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I write novels, eat dark chocolate, raise three children, love my husband, scrub toilets, ignore the laundry, and love a good story, but hardly ever in that order.

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Monday, February 4, 2013

On the Bookshelf: Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman


Holy cats, did I happen upon a great book.

I honestly cannot remember where I bought it. Do you have this problem? Buying books and hoarding them, stacking them up in your house, by your bed? Compulsively making lists of what you want to read? Purchasing them and then forgetting the time and place because everything else ceases to matter when you've brought it home and have smelled the pages?

I. Am. El. Weirdo.

So first I smelled the pages (check!) and then I read this:
Feldman is a young woman from Brooklyn who grew up in an isolated and conservative Hasidic Jewish community. I knew a bit about Hasidism but this book is so intimate, so beautifully written, such a can't-look-away glimpse into a world relatively close to mine but eons away. I ate it up, all the while marveling at this woman's courage and at how legalism and rejection of grace can take many, many forms.

Worth a read, for sure. Plus the pages smell awesome.

Click here to buy Unorthodox.

7 comments:

  1. Compulsively stacking book upon book on my night stand "to read next" and then moving said stack to the drawer of my night stand once the stack gets too big...yep, that's me.

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  2. Keep these posts coming. Any good fiction?

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  3. I am so glad to know I am not the only one who smells the pages!! I am actually a nut for the way a book feels too!! I currently have over 45 books in a neat stack by my dresser, driving my husband nuts! I hate to admit, I have a list going of "must reads" that aren't already in the pile. I call them my paper babies.

    Hi. My name is Meredith...and I have a problem.

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  4. I am so glad I'm not the only one in need of a book-stack intervention! Let's start a support group.

    Makila, fiction: I'm reading The Piano Teacher right now and I really like it. Hong Kong during and just after World War II. Maybe let me finish it before I totally commit. I do LOVE, though, another book: Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos. Such a great story. It has humor, family, a love story, heartache...all the greats in one book. And fantastic writing.

    Anyone else reading good fiction?

    kim

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  5. For those of us with a really serious problem: I introduce the adjunct to the nightstand pile: a bookshelf in the bedroom. It holds overflow in an orderly way (husbands deal with order better than stacks). I also have bookshelves in the guest room (for overflow). I can't resist purchasing when hearing a good recommendation from a reliable source. I'll have to live eons to finish them all... there are worse goals. I've told my husband: I don't fool around and I don't overdrink: deal with my book addiction (and he is, bless him).

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  6. I am reading "Accidental Pharisees" by Larry Osborne and it is fantastic. I wouldn't call it self-help, more "open your eyes" category. And I also finished "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand, fabulous! I love a true life story, as we all sport some wonderful life story...so I will be putting "Unorthodox" on the list.
    Also love paper smell...can't believe how I get a warm and delighted sensation at the library and wandering among the stacks.

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  7. Would I recommend this book to friends? I already have, only because with all the talk about the book out there you really do need to read it for yourself and make your own judgements. However, I did advise close friends to be objective while reading.

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