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: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Just Okay
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.
Rating:
Summary: A book to be read over and over for relaxation.
Review: This book was given to me as a birthday gift by a friend with whom I was in business. Unkowingly, this friend, also named "Sue", gave me the key to relaxation. When things get hectic and chaotic in my life, I read Plain and Simple. From the time I start reading, there is a peace that comes over me and I feel so calm afterwards. The writing seems to put me where Sue was when she was visiting the Amish...the same quiet peace I feel when gazing over miles of farmland dotted with homes with barns and silos - - and no electrical poles! Unfortunately, I am not surrounded by that environment, so reading Plain and Simple brings me there! Having loaned my copy to an elderly friend who was rehabilitating after heart surgery, I waited for her response. She didn't think she could read it since she was having trouble "concentrating on more than a paragraph of anything printed". I left it with her anyway, and at my next visit, she not only thanked me profusely, but told me she was adding it to her book "gift list"! So, I knew then it was not only me who benefited from the peace of the book. My thanks to the author!
Rating: 
Summary: Simply a good story...
Review: This is a little story about a woman who goes on a journey of self discovery. If you are hesitant to believe there is such a thing as "self discovery" and describe such actions as "selfish" instead, then this book is not for you. I enjoyed reading Sue Bender's story about her insights while living with an Amish family. What began as an interest in the Amish quilts became an obsession for her. She eventually finds an Amish family in Iowa who is willing to let her stay with them for a summer as a companion for the families aging grandmother. From the very beginning what Sue notices is not so much the obvious differences in clothing, lifetstyle and religion but the way this Amish community had deeper way of just being. Timelessness or being in the moment was something they displayed with each and every activity. "It was as if they had uncovered a way to be in time, to be part of time, to have a harmonious relation with time." The author comes to re-evaluate the life she has been living and asks many of the same questions we ask ourselves. There are no easy answers in this book, just observations to be read and pondered upon, to enrich and stimulate. What would be our answer to the ultimate question Ms. Bender asks of herself,"Am I a successful human being and not only a success?"
Rating:
Summary: Simply a good story...
Review: This is a little story about a woman who goes on a journey of self discovery. If you are hesitant to believe there is such a thing as "self discovery" and describe such actions as "selfish" instead, then this book is not for you. I enjoyed reading Sue Bender's story about her insights while living with an Amish family. What began as an interest in the Amish quilts became an obsession for her. She eventually finds an Amish family in Iowa who is willing to let her stay with them for a summer as a companion for the families aging grandmother. From the very beginning what Sue notices is not so much the obvious differences in clothing, lifetstyle and religion but the way this Amish community had deeper way of just being. Timelessness or being in the moment was something they displayed with each and every activity. "It was as if they had uncovered a way to be in time, to be part of time, to have a harmonious relation with time." The author comes to re-evaluate the life she has been living and asks many of the same questions we ask ourselves. There are no easy answers in this book, just observations to be read and pondered upon, to enrich and stimulate. What would be our answer to the ultimate question Ms. Bender asks of herself,"Am I a successful human being and not only a success?"
Rating:
Summary: PLEASE
Review: You sure must have missed a lot on your JOURNEY.The Amish are the most backwards group of misfits I have ever encountered.Where kids beat on when you were they? Were wives talked down to and belitted? Were animals beat and starved? I thought not. Maybe you should take another trip...and tell it like it really is. I do not think much of your book. It is NOT TRUE
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