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: 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: Gilead
Author: Marilynne Robinson
Genre: Fiction, Loved

My rebbetzin recommended this book. It’s sort about a family of ministers in Iowa. It’s sort of about a dying man. It’s sort of about agnosticism and belief. And it’s sort of about nothing. It’s a book with beautiful, profound prose and beautiful profound sentiments and I enjoyed it very much.

Title: Miriam’s Kitchen
Author: Elizabeth Ehrlich
Genre: Non-Fiction, Loved

What a fascinating book this was. On its surface this is the story of a woman transforming her kitchen into a kosher one and the rhythm of her family’s life into an observant one. Deeper it’s a story about making life more meaningful, a deepening of the understanding of ritual, connection to family and community and also it’s a cookbook of sorts. That’s a lot for one book to take on and this one did it beautifully. Highly recommended to anyone interested in the role food plays in our lives and families and anyone interested in personal stories about spiritual journeys.

Title: My Name is Asher Lev
Author: Chaim Potok
Genre: Fiction, Loved

This is the second Chaim Potok I’ve read recently and I’ve got to say I’m a serious fan. It’s not just that I enjoy the peek inside the Hasidic world I’ll never see for myself (though I do enjoy that) it’s also that Potok’s books are just so….readable. They’re readable without being dumbed down or simplified or superficial. They’ve got emotionally complex characters with interesting plot arcs and yet, for me, they read like beach books; I fly right through them.

My Dad bought me a Kindle for my birthday, I wanted my first book purchased for the Kindle to be the sequel to My Name is Asher Lev, called The Gift of Asher Lev but that book isn’t available for Kindle. That’s ok, I’ll buy the physical book and I’m sure I’ll enjoy it every bit as much as I have the first two Potok books I’ve read.

Title: The Book of Jewish Values: A Day-By-Day Guide to Ethical Living
Author: Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
Genre: Judaism

I read this book over the course of a year. Give or take a few missed and a few catch up days I read one value each day. This book has had such a large impact on my behavior in lots and lots of ways. One of the most obvious ways is the way I deal with panhandlers and homeless people I encounter. If someone asks me for a dollar and I have a dollar I will now give it to them and I will look them in the eye and tell them to have a nice day. If I don’t have a dollar I’ll offer to buy them some food. The chance that the person might just be scamming me is not nearly reason enough to deny someone (and myself) an act of compassion.

That’s just one example, there are countless others. Seriously, I can’t overstate how much this book impacted me. And I learned a lot of Talmudic information from it as well so win-win.

Title: The Chosen
Author: Chaim Potok
Genre: Fiction

This book was recommend by my friend Kyle. I didn’t make the connection at the time but I’m pretty sure the movie version of this book was the first time I ever saw anything related to Hasidism. I distinctly remember watching this movie as a kid on satellite.

It really is a lovely book that tells a story of true friendship between two boys as they grow into young men and each of them figure out who and what they are in the shadow of strong, intelligent fathers. The Hasid vs. non-Hasid is played up of course but that’s not really what the book is about. It’s really about family and friendship, or perhaps more accurately family and chosen family. It’s good stuff.

Title: Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South
Author: Marcie Cohen Ferris
Genre: Judaism, Non-Fiction

I really enjoyed this book and learned lots about the eating habits and
cultural lives of those who identify as both Southern and Jewish. Good stuff. Read this book and you’ll know how Coke became kosher for Passover, what “kosher-style” means and all about some Southern Reform congregations throwing shrimp and crawfish boils as fundraisers(!). Some really, really interesting stories in this book and several good recipes. Come Rosh Hashanah I’m making the honey cake recipe in fact.

Title: A Whole New Mind
Author: Daniel H. Pink
Genre: Non-fiction

Title: Outliers: The Story of Success
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Genre: Non-Fiction

I’ve read Blink, The Tipping Point and Outliers over the past several months and without question Outliers is my favorite. The way Gladwell puts so many things in cultural context and shows how that impacts both individual development and societal development is fascinating. And unlike Blink and The Tipping Point I think that Outliers and all the information about cultural context is actually quite useful. Not to say that I didn’t enjoy Blink and The Tipping Point but at the end of them both I was like “ok that’s interesting but I can’t really do anything to improve my life or the lives of others with this information.” That’s not the case with Outliers. Good good stuff, very highly recommended.