To Siberia, by Per Petterson

To Siberia, by Per Petterson is an excellent novel depicting a family within the Danish landscape.
The narrator is a sixty-year old woman who is reflecting on her past, from her childhood in Jutland through her early twenties. Her parents are seemingly uncaring, and often neglectful. Her one area of comfort is her brother Jesper. They [...]

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The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

The Reader, by Bernhard Schlink is a frank, blunt and disturbing book on many levels. There are many questions raised within the pages, and some relate to issues of morality, ethics, dignity, love and truth. The questions all begin with the narrator, Michel Berg. He is reflecting on his past, one in which he [...]

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A Living Lens

I am a book store lover, as most of you know. One of my recent purchase while I was away was a fantastic book of photographs and essays. A Living Lens: Photographs of Jewish Life From the Pages of the Forward is an incredible historical and photographic chronology of Jewish Life.
From the Lower East [...]

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The Pages of Time

Once again, I found myself reading a Holocaust memoir in which a surviving parent did not want to reveal too much information, if any, about their Holocaust experience to their child/children. The Pages In Between: A Holocaust Legacy of Two Families, One Home, by Erin Einhorn, is a novel written by a daughter whose mother, [...]

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Possession, by A.S. Byatt

I read Possession, by A.S. Byatt when it first came out a few years back, on an airplane on my way to England.
The passion between the lines, in this wonderfully conceived and crafted book of both prose and poetry, had me totally possessed and engrossed in the multiple and simultaneous stories.
I like the [...]

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Plum Wine, by Angela Davis-Gardner

The Novel, Plum Wine, turned out to be less than what I had expected. I found the story line to be slow going, and thought the characters lacked depth. It took all I could to get through the book, without putting it down and not continuing on.
Angela Davis-Gardner’s book, filled with love and [...]

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People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks

People of the Book by Pulitzer Prize author Geraldine Brooks is an incredible novel. Although it is fiction, the content is filled with historical information and fact. People of the Book is based on the Jewish Religious book the Sarajevo Haggadah, and its survival through the centuries.
The Sarajevo Haggadah is a factual manuscript/volume, [...]

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In the Image, by Dara Horn

“Accidents of fate are rarely fatal accidents, but once in a while they are.”
In The Image is one of those books that evolves through the characters’ coming of age, journeying towards peace and acceptance, and sojourning towards spiritual identity. One young girl (Leora)l learns to accept the death of her best friend, through [...]

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Giving and Goodness

I finished reading the book Giving, by Bill Clinton, a while back. I thought this would be a good book to recommend to those who might want some suggestions how to be productive in the area of “giving“.
Givingtakes on many forms, from monetary to volunteering, and Clinton’s book, shows us avenues through [...]

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Somewhere a Master, by Elie Wiesel

Somewhere a Master: Hasidic Portraits and Legends is one of Elie Wiesel’s wonderful books filled with stories of legendary, Hasidic Masters.
Each individual, was a sage in their own right, and each one brought a depth of illumination into the ideals, practices, and the joy received within spiritual practice. The Talmud was an integral [...]

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