I like to read.

Title: The Autobiography of an Execution
Author: David R. Dow
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir

This was a heartbreaking book. It took a long time for me to firmly decide what my position is on the death penalty. The opinion I held as a young woman is very different than the opinion I hold now. That’s to be expected because I most certainly am not the same person now that I was then. Reading this book made me recommit to my position and it pushed me to better verbalize and explain my position.

I’m not sure if this book would change the mind of someone who is a strong supporter of the death penalty but I think it should be required reading for just about everyone. A couple reviews I read of this book didn’t like the author’s style and his choice to jump back and forth between the horrible reality of death row and the happy family life he tries to maintain but I found it to be a perfect balance.

Strongly recommended.

Title: Yom Kippur A Go-Go
Author: Matthue Roth
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir

5 or 6 months ago my rebbetzin asked me if I would organize a class or reading group at shul. She knows what a voracious reader I am and how much of the stuff I read relates to Judaism in some way. So I came up with an idea for “Not Your Bubbe’s Bookclub.” Part curated reading list, part book club, I’m trying to bring some new ideas and new styles of literature into the shul. At the first meeting I presenting the class with three potential tracks to kick off with. The class unanimously chose the “Tradition Transformed” track which consists of Yom Kippur A Go-Go, Yentyl’s Revenge and The Big Kahn.

We started with Yom Kippur A Go-Go and I am so nervous to find out tomorrow night what the small group thought of this book. I loved it but there are some actually Bubbes in this group and I was blushing just thinking about them because of Roth’s liberal use of “fuck”, his no holds barred descriptions of a friend’s sex toys and all the debauchery he encountered while living the life of an Orthodox Jew he was also a wild-child poet in San Francisco in the early part of the last decade.

What I really want to get into with our discussion tomorrow night is how much room in the Jewish tradition there is for individuality and individual paths and how to navigate those paths to stay close to the heart of our tradition while being true to ourselves. Without any judgement of Roth I say that his self-identity as an Orthodox Jew and his very strict observance of shabbat and kashrut coupled with a lack of any real discussion of any outward manifestations of Jewish ethics was confusing to me. But that’s good because it’s given me a lot to think about.

I’m pretty nervous about the discussion tomorrow night. I can only hope that the Bubbe’s got past the language and talk of trannies and dry humping enough to let the book make them about some big questions as well.

Title: Bloodroot
Author: Amy Greene
Genre: Fiction, Loved

I am normally hesitant to read things that are immensely popular. I don’t really know why, I guess it’s just my contrarian nature. But even though this is spending time on the New York Times Bestseller list the review in Entertainment Weekly intrigued me so much that I had to read it.

While my family was not dirt poor and the men in my family aren’t the kind of men Bloodroot is full of I grew up in the world of this book. The words spelled out like they are pronounced in this word (worsh=wash) brought me vivid flashbacks to my childhood and the women in my life (my grandmother and aunt specifically) growing up. The book broke my heart in several different ways and I couldn’t put it down. That’s the best compliment I can give.

Title: The Gift of Asher Lev
Author: Chaim Potok
Genre: Fiction

I do enjoy Chaim Potok books. They’re such quick reads, they really suck me in. This is the sequel to My Name is Asher Lev which I read last year.

It was interesting to read this book right after reading The Rebbe’s Army because Potok’s Ladover Hasids are the fictional version of Lubavitchers. Potok’s book was written long, long before the Lubavitch Rebbe’s death but the parallels between a movement with such a charismatic leader and the questions posed about succession after a leaders death are striking.

Title: The Rebbe’s Army: Inside the World of Chabad Lubavitch
Author: Sue Fishkoff
Genre: Non-Fiction, Judaism

I think just about every Jew has an opinion on and a fascination with Chabad, on some level. My opinion is of course skewed by the fact that Chabad rejects both my flavor of Judaism (Conservative) and my very status as a Jew (only Orthodox conversions count in their eyes). Even so I recognize that Chabad does very good work in many arenas and this book highlighted that good work even more.

This was a really good book. Well written, well researched and it neither endlessly praised nor condemned Chabad. It answered a lot of questions I have about Chabad and their Rebbe but I’m still left wondering about the strong messianic bent that’s present in some (a lot?) of the Chabad world and how on earth the Rebbe didn’t have a succession plan in place.

Title: Megillat Esther
Author: JT Waldman
Genre: Graphic Novel

This is a very cool retelling of the story of Queen Esther in graphic novel form. Highly recommended if you’re into Purim, midrash or religious storytelling.

Title: Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work
Author: Matthew B. Crawford
Genre: Non-Fiction

I liked but didn’t love this book although there were sections and definitely passages that I absolutely loved. The concept of the book is very interesting. “An Inquiry Into the Value of Work” is a perfect subheading. When the author was talking about “the work” (being a motorcycle mechanic for example) I enjoyed it very much. When he went more toward an academic, theoretical explanation the book, in my opinion, got bogged down and was a bit hard to slog through.

I’m really glad I read it though because it aligns really well some things I’ve been thinking about for the last 6-8 months (since the disaster of employment that we don’t speak of). I think that my generation kind of got conned into thinking that college and then a career in knowledge work is the end all and be all.

Title: Ethics of the Sages (Pirke Avot)
Author: Translation and annotation by Rabbi Rami Shapiro
Genre: Judaism, loved

Pirke Avot 3:12
If your kindness exceeds your wisdom,
your wisdom will endure.
If your wisdom exceeds your kindness,
your wisdom will not endure.

When it to books about Jewish ethics this small book is at the top of the (substantial) pile. It’s a collection of Talmudic wisdom with modern commentary. It’s really a wonderful book and full of so much ethical goodness to think about on I’m ready to re-read it again though I only finished it yesterday.

Title: The Sabbath
Author: Arthur Phillips
Genre: Fiction

I wanted to love this book. I was hoping it would be something like a fictional “Love is Mix Tape.” It was not. I try to be careful when I criticize things because there is no good or bad in art there is just good and bad to you/me. So I won’t say the book was bad. I would instead say that I wish the author had made some different choices for his characters and that a couple plot developments had been left out.

Title: The Sabbath
Author: Abraham Joshua Heschel
Genre: Non-Fiction, Judaism

This is the most poetic book that isn’t actually poetry I’ve ever read. Heschel was in love with the Sabbath. Seriously in love with it and its place within Judaism and the world. This 100 page book is love song to it. When I took the Big Dunk one of the questions my Beit Din asked me was what particular observance meant the most to me and I said Shabbat. At the time my Shabbat observance was only a fraction of what it is now but even then it really was a sanctification of time for me.

Now Shabbat has become absolutely sacred time for B and myself. The Sabbath helped me see and think about Shabbat in new ways that can make it even more special. It’s funny though but my week really does revolve around Shabbat. On Sunday afternoon I usually start thinking about what I’m going to make for Shabbat dinner. Then I get to start looking forward to shopping on Friday morning and spending Friday afternoon cooking and preparing for Shabbat. I light the candles and serve B a nice Shabbat meal before we cozy in to spend some quiet time together. Then on Shabbat morning she makes me breakfast before I go to shul. I can’t describe to you how much more lovely our weekends our since we started observing Shabbat as a family.