Since I have nothing to do now, I have been reading a lot lately. Of course, I always read a lot compared to most people. But I recently read 3 really good books that I thought I would share with you. I am just going to let Amazon set it up and I will tell you what I thought about it. Good Holiday Reading.
Jacobs, a New York Jewish agnostic, decides to follow the laws and rules of the Bible, beginning with the Old Testament, for one year. He starts by growing a beard and we are with him through every itchy moment. Jacobs is borderline OCD, obsessing over possible dangers to his son, germs, literal interpretation of Bible verses, etc. He enlists the aid of counselors along the way; Jewish rabbis, Christians of every stripe, friends and neighbors. In an open-minded way he also visits with atheists, Evangelicals Concerned (a gay group), Jerry Falwell, snake handlers, Red Letter Christians--those who adhere to the red letters in the Bible, those words spoken by Jesus Himself, and even takes a trip to Israel and meets Samaritans. Through it all, he keeps a healthy skepticism, but continues to pray and is open to the flowering of real faith.
I found this book to be hysterical. It took me longer than usual to read cause I was laughing so hard. I also learned plenty about the bible and different religions.
At age 12, in 1960, Dully received a transorbital or ice pick lobotomy from Dr. Walter Freeman, who invented the procedure, making Dully an unfortunate statistic in medical history—the youngest of the more than 10,000 patients who Freeman lobotomized to cure their supposed mental illness. In this brutally honest memoir, Dully, describes how he set out 40 years later to find out why he was lobotomized, since he did not exhibit any signs of mental instability at the time, and why, postoperation, he was bounced between various institutions and then slowly fell into a life of drug and alcohol abuse.
This book was interesting learning about lobotomies and how they came about and how barbaric the treatment was. Dully also teaches how not to let your childhood define who you become. I loved it.
Ackerman tells the remarkable WWII story of Jan Zabinski, the director of the Warsaw Zoo, and his wife, Antonina, who, with courage and coolheaded ingenuity, sheltered 300 Jews as well as Polish resisters in their villa and in animal cages and sheds. Using Antonina's diaries, other contemporary sources and her own research in Poland, Ackerman takes us into the Warsaw ghetto and the 1943 Jewish uprising and also describes the Poles' revolt against the Nazi occupiers in 1944.
I love reading about this period of time and everytime I read one of these books, I learn something new. I think I read these books to appreciate my own life and put it in perspective. This one is really good for anyone who likes to read about the Holocaust era.
New York is quite an experience at night and at Christmas time.
We met up with Keith's cousin, Misty and her husband, Sam to have dinner at an incredible Brazilian barbecue restaurant. They had a salad bar that included pastas, fish, and shrimp and then waiters that came around and fed us meat nonstop. We ate prime rib, filet mignon, sirloin, flank steak, beef ribs....on and on until we popped. Then we had dessert. It was fantastic. I was so busy eating I forgot to take a picture.
Afterwards, Misty and Sam took us to 5th Avenue to see the tree at Rockefeller Center and the shop windows at Saks. It was really cool and something I have wanted to see for a long time. The picture above is from the ice skating rink right next to the tree. We also saw where the Rainbow Room is, Radio City Hall and where they film the Today show.
It was a lot of fun and we just missed the snowy weather that was coming in later that night. It was also great to see Misty and Sam again. Next time they promise to take me to Coney Island. I can't wait.
