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: 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: Rashi
Author: Elie Wiesel
Genre: Non-Fiction, Judaism

This small little book was a joy to read and deeply frustrating at the same time. A joy because Wiesel’s deep affection for Rashi is plain to see. A joy because Rashi the person and his influence on Judaism are so fascinating and rewarding to read about. Frustrating because the book really just barely scratches the service on Rashi and his contributions to Jewish scholarship. You can’t read this book and not be hungry for far more information about Rashi and his Torah and Talmud commentaries.

I realize that I only have 14 more books to read before I reach my goal of reading 45 books in 2009. I think I’ll scope out what I want those final 14 to be this weekend.

Title: The Whuffie Factor
Author: Tara Hunt
Genre: Non-Fiction, Business

This is one of those books that was kind of wasted on me but I think it’s good and will definitely recommend it to people. Why was it wasted on me? Because I already kind of live “The Whuffie Factor.” Open, transparent, trying to do well by doing good, being a good community member, etc, etc. I live the social media lifestyle (for lack of a better term) so there wasn’t a lot of new information in this book for me.

Title: Columbine
Author: Dave Cullen
Genre: Non-Fiction

This is the most fascinating non-fiction book I’ve read in a while. It’s about a horrible subject but it gives such insight and understanding to both the mythology and reality of the Columbine school shooting that it was hard not to get just completely sucked into it. I read the whole book in two days.

I didn’t have a lot of ideas about the Columbine shooting but I did have a few, that the shooters were outcasts who were bullied for example, that all turned out not to be true. I want to tell you the most interesting things I learned in this book and the things that it has me thinking about most but I want you to be able to read it for yourself. Seriously go read and then come back here so we can discuss it.

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: The Farm
Author: Wendell Berry
Genre: Poetry

Title: This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life
Author: David Foster Wallace
Genre: Non-Fiction

These are two tiny little books, not really books at all. The Farm is a long poem bound into a beautiful limited edition (1500 copies) book and This is Water is a commencement speech that David Foster Wallace gave. I read both of them yesterday though and spent a great deal of time thinking about each of them so I decided that, together, they count as one book read.

The Farm is quintessential Berry. It’s the poem that one of his most famous quotes comes from

And be
Faithful to local merchants
Too. Never buy far off
What you can buy near home

I’ve come to the conclusion that you’re either a Wendell Berry person or you’re not. Oh nearly everyone can agree with his basic principles but either you can get lost in his poetry and prose or you can’t. You either love that he writes long hand and uses a typewriter or you think it’s an affectation. I, clearly, am a Wendell Berry person. His work, and yes, this poem in particular, speak to me. It reminds me of my childhood, both real and imagined, and it inspires a vision of a kind of adult life that I would like to live. No, I don’t want to move back to the farm and only make my life and living there but there are many aspects of my life that I can be more connected with the land and nature and my community. This poem is a reminder of many ways in which I can be better.

Despite great ambition and initial commitment I have faltered in my quest to complete Infinite Jest. Infinite Summer is a great concept and I deeply and sincerely wish Infinite Jest resonated with me. It would be one thing if I didn’t enjoy it but found it meaningful but I neither enjoy it nor find meaning in it so it’s going on the shelf. That being said I could see the flashes of brilliance in Infinite Jest that everyone talks about when they mention David Foster Wallace. So, in a compromise with myself, I decided that if I was shelving Infinite Jest then I would read some of DFW’s non-fiction in its place. This Is Water is the first (A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again is on deck). A couple choice quotes from This Is Water will probably let you know whether you want to read it or not, I think you should read it but that’s up to you.

This is not a matter of virtue — it’s a matter of my choosing to do the work of somehow altering or getting free of my natural, hardwired default setting, which is to be deeply and literally self-centered, and to see and interpret everything through this lens of self.

..I can choose to force myself to consider the likelihood that everyone else in the supermarket’s checkout line is probably just as bored and frustrated as I am, and that some of these people actually have much harder, more tedious or painful lives than I do, overall. 

Title: The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want
Author: Sonja Lyubomirsky
Genre: Non-Fiction

I’m not much of a self-help book kind of person. In fact this may be the first self-help book I’ve ever read all the way through. This one came highly recommended from a friend though and several weeks ago I kind of made the decision that I’ve got to figure out how to live again. I full well know that sounds melodramatic but it’s the truth. After my “event” life isn’t the same for me and my connection to the world isn’t the same and I’ve got to figure this shit out again. And by “this shit” I mean how to live and be happy about it.

So I’m doing everything I can to stack the deck in my favor, everything I can to better my chances of success. If a book filled with “happiness activities” and scientific research about happiness can even potentially offer me something useful then I’m going to read it. I’m actually quite glad I read it. I came away with four concrete actions that suite my personality and natural inclinations. I also came away with a few general concepts that I’m going to try to integrate into my life as well.

If you suffer from depression (or if you’re super lucky like me and have what’s called “double depression”) I’d highly recommend this book on one condition: you have to buy in. You have to have made the choice that you want to get better, that you want to be happier. That’s a hard decision to make. For people who don’t have these issues that must sound crazy (ha!) but it’s actually really logical. If you don’t think you deserve to be happy then how on earth can you make the choice to try and be happy? If you aren’t able to make that choice right now then I don’t think you’ll get a lot out of this book. If you are able to make that choice, to say that you want to be happy and you deserve to be happy then this book is a good starting point. Buying in to the book’s premise (that there is a certain percentage of happiness level that you can increase no matter what your genes or circumstances have done to you) is the big hurdle. If you buy in though I think you’ll find the book valuable. 

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