I rarely follow Amazon ‘suggestions’ of books to read, but when a book is titled Between Slobodka and Berlin: Jewish Transition Figures from Eastern Europe, has a picture of the Rav on the cover, and is only $6.98, of course I ordered it! The core of this book is a fascinating thesis: that there is…
Category: Monday Morning Reading
What Strange Paradise – Omar el Akkad
I read What Strange Paradise at the same time as I came across the story of Yusra Mardini, whose biography was made into the Netflix movie, The Swimmers. That the stories parallel one another (with the exception of the outcome) was fascinating to me, and reinforced the reality behind each narrative. I’d never read much…
Unaccustomed Earth – Jhumpa Lahiri
I find myself drawn to writers who write about the immigrant, or second generation immigrant experience, who have to negotiate the boundary between the new culture they desperately want to fit into, and the parent culture that they can’t, or their parents won’t let them, let go of. I’m thinking of people like Philip Roth…
How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden power of character – Paul Tough
When I was reading How Children Succeed: Git, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character, a family member said she couldn’t imagine how I continue to find these kinds of books interesting. I took this as a fair comment about where my interests lie, and that they may not overlap with too many others. As…
The Success Equation: Untangling Skill and Luck in Business, Sports and Investing, by Michael Mauboussin
I’ve always been envious of business people, for the simple reason that there’s a clear answer as to whether they have been successful or not – either there’s money in the bank at the end of the day, or there’s not. I, of course, realize it’s more complex than this (and the book I discuss…
The Lowland – Jhump Lahiri
Even as I finished this book a few weeks ago, The Lowland, by Jhumpa Lahiri, continues to hold something over me, hovering in the back of my mind and heart. It left an unexpectedly strong emotional resonance that drew me in and left an impression. The title of the book reflects the neighborhood in Calcutta…
Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! By Richard Feynman
I first heard about this book about 30 years ago when my uncle, who has a PhD in physics, told me that Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!, a memoir by the Nobel-Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman, was his favourite book. At the time I had a lot of wonderful reading options in front of me,…
Out of the Depths – Rabbi Israel Meir Lau
As this book came out some time ago, and was very widely read at the time, it may be that many of you have read Out of the Depths, Rabbi Israel Meir Lau’s biography. I finally picked it up over the summer when I saw it at a bookstore. I read the first third, about…
Amos Elon- The Israelis
The Israelis: Fathers and Sons, by Amos Elon, is one of those books that I felt I should have read, but never did. I recently came across the book on someone else’s bookshelf, and knew it was perfect for my summer reading. The Israelis, written in 1971, begins by describing the post 1967 sense of…