Rating: 
Summary: Its a journey
Review: HER BOOKS ARE A JOURNEY, YOU CAN FOLLOW
Having discovered Sue Bender's wonderful book "Everyday Sacred", I found it necessary to read all I could find by her. I followed with "Stretching lessons" and now "Plain and Simple", far from the chronological order they were written in. However, this does not matter. I wish and hope she writes more. THE JOURNEY WAS BEST FOR ME, FROM DAY TO DAY
I find I have a tendency to read her books in small segments. A chapter or section a day. It feels like you are journeying with her this way. I don't know why I did this, but it is a style all three books fell into. Some books are like that. In fact, I plan to reread them all, something I rarely do. They are those kind of books. FAMILIAR THOUGHTS
All of us have ideas that capture our imagination, from a facination with particular types of books, stories, colors, ideas. These are part of who we are. Rarely do most of us delve in deeper to fully pursue the things that facinate us. Sue Bender does. FOLLOWING YOUR PASSIONS
In this book she had been taken by a quilt she saw that was attributed to the Amish. The artist within felt a certain resonance with this quilt each time she saw it. Finally, she felt inclined to uproot her life, if only temporarily to examine the base of this facination; the culture of the people that made it. We all feel this pull, this draw occassionally. Most of us never act on it. REVEALS NOT ONLY THE AMISH, BUT THE AUTHOR AND THE READER AS WELL
What is particularly gratifying in this book is that not only does she reveal a portion of Amish life, but also her own. You see the author's perspective and her own preconceived notions of what and who the Amish are. She doesn't just visit the Amish once but lives with them at two different times with two different families. Here you can see, they as any other group of people have their own diversity and conflict. But, more so than any other group, due to their exclusivity, there are the tenets by which they live. As all anthropologists that study a culture must quickly find out, when we take time, to truly understand others, their motiviations, what they find important, how they live, only then do we find ourselves. Sue Bender is still looking, but she is a lot closer than most.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written and insightful perspective.
Review: I have read and re-read this book several times. It is a lovely story and written very well. It let's us know that everyone is human and in all communities there are good things and not so good things. Take the good and leave the rest. I have drawn on some of Sue Bender's experiences with the Amish and applied them in my own life. How wonderful to be able to read about someone else's experience and feel like you are there by their side.
Rating:
Summary: Oh man, I can't believe I'm reviewing a 20yo book
Review: I read Plain and Simple when it was first published in 1991. I can't believe it took me this long to review it. Sue Bender, a Berkeley artist and mother of two with grad degrees from both Harvard and Berkeley, just up and left town one day and went east to spent time with the Amish. Not as easy as it sounds, folks, because the Amish are intensely private people who don't routinely welcome outsiders. Somehow, however, Bender managed to convince two families to take her into the folds of their farming communities in Iowa and Ohio. She was transformed - and in this book that reflects the plain and simple lifestyle of the Simple Folk, she explains why and how this transformation occurred and what it means to her now.
Bender had always lived a life of moving from one list item to another, checking things off from the top only to add more at the bottom. The Amish, not unlike the Zen Buddhists, savor and honor each daily task, finding meaning within the most mundane chores. A book as meaningful and beautifully crafted as an Amish quilt, Plain and Simple deserves to be treasured.
Rating: 
Summary: She did not get the point.
Review: I thought this book was a sad commentary on the lostness of the author. Though she sought to understand the Amish way of life, she totally missed what it is all about. Maybe it was because the church service was in German or maybe she was so focused on herself that she could not see beyond to the fact that peace comes from a relationship with God. Her final line in the book stated that miracles take a lot of work. I would beg to disagree and say that God is the one who does miracles and therefore they take no work, just faith. This is what Sue Bender missed and is still missing I am afraid. We use Amish textbooks in our home education program, so the insights she shared were not really new to me. I think her description of the Amish is valid, but her understanding is lacking. I would not particularly recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: I was very disappointed in this book
Review: I was expecting to read a book about the Amish. What I read instead was a very self centered book about a woman searching, rather blindly, I felt, for herself.
She had very little in the way of insight into Amish life, even after spending a period of time with them. And her inability to get outside of her own head/her own life was not terribly interesting to read.
For someone who always longed to be a 'star,' I am sure publishing a book was quite a thrill for her. Shame she used the Amish as a platform for her own ego.
Rating: 
Summary: i had to re-read this for a book club meeting
Review: Ok for what it is but this book was really self-centered around Sue Bender and all SHE wanted to say. I wanted to know more about the Amish and their way of life and this book only grazed the surface. It seemed more like a journey through Sue's life moments to me. Maybe I'm too harsh but I wanted to read a book about Sue's impression of the Amish and her living among them NOT how Sue fit into everything, etc. Ugh! I was glad when it was over.
Rating:
Summary: Profound for me. I needed this book. Read all three!
Review: Sue Bender sometimes says the obvious, but she says it in an
accessible way, a way you can apply it. I read all three books
at once, in reverse order...and I found useful information in
each. I can't imagine reading only one of them...each was
part of the brilliant peaceful story! Thanks Sue Bender!
Rating:
Summary: Profound for me. I needed this book. Read all three!
Review: Sue Bender sometimes says the obvious, but she says it in an
accessible way, a way you can apply it. I read all three books
at once, in reverse order...and I found useful information in
each. I can't imagine reading only one of them...each was
part of the brilliant peaceful story! Thanks Sue Bender!
Rating:
Summary: Insight into a personal journey...
Review: Sue Bender's book "Plain and Simple" is a refreshing alternative to the usual Self-Help pap that overwhelms the genre. Instead of telling the reader what to do or what to believe, Bender simply spins out the tale of her journey to the Amish and then reveals the metaphor that the journey created for her own life. This book is not a documentary on the life of the Amish. It is not a psychoanalysis of these people. It is not about which lifestyle is better. It is like reading someone's journal--the entries are personal and intimate. They relate to the author's life and her struggle to find a common ground between the Amish values and the values that her current lifestyle embraces. I found the book to be very affirming of my own values and very thought provoking. As an artist, I was also interested to read about how her artwork changed as a result of this encounter. I applaud the author for having the courage to follow the "still small voice" and then to write about the questions rather than being tempted to write about the answers!
Rating:
Summary: Disturbing.
Review: This book is 'just okay.' I came away from reading the book not knowing too much about the Amish. Sue prefers to keep most of the information to herself. She does, however, make sure she gets in adequate writing about all of her 'accomplishments' -- and makes apparent her desire to return to her old life of those accomplishments. (Big hairy deal!) Personally I think she's a bore....and a boor; actually I found her to be pompous. She had a wonderful idea which could have been made better. Sue Bender, you need to grow up.
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