The Outsider, The Seeker, and The Believer

Are you tired of reading books about the Amish?  I became so several years ago.  A couple of years ago I came across this set of books by Ann Gabhart about the people known as Shakers.

Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill is just a few miles from where I live and I have been there a number of times.  It is a beautiful farm.  Of course there are no real Shakers there anymore; they all died years ago.  I believe there is a surviving Shaker village somewhere in New York.  But I have taken the easier way of learning about life in the past, by reading about it in fiction.

Ann Gabhart lives just a county or two over from here and is ideally situated to research the Shakers by visiting a real Shaker village, even if it is now populated only by "actors" wearing costumes to give visitors something of a feel for the appearance of life in a Shaker Village.  Ann calls the "village" Harmony Hill.

The Outsider, The Seeker, and The Believer are three books written by Ann about Shakers at Harmony Hill and what life was like for them.  I found the romances to be rather contrived (but then most of them in books are) but still found the stories interesting for the picture they painted of life during the mid-nineteenth century in a Shaker village.

The books are a "series" but the stories are not built on each other so you can read them in any order; or only one if you choose.  Each book is peopled with different characters.  There are people who visit the village, people who live there for a period of time for one reason or another, and people who have lived there all their lives but choose to leave at some point.  The buildings are described, the dress is described, how they live is described and an explanation is given for why they live as they do.

The author tries to show multiple sides of life in a Shaker Village.  There is the desire for spiritual holiness.  There is the brotherly (and sisterly) love that is the goal of the community.  There is the peaceful lifestyle that looks upon all individuals as free and equal.  There is also the aspect of judgment and condemnation when a person fails to meet certain standards in his/her behavior or in the attitude others perceive in them.  There is the simplicity of life and the joy of work well done.  There is also the pain of renouncing all family ties.

These three books are pretty far from being the most stimulating books I've read.  The stories and the characters are, in my opinion, a bit shallow; not bad, just not deep.  If you like Karen Kingsbury and you like reading about ways of life different than your own, you will probably love these books.  I did find them interesting, because I was curious about the Shakers and this was a more interesting way to learn than internet research.  They do not merit a second read, for me, however.  Nor am I likely to read more of this author's books.  In the past I read another series of hers, also because it was written about an area geographically near me; since my evaluation of both sets of books was about the same, there just won't be more of her for me.  But, I do recommend these if you are interested in the Shakers.