Devil in the Details
Is a fantastic book. Click here for the front page on amazon (US) and if you do the right thing you can read a bit of it.
It's not one I'm reading for my conversion book group, it's a book I picked up at Reno airport on the way home from skiing last week. It's absolutely fascinating. Jennifer Traig writes about her childhood and adolescence in an inter-faith family (Jewish father, Catholic mother). Hard enough. Then you add in some more interesting character traits (undiagnosed OCD and scruples) and you get a young girl who tries to apply her imperfect knowledge of Judaism and its tenets (principally Kashrut and Shabbat observance) with some incredibly interesting results.
I have a tendency to obsess, sweat the small stuff and over-analyse to the nth degree. This girl beat me hands down. Reading Jennifer Traig's account of how the laws on keeping dairy and meat separate inspired her to use a different toilet for meat and dairy and to not eat dairy whilst wearing leather was eye-opening in the extreme.
Hilarious in parts, most parts actually, and poignant in others, please read it. I was crying with laughter half way across the Atlantic and believe me, I don't usually enjoy commercial 'plane rides that much. Private 'plane trips though, on little tiny 4 -seater Cessnas over Lake Tahoe, are a different kettle of fish.
It's not one I'm reading for my conversion book group, it's a book I picked up at Reno airport on the way home from skiing last week. It's absolutely fascinating. Jennifer Traig writes about her childhood and adolescence in an inter-faith family (Jewish father, Catholic mother). Hard enough. Then you add in some more interesting character traits (undiagnosed OCD and scruples) and you get a young girl who tries to apply her imperfect knowledge of Judaism and its tenets (principally Kashrut and Shabbat observance) with some incredibly interesting results.
I have a tendency to obsess, sweat the small stuff and over-analyse to the nth degree. This girl beat me hands down. Reading Jennifer Traig's account of how the laws on keeping dairy and meat separate inspired her to use a different toilet for meat and dairy and to not eat dairy whilst wearing leather was eye-opening in the extreme.
Hilarious in parts, most parts actually, and poignant in others, please read it. I was crying with laughter half way across the Atlantic and believe me, I don't usually enjoy commercial 'plane rides that much. Private 'plane trips though, on little tiny 4 -seater Cessnas over Lake Tahoe, are a different kettle of fish.
posted by Chaya at 2:07 pm
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