Plain Secrets

Book: Plain Secrets: An Outsider among the Amish

Author: Joe Mackall

Grade: C-

Joe Mackall has lived surrounded by the Swartzentruber Amish community in Ashland County, Ohio for over 16 years. The Swartzentruber Amish are the most traditional and insular sect of Amish. They forbid indoor plumbing, electricity, cushions on their chairs or lights on their buggies. They also don't participate in the much sensationalized rite of "Rumspringa" (wherein Amish youth are encouraged to go into the "English" world, get wild, and return home to be baptized -making them full members of the church).

Over the years, Mackall forms a solid friendship with the Shetler family and is granted unprecedented access to a world kept entirely hidden from the general public. Mackall paints an unbiased portrait of a predominately stereotyped population.

I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it. It's almost certainly ending up in the category of books I read and then never think about again. If your at a loss for anything else to read, or if you are particularly fond of the Amish, then "Plain Secrets" might be for you. If you don't fit into either of those categories, I suggest skipping it.