Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen

This memoir of a self-styled Mennonite who has "mainstreamed" is funny, serious and even educational all at once. Rhoda is a 30-something college professor working on her PhD who has just overcome a serious illness, only to be injured in a car wreck the same week her hubby dumps her for a guy he met via Gay.com. She shouldn't have been as stunned as she was, but the reader doesn't learn why until near the book's end.

In any event, these events lead Rhoda to go back home for a visit with her faithful Mennonite parents -- her ever-chipper, ever-cooking-in-the-kitchen mother and her very serious, quiet father who prays out loud at Denny's. They don't drive horses and buggies anymore. But they don't dance, they don't view keeping a woman's maiden name after marriage as an option, and they think a good mate for their daughter would be one of her first cousins.

Janzen does evoke a few laughs out of her parents' lifestyle and religion, yet she is not condescending. Her family and her former belief help her heal and give her reason to laugh again. She even meets a nice, very young Mennonite guy along the way. She is a tad less kind to her brothers who seem less tolerant of her mainstreamed beliefs.

Janzen also uses the book to inform readers about the Mennonite religion and its history. She tells us that the Amish broke off from the Mennonites because the Mennonites were just too downright "liberal." Yes, liberal! Even Janzen is aghast. For readers who might be considering a conversion to the Mennonite faith, she offers plenty of information on what to expect so they can't say, Well, nobody told me THAT was off-limits.

Read the book: It's one of those fun, informative, even heartwarming stories that can and really did happen.