!

Then I headed out into the garage to sort pears. I needed to get all the ripe pears ready for canning. I opened up the garage door so I could work on it in natural lighting... and while I was sitting on the concrete step out in the garage, dressed in my grungy "get it done" clothes, Fed-Ex stopped by with a delivery... I'm glad I at least combed my hair before I started!

To be done today!

Still left to be done

Once the pears were sorted, I came in and opened up my Fed-Ex package. It was my host kit for my ChefBoyArDee HouseParty coming up in a couple of weeks. I got a cute chef's hat, and a nice insulated lunchbag for myself, and some notepads and coupons for the guests.

I started a batch of bread dough, since there wasn't any bread in the house for Sunday breakfast. I made the "Awesome Bread" recipe that I posted a few days ago, but instead of honey, I used up the last of some maple-apple jelly that nobody was eating. Yeah! I love it when I can finish something off like that, rather than having it spoil! Finally, the rest of the family was waking up, and it was time for breakfast. I made multi-grain waffles for them, and gluten-free Cinnamon-Nut waffles for myself. Midway through my first cinnamon-nut waffle, I realized it was missing something. It tasted good, but something was missing. It was then that I realized that when you're making Cinnamon-Nut waffles, you need to put in cinnamon! 

We had a bit of sadness at breakfast... The Peter Rabbit plate that we have used for twenty years or so finally bit the dust... Ron noticed a crack when he picked up a waffle off the plate. When he pulled on it to see how bad the crack was, it broke apart. 

No more Peter Rabbit! 

So, on I went to my pear canning. I have to admit... I have a bit of quirk when it comes to canning pears. I like to get them all lined up in rows of ten, so I can count them out and know how many more I have to do, and how much longer it will take. I know it takes about 2 minutes to do 3 pears. At this point, I had 101 pears left... about an hour and 8 minutes. 

With that many to work on, I might as well make the most of it. I grabbed my MP3 player, turned on some music, and put my feet up! 

I took a break when I heard the mail jeep coming down the road. I got two nice surprises in the mail:

We got a package from Connie at college (we knew she was sending back her scientific calculator for Bethany to use, but she said there would also be a special treat in there for each of us). I also got a sweepstakes win: two free movie passes, and two coupons for free fountain beverages. Sounds like a date night coming up! The "special treat" from Connie was a neat little book of Post-It notes!

I took another break from canning for lunch. The bread turned out great, and at the last minute, I got the idea to "go gourmet" with our salads, putting some pear slices, feta cheese, and walnuts on them. They were delicious. I'm sure I'll be doing that again while we're stocked with pears.

"Awesome Bread"

Pears, feta & walnuts... yum!

It took me until after 5 PM to finish the canning. Ron brought in a basket of green beans that needed to be tended to also. Once that was all done, it was time for me to get in a little internet time... working on this blog, entering some sweepstakes, getting my daily fix of "Gardens of Time" on Facebook. There's still one more thing on the agenda, though... movie night with Bethany. 

I got a DVD of "The Shunning" in the mail this week to review, so we will watch that while I stuff bulletins. I'll be posting my review of the movie here in a day or two, along with a GIVEAWAY... you might win your own copy of "The Shunning." Stay posted... or check out my blog from yesterday, where I'm doing a giveaway for a Ginny Owens CD. I love getting surprises in the mail, and I think it's great fun to be able to send a surprise to a lucky winner! 

Think that's enough for one day?