Sherry Gore

This book tells the story of Shery Gore, a woman who had a difficult upbringing/family life. Eventually, Sherry meets Jesus and her life is changed. Over time, she attempts to make changes in her life to adhere more closely to what she believes, eventually deciding to become "plain."

I found this book really interesting and appreciated Gore's lack of judgment for those who are not plain and the way she led readers to the truth of Jesus Christ in an authentic, gentle way.

I will say I found the subtitle a little misleading with its use of the word amish. Gore describes herself as Amish-Mennonite, but since she never offered up distinct definitions of words like Amish, Mennonite, and Anabaptist, I had a hard time understanding the differences between being Mennonite, for example, and just living a simple life. She states that some Amish and Mennonite communities use electricity and drive cars (it's up to each community to determine how "modern" they'll live), and she chooses to utilize these things, as well. I was left wondering why she felt the need to distinguish herself as "plain" instead of just living a more simple, unhurried life.

I was also really saddened when she divorced her second husband after determining that her marriage was not of God (because she'd been married and divorced before, and no longer believed in remarriage), particularly because she wasn't even a Christian when she married him to begin with.

One minor thing that bothered me a little was her talk of "following her heart," a phrase she used several times as a positive thing. At the end of the book, she says, "My place is here... God wills it. I know this because I feel it in my heart. And since I made my choice for Him, my heart has never led me astray." (p 185) I think what she really means is that the Holy Spirit has assured her in her spirit that she's made the right decision, but I feel that using the term heart here was unfortunate, as the Bible states that "the human heart is the most deceitful of all things..." (Jeremiah 17:9)

But overall, this was a very interesting read and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys spiritual memoirs.… (plus d'informations)

The Plain Choice is Sherry Gore's memoir covering events in her life that lead to her choosing to live among the Amish as well as events that have happened since that choice. Normally, I avoid memoirs, but I could not put this one down.

Sherry discusses a lot of difficult moments in her life and how they shaped her into the person she is today, from her place in her community and her faith in God, to her role as a mother. There were several moments that I found tears in my eyes. While Sherry and I come from different backgrounds and situations, there were still times when I found similarities.

One of my only complaints about the writing would be that the timeline was hard to follow in some places, it jumped months or years a couple times without giving the reader enough details to know how long it was until later on.

I was very excited to receive this ARC from NetGalley, since it is about an Amish woman and I have always been curious about the Amish's way of life, in fact, when I was a child and first discovered them, I wanted to write an elder and find out if they had an exchange student program! So this insider's look was very interesting. I definitely would recommend this to anyone interested in a first-hand account of living among the Amish. I also would recommend it to anyone struggling with their own faith in God as well as those who are not struggling, as Sherry's tales of difficulty and renewed faith are truly inspiring.


*received free ARC from Netgalley… (plus d'informations)