Independent reading is a wonderful way to explore interests and passions, as well as learn about a place, culture, or time in history. In my opinion, the key to choosing an enjoyable independent reading book is finding one that relates to a personal experience. It may, for example, take place in a country you are visiting or involve an event that relates to your ancestry or was of particular interest to you when you studied it in school.
I find that I gain more knowledge and enjoyment from a book I’ve chosen to read based on the above criteria than one that I am simply assigned to read. That said, I was ecstatic that this past summer, the Upper School assigned fewer summer reading books and instead advocated for independent reading, requiring each student to read two books of her choice.
To fulfill the requirement (not at all a challenge for me because I adore reading), I decided to read books that relate to Jewish culture and Israel, where I traveled this past summer.
And so, I bought Alice Hoffman’s The Dovekeepers. This historical fiction novel tells the story of the tragic mass murder that occurred at Masada in 70 C.E., when Jews on top of the mountain had to choose between being enslaved by the Romans, who were waiting at the bottom, and dying to avoid this fate.
What makes this story especially interesting is that it is narrated by four different women, each of whom have come to the mountain after a different life-changing event. This book gave me an in-depth view of the tragedy of Masada from a unique perspective, one I could not have had myself when I visited there three years ago on my first trip to Israel or when I read the ancient historian Josephus‘s accounts of the tragedy in Mr. Joffe’s Latin III class last year. My previous personal encounters with the historical event portrayed in The Dovekeepers allowed me to connect with the novel on a more personal level and rendered the book an excellent independent summer reading choice.
Because I enjoyed reading a book related to Judaism, I decided to read Myla Goldberg’s Bee Season, which involves Jewish mysticism. The novel focuses on the seemingly normal, four-person Naumann family. But when the younger child, Eliza, wins the school spelling bee and moves on to regionals and then nationals, the Naumann family’s supposed normalcy is suddenly contradicted. Eliza’s father, Saul, is a rabbi interested in Jewish mysticism, particularly the writings of Abulafia, a Jewish man from the 13th century who believed that finding all the different combinations of letters in sacred Hebrew words would bring one closer to God. Saul believes that his daughter’s spelling talent intimates her closeness to the Divine.
Though this novel is set in the present and therefore did not teach me anything about Jewish history, it still captivated me because I visited Safed, the center of Jewish mysticism, and learned about the kabbalah, the mystical interpretation of the bible. I also love the novel’s immersion of two separate story lines through the theme of letters and words.
To continue my journey of Jewish history, I read Talia Carner’s novel Jerusalem Maiden, which tells the story of a young, Ultra-Orthodox Jewish girl living in Jerusalem in the early 1900s. She dreams of becoming an artist but is held back by her extreme religion that forbids the creation of artwork.
I truly appreciated this novel because I no longer take for granted the freedom to create art, a freedom that I have as a reform Jew. I felt an even deeper connection to the novel as I was walking down the streets of the Old City in Jerusalem this summer, picturing myself in the footsteps of the characters from Jerusalem Maiden.
I sincerely hope the Hewitt Upper School requires independent reading next summer as well so everyone can experience the same joy of reading as I do.