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!
