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Amity: Stories from the Heartland
Whimsy, mystery, spirituality and the holy ordinariness of daily life mingle together in this delightful collection of short stories.
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.
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.
- GenresFictionShort Stories
90 pages, Paperback
Published November 23, 2023
2 people are currently reading
11 people want to read
About the author
J. Brent Bill
31 books88 followersBrent Bill is a Quaker minister, photographer, and author. He is the author of many books and magazine articles. He lives in rural Indiana on Ploughshares Farm -- a wildlife retreat with woods and native prairie.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 17, 2025
Great collection of stories. Had the pleasure of meeting the author at the Indiana Historical Society’s “Holiday Author Fair” last year and have been reading a story from the book every so often since then. I particularly liked “Places to Go,” “The Crossing” and, perhaps my favorite, “The Sword of the Lord.”
December 12, 2023
Step back in time. Maybe to the age of your parents (like me), or the generation in which you grew up. A Midwest, 1950s feel, with life lessons spread throughout. Great short stories.
November 29, 2023
With a gentle sense of humour J. Brent Hill takes us back to a time when life was so much less complicated than it is today while visiting the little moments that make people special in Amity: stories from the Heartland.
A delightful beginning The trip to Amity, is a situation so many will recognise as familiar, or perhaps not so familiar. Waiting for the husband or wife to hurry up, to stop always running late. Anger getting the better of judgement, tension high once the vehicle gets into motion. Words spoken the atmosphere thick. Arriving at their destination late, he gathers his robes, stoles and notes heading into the Church; small congregation he thinks. That is until he discovers he is in the wrong church!
Places to go is a very quirky tale of the desire to drive, to have the freedom to go whenever she wanted to, to shop wherever she felt like it without having someone take her. Mrs Henry so desperately wanted to drive and was determined not to let anything stop her, until that fateful day when she decided she could do it, which did not work out at all as she expected.
A Christmas Carol singing outing takes a rather interesting turn when a young singer asks why the ladies are all having babies if they are not married which somehow, as these questions are wont to do, leads the singers down a rather uncomfortable pathway into a carol service that would probably never viewed in the same light again.
The tables are turned with the last two stories which see Mrs Henry return after the death of her husband. She is now a woman who now has to make her own decisions, the family grown and settled, she with the freedom to fly a little, to be able to go where she wants to go and in the manner, you guessed it, she chooses to travel.
In the final story in this quirky and entertaining collection, the other side of the trip to Amity is laid bare in Another Trip to Amity in which so many varied thoughts go through the mind of the Pastor’s wife on their mad dash to get to the service on time.
Brent Hill is a Quaker Minister who has always enjoyed telling tales. Amity; stories from the Heartland is his first publication of some of the many stories he has told over the years. His light touch, lovely sense of people and their wonderfully quirky style of managing to travel life’s often expected pathway creates a lovely heart-warming collection.
A delightful beginning The trip to Amity, is a situation so many will recognise as familiar, or perhaps not so familiar. Waiting for the husband or wife to hurry up, to stop always running late. Anger getting the better of judgement, tension high once the vehicle gets into motion. Words spoken the atmosphere thick. Arriving at their destination late, he gathers his robes, stoles and notes heading into the Church; small congregation he thinks. That is until he discovers he is in the wrong church!
Places to go is a very quirky tale of the desire to drive, to have the freedom to go whenever she wanted to, to shop wherever she felt like it without having someone take her. Mrs Henry so desperately wanted to drive and was determined not to let anything stop her, until that fateful day when she decided she could do it, which did not work out at all as she expected.
A Christmas Carol singing outing takes a rather interesting turn when a young singer asks why the ladies are all having babies if they are not married which somehow, as these questions are wont to do, leads the singers down a rather uncomfortable pathway into a carol service that would probably never viewed in the same light again.
The tables are turned with the last two stories which see Mrs Henry return after the death of her husband. She is now a woman who now has to make her own decisions, the family grown and settled, she with the freedom to fly a little, to be able to go where she wants to go and in the manner, you guessed it, she chooses to travel.
In the final story in this quirky and entertaining collection, the other side of the trip to Amity is laid bare in Another Trip to Amity in which so many varied thoughts go through the mind of the Pastor’s wife on their mad dash to get to the service on time.
Brent Hill is a Quaker Minister who has always enjoyed telling tales. Amity; stories from the Heartland is his first publication of some of the many stories he has told over the years. His light touch, lovely sense of people and their wonderfully quirky style of managing to travel life’s often expected pathway creates a lovely heart-warming collection.
November 9, 2023
A beautiful book! Brent Bill is a masterful storyteller! I especially loved the way he positioned the first and last stories as perfect bookends! So many great examples of how our experiences in life shape our attitudes and actions, and what we can learn about ourselves when we are open to perspectives that are different than our own. I highly recommended this book! Its December release makes it the perfect stocking stuffer!
November 10, 2023
Amity is a warm, nostalgic collection of short stories that show Brent Bill's affection for the people of the Midwest, even the curmudgeons! I particularly liked the way the first and last stories provided perfect "bookends"--the same tale told from two different points of view. Nicely crafted!
December 1, 2023
Brent Bill's "stories from the heartland" are old-fashioned tales of small town life in the twentieth century, warm and good-hearted and sometimes LOL funny. A good choice for fans of Jan Karon's Mitford novels.
November 8, 2023
A beautiful collection of stories that feel like home.
November 17, 2023
Amity - Stories from the Heartland is a wonderful book of many stories. Each story brings you into lives of someone you may know or even yourself. It is one of my favorite books from J. Brent Bill.
February 28, 2025
Short stories of more insular times for conservative white Christians. Not my thing.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews