Read For Free Amen, Amen, Amen: Memoir Of A Girl Who Couldn't Stop Praying (Among Other Things) Crafted By Abby Sher Ready In Hardcover

book was totally engrossing, and the writer talented, I can't tell you how comforting and fascinating it is to read about someone else's obsessive fears amp compulsive behaviors amp relationships to stave those fears off, to try to keep them at bay.
OCD isn't about liking things clean or organized it's about trying to control things you can as a way to compensate for things you can't, even and especially when it gets in the way of the rest your life, just for a little more room to put air in your lungs where the anxiety has created a vacuum.
Sher is really, really talented at quite poetically putting that into words, into stories,

A sad amp emotional book to read, definitely coming with a trigger warning for folks with disordered eating/eating disorders and/or selfharm issues, but powerful and really wellwritten.
I loved the way she wrote about her father in the beginning, the way her voice almost sounded like theyearold child she was at the time the story took place, how very much she loved him.
I felt myself missing her father throughout the whole book, A lot of times I couldn't put it down, Wow. This memoir was an emotional ride, It was inherently sad and poignant, and very compelling, Abby Sher tells of her life and her spiral into OCD and eventually anorexia, The love she has for her family and close friends is deep, and her failed relationships engulf the reader in her sadness,

I listened to this as an audiobook, I was aboutdone with it when I hit a point where tears came to my eyes, Yes, the book is sad, But not in a despair sense, There was a deep melancholy to it, But it was always compelling,

Excellently written. If you've been paying attention to my list of books, you'll probably notice I've been into memoirs lately, I just seem to be finding the stories people tell about their own lives and struggles as compelling as a good novel when well done.
Abby Sher's memoir is about her life as an obsessivecompulsive who lost hours of her life to the need to pray and take responsibility for the calamities of the world.
It was a really poignant story of someone who desperately wanted to take control of the world and explain inexplicable events after losing her beloved aunt and father at the age of ten and eleven.
Sher's writing is often beautiful and wellcrafted, especially while she is recalling childhood memoriesironically if that is the right word to use here she has done an excellent job, as an adult, of creating order out of the chaotic events of her early life.
I appreciate how the memoir doesn't end with everything being solvedSher is a recovering anorexic who still experiences OCD tendencies, but who seems to be experiencing happiness with her husband and excited for her unborn baby.
Still, the ending of the book seemed rushedan attempt to wrap up and create a unified structure for events that it's probably too early for Sher to understand.
I definitely got the sense that she's still got some things to work through, and I wish her luck, I'd definitely be interested in a "sequel", Ever since she was little, Abby Sher had the tendency of doing things in certain order, or for a certain amount of times, or collecting specific pieces of garbage.
Abby also had the tendency to pray nonstop,

"Amen, Amen, Amen" is Abby Sher's account of growing up with obsessivecompulsive disorder, At first, Abby finds comfort in her daily rituals, but soon realizes that there's nothing normal about her behavior, Nevertheless, Abby faces daily challenges and life traumas by adopting more and more compulsive habits, Her faith, in particular, becomes all consuming and Abby feels responsible for saving everyone and everything, The end result becomes an adulthood full of doubt and selfpunishment,

Abby Sher is a masterful writer and even as I experienced disbelief that anyone could be so trapped within themselves, I could not stop reading.
She describes her experiences in a way that soon made me feel as I was walking in her shoes and dealing with the troubling compulsions that ruled her life.
"Amen, Amen, Amen" is a memoir anyone will relate to and one that most people will learn a great deal from, Abby Sher takes us on an inside view of obsessive compulsive disorder OCD as she recounts her journey into a world of rituals including praying, anorexia, cutting, alcohol abuse, and ultimately progress in recovery.
This is a good read, although at times I found myself shaking my head at the decisions she made along the way, I guess that shows that she manages to share enough of herself in the process that I genuinely cared about what she did to herself and to her relationships.


The book ends unfinished, That is, the author does not attempt to convince us that her recovery is complete, This might frustrate some people, but to me it was highly appropriate as a nonfiction story, Few of our stories are finished until we die, All in all a satisfying read, A glimpse into the thoughts of someone riddled with OCD, I had the audio, but found the author's voice grating, I sensed this would be a good book without the distraction of the reader, though, so I picked up a hard copy which made a world of difference.


The story and the glimpse into Sher's mind is fascinating and compelling in the same way that rubbernecking at a car wreck is compelling.
Part freak show, part "thank God no one in my family suffers from mental illness!" Sher's story gives this reader a newfound compassion for those with mental illness, as it simultaneously creates a new level of fear of and for those who suffer.


As for the writing, the story dragged in the beginning too much detail while the end was rushed, There was a lot in the book that I found tedious, but I understand that it was a minuscule manifestation of what Sher and her family were also dealing with, so I plowed through it.
I don't think I could ever read this book a second time, though it would be too exhausting, As it's not a novel, we can't expect a "happily ever after" ending, but it does seem as though Sher, while still struggling, learned to manage her illness so that she can function from day to day and find pleasure in her life.


No spoilers, but I would have liked to see Sher revisit the events of the "October" chapter at the end of the book when she sees that "Flicker".
This seemed like a huge omission to me, Raw, heartbreaking and somehow funny, all at the same time, Abby's talents are on glorious display, and she writes about mental illness with a clarity I've seen in very few other places, So, if you're okay reading about heavy topics like purity culture, mental illness, abusive parental dynamics and eating disorders, there's a lot to love here.
This memoir is raw, vulnerable, clear, and painful, It is beautifully written. I especially loved the depiction of her young life and and her adoration for her father, There is one scene that broke my heart and I will never forget, I felt for Sher as she processed losses and struggled to cope with them, I was feeling for her every step of the way, through high school, college boyfriends and friends, through adulthood,

While my own life experiences and coping mechanisms are different from the author's, she has managed to make her story universal and I did relate to so much of it.
Sher's relationship with her mom is poignant: they are close and this can be complicated, We see that her mom tries to help her and sometimes succeeds and sometimes misses the mark, Their love for each other is palpable,

In all, this is an inspiring story, Sher gets through difficult things and her book reminds us that we all can, I love reading memoirs, but there's usually something that makes them a bit of a struggle for me maybe it's just that uncommon for the people with the most interesting lives are also the best writers, maybe it's how rarely people have enough distance and perspective to know what about their interior and exterior lives is going to be intriguing to others.
And maybe it's that weaving together all the different plot threads of a life family, relationships, career, mental illness, health into a story that flows is difficult enough in pure fiction, but overwhelmingly challenging when you're dealing with a real life.


For me, this book overcomes all of these barriers, While the subtitle and cover copy present the book as a memoir about life with OCD, this book goes far beyond that, It's also about growing up Jewish in upstate New York, about dealing with deaths in the family, about figuring where the lines are that separate you from the people you love, and about finding the people in your life who you can trust to hold on while you take hard steps.
And in all of this, the people are much more real and vivid and complex than they are in most books, It's easy enough to think, "Well, of course they're real, it's because they're real people, not fiction!" But that solidity and complexity comes through so much more clearly here than it does in most memoirs.


Plus, it has a Hebrew prayer praising Gd for the blessings of Diet Coke, :D I had a tough time with this book on audio, in part I believe because the author read it herself her little girl voice became more difficult to accept as she grew older.
Moreover, the story relies on description

to a significant extent, which might be okay in print, but Sher lingers on such details, dragging out this Series of Unpleasant Events until nearly the very end last half hour or so, as shes in denial about her serious problems, making several bad choices with negative consequences.
The selfcentered, needy behavior left me wondering how much of an unreliable narrator she might be Or, maybe Im just not her target audience Bottom line: taking into account her problems, I just didnt like her very much as a person.
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