Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School's Book Group

Heschel Book Group - Tuesday, March 27th

2012-01-23T10:54:00.000-08:00

Prior to the Civil War, some free black people owned slaves. Author Edward P. Jones picked up on that little-known fact and has written a vivid novel, The Known World. It looks at slavery through a different lens and examines the social and moral boundaries that were woven into the fabric of those living in Virginia at the time of slavery.

Edward P. Jones, the New York Times bestselling author, has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, the National Book Critics Circle award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and the Lannan Literary Award for The Known World.

From The New Yorker:

On a small plantation in Manchester County, Virginia, in the eighteen-fifties, a freed black man named Henry Townsend lives with his wife and the thirty-three slaves he has bought, some with the help of his former owner. This kaleidoscopic first novel depicts daily life for Henry and his friends ("members of a free Negro class that, while not having the power of some whites, had been brought up to believe that they were rulers waiting in the wings"); for the plantation's slaves, one of whom believes that he, too, will be transformed into an owner after Henry's death; and for the county's white inhabitants, who coexist uneasily with their slaves and their emancipated black neighbors. Jones has written a book of tremendous moral intricacy: no relationship here is left unaltered by the bonds of ownership, and liberty eludes most of Manchester County's residents, not just its slaves.

Please join us Tuesday evening, March 27^th Lainer Library at 7:00. Come and share your insights or just listen to the discussion. This group is open to faculty and staff, parents, alumni, and friends of Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School.

Welcome Back to the Abraham Joshua Heschel Book Club

2011-10-10T11:52:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to the Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School Book Group Blog. Here you will be able to get information about upcoming books or post questions or comments.

Our first meeting will be hosted by Alyce de Toledo on November 16. We will meet at her home at 7:00.

Our first selection of this school year will be Jennifer Egan's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad. Come and share your insights or just listen to the discussion. This group is open to faculty and staff, parents, alumni, or friends of Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School.

If you plan on attending, please contact me at debra.schaffer@heschel.com and I will give you Alyce's address.

Please feel free to post comments or inquiries to this blog. I look forward to seeing you.

A Special Evening - May 17th

2011-04-01T10:24:00.000-07:00

The next book we will discuss is Nobel Prize Winner Mario Vargas Llosa’s Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter. This multilayered, comic novel, published in 1977, is set in Lima, Peru. Marito, a student who works in the news department of a local radio station, finds his young life disrupted by two arrivals. “The first is his aunt Julia, recently divorced and thirteen years older, with whom he begins a secret affair. The second is a manic radio scriptwriter named Pedro Camacho, whose racy soap operas are holding the city's listeners in thrall.” Named one of the best books of the year by the New York Times Book Review, Llosa’s work mixes paradox and satire “to explore the creative process of writing and its relation to the daily lives of writers.”

This book group will be slightly different. We will meet at the home of Debbie Shkurovich for dinner. As the book was translated from Spanish, she will facilitate the discussion and perhaps illuminate us to the differences between the original and the translation. This should be an enlightening and enjoyable evening. Please, if you plan on attending, you will need to RSVP by May 6th. Upon RSVP, you will recieve the address and additional information.

Tuesday - March 22

2011-02-26T07:17:00.000-08:00

At our next book group, we will discuss Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips.

From The New Yorker:

This poetic novel alternates between the last hours of Robert Leavitt, a corporal in the U.S. Army, pinned down in a tunnel in South Korea, in 1950, and the story of his disabled son, Termite, who, nine years later, is living with his half-sister, Lark, and their aunt in West Virginia. Lark knows little of her mother and even less of her father, and pours herself into nurturing Termite, whose stunted body and lack of language has Social Services perpetually threatening to take him away. The appearance of a sympathetic social worker marks the beginning of a great fracture in their lives, which culminates in a flood that reveals the past and makes way for a new future. Phillips gives each scene an evocative, often lyrical description, but the mystical elements of the story and the improbable ending undermine an otherwise moving exploration of familial love.

From The New York Times:

Jayne Anne Phillips renders what is realistically impossible with such authority that the reader never questions its truth. This is the alchemy of great fiction: the fantastic dream that’s created in “Lark and Termite” is one the reader enters without ever looking back.

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.

Thursday - February 24

2011-01-24T10:58:00.000-08:00

Please note the date change: we will be meeting on Thursday the 24th of February at 7:00pm.

Abraham Verghese is both a doctor and a writer, and Cutting for Stone illustrates how organically he can combine his passions. This sweeping novel follows twins Marion and Shiva Stone. Orphaned by their mother’s death in childbirth and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution.

From The Washington Post: "Masterful ... Verghese’s gripping narrative moves over decades and generations from India to Ethiopia to an inner-city hospital in New York, describing the cultural and spiritual pull of these places. . . . Even with its many stories and layers, Cutting for Stone remains clear and concise."

From the Los Angeles Times: "Verghese creates this story so lovingly that it is actually possible to live within it for the brief time one spends with this book. You may never leave the chair."

If you would like to see an actual hospital in Ethiopia please watch A Walk to Beautiful. "The award winning feature-length documentary A Walk to Beautiful tells the stories of five Ethiopian women who suffer from devastating childbirth injuries and embark on a journey to reclaim their lost dignity. Rejected by their husbands and ostracized by their communities, these women are left to spend the rest of their lives in loneliness and shame. They make the choice to take the long and arduous journey to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in search of a cure and a new life." This film is not for the squeamish, but it is a beautiful documentary that will move you.

Join Us on November 16th

2010-10-06T10:01:00.000-07:00

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.

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

2010-09-13T11:49:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-09T07:15:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-16T21:08:00.000-07:00

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

2010-02-24T11:29:00.000-08:00

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

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

2010-01-26T09:34:00.000-08:00

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.

The Help - Tuesday, January 19

2009-12-25T08:26:00.000-08:00

Last month's discussion of Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge was delightful and insightful. Please join us on Tuesday, January 19, as we discuss Kathryn Stockett's first novel, The Help. A certain best-seller, The Help examines the relationships between white women and their black maids in Jackson, Mississippi, 1962.

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.

The following dates are reserved for the book group: Tuesday, January 19; Tuesday, February 23; Tuesday, April, 13; and Tuesday, June, 1. We will meet in Lainer Library at Heschel from 7:00 - 9:00 pm.

December 8, 2009

2009-11-20T09:19:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, December 8th, we will meet to discuss Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge. This “novel in stories” brings to life a community in Maine. The presence of Olive Kitteridge, a seventh-grade math teacher and the wife of a pharmacist, links 13 stories. "A big woman, she’s like a planetary body, exerting a strong gravitational pull."

The New York Times states that Olive Kitteridge "manages to combine the sustained, messy investigation of the novel with the flashing insight of the short story. By its very structure, sliding in and out of different tales and different perspectives, it illuminates both what people understand about others and what they understand about themselves."

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.

The following dates are reserved for the book group: Tuesday, December 8; Tuesday, January 19; Tuesday, February 23; Tuesday, April, 13; and Tuesday, June, 1. We will meet in Lainer Library at Heschel from 7:00 - 9:00 pm.

November Meeting

2009-10-14T09:31:00.000-07:00

Because so few of you were able to make it to the October meeting but expressed an interest in discussing our October selection, The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander, we will meet on Wednesday, November 11 at 7:00 in the Lainer Library to discuss that novel. You are all invited, but please let me know if you plan on attending.

"From its unforgettable opening scene in the darkness of a forgotten cemetery in Buenos Aires, The Ministry of Special Cases casts a powerful spell. In the heart of Argentina’s Dirty War, Kaddish Poznan struggles with a son who won’t accept him; strives for a wife who forever saves him; and spends his nights protecting the good name of a community that denies his existence--and denies a checkered history that only Kaddish holds dear. When the nightmare of the disappeared children brings the Poznan family to its knees, they are thrust into the unyielding corridors of the Ministry of Special Cases, the refuge of last resort." Random House

Welcome - The 2009/2010 School Year Begins

2009-08-27T17:25:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the second year of the Heschel Book Group Blog. Here you will be able to find information about upcoming books or post questions or comments.

The following dates are reserved for the book group: Wednesday, October 14; Wednesday, November 11; and Tuesday, December 8. We will meet in Lainer Library at Heschel from 7:00 - 9:00 pm.

Our first selection of the academic year with be The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander.

"From its unforgettable opening scene in the darkness of a forgotten cemetery in Buenos Aires, The Ministry of Special Cases casts a powerful spell. In the heart of Argentina’s Dirty War, Kaddish Poznan struggles with a son who won’t accept him; strives for a wife who forever saves him; and spends his nights protecting the good name of a community that denies his existence--and denies a checkered history that only Kaddish holds dear. When the nightmare of the disappeared children brings the Poznan family to its knees, they are thrust into the unyielding corridors of the Ministry of Special Cases, the refuge of last resort." Random House

We look forward to another stimulating year, and we hope that you can join us.

Summer 2009

2009-08-27T17:21:00.000-07:00

During the summer, the Heschel Book Group met to discuss short stories and the classic American novel, Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. Several graduates from Heschel joined the discussion on Catcher in the Rye, and it was a pleasure to have such bright and opinionated young adults share their insights with us.

May 26, 2009 - Short Stories

2009-05-01T10:22:00.000-07:00

At our last book group, we discussed Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky. The group decided that at the next book group on May 26th, we would read several short stories.

What follows is a list of the stories and online, full-text links to them. "Livvie" by Eudora Welty is not available online, but if you contact me at debra_schaffer@ajhds.com, I will make sure you get a copy.

"The Chrysanthemums" by John Steinbeck
This short story concerns a married couple and examines the psychology of the unhappiness their marriage causes.
http://amb.cult.bg/american/4/steinbeck/chrysanthemums.htm

"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
This is regarded as an important early work of American feminist literature, illustrating attitudes in the 19th century toward women's physical and mental health. The story is written in the first person as a series of journal entries. The narrator is a woman whose husband — a physician — has confined her to the upstairs bedroom of a house he has rented for the summer.
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/YelWal.shtml

"Livvie" by Eudora Welty
"Livvie" is the story of a young black woman who marries an old man, who in a sense, imprisons her.

"The Cask of the Amontillado" by Poe
The story is set in a nameless Italian city in an unspecified year and concerns the deadly revenge taken by the narrator on a friend who he claims has insulted him.
http://www.literature.org/authors/poe-edgar-allan/amontillado.html

Join us in the Lainer Library on May 26th from 7:00 - 9:00 pm. Come and share your insights or just listen to the discussion. This group is open to faculty and staff, parents, alumni, or friends of Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School.

April 28, 2009

2009-04-01T08:28:00.000-07:00

Please join us on April 28, 2009 for a discussion of Irene Nemirovsky's novel, Suite Française.

From the Washington Post: "This extraordinary work of fiction about the German occupation of France is embedded in a real story as gripping and complex as the invented one. Composed in 1941-42 by an accomplished writer who had published several well-received novels, Suite Française, her last work, was written under the tremendous pressure of a constant danger that was to catch up with her and kill her before she had finished."

From Alan Cheuse, NPR: “Beautifully restrained . . . [Némirovsky’s] talent was quite considerable and her personal story rather moving and tragic . . . I don’t know of a more striking recent case where biography and artistic accomplishment are so intertwined . . . Némirovsky left behind [a note] about how to compose the projected later volumes of this novel project: ‘The most important and most interesting thing here is the following: the historical, revolutionary facts etc. must be only lightly touched upon, while daily life, the emotional life . . . must be described in detail.’ This she did rather splendidly in the first two books.”

The Museum of Jewish Heritage currently has an exhibition on Irene Nemirovsky. Visit http://www.mjhnyc.org/irene/index.html and learn about Irene, listen to podcasts, and view the manuscript and artifacts.

Come discuss the novel and learn about the controversy surrounding Irene Nemirovsky. We will meet in the Lainer Library from 7:00 - 9:00 pm. This group is open to faculty and staff, parents, alumni, or friends of Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School.

March 31, 2009

2009-02-19T10:03:00.000-08:00

Please join us on Tuesday, March 31, for a disucssion of A Pigeon and a Boy by Meir Shalev.

"Shalev creates a world that has the richness of invention and obsessiveness of dreams. He delivers both startling imagery and passionate, original characters whose destinies we follow through love, loss, laughter, and death." The New York Times Book Review

Meir Shalev, one of Israel's most celebrated novelists, tells the captivating and moving story of a boy and his home, a nest and a girl, and a pigeon and a baby.

Listen to an interview with Meir Shalev. The interview contains information about the novel that you might not want to hear until you have finished reading.

We will meet in Lainer Library from 7:00 - 9:00 pm. Come and share your insights or just listen to the discussion. This group is open to faculty and staff, parents, alumni, or friends of Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School.

February 17, 2009

2009-01-29T09:41:00.000-08:00

In February, we will be discussing Wallace Stegner's beautiful novel, Crossing to Safety. This is the story of two young couples who meet during the Depression and form an instant and lifelong friendship. This deceptively simple novel examines loyalty, survival, marriage, and the need to create bonds.

Doris Grumback from The New York Times says, "A superb book....Mr. Stegner's success with this story lies precisely in the absence of all these currently popular subject matters and the presence of quiet reexamination of what, close to the end, seems to have made life not only worth living but happy and almost fulfilled. Mr. Stegner has built a convincing narrative, has made survival a grace rather than a grim necessity, and enduring, tried love the test and proof of a good life. Nothing in these lives is lost or wasted, suffereing becomes an enriching benediction, and life itself a luminous experience."

Please join us February 17th in the Lainer Library at 7:00. This group is open to faculty and staff, parents, alumni, and friends of Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School.

The Next Meeting - January

2008-12-15T10:40:00.000-08:00

Disgrace by Coetzee proved to be a controversial and stimulating novel. Thanks to all of you who came to the book group and expressed your opinions.

Many book group attendees were disappointed that we were going to skip over January and meet again in February. Therefore, I have reserved the 22nd of January, a Thursday evening, for an additional meeting. We will be discussing Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, a story of racial injustice in a small Southern town.

If you are unable to attend this meeting, I will be discussing To Kill a Mockingbird at another time as well; I will let you know the date as soon as possible.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a core 8th grade novel, and I encourage you to attend.

Our Next Novel

2008-11-12T12:33:00.000-08:00

The first Heschel Book Group met on Wednesday, November 11. It was a lovely gathering of parents, grandparents, and alumni. The group decided that the next book we would tackle would be Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee. This novel, set in post-apartheid Cape Town and on a remote farm in the Eastern Cape, is a heartbreaking novel about Professor David Lurie and his daughter. An affair with one of his students leaves David jobless and friendless. His attempts to relate to his daughter, and to a society with new racial complexities, are disrupted by an afternoon of violence that changes him and his daughter in ways he could never have foreseen.

From The New Yorker, "Disgrace has just made literary history by winning Coetzee an unprecedented second Booker, and what seems striking about it, right from the start, is its almost unnatural sense of poise, the way it takes you by the hand and leads you through unrecognizable terrain only to pull the ground out from under you with such accumulated force that by the time you come to the last sentence you feel as if you'd lost your bearings, and you aren't sure how useful they'd be now, anyway. Disgrace is not a hard or obscure book-it is, among other things, compulsively readable-but what it may well be is an authentically spiritual document, a lament for the soul of a disgraced century."

This novel deals explicitly with the downfall of one man and dramatizes, with unforgettable, at times almost unbearable, vividness the plight of a country caught in the aftermath of centuries of racial oppression. Although this is a bleak and emotionally wrenching novel, I encourage you to read this Nobel Prize winning author's work. We will meet on Tuesday, December 9, in the Lainer Library at 7:00. Come and share your insights or just listen to the discussion. This group is open to faculty and staff, parents and grandparents, alumni, and friends of Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School.

Book Club's First Meeting

2008-09-22T13:08:00.000-07:00

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is set in Nazi Germany and follows the story of Liesel Meminger, a young girl left in the care of foster parents. This powerfully poetic story is about the ability of books to feed the soul.

The Horn Book Review states that The Book Thief "is exquisitely written and memorably populated, Zusak's poignant tribute to words, survival, and their curiously inevitable entwinement is a tour de force to be not just read but inhabited."

The New York Times states, "“Brilliant and hugely ambitious…Some will argue that a book so difficult and sad may not be appropriate for teenage readers…Adults will probably like it (this one did), but it’s a great young-adult novel…It’s the kind of book that can be life-changing."

Pick up a copy of Markus Zusak's The Book Thief, and start reading!

Please join us in the Lainer Library from 7:00 - 9:00 pm on Tuesday, November 11th as we discuss this touching novel. Come and share your insights or just listen to the discussion. This group is open to faculty and staff, parents, alumni, and friends of Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School.

Welcome

2008-06-16T18:47:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School Book Group Blog. Here you will be able to get information about upcoming books or post questions or comments. The following dates are reserved for the book group:

November 11, December 9, February 17, March 31, April 28, May 26

We will meet in Lainer Library from 7:00 - 9:00 pm. Come and share your insights or just listen to the discussion. This group is open to faculty and staff, parents, alumni, or friends of Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School.