{August Break 8/6: I’m Reading…}

I can never just read one book! My current bedtime reading is Yossi Klein Halevi’s Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist. I loved his book Like Dreamers, which traces the lives of the individual paratroopers who first reached the Wailing Wall in the Six Day War. Like Dreamers taught me a lot about
Israeli culture—the kibbutzim as the cradle of the nation and then the divergence into the different camps of radical peaceniks, anarchists and settlers. Turns out Halevi was a radical himself, and I’m curious to find out how he got there.

Julia Cameron is one of those voices I need to keep in my life because she inspires me and keeps me focused. So her new book It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again is my current companion even though I am nowhere near retirement. Last weekend I spent a long afternoon reading it, and it got my thoughts going, ideas floating, and soon I was scribbling in my notebook.

I recently finished Fever at Dawn–what a charming love story! Unbelievably, it takes place in the stark world of wintry Sweden right after the Holocaust, and the two heroes are ailing survivors. Read my review here.

Next up: Are You Somebody? by Nuala O’Faolain–due to my recent trip to Ireland, I have been wanting to read an Irish memoir.

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