The Beginner's Guide to Stoicism: Tools for Emotional Resilience and Positivity, by Matthew Van Natta is an excellent introduction to thinking and acting like a Stoic. I have been exposed to Stoic philosophy since my early twenties, but I find handbooks like this extremely helpful. Stoic philosophy is easy to learn, and hard to practice. A book like Van Natta’s helps the beginner, or even more advanced practitioner, get a handle on the essentials.
Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish by Joshua Leifer is an earnest effort by this (relatively) young author to get at the heart of the issues that American Jewish communities currently face. This is a big project, and Leifer does an admirable job. I do, however, see two major flaws in this work.
The first is that the author appears to have written this work (mostly) before the October 7th attacks. He mentions the attacks briefly, but his conclusion is that Israel no longer requires the United States for approval or support (or the American Jewish community). Then he mentions the attacks, and explains this assumption is wrong. But the book is largely written with his assumption. He probably wrote most of the book before the attacks and then had to make changes. So, there is a strange disconnect on this topic.
The second is a fundamental premise about the nature of Judaism. Liefer sees Judaism as hierarchical. The Jews of his wife’s Yeshivish New Jersey community are rigorous Jews, and the rest of us struggle with identity. Yes, he criticizes all varieties of Judaism, but you can sense the longing he has for more “traditional” forms of Jewish expression (like studying the Talmud all day) where communities do not struggle for identity. Progressive Jews, however, do. I am a progressive Jew, and belong to a progressive shul. We are not in danger of losing our Jewish identity. We struggle with identity issues, as all Jews do, but we are firmly Jews, with or without daily Talmud study.
Despite its flaws, it is wonderful to see this author sort through such difficult issues. It is a thankless task!
Kabbalah and Sex Magic: A Mythical-Ritual Genealogy, by Marla Segol, is an academic treatment of the creative role God has in the kabbalah, especially related to characterizations that can be called sexual. The author writes an academic work here, although the interested amateur with some background in this area does well in this text. If we allow our academic study of God to fulfil the literal sense of a divine body, instead of the spiritualizing elements found in Jewish philosophy, and in modern academic studies, we open new pathways. This book explores those new avenues of approach.
American Phoenix: John Quincy and Louisa Adams, the War of 1812, and the Exile that Saved American Independence, by Jane Hampton Cook, examines a fascinating couple, who in most ways defied the expectations of early Americans. Both John Quincy and Louise Adams were well traveled, well read, and spoke fluent French, the language of culture and diplomacy in the early nineteenth century. Urbane and cosmopolitan – they were true people of the world, but they held American interests as their moral compass. At this point in the American experience, one can’t help but be nostalgic for this pair. Public service has decline to bald fascistic bizarre self-interests. We are far from our ideals.
To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918, by Adam Hochschild, is a well researched and entertaining work about the political and civil unrest created by the First World War.
This is a book less about the battles, although they are here, and more of how people were impacted by four years of carnage. A special emphasis is placed upon Conscientious Objectors, or COs, who were often religious or socialist in orientation. They were often imprisoned, and in some cases, drafted into the army so they could be executed for failure to obey orders at the front.
Far and away, this is the most interesting part of this book, as the story of COs are not told in most histories of World War I. In this sense, Hochschild’s book is vital.
Beware: The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957, by Frank Dikötter. I read his book on the cultural revolution and was horrified by the scale of the violence. As I read this book, I began to realize that I was being told a great deal about the destruction wrought by the Chinese revolution. Large parts of this book are just stories atrocities. After some time, you wonder why you need to read this. The author barely touches on the equally disastrous reign of the Chinese nationalists. He says one or two things about them and it’s wholly positive.
I will not read another one of his books. I think China deserves a better government than one run by the communist Chinese party. I think Communism in China has been a disaster and tragedy. But if this book is supposed to be history that strives for some sort of objectivity, it fails miserably. This scholar just hates Chinese communism, and page after page is going to impart that to you.
In an interview, Ling Ma, the author of the novel Severance, expressed frustration that the Cornell MFA program wanted her to write an “immigrant” novel. So, she decided to write about the theme of immigration, among other topics, in the context of a Zombie apocalypse. And why not? The genre has always been about the Uncanny Other, close to us, but not quite us, and couched in fear of our assimilation into them (and their mindless drive to assimilate us). This is that here – but Ma’s zombies are like us – stuck in routine, unable to crawl out of the task we must perform to make a paycheck and forced to repeat and repeat actions that take us further away from our desires and dreams. We are not so different from our shadow sides.
Before Central Park, by Sara Cedar Miller answers, in great detail, what many people visiting Central Park will ask: what was here before the park? This book is an impeccably researched work that answers this question in abundance. New York’s natural treasure was by no means destined to be created – and it came with a great cost to those already living in the confines of the park. This worthy book tells that story.
Thinking about the Torah: A Philosopher Reads the Bible by Kenneth Seeskin is an interesting excursion into reading Torah Jewishly and philosophically. Seeskin wants us to think deeply about the issue the Torah and he kindly helps us by enlisting some of the great thinkers in the Jewish tradition: Maimonides, Buber, and Levinas, to name a few. Thinking through Torah has its limitations, and you will see this if you read this book. But it is a very fruitful limitation: knowing what we can know and what we can’t is a gift few people accept.
I actually put down The Living and the Dead: Robert McNamara and Five Lives of a Lost War by Paul Hendrickson, wondering if it was worth devoting so much time to McNamara and the damage he did to both America and Vietnam. I left the book, thinking it was too much, but returned, as something about this work called to me. I’m glad I did; Hendrickson’s book is long, and not for everyone, but how it is written and what it accomplishes is hard to deny. This is an excellent book because of how it is written, not necessarily what it is about. This is a testimony to the author’s skill!
