Outwitting History by Aaron Lansky

While an undergraduate at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, Aaron Lansky took a course about the Holocaust and became interested in the sociological study of Jews. He found a professor at UMass who taught him Yiddish and this resulted in his first hand experience of how difficult it is to find Yiddish books to read. Thus began a career of scooping up Yiddish books from all over the world and storing them at the National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst. Outwitting History is Lansky's memoir of starting that now-flourishing institution. It is told straight-forwardly with lots of amusing anecdotes. Lansky's descriptions of the elderly Jews he meets in book collecting brings alive Yiddish life and culture which is disappearing in today's world. His enthusiasm for the subject is contagious, and this makes Outwitting History a wonderful book to read.

Under the Eye of the Clock by Christopher Nolan

A bright but severely handicapped young man writes his memoir (in the third person), giving the reader some sense of what it is to be trapped in a wheelchair and unable to speak. He learns to type by poking at a keyboard with a stick held in his mouth and he writes poetry which garners him recognition and a bit of fame. Unfortunately, his prose is extremely overwritten in a way that suggests poetry is really his forte. I had to ignore things I didn't understand and read lightly for plot. Here is an example of what I feel is overwriting: "Basted now by grace, his gabbled verse fused appeals for bygones of hurt feelings; answering from distance and direction, voiced fasts now breathed blessed, thistled relics of relief."

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen

A devasting marital breakup sends the author of this memoir back to her Mennonite roots for reflection and recovery. She provides interesting insight into the Mennonite life and its history and even includes recipes at the end. A light, easy read, Janzen's book put me in mind of Bridget Jones' Diary.

The Glass Room by Simon Mawer

Central to Mawer's novel is a large modern house in Czechoslovakia built by a young Jewish bridegroom for his Catholic bride. However, it is the family story more than the architecture that holds interest. It is the 1930s, and the reader knows that Naziism hovers threateningly over Europe. How the family deals with the political threat makes for suspenseful reading while the use to which the house is put during World War II reflects the history of the era. Excellent novel, well written.

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

In 1974 Philippe Petit strung a tightrope between the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center and performed on it for the astonished pleasure of New Yorkers on their way to work. The incident forms an historical centerpiece of this novel about city denizens whose lives become subtly interwoven as the story progresses. Starting with an Irish monk who works among prostitutes in the Bronx, the story takes you to a Park Avenue penthouse where mothers who have lost their sons in the Vietnam War gather for mutual support. Let the Great World Spin is a good read, but it is sometimes to difficult to keep track of the characters because they are featured in separate chapters and only gradually come together.