Books

Here is another post on the books we have been reading. Our time in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv has been leisurely and comfortable - complete with a lot of reading for pleasure. We have read more for pleasure during these three weeks than during the past four years! It has been wonderful!

Rafi: He finished the book he was reading last time, The Face by Dean Koontz. He loved it and thought that it was his favorite of all the ones he has been reading. It was gripping and suspenseful. Since then he has also read...

Rafi really liked this book by John Grisham. He thought it was also pretty suspenseful and it kept his interest. It was kind of like a two sided spy game, where one side was the CIA and the other side were three men in jail. The book went back and forth between the two sides' stories, although they were connected in the end. Rafi received this book from my sister, Lindsey! Rafi liked this book as entertainment although not as much as the others he has been reading. It was about a man, his sister, and her son all on the run from police after committing a crime. He said it was full of a bunch of swearing which sometimes got in the way of reading. It was a fast-paced, quick read. He finshed it in about a day and a half. He was surprised to figure out that the author is actually a woman. When he started out he had pictured the author's voice as a man. This book was also from Lindsey as a birthday present to Rafi...Thanks Linds!

Chelsey: As I mentioned in the last blog post about books, I was in the middle of reading Walking the Bible by Bruce Feiler. I had continued to read it, but then stopped - both because I wanted to save the book (it is really good and I did not want it to end yet), and because I wanted to devour some books that I had just received from the library online for my nook (I had put them on reserve before leaving for Israel and they only last for a certain number of days on hold). The book I am currently reading is still Walking the Bible although I have less than 100 pages left. During my break from that book, I read:

I had this book as a child and wanted to re-read it now as an adult to see how much of it I remembered. It was still a great story and just as meaningful as when I was younger. I am glad to have had this in my childhood library. For those who do not know, this book is about a young Dannish girl who helps her Jewish friend and her family find freedom during WWII. I read it in a few hours and reccommend it to anyone with kids.

I had never read Anne Frank and have been meaning to for quite some time. I borrowed this book online and downloaded it to my Nook. It was really interesting to hear about the wartime from the perspective of a young girl going through puberty and trying to become a person in her own right, when she is forced to be in hiding because of who she is as a Jew. She gives a very detailed account of the daily life of her housemates-in-hiding. I had always heard about Anne Frank and knew that she didn't make it through the war, passing away right before liberation, but I never knew exactly what happened to her and the rest of the residents of the Secret Annex. If you are curious, yu should definitely read her diary. I read the Definitive Edition which contains many of her entries that had not been included in previous editions.

A few days before I set off for Israel, an awesome girl that I nannied over summer, Hava, let me borrow a book that she said I "had to read." The book was called The Name of This Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch. It was the first book in a series. It was a very entertaining and interesting read that I am sure anyone who enjoys the Harry Potter series would like. It is written for children as the main audience, but I definitely enjoyed it as well as a "kid" myself-I finished it in less than a day :) Although I say that Harry Potter fans would like this book, I want to point out that it is nothing like the Hogwarts series. Anyway, the first book was so engaging that I decided that I should read the second book in Israel. I borrowed this one, If You're Reading This It's Too Late from the library's online e-books. It was also a great and quick read (I finished it in a half day).

And then I started the third book in the series! I finished this one the day after. This one made me crave chocolate, yum! Now I am waiting to get my hands on the next book in the series...Thanks Hava for letting me borrow that first book :) I will return it to you as soon as I get back to the United States.