MSI Press Blog

  Book Excerpt from  Since Sinai  by Shannon Gonyou (currently in Amazon Top 100 Jewish biographies) CHAPTER 1 “Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you.” — John C. Maxwell I told my husband that I wanted to convert to Judaism on Christmas Eve. We were sitting in our Chevy Impala in a grocery store parking lot in Ann Arbor, Michigan when I broached the topic [BL1]   . We were living in Chicago at the time, but we had traveled back to Michigan for the holidays. Christmas gifts for our family members were toppling over in the back seat, and a tin box of snowman-shaped Christmas cookies from my mother-in-law rested heavily on my lap. We had just picked up some ingredient that my mom had forgotten to buy for Christmas Eve dinner, and we were supposed to be making a quick trip back to our hotel room to change clothes before heading to the celebration. I decided that during this quick ten-minute jaunt from a grocery store to the Extended Stay Br...

    Today's Publisher's Pride is  Since Sinai  by Shannon Gonyou, which reached #47 in biographies of Judaism. Book Description: Raised in a heavily Catholic suburb of Detroit, Michigan, Shannon grew up focusing on two things: how to do enough good deeds to get into heaven and how to stay pure enough to escape hell. In college, she followed many of her peers into an Evangelical church known for guitars, drum, religious-based shame, and the idea that without Jesus she was nothing. But when she encountered Judaism on that same campus, a spark ignited within her and refused to be put out. Judaism felt obvious, familiar. After a falling out with her biological mother and two miscarriages, she found the courage to send the most important email of her life: she asked the local Jews by Choice program to accept her as a student. Honest and unflinching, Shannon's story of coming home to Judaism encourages everyone-- Christian, atheist, Jewish, and anything in between-- to sea...

  Today's Publisher's Pride is  Since Sinai  by Shannon Gonyou, which reached #9 in Jewish biographies and $340 in Judaism. Book Description: Raised in a heavily Catholic suburb of Detroit, Michigan, Shannon grew up focusing on two things: how to do enough good deeds to get into heaven and how to stay pure enough to escape hell. In college, she followed many of her peers into an Evangelical church known for guitars, drum, religious-based shame, and the idea that without Jesus she was nothing. But when she encountered Judaism on that same campus, a spark ignited within her and refused to be put out. Judaism felt obvious, familiar. After a falling out with her biological mother and two miscarriages, she found the courage to send the most important email of her life: she asked the local Jews by Choice program to accept her as a student. Honest and unflinching, Shannon's story of coming home to Judaism encourages everyone-- Christian, atheist, Jewish, and anything in between-...