Join Us on November 16th

It is hard to believe that this is the third year of the Heschel Book Group. Last night, we kicked off the year with a stimulating discussion of Ernest Gaines’s novel, A Lesson before Dying. We also selected the next three books that the group will tackle.

On November 16, we will discuss, question, and analyze Wallace Stegner’s Angle of Repose. This is an exquisite epic novel that traces the evolution of a marriage, a family, and the building of the American West. It is truly a masterpiece. This is quite a long novel, so start reading and join us.

On January 11, 2011 we will discuss another epic novel, Abraham Verghese’s Cutting for Stone. Abraham Verghese is both a doctor and a writer, and Cutting for Stone illustrates how organically he can combine his passions. This sweeping novel moves from India to Ethiopia to an inner-city hospital in New York City over decades and generations.

On February 22 we will discuss The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Tme. Mark Haddon's bitterly funny debut novel is a murder mystery of sorts. Fifteen-year-old Christopher John Francis Boone is mathematically gifted and socially challenged. He is raised in a working-class home by parents who can barely cope with his quirks. He takes everything that he sees at face value and he is unable to make sense of the behaviors of his peers and elders.

This group is open to faculty and staff, parents, grandparents, alumni, and friends of the Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School. Come and share your insights or just listen to the discussion. It is an informal group, and we encourage you to come. You do not need to make each meeting, nor do you even have to finish the book in time for the group.

We will meet in Lainer Library at Heschel from 7:00 - 9:00 pm.



Please contact Debra Schaffer at debra_schaffer@ajhds.com to get more information or to reserve a spot. Feel free to comment on this site with insights, suggestions, or questions.

The Book Club is Back - Join Us on October 5th

The Heschel Book Club is returning! The first four reserved dates are October 5, November 16, January 11, and February 22. We will meet in in the Lainer Library at Heschel from 7 in the evening until 9. All parents, students, alumni, staff, and friends of Heschel are invited. Please join us to enjoy snacks and delve into literature. You may come to question, contribute, or just listen.

On October 5 we will talk about A Lesson before Dying by Ernest Gaines.
Some of the novels I am considering for the year are:

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
"Conjoined twins, Shiva and Marion Stone are separated by the doctor whose Caesarean fails to save their mother. Raised near the Ethiopian hospital where they were born, the brothers lock into a struggle that mirrors the country’s political tension: Their family is touched by murder, a coup, betrayal. Verghese plays straight to the heart in his first novel, which will keep you in its thrall.”

White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
In this darkly comic début novel set in India, Balram, a chauffeur, murders his employer, justifying his crime as the act of a "social entrepreneur."

The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night by Mark Haddon
"When a teen discovers his neighbor's dog savagely stabbed to death, he decides to use the deductive reasoning of his favorite detective to solve the crime. Employing Holmesian logic is not an easy task for even the cleverest amateur sleuth and, in Christopher's case, it is particularly daunting. He suffers from a disability that causes, among other things, compulsive behavior; the inability to read others' emotions; and intolerance for noise, human touch, and unexpected events."

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
"One of the earliest Jewish religious volumes to be illuminated with images, the Sarajevo Haggadah survived centuries of purges and wars thanks to people of all faiths who risked their lives to safeguard it. Geraldine Brooks, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March, has turned the intriguing but sparely detailed history of this precious volume into an emotionally rich, thrilling fictionalization that retraces its turbulent journey. In the hands of Hanna Heath, an impassioned rare-book expert restoring the manuscript in 1996 Sarajevo, it yields clues to its guardians and whereabouts: an insect wing, a wine stain, salt crystals, and a white hair. While readers experience crucial moments in the book's history through a series of fascinating, fleshed-out short stories, Hanna pursues its secrets scientifically, and finds that some interests will still risk everything in the name of protecting this treasure."

Angel of Repose by Wallace Stegner
"This long, thoughtful novel about a retired historian who researches and writes about his pioneer grandparents garnered Stegner a Pulitzer Prize. A masterpiece."

History of Love by Nicole Krauss
The History of Love is a hauntingly beautiful novel about two characters whose lives are woven together in such complex ways that even after the last page is turned, the reader is left to wonder what really happened. In the hands of a less gifted writer, unraveling this tangled web could easily give way to complete chaos. However, under Krauss's watchful eye, these twists and turns only strengthen the impact of this enchanting book.

When Nietzsche Wept by Irvin Yalom
"This talky first novel by psychotherapist Yalom is set in 1882, when Joseph Breuer, an eminent physician and mentor of Sigmund Freud, strives to apply his recently discovered talking cure to the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche."

Little Bee by Chris Cleave
"Little Bee, smart and stoic, knows two people in England, Andrew and Sarah, journalists she chanced upon on a Nigerian beach after fleeing a massacre in her village, one grisly outbreak in an off-the-radar oil war. After sneaking into England and escaping a rural “immigration removal” center, she arrives at Andrew and Sarah’s London suburb home only to find that the violence that haunts her has also poisoned them. In an unnerving blend of dread, wit, and beauty, Cleave slowly and arrestingly excavates the full extent of the horror that binds Little Bee and Sarah together."

Although I have only read a few of the previous selections, these all come highly recommended. Also, let me know if you are interested in looking at classic literature like The Great Gatsby or Ethan Frome. 
Come discuss the options on October 5th, and please, bring suggestions as well.
If you are interested in joining us, please email me at debra_schaffer@ajhds.com

I look forward to seeing you in October.

Summer and Our Book Club

We will reschedule our meeting for the book, A Lesson Before Dying, shortly. Stay in touch. We plan on meeting during the summer, and we might even have a lovely brunch together.

June 1 - A Lesson Before Dying

On Tuesday, June 1 from 7:00 - 9:00 PM, the Heschel Book Group will discuss Earnest J. Gaines's A Lesson Before Dying.

From Library Journal:
'What do you tell an innocent youth who was at the wrong place at the wrong time and now faces death in the electric chair? What do you say to restore his self-esteem when his lawyer has publicly described him as a dumb animal? What do you tell a youth humiliated by a lifetime of racism so that he can face death with dignity? The task belongs to Grant Wiggins, the teacher of the Negro plantation school who narrates the story. Grant grew up on the Louisiana plantation but broke away to go to the university. He returns to help his people but struggles over 'whether I should act like the teacher that I was, or like the nigger that I was supposed to be.' The powerful message Grant tells the youth transforms him from a 'hog'to a hero, and the reader is not likely to forget it, either."

The Heschel Book Group is open to faculty and staff, parents, grandparents, alumni, and friends of the Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School. Come and share your insights or just listen to the discussion. It is an informal group, and we encourage you to come. You do not need to make each meeting, nor do you even have to finish the book in time for the group. We will meet in the Lainer Library.


If you plan to attend, please email debra_schaffer@ajhds.com

April 13 - The English Patient

On Tuesday, April 13 from 7:00 - 9:00 PM, the Heschel Book Group will discuss Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient.

With  beauty, intelligence, and sensuality, Michael Ondaatje's Booker Prize-winning novel traces the lives of four damaged perople in an Italian villa at the end of World War II. Hana, the exhausted nurse; the maimed thief, Caravaggio; the wary sapper, Kip: each is haunted by the riddle of the English patient, the nameless, burned man who lies in an upstairs room and whose memories of passion, betrayal,and rescue illuminates this book like flashes of heat lightening.

Topics to consider:

• Prose as poetry
• Ondaatje's use of figurative language
• The colonial perspective and references to Kipling
• The structure of the novel
• The importance of history, both world and personal
• Herodotus as a significant motif
• The influence of the desert
• The use of names, specifically Caravaggio 

The Heschel Book Group is open to faculty and staff, parents, grandparents, alumni, and friends of the Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School. Come and share your insights or just listen to the discussion. It is an informal group, and we encourage you to come. You do not need to make each meeting, nor do you even have to finish the book in time for the group. 

If you plan to attend, please email debra_schaffer@ajhds.com

 

The following dates have been reserved for future book groups:

Tuesday, June, 1. We will meet in Lainer Library at Heschel from 7:00 - 9:00 pm.

February 23 - Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

On Tuesday, February 23 from 7:00 - 9:00 PM, the Heschel Book Group will discuss Jonathan Safran Foer's controversial novel, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. The novel centers on 9-year-old whiz kid Oskar Schell, whose father, Thomas Schell, dies on Sept. 11, 2001.

Visit http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/booksellers/press_release/extremelyloud/ for background information on the author and the novel.

The Heschel Book Group is open to faculty and staff, parents, grandparents, alumni, and friends of the Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School. Come and share your insights or just listen to the discussion. It is an informal group, and we encourage you to come. You do not need to make each meeting, nor do you even have to finish the book in time for the group.

If you plan to attend, please email debra_schaffer@ajhds.com

The following dates have been reserved for future book groups:
Tuesday, April, 13 and Tuesday, June, 1. We will meet in Lainer Library at Heschel from 7:00 - 9:00 pm.