Review: The Sacrifice of Tamar

The Sacrifice of Tamar by Naomi Ragen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I really wanted to like this book - knowing Ragen to be a well-respected author and amateur sociologist when it comes to the Orthodox Jewish community - but I didn't. It is about a woman named Tamar who is married to a well-respected scholar in her isolated ultra-Orthodox community. Tamar is raped early in the book, and the results of that incident follow her through her life and that of her family.

What I did like about the book was that her two best friends represented two alternative approaches to Judaism within the Orthodox community. Still, I found the character development weak, the plot predictable, and the community in many ways reduced to the archetypes and stereotypes already familiar to me. The writing was easy to follow, but not good enough to make up for the other shortcomings.

View all my reviews

Review: China Rich Girlfriend

China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was fabulous fun, just like Crazy Rich Asians, Kwan's first book in this series. Most of the same characters were back from the original story, and there are more great examples of scheming, outlandish displays of wealth, and gossip - more than even the characters know what to do with. Though the book jacket summarizes the book as being about Rachel's finding her birth father, that is just one of the four or five intertwined plots within the book. Couldn't wait to read this each day!

View all my reviews

Review: Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina

Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I would give Copeland 5 starts as a person, but her autobiography only earned 3. She is one of the first only black soloists in a major ballet company, and her life is amazing - she began ballet quite late (as an adolescent) but had a natural gift for it. The book tells the story of her discovering ballet and training under several teachers, being pulled between professional success and family as a young woman, and then succeeding as a ballerina at a level few ever reach, particularly black women. I enjoyed learning about her and reading her story, but didn't think the writing was very good. There were parts I would have wanted to know more about that were omitted, and places where more detail or color would have made it a better story. That said, she is an icon and I have a ton of respect for her as a person, so I'm glad I know more about her life.

View all my reviews

Review: The Indian Bride

The Indian Bride by Karin Fossum
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I bought this at the Harvard Bookstore Warehouse Sale this summer. It's a mystery, about an awkward Norwegian man who marries an Indian woman abroad. He eagerly awaits her arrival in Norway, but on the day she is due to show up, the body of a battered foreigner is found near his house. The story is about him and about her, but also about the detectives who investigate the crime as well as the town itself, and its secrets and characters. Just one of those good books that is somewhere between a mystery and a novel, kept me thinking and kept me reading.

View all my reviews

Review: Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I think it was the election that did it - that pushed me towards several non-fiction books and a search for some hints on faith. Anne Lamott isn't Jewish (and I am) - far from it, she goes to a Church and talks about Jesus and God as if they are her neighbors - but she has faith, and I needed a good dose of that. She is the best example I have found of Brene Brown's gospel of vulnerability. She completely opens herself up to the reader, sharing all her failures, foibles, and doubts, while simultaneously displaying her faith. Not a blind faith in a traditional god, but a questioning and malleable faith in something palpable and engaging.

Anyway, I love her. And I loved the essays in this book that dive into these ideas.

View all my reviews