Nancy Sleeth

{ I received this as an ebook from NetGalley. Full review originally posted on my blog, PidginPea's Book Nook. }

I wanted to read this book because I've been fascinated with the Amish way of life for as long as I can remember. The idea of making my own life slower, simpler, and more sustainable really appealed to me, so I was interested to read what Sleeth had to say in Almost Amish. Unfortunately, what she said and the way she said it completely turned me off.

Simply put, there is not enough show more about Amish life in this book for me. There are little tidbits of information here and there about how the Amish live and what they believe, and then there is a whooooole lot of detail about how Sleeth and her family transformed themselves and their lives.

There are some smaller changes suggested by Sleeth that readers could easily put into practice, such as starting a garden, giving away unneeded material possessions, and disconnecting from social media a bit. But for the most part, the changes that the family made are not small things that everyone could adopt in their own lives; this family gave up their jobs and reworked their entire existence to pursue a drastically different way of life. The way even the smaller ideas are presented and the way the family seems to take everything to the extreme kind of pushed the ideas themselves to the background; the focus throughout the book was on the family, not on encouraging change for good.

I'm sure Sleeth didn't intend to come across this way, but page after page read like, "Look at us! Look at the sacrifices we have made! We are such good Christians! Don't you want to be like us?" There are underhanded little hints at how privileged and fortunate they were before they went "almost Amish"; lines like "my son the doctor" and "we give so much away!" pop up quite frequently. It came off as boastful to me, and it really turned me off of this family.

I suppose I could just be bitter because this book was so far from what I expected. If I had known that Almost Amish was a book about this family and why they think they've got life figured out and why you should be more like them, rather than a book about Amish living and how to make realistic changes in your own life, it wouldn't have been on my to-read list. show less

The title makes it sound like a memoir, so I was expecting the story of someone's experience living near the Amish, or with transitioning to a rural life, living off the land, etc. I was not expecting a Christian self-help book full of cherry-picked Bible verses. It isn't an inherently bad book, but not what I was looking for at this time.

While I liked the book, I couldn't help but think, "wow, Nancy, not everyone has the perfect life like you do!!" While the ideas in the book are great and will lead to a slower, simpler more sustainable life, most people can not do the things that she is doing. Yes, we can garden, yes, we can be more involved with our community and neighbors, but, some of the stated ideas just aren't feasible for most people. Most people could only dream of her life. It seems to me that this is a "June show more Cleaver" book. Great ideas and wonderful stories, I was just looking for something more substantial that would apply to more people. show less

This book was about a family and how they made "responsible" changes in their lives to benefit the environment. The theme of Amish wisdom and information about the Amish culture were interesting but seemed like a vehicle to show how great this family is and how we all should be doing what they are doing. I can read other books about the Amish that are more to my liking. The whole thing came off as superior and probably unrealistic for most people. I scanned most of the book after the first show more few chapters. It just was not what I expected. show less