Even on the Reading Front, 2020 Was a Crappy Year

I set out to read 12 books during the year, but never clicked the “Start Challenge” button on goodreads.com. Talk about foreshadowing…

No excuses here but that the year sucked us dry in so many ways.

I started myriad books, but these three I actually finished. Interesting that all of them are fiction, not generally my genre of choice. Whatever….chalk it up to 2020!

May 2021 be a better year in every way.

I Think Everyone Read More Than I Did in 2019

In 2019, I aimed to read a total of 12 books – a modest goal, I thought, after reading seven in 2018 and a mere four in 2017. Although I didn’t hit that target, I enjoyed the books I read and, as difficult as it was, actually stopped reading the ones that weren’t as engaging.

The first one I put down unfinished was “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind,” by Yuval Noah Harari. Despite its best-seller status, after 115 pages, I’d had enough and moved on to something that better held my attention. “ Morgan: American Financier,” by Jean Strouse, also didn’t do it for me. Although I was interested in the historical facets of the man – his travels, family, and home, located just a few blocks from my own apartment – the financial rigmarole of stocks, bonds, banking, and railroads was more than I could handle after plodding through more than 200 pages.

Having put those two tomes aside, these are the four books I read from cover to cover in 2019.

1. When a beloved high school English teacher died suddenly in February, I purchased a copy of Benjamin Dreyer’s “ Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Gide to Clarity and Style,” in his memory and was immediately smitten with the author’s – a copy editor at Random House -- wit, wisdom, and irreverence around grammar and language. By the end of the month, I was quoting from the book often. Here’s one of my favorites: “One does not...use quotation marks for emphasis. That is why God invented italics.”

2. A random find at Labyrinth Books in Princeton, NJ, where we Hermans are frequent visitors, “Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA,” by Brenda Maddox, captivated me on all fronts. Here’s what I wrote on goodreads.com upon finishing the book in May:

Before finding this book by accident, I had little idea about Rosalind Franklin – who she was, what she accomplished, or how she was robbed of the credit she deserved for her work at the time by the very men, fellow scientists, who benefitted most from it and who went on to win the Nobel Prize, thanks, in large part, to her Photo 51.

An entirely different facet of her life intrigued me, too. Her family's Jewish history and a relative's role in British-ruled Palestine, as well as the possibility that she carried a BRCA mutation, which may have contributed to her death from ovarian cancer at age 38, were fascinating aspects of her life -- especially to a fellow BRCA mutation carrier.

I recently found a second book about her, "My Sister Rosalind Franklin: A Family Memoir," written by her younger sister, Jenifer Glynn, and I look forward to reading that one as well.

3. Turning to something lighter during the fall, I got totally wrapped up in Claire Lombardo’s debut novel, “The Most Fun We Ever Had,” which my sister, a voracious reader, recommended to me. Over the course of only 11 days, I read the entire 532 page book that tells a decades-long tale of the Sorenson family – Marilyn, David, and their four daughters – from the point of view of nearly all the characters. “Real people, real life, and a good read about one family's ups and downs that will take you away from whatever nonsense you're dealing with in your own life,” is how I described it after finishing the book in October.

4. My final book of 2019 also came from a recommendation from my sister, who lent me her inscribed-by-the-author copy after she’d met him at an arts and medicine event at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center: “The End of Your Life Book Club,” by Will Schwalbe. This one, too, I read in short order, finishing it just a few days ago, after which I wrote this “review” on goodreads.com:

Although the book initially seemed a bit slow to me, I grew to love the author and his mother through the course of reading it. From the start, his descriptions of the MSKCC waiting rooms – including the coffee and graham crackers – were oh-so familiar to me, and I came to realize that I'd met his mom’s oncologist, Dr. Eileen O'Reilly, M.D., when she spoke about pancreatic cancer at a NYC FORCE meeting several years ago. For these reasons, as well as having lost my own mom to cancer shortly after the author lost his, I feel a connection to him. Of course, all the "book talk" was wonderful, and I've added several volumes from the book's appendix to my own to-read list.

This year, I purchased more books than I read, and my goal for 2020 is the opposite: to read more books than I purchase.

Happy new year and happy reading, my friends.

The Seven Books I Read in the Last 12 Months

Last year was hardly my “readingest” year ever and I’m glad to report that I’ve done better in 2018. Having set a modest goal to read six books this year, I surpassed that mark and completed these seven books:

1. The Weight of Ink, by Rachel Kadish: This is the kind of book you can't stop reading, but you don't want to end. Filled with richly drawn (and flawed) characters, the novel's story lines are heavily built around characters’ encounters with their own flaws. The parallel stories – four centuries apart – were equally compelling, and the mystery of how each would end propelled me through. A fabulous read!
2. The Marrying of Chani Kaufman, by Eve Harris: To be honest, I was somewhat surprised this book was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize because although I enjoyed it at the time, I’ve not thought about it since turning the last page. Neither the characters nor the story’s details have stayed with me, and, it seems, there was little to ponder or chew on once Chani and her groom (I can’t even remember his name…Ben? Jacob? Shmuel?) were actually married.
3. How Doctors Think, by Jerome Groopman: I’ve eyeballed Groopman’s books many times, but only read this one after picking it up at the annual Bryn Mawr Wellesley book sale in Princeton. As someone who uses our broken medical system extensively in an attempt to remain healthy despite heavy odds, I appreciated Groopman’s perspectives and insights, culled from both his professional expertise and his own forays into the system as a patient.
4. Mothering Sunday, by Graham Swift: “You must read this one,” my sister said emphatically, our arms already full of treasures from our afternoon of browsing with our dad at the Bryn Mawr Wellesley book sale. Heeding her advice, I found a real gem: beautifully written, poignant, thought-provoking, and sad, with more than a bit of staying power.
5. Internal Medicine: A Doctor's Stories, by Terrence Holt: Following in the footsteps of William Carlos Williams, Michael Creighton, Robin Cook, Siddhartha Mukherjee, and other physician-writers, Holt offers a collection of short stories that bring heart and soul to the clinical side of becoming a doctor. The author is a former literature and writing professor, and more than once I had to consult the dictionary to look up words I didn’t know.
6. Mercies in Disguise: A Story of Hope, a Family's Genetic Destiny, and the Science That Rescued Them, by Gina Kolata: Given my interest in diseases caused by inherited genetic mutations, this book, which details the Baxley family’s experience with Gerstmann–Sträussler–Scheinker syndrome (GSS), caught my eye. The non-fiction account reads like a novel and gives me renewed respect for pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and the tremendous hope it brings to families whose mutations cause a certain and horrible death. May science continue to search for answers around GSS and other prion diseases, and may the efforts bear fruit quickly – for the Baxleys and other families affected by these genetic mutations.
7. Bellevue: Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at America's Most Storied Hospital, by David Oshinsky: A soup-to-nuts biography of Bellevue Hospital, this book is more accurately a sociological study of New York City, public health, and a colorful cast of characters including physicians, research scientists, and politicians. The early history of today’s behemoth medical center, in particular, is filled with fascinating stories, including the “invention” of ambulance service, which began with horses and buggies in the streets of 17^th century Manhattan. A dense and wonderful read!

I’m currently about 100 pages into Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari. A heavy, slow read (like so many other of my choices) we may be well into 2019 before I finish it. Having said that, I, once again, will aim to read six books in the new year, and hope they prove to be as enjoyable and enlightening as the ones I read in the year now ending.

#BlogExodus: Cleanse

After yesterday’s buying spree at the Bryn Mawr-Wellesley Book Sale (eight books for $10), I needed to clean up my Want-to-Read list on goodreads.com to add the new purchases:

1. How Doctors Think, by Jerome Groopman, M.D. (I’ve browsed this book many times, but something else always won out in the get-it-today category…until yesterday, when it could be had for $1.)
2. Midaq Alley, by Naguib Mahfouz (recommended to me by my father)
3. Woe is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English, by Patricia T. O’Conner (Another book I’ve browsed often, and now am glad to own.)
4. Bel Canto , by Ann Patchett (recommended to me by my sister)
5. The Medical Detectives, Volume II, by Berton Roueché (I read the first volume several years ago and didn’t even know there was a second volume…until yesterday.)
6. Mothering Sunday: A Romance, by Graham Swift (recommended to me by my sister)
7. Eats Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, by Lynne Truss (Another volume I’ve picked up many times, but never purchased.)
8. On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction, by William Zinsser (This book seems to be a volume no writer or editor should be without.)

Although I’m not sure I’ll make it through all these books in this calendar year, I’m well on the way to beating out last year’s woeful showing.

Forget about cleaning for Passover….I’m going to read!

Inspired by Ima on (and off) the Bima , this post is one in a series marking the days of the Jewish month of Nisan leading up to Passover, which begins at sundown on Friday, March 30, corresponding to the Hebrew date 15 Nisan 5778. If you want to play along, check out this year's #BlogExodus and #ExodusGram prompts .

#BlogExodus: Bless

At 85, my dad doesn’t come into the city as often as in the past. Instead, my sister and I have been visiting our “country estate” about once each month, including this weekend.

Due to her business travel, she’s already there, occupying our “suite” that includes a bedroom smartly outfitted with two twin beds, like when we were kids, and our own bathroom. Not a bad set-up at all. I’ll travel there tomorrow morning and our plan is to go right from the train station in New Brunswick to the annual Bryn Mawr-Wellesley Book Sale at the Princeton Country Day School.

According to the book sale’s website, “We specialize in top-quality hardback and paperback fiction, non-fiction, academic, university press, and rare books, all sold at bargain prices,” which means the day will be a guaranteed good time for we three book-lovers. Experience tells me that after we’ve had our fill of books, we’ll perk up with coffee and a shared “sweetmeat” at Small World Coffee or Panera , before heading back to the estate and then out to dinner.

As my dad would say, “A good time will be had by all,” and he would, as usual, be right.

Indeed, we are blessed – all of us.

Inspired by Ima on (and off) the Bima, this post is one in a series marking the days of the Jewish month of Nisan leading up to Passover, which begins at sundown on Friday, March 30, corresponding to the Hebrew date 15 Nisan 5778. If you want to play along, check out this year's #BlogExodus and #ExodusGram prompts.

The Bible Has More Books Than I Read in 2017

Even though I’m a slow, careful reader of what might be considered “heavy” books, much to my disappointment, embarrassment, and chagrin, I read only four books in the year just ended:

1. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking, by Susan Cain: From the first page, the author was talking directly to me, and thanks to her wisdom, I try not to beat myself up for needing space and time to decompress, for despising video conference calls that force my brain to function in ways that it was not designed to work, and – now that I’m finally writing about the book – for not marking the many passages that resonated so powerfully with me.


2. Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud Montgomery: Somehow this book slipped through the cracks until I finally caught up with it in 2017. Pure escapism to a simpler time and a true joy to read, the book's brief review on my page on goodreads.com says: “Now I understand why fans want to visit Prince Edward Island. Count me in!”


3. The Beautiful Possible, by Amy Gottlieb: Having learned from Amy Gottlieb, one of my instructors at “Beyond Walls,” the Kenyon Institute’s spiritual writing seminar, I was eager to read the personally inscribed copy of this book – and it did not disappoint. Her richly detailed characters came vividly to life and the intricate weavings of the tale have stayed with me in the months since I turned the last page.


4. The Gene: An Intimate History, by Siddhartha Mukherjee: At more than 600 densely, but incredibly well-written pages, this book, more than the others, accounts for this list’s brevity. A detailed, attention-grabbing exploration of every possible facet of genetics, Mukherjee seamlessly blends his own family’s personal narrative with the history of the gene and genetics. At the heart of the volume, are the richly drawn profiles of the scientists and researchers whose hypotheses, persistence, and discoveries brought the field to life – and whose work continues to shape this critically important field today.

I’ve just signed up to participate in goodreads.com’s 2018 Reading Challenge and, given my dismal number for 2017, have set a modest goal of six books for the year. I’m nearly halfway through the first, The Weight of Ink, by Rachel Kadish, which I started over Thanksgiving weekend. Stay tuned for updates and happy reading to one and all.

#BlogExodus: Read

Sadly, in 2016, I read only six books. What's more, it seems that I purchase books at a faster rate than I read them.

The new year is off to a slightly better start -- I've finished two books and am getting into a third. But, I've also already purchased or been gifted these three books:

• A Cancer in the Family: Take Control of Your Genetic Inheritance

• The Best of the Best of American Science Writing 

• Working Out Loud for a Better Career and Life

If only there was more time to read...

Inspired by Ima on (and off) the Bima, this post is one in a series marking the days of the Jewish month of Nisan leading up to Passover, which begins at sundown on Monday, April 10, corresponding to 15 Nisan. If you want to play along, check out this year's #BlogExodus and #ExodusGram prompts. 

One More Terrible Thing About 2016

As though the year just ended wasn’t horrible enough – annus horribilis as Queen Elizabeth would say – I was appalled to discover, thanks to Goodreads.com, that in the entire 12 months I read a meager five books.

Five books?! High school students do better than that in a single semester.

Appalling, dreadful, upsetting, dismaying, and inexcusable don’t begin to describe my disappointment, but for what it’s worth, here are the volumes that captured my attention in 2016:

1. Fire in the Ashes: Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in America by Jonathan Kozol
2. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
3. In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume
4. Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble by Dan Lyons
5. The Violinist’s Thumb by Sam Kean

Having finished Susan Cain’s Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking before the new year was even 12 hours old, I guess I’d count this one as well.

Although I’m not generally the resolution-making type, determined, dogged, firm, unwavering, and single-minded barely scratch the surface of my tenacity to do better this year.  

With that in mind, I’m off to my reading chair, Anne of Green Gables in hand.

Ashamnu, Al Cheit, and Barnes and Noble

Just as surely as my father and I chanted Kol Nidre, Ashamnu, and Al Cheit on Yom Kippur, so, too, did we spend time in Barnes and Noble on Saturday afternoon.  It is, as they say, "how we roll."

Our annual browsing in the Menlo Park bookstore began with Helen Rappaport's The Romanov Sisters.  Earlier in the week, my father had suggested he might want to read it, but after perusing it, he changed his mind, finding it to be too focused on the sisters' clothing, social events, and other "womanly" pursuits.  Once I chimed in with "Like a Russian version of Little Women?" we moved on to another table near the store's entrance.

There he found In the Kingdom of Ice, a book he has been eyeing for some time, but is awaiting the paperback edition.  Long a lover of books about exploration, many years ago, he turned me on to Endurance, the page-turner about Ernest Shakleton's Antarctic expedition, and more recently suggested two of Alan Moorehead's exploration volumes:  The White Nile and The Blue Nile.

Skipping the "Bargain Books," calendars, journals, and, of course, the cafe, we headed upstairs, where, much to my father's delight, we found this display table:

A Teddy Roosevelt groupie, my father currently is reading -- and thoroughly enjoying -- The Bully Pulpit, which was on prominent display there, and elsewhere throughout the store.  Among the other books on the table, several of which he's read were The Path Between the Seas, Franklin and Winston, Theodore Rex, and Traitor to His Class.

As for my reading pursuits, although I'm about halfway through The Emperor of All Maladies, lack of time and energy makes my progress slow, despite the fact that it's exceedingly well written and informative.  I do hope to finish it this fall, however, so that I can move on to another of the many books in my to-read pile.  With any luck, I'll work my way through at least of few of them in 5775!

Two Rabbis, a Book, and Lots of Names

During yesterday's "hallway kiddish" following Shabbat services, Marlene, a longtime member and regular at the minyan, handed me this article that she'd clipped from The Jewish Week after reading my recent Ten Minutes of Torah essay.  I had not seen Rabbi Wolpe's short piece, and appreciated that she had saved it for me.

Later, toward the end of Torah study, Rabbi Stein told the group that he's in the process of giving away the books in his library--he'll be retiring at the end of June--and that we were welcome to stop in to see what might be of interest.  Needless to say, many of us followed him down to his office, which is overflowing with shelves of neatly arranged and well organized volumes.

After a few minutes of browsing, I asked the rabbi about a book I've seen referenced many times that always sounds interesting, although I didn't know its exact title.

"It's about names," I said, which was enough of a clue for him to pull this well-worn red volume from the shelf:  Complete Dictionary of English and Hebrew First Names by Alfred J. Kolatch.

"I've been using it for 40 years," he told me.

Indeed, the binding is broken in a few spots, and a whole section of pages containing feminine names from Billie, a feminine pet form of William, to Elya, from the Syriac and Hebrew, meaning "dirge, elegy" is full detached from the rest of the book.

Nonetheless, after just a few minutes of flipping through the book's 400-plus pages (and a second, more scholarly work, also about names), I told him I'd take the former and thanked him for this unexpected gift.  I'm grateful not only to add this particular volume to my own collection, but glad to have it as a keepsake from a rabbi who has been exceedingly kind and caring to me, and from whom I have learned much during the last four years.

Only after I left the synagogue did I read Rabbi Wolpe's column as I waited for the bus.  Entitled "A Name, A Soul," it begins with this sentence:

The Book of Exodus, in Hebrew, is called "Sh'mot," or names.

Rabbi Wolpe goes on to talk about the value and importance of names, before closing with this paragraph:

The crown of a good name, teaches Pirke Avot, is the greatest of all crowns.  In a graveyard, whatever other inscription a stone bears, it invariably records the deceased's name.  Tyranny seeks to erase names.  Memory and love restore and preserve them.

I am honored to be the keeper of Rabbi Stein's copy of "Kolatch," into whose worn red cover I have slipped the clipping of Rabbi Wolpe's short essay.  I believe it's the perfect spot in which to keep it.

Ashkenazi Hair

Before a communications team meeting yesterday, a copy of Margalit Fox's newest book was making its way around the table in anticipation of her visit today as our "Lunch and Learn" speaker.

After thumbing through the book, I flipped to her bio on the inside back cover of the dust jacket.  Seeing the picture that accompanies the bio, I quipped to a colleague, "Gee, I wonder where she gets her hair cut."

Imagine my delight, then, when, in her opening sentence this afternoon, Ms. Fox noted how nice it was to be at the URJ, together with so many others with "Ashkenazi hair."

From that moment on, she held me--and plenty of others--spellbound as she eloquently and engagingly discussed the business of obituary writing, criteria for inclusion of an individual in the Times' obituary pages, and a few of the unsung heroes whose obituaries she and her colleagues have been privileged to write:  Ruth M. Siems, Ruth Benerito and Edward Lowe.

Sticking with the theme of unsung heroes and heroines, Ms. Fox introduced us to Alice Kober, the unsung heroine in her latest book, The Riddle of the Labyrinth:  The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code.  Along the way, we learned, too, about the archeologist Arthur Evans and the architect Michael Ventris, the two men whose lives, together with that of Ms. Kober, give the book its triptych structure.

All too soon, the lunch hour was over and people reluctantly returned to their desks.  I hung back, waiting in line to have my new book inscribed. As I stood facing the author, I told her of the previous day's quip to my colleague. While she inscribed my book, Ms. Fox and I spoke briefly about our Ashkenazi hair, agreeing, as so many other "curly girls" have noted, "It's all about the product."

Only when I returned to my desk did I read her truly personal and treasured inscription:

To Jane,
With all best tonsorial wishes.
Margalit Fox

Fruit and Books: High Holiday Traditions

Photo: wikipedia.com

When I blogged about the first time my dad and I went browsing in Barnes and Noble on Yom Kippur afternoon, a friend commented on the post, telling me about her father's custom of buying fruit on Rosh Hashanah and how her whole family would then enjoy it in the kitchen following services.  It's a custom she continues today with her own family.

Reading up on the Rosh Hashanah fruit tradition, I learned from myjewishlearning.com that "[o]n the second night of Rosh Hashanah, it is common to eat a "new fruit"--a fruit that participants have not tasted for a long time. This tradition has become a way literally to taste the newness of the year, by enjoying an unfamiliar food....(Interestingly, the custom developed as a technical solution to a legal difficulty surrounding the recitation of the shehehiyanu blessing on the second day of the holiday. The blessing, usually recited to commemorate a new situation, is said on the second day of Rosh Hashanah both in honor of the day and the new fruit.)"

I thought about the fruit story this afternoon when, needing a break from my desk, I went down to the "fruit guy" on the northeast corner of 40th Street and Third Avenue. Perusing the selection, I asked him about what looked like mini limes on a vine. The handwritten cardboard sign in front of them said "Ginipes," which he told me are South American lychees.  Familiar with lychees from many a local Chinese restaurant, I nodded and gave him an "ahhh" of recognition.  He then broke one off the vine and handed it to me. I bit tentatively through the leathery green skin (which I now know is not for eating!), but found the flesh underneath too slimy for my taste.

Even though I ended up with more traditional fruits--bananas, grapes and plums--and even though it's been more than a week since the second day of Rosh Hashanah, I offer this shehecheyanu in honor of the ginipe, which was a new fruit to me this afternoon:

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech haolam,
shehechehyanu, v'kiy'manu, v'higianu laz'man hazeh.

We praise You, Eternal God, Sovereign of the universe, for giving us life, for sustaining us, and for enabling us to reach this time of joy.

(In case you're wondering, yes, my dad and I did go to Barnes and Noble again this year, and in a break with tradition, his friend Bobbi joined us.  Too unfocused to do any serious browsing, the three of us wandered through the store, looked at books without really seeing them, chatted, and just spent some holiday time together.  After about an hour, we returned to the temple for the rest of the afternoon.)

Der Mentsh Trakht un Got Lakht: A #BlogElul Post

Back in January, I started reading an unabridged edition of Les Miserables.  Under the best of circumstances, I figured it would take me about a year to read the whole book. As of today, eight months later, I’ve finished 285 of the book’s 1200+ pages. 

There’s no doubt that some of the time I might have devoted to Hugo’s tome I frittered away liking Facebook statuses, playing Words with Friends, and vegging out in front of the television with Alex Trebek, Mariska Hargitay, and Christopher Meloni as my sole companions.  And there also was the time I spent paying bills, shopping for food, cooking, washing dishes, changing linens and the like. 

It’s also true, though, that I spent other chunks of potential reading time attending Worship, Communications and Adult Ed committee meetings, being encouraged and encouraging others at Weight Watchers, and organizing and facilitating FORCE meetings for some of my local BRCA sisters.  I also talked to God at minyan, and on the phone nearly daily (sometimes more often) to my father, my sister, my Aunt Claire, and (not as often as I'd like) to friends in such places as Saratoga Springs, NY, Ventura, CA, and Hatboro, PA, among others.  Learning to chant Torah, blogging, and writing (and texting) condolence, mazel tov and refuah sh’leimah notes to friends around the country also pulled me from Jean Valjean and the rest of the book's characters.

Although I don’t have a lot of read pages to show for the eight months since I started on page 1, I do have a welcoming synagogue community, a supportive BRCA sisterhood, loving family and friends, and a rich, full life that, despite my best intentions, doesn’t leave me as much time as I think I would like for reading.

Is it any wonder that Got lakht?!

Inspired by Ima on (and off) the Bima, this post is one in a series marking the days of the Hebrew month of Elul, which precedes the Jewish High Holidays and traditionally serves as a time of reflection and spiritual preparation for the new year.

Shabbat D'varim: A Top 10 List

 Credit:  Words with Friends

A while back, I wrote a Top 10 List for Shabbat Kedoshim.  Today was a different kind of Shabbat…

10. I kept hitting the snooze button…on both the alarm clock and the iPhone.

9.  When I finally rolled over at 10:13 a.m., my minyan buddies were getting ready to open to page 172 for Ma Tovu.  I was still in my jammies.

8.  Once I got out of bed—at about the time they probably were finishing t’filah ha-lev and turning to the Torah service—I didn’t bother making it.

7.  By noon, when services were over and everyone was putting a schmear on their bagels, drinking the brown mud that passes for coffee and opening their Plaut-Bamberger Torah Commentaries, I was reading the paper leisurely.

6.  I caught up on my emails and played a few rounds of Words with Friends.

5.  I also took care of a bit of long overdue blog maintenance…and wrote this post.

4.  I shmyed around on Facebook, vacationing vicariously with friends at Arches National Park, Tanglewood, San Jose and Kutz Camp, where today was Celebrate Dorothy Walrond Day.

3.  I read a bit in my latest book, The People of Forever are Not Afraid.  Stay tuned for a review.

2.  To be fair, I also read a few pages in Les Miserables.  After all, tomorrow is Bastille Day.

1.  Later, when it’s time to go to bed, I won’t have to unmake my bed.

Shavua tov!

Gino Bartali: Righteous Among the Nations

It took me longer than the Ima and it took me longer than Rebecca, but like the two of them, I recently read and enjoyed Road to Valor:  A True Story of World War II Italy, the Nazis, and the Cyclist Who Inspired a Nation.  Written by Aili and Andres McConnon, the non-fiction narrative that reads like a novel tells the story of Gino Bartali, one of Italy's great cyclists and a two-time Tour de France winner--first in 1938 and again in 1948, a time when sharp political divides (and fan loyalties) characterized the country.

During the years in between, Bartali used his time and talents as part of a network of Catholic clergy and printers, all of whom risked their lives to create counterfeit documents so that Italian and emigrant Jews could remain in German-occupied Italy.  Using his bicycle, Bartali ferried documents, rolled up and hidden in the frame of the bike, around the country--from Florence to Assisi and back again. 

The cyclist also was instrumental in saving the lives of the Goldenberg family--Elvira and Giacomo together with their son Giorgio and their daughter Tea.  Without Bartali's assistance, it is more than likely that the Goldenbergs would have perished at the hands of the Nazis. Instead, the children and grandchildren of Giogio and his wife, and Tea and her husband today number more than two dozen.

Reticent to elaborate on this facet of his life, Bartali "remain[ed] tight-lipped with the press about his wartime activities for most of his life."  Thanks to the McConnons, we readers are all the wiser, knowing that for the life he lived and for the lives he saved, Gino Bartali is indeed a hero--to Italy and to the Jews.

Our Yom Kippur Browse

Yes, my dad and I maintained our minhag yesterday and after a bit of schmoozing following the morning service at temple, we drove down the road to Barnes and Noble for our annual Yom Kippur browse.

Increasingly (and as I wrote last year), it seems, the store is filled with more “stuff”—stationery, school supplies, writing journals, calendars, photo albums, e-readers and the like—and fewer books, and this year was no exception.  Nonetheless, ignoring our hunger, the thick, earthy smell of coffee from the café, and several rowdy teens, we each managed to find a few books, a chair and enough energy to thumb through our selections until it was time to return to temple for the afternoon service.

While my dad perused The Beauty and the Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War, Explorers of the Nile:  The Triumph and Tragedy of a Great Victorian Adventure and To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918, I went back and forth between two hefty selections:  Les Miserables and The Fountainhead.  Of course, the hefty selection I should be reading right now is Bureaucracy:  What Government Agencies Do And Why They Do It, all of whose 464 pages are supposed to be read by the time I get to class on Monday night.  Better get to it... 

In the meantime, stay tuned to find out what my dad and I actually end up reading in 5773—especially once my thesis is finished in December, when I’ll be able to choose my own books instead of having someone else choose them for me.

Color Me Red

Today was a gray, drizzly day in New York City.

To brighten it up, I added a little red to my wardrobe.

But this is the red I really wanted to add to my day.

So that's where I'm going now...with this other little bit of red.

I am Forbidden: A Brief Book Review

Remember when I posted this photo on Facebook back in March?

The caption said:  Look at how the package I received in today's mail was addressed! Stay tuned for details about what was inside...

Here are the details:  The package contained a pre-publication copy of I am Forbidden by Anouk Markovits, which will be published as the author's English language debut on May 8 by Hogarth Books, a division of the Crown Publishing Group.

That was the easy part.

The harder part is sorting out my thoughts and feelings about the book, which once I started, I couldn't put down.  Set in the Satmar Hasidic community, a place that seems narrower than the narrowest place in Mitzrayim, the story quickly swallowed me up.  Josef, Zalman, Hannah, Mila, Atara and Judith.  Transylvania, Paris, and New York.  World War II, 1968, 2005, today.  The characters, strictly confined by the 613 commandments, but always spinning, like Simchat Torah dancers, would, at first blush, appear to be spinning in place...year after year, baby after baby.  Some unexpected choices, however, take them to some unimagined places--within and beyond their community. 

Look for I am Forbidden in bookstores soon.

A Tale of Two Bookstores: Our Yom Kippur Minhag

Photo:  FreeFoto.com

Last Saturday at the conclusion of the morning service, my father and I headed to Barnes and Noble for our annual Yom Kippur browse.  (We do our share of browsing together all year long, but we always browse together on Yom Kippur.)

Once in the store, though, we found ourselves distracted, inattentive and dismayed at how much of the merchandise we weren’t interested in browsing—calendars, bookmarks, stationery, teen fiction, Halloween books, games, puzzles and magazines.  Despite the coffee aroma wafting from the café, we did briefly peruse the classics, and I thumbed through The Emperor of All Maladies:  A Biography of Cancer.  When I indicated an interest in reading it, my father, who rarely discourages non-fiction, said, “No…you don’t want to read that.”  Still hitting a little too close to home, I guess.  A short while later, still distracted and unfocused, we headed back to temple, where we sat outdoors—enjoying sunshine and warmth—until the afternoon service.

The next day, Sunday, it was too beautiful to stay inside so we headed to Princeton, a great place to wander on a sunny, bright day.  We both knew we’d end up in Labyrinth Books, and a parking spot on Nassau Street directly across from the independent bookstore clinched it.  We didn’t spend much more time there than we had in Barnes and Noble the day before (I had to get back to the city), but oh how much more satisfying was the browsing!  I read a bit more of The Emperor of Maladies, as well as the first few pages of Anne Enright’s The Gathering, winner of the 2007 Man Booker Prize.  My father offered to buy it for me, but with so many unread and partially read books at home, I returned it to the shelf.  It’ll be there when I’m ready.

And now, a rainy chag gives me some welcome time to visit in Cairo with Loulou and her father in The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit:  My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World. 

What’s your current read? 

Ah, Arthur, How Right You Are!

"To buy books would be a good thing if we also could buy the time to read them."

Arthur Schopenhauer

My bookshelves overflow with books, many of which remain on my “to read” list.  And yet, last night I purchased three more at the soon-to-close Borders Books and Music store around the corner from my apartment.

Although the store looked like London after the blitz—complete with a darkened café and half empty shelves and tables already scoured into disarray by frenzied shoppers—I took my time, savoring the feel of each volume in my hand, browsing its back cover and opening pages, weighing the book's merits against the many others still available for purchase.

In the end, I settled on these:

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

If only I could delve into them right now.  But first, the reading for school, and then back to my newest read, which was loaned to me by a friend.  Although I’ve read only a few of its pages, it’s already proven to be an engaging and well-written page turner, which is more than I can say for the school assignment!