Reading List

UnChosen: The Hidden Lives of Hasidic Rebels (28)

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:58:56 -0500

Title: Unchosen: The Hidden Lives of Hasidic Rebels
Author: Hella Winston
Genre: Non-Fiction

Born out of author Winston's sociology dissertation work this book deals with a handful of "rebels" who for one reason or another aren't totally comfortable living as adults in the Hasidic communities they grew up in. Some have chosen to leave Hasidism while others are trying to live sort of dual lives. All the stories were fascinating. The reasons people had for "rebelling"* were so individual and the results of their choices so individual that no real conclusions could be drawn about either Hasidism or about leaving religious communities in general. This is not to say the book isn't interesting or worth reading, in fact just the contrary. The book was full or real people, real pain and real joy and real questioning and reflection. I find all of those things incredible interesting and definitely worth paying attention and time to. That being said if you don't have an interest in Hasidism or tightly structured closed religious communities I'm not sure there is much for you in this book.

*Though I can't think of a better alternative rebel doesn't seem to be the right word for what the people in this book are doing. They're doing something deeper and more personal than rebelling against their larger society though rebelling is part of it.

The Double Bind (27)

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:59:59 -0500

Title: The Double Bind
Author: Chris Bohjalian
Genre: Fiction

I don't know which I dislike more: mostly enjoying a book and then finding the ending to be a cop-out or not really liking a book because the main character only makes sense when you view it through the lens of the cop-out ending and therefore having to be relieved that there was a cop-out ending.

In any case I'm glad to be finished with this book. That's not to say that you might not enjoy it but since one of the above described states is true I most certainly did not enjoy the overall act of reading it.

Choosing A Jewish Life (26)

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:59:06 -0500

Title: Choosing a Jewish Life: A Handbook for People Converting to Judaism and For Their Families
Author: Anita Diamant
Genre: Non-Fiction

Not so much a practical "how to convert" book but more a sociological or anthropological look at converting in modern American. What to expect during the actual conversion process, what to expect from the synagogue, how to deal with the various responses to news of your conversion, conversion in historical perspective, etc. It also had a lot of good information about being both fully a Jew and fully connected with and committed to your family of origin. Good stuff.

The Year of Magical Thinking (25)

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 14:13:33 -0500

Title: The Year of Magical Thinking
Author: Joan Didion
Genre: Memoir, Non-Fiction

I think perhaps that it's wrong to say I love a book that is so filled with a real person's real pain. To love, and therefore enjoy, such a book seems selfish and yet I cannot help but say that I deeply loved this book. Didion's prose is straightforward and direct, not flowery but not quite Hemingway stark either. The tone ranges from slightly detached and clinical to deeply emotional, though still restrained.

The book is completely and totally about the author and her responses to her husband's death and the serious illness of her adult child. It's all her and it is deeply honest, true and emotionally raw. I was tremendously moved.

I read a passage out loud to B where Didion is examining different kinds of bereavement. Pathological is the worst type, it's most difficult to deal with and recover from. It's also known as "complicated grief." Specifically I read to B where Didion learns from medical texts that this complicated grief frequently occurs when "the survivor and the deceased had been unusually dependent on one another."

Didion quotes a medical text: " Was the bereaved actually very dependent upon the deceased person for pleasure support or esteem? Did the bereaved feel helpless without the lost person when enforced separations occurred?"

Reflecting on this quote I said to B "we're fucked." She said "Yep. I happily acknowledged our co-dependence many years ago and we'll deal with the dramatic grief that will bring later on."

American Nerd (24)

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 22:36:29 -0500

Title: American Nerd: Story of My People
Author: Benjamin Nugent
Genre: Non-Fiction

American Nerd is a combination social history and personal memoir and in my mind it failed, in a small way, at both roles. The book lacked cohesion and a smooth narrative flow. It seemed disjointed. There were elements of Nugent's personal history and actual historical analysis and facts that were terribly fascinating (for example the deep antisemitism that preceded anti-nerd/anti-"sissy" bias in late 19th and 20th century American society) but I can't say I enjoyed reading it terribly much.

What I did enjoy very much were the interesting historical notes (though there were many boring or questionable facts in the book), when Nugent examined his own personal history as a nerd and the exploration of the relationship between nerd-ism and Asperger's syndrome. However in that section on Asperger's Nugent threw out a statistic that said 80% of down syndrome fetuses are aborted. That statistic wasn't attributed, no footnote accompanied it. I find this perplexing and I kept thinking about it for the remainder of the book. 80% is such a high number that I was shocked that he'd throw it out without any documentation to back it up. Perhaps it's a sign of my own state of nerdiness that I couldn't concentrate on the rest of the book and as soon as I finished the book I tried to nail down whether or not that statistic is true.

As far as I can find there is no real evidence indicating that 80% of down syndrome fetuses are aborted. I found articles online saying 60%, 70% and even 90% are but no firm evidence to support any particular number. This brief research on my part makes me like the book even less than I already did. Since the author gave this easily disputed statistic as fact it makes me question what other historical and quasi-scientific data in the book isn't quite accurate.

The Tipping Point (23)

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:20:29 -0500

Title: The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Genre: Non-Fiction

Will any of the information from the book ever be useful to me in either my business or personal life? I'm uncertain. That's ok though because the information in this book is totally interesting and that alone makes it worth knowing.

Really fascinating stuff including a lot of info and history on the children's televisions programs Sesame Street and Blue's Clues. Most interesting perhaps though was the stuff about the Broken Windows Theory as applied to NY subways and crime in NY in general.

The book can be a little dry in parts but it's very well worth it if you can stick with it for the whole thing.

Wonder Boys (22)

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 11:20:20 -0500

Title: Wonder Boys
Author: Michael Chabon
Genre: Fiction

I love the film based on this book. Love it. I love it so much I false remembered that I'd read this book shortly after seeing the film and love the book too. Having just read the book I can say definitively that I have not read it before. The things that were different or just absent in the film were not even vaguely familiar to me. It was a completely fresh read.

I liked it ok. Very, very rarely do I like a movie better than I like the book it's based on but this is one of those cases. I still think I want to read all of Chabon's work since I loved The Yiddish Policeman's Union so very much. I know for a fact that I did read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay when it first came out and didn't love it but I'm going to give it another go and hopefully have a better experience with it this time round.

The Last Lecture (21)

Wed, 21 May 2008 20:55:52 -0500

Title: The Last Lecture
Author: Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow
Genre: Memoir, Non-Fiction

Like just about everyone else on the internet I watched the video of Randy Pausch's last lecture at Carnegie Mellon. It was funny and sad and all the other things you expect a lecture given by a really, really smart man who is dying would be. Though I'm not normally one to buy tearjerker "how to live your life" books by self-help gurus this guy is something different. He's an earnest nerd. I like earnest nerds and I in fact am an earnest nerd. I found his last lecture more than a little entertaining and inspirational so I bought the book. I found it too to be more than a little entertaining and inspirational.

He tells a good story and he lives his life well and it seems like he did so well before his terminal diagnosis. I picked up a few things from his lecture and book that I'd like to carry with me to help me live my life a little bit better.

The Yiddish Policemen's Union (20)

Thu, 15 May 2008 16:15:33 -0500

Title: The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Author: Michael Chabon
Genre: Fiction

I can't recall the last book I enjoyed as much as I enjoyed The Yiddish Policemen's Union. I've always like Chabon's work so it's not really surprising that I love this book. But this book is a hard boiled detective story, think Raymond Chandler. Those kind of detective stories are not usually my bag at all but this one so was. I couldn't wait to get back to the book every single time I had to put it down. I've been sick the past couple days and this book was my comfort. When my brain was too fuzzy to do actual work I'd hunker down with this book and a box of Kleenex and start to feel a little better. Seriously, I just loved this book.

Loving this book so much has inspired me to re-read all of Chabon's novels. I read The Final Solution when it came out but his other YA novel didn't appeal to me nor did the serialized novel from last year but maybe I should give them a shot. I'm thinking I'll go in chronological order and start with The Mysteries of Pittsburgh.

Persepolis (19)

Mon, 05 May 2008 16:27:21 -0500

Title: Persepolis
Author: Marjane Satrapi
Genre:Memoir, Graphic Novel

I'd been meaning to read this ever since it was first released years ago but I just never did. Then B picked it up at the bookstore a few weeks ago and she breezed right through it, cooing over it the whole time.

It was a very enjoyable, quick read. It's the story of a childhood during the Iranian revolutions of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The events in Iran at the time are something I know woefully little about so it was good to pick up a little bit of historical detail and context as well as experiencing this one girl's childhood and her story.

Certain Girls (18)

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 20:19:18 -0500

Title: Certain Girls
Author: Jennifer Weiner
Genre: Fiction

I kind of have a love/not so much love relationship with Jennifer Weiner's books. I really enjoyed Good in Bed, kind of liked In Her Shoes, pretty much hated Goodnight Nobody. I'm having a hard time though figuring out exactly how much I liked Certain Girls. With two narrators the book lacks a cohesive voice and I think it suffered because of it. Of course that may just be because one of the narrators is exceedingly whiny.

I really hate terms like chick lit or fluffy. They're condescending. We need a better term for books that are, in essence, contemporary fairy tales. Some of the situations and characters in these contemporary fairy tales are too hyper saturated to come off as anything but fiction but they work in the context of the book. Endings are either too happy or too sad or manipulatively bittersweet. But again it works in the context of a contemporary fairy tale. Certain Girls is one of those contemporary fairy tales. I enjoyed parts very much, was quite irritated by parts of it, learned a few things from it and don't at all wish I hadn't spent time reading it. That's pretty good.

Unaccustomed Earth (17)

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 09:58:52 -0500

Title: Unaccustomed Earth
Author: Jhumpa Lahiri
Genre: Fiction

I adored Interpreter of Maladies and very much enjoyed The Namesake. Thus it was with great excitement that I awaited the release of Unaccustomed Earth. B and I saw The Savages a couple months ago and the best way we could describe the film was to say "it was bittersweet though far more bitter than sweet." I think that's a good description. Saying it was melancholy or sad wouldn't give the fullness of picture that bittersweet does.

I've found Lahiri's work to also be "bittersweet though far more bitter than sweet" and Unaccustomed Earth is no exception. It is a collection of stories and not one could be described as being a happy one. They read as incredibly nuanced and believable stories that linger with you long after you're done reading them. Perhaps even more than the stories linger with you though moments from the stories linger with you. I find that it takes an incredibly gifted author to craft passages and individual moments that are strong enough to stay with you instead of just reliving the story as a whole. Lahiri seems to have this ability in bulk.

I love this book and highly recommend it though I can see clearly that it's not a book to everyone's taste. There are no tidy, happy endings and no easy answers to any of the character's problems. In short it's a lot like life.

Some people have complained that Lahiri's writing is too narrow in scope. Meaning she writes a great deal about the children of Indian immigrants who live in New England, frequently attend Ivy League schools and deal with issues of being part of and present in two very different cultures. While true that she does focus on Indian-Americans I wouldn't call the scope narrow or limited at all. As I mentioned before her writing is nuanced and finds differences as well as similarities and common experiences amongst her characters. I enjoy that she has chosen one large topic to be the focus of her writing and explores it in detail.

The Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism (16)

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:28:27 -0500

Title: The Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism
Author: Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin
Genre: Non- Fiction

This is the second book that the rabbi I'm working with on my potential conversion encouraged me to read. It was a fascinating book. It really does answer a lot of the questions that non-Jews have about the religion and culture of Jews. If you're interested in studying Judaism either because you're on a conversion path or just because you're interested in religion or history I would definitely recommend this book.

Like the previous book nothing I read in The Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism made me feel uncomfortable or hesitant about my path toward conversion. In fact it made me feel even more strongly that Judaism is the right system of beliefs and actions for me. The Judaism that I know so far feels like the place I should be. That scares me. I've always been areligious and now being so compelled toward a religion is making me question a lot things about my own self definition. It's heavy stuff.

Embracing Judaism (15)

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 15:09:09 -0500

Title: Embracing Judaism
Author: Simcha King, Carl M. Perkins
Genre: Non- Fiction

I'm considering converting to Judaism. I mentioned this a few weeks ago on Twitter of all places but other than that I've only spoken about it with B and my stepmother. So this is the first "public" statement on it. To set my feet upon the path to possible conversion I reached out to the rabbi of my local synagogue, a Conservative Jewish congregation. We had a great email discussion and then a very nice meeting. During that meeting he recommended that I read two books and then get back to him with any questions and whether or not I want to move forward. Moving forward doesn't necessarily mean conversion of course, really moving forward just means learning more.

In any case this was one of the books the rabbi recommended to me. It could accurately be described as "a brief introduction and history of the Jewish faith and people." It was very well written and really distilled an overwhelming amount of knowledge into a smallish (right at 200 pages) book that gives a strong introduction to Judaism and it lists many resources for further study. I enjoyed reading the book and learned a great deal by reading it. Truthfully a great, great deal of the material in this book made me think quite strongly that yes, the path to conversion is definitely the right path for me to be on. That being said I still have more study, thinking and self reflection to do before I make that firm decision.

Next up a book called The Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism written by, of all people, conservative commentator Dennis Praeger. The rabbi described him as being "not a friend to the gays" but said we should overlook that for the sake of reading this book because the book has a lot of very useful information in it for someone thinking of converting. I really like the rabbi.

Julie and Julia : 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen (14)

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:33:56 -0500

Title: Julie and Julia : 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen
Author: Julie Powell
Genre: Non- Fiction, Memoir

Another re-read, sue me. This time I read it aloud to B though. We're really enjoying experiencing books together through me reading out loud to her. I know it must sound silly but it's really enjoyable and I'm so glad we're doing it. This was the third title we shared this way and we both enjoyed it equally even though I'd read it before. The review I wrote of it two years ago holds up surprisingly well and is still accurate.

Julie Powell was rapidly approaching 30, unhappy with her job, frustrated with where she was in her life and unsure where she was going. All of this sounds way too familiar to me to allow me to even consider not reading this book.
At that edge of 30 Powell decided to cook every single recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume I over the course of one year. It was a monumental undertaking to say the least and it changed her life in ways she never imagined. Through her year of MtAoFC she kept a blog updating her progress and pitfalls and all the normal blog fodder. I read her blog a couple times in 2003 while the project was underway but at the time it didn't mean much to me so I paid very little attention to it.
This time round though the book means very much. Again, blame it on my familiarity with the general subject matter (sometimes overwhelming ennui) but I came away from the book feeling optimistic. Not because Powell ended up with a book deal, writing gigs, and got to ditch her white collar worker bee job, but optimistic because she was a bit different at the end of her project, a bit happier, a bit better.
Powell's style is very blog-ish in the best possible way -friendly, familiar, conversational. Even at 300+ pages the book is a breeze to get through and the cooking success and tragedies are well blended with stories and anecdotes form other parts of the author's life. There are no photos and no recipes, it's not a cookbook, just a really good retelling of a time of serious change in one woman's life.