Emunah Herzog

SO (!!!) Beauty-Full

Reviewed: 06-12-24

Finished listening last night and said to my husband, "This was one of the most beautiful books I've ever read/listened to." Loved so much about it. The tenderness; the floating between "reality" and "surreality"; the language; the stories within stories; the pacing, both deeply satisfying and still not simply fulfilling my expectation, what I wanted to happen; the insights into/reminders of recovery ("the rooms"); the direct relationship to the current moment in the US & beyond - while also giving historical context(s) in and as story; the exploration of art; the characters (Layla and Z being my favorites); and so much more...
And the narrator! I used to live with an Iranian-Canadian woman, and I was catapulted back to being with her when the voices were the female Iranian characters again and again.
I will return to this book before long and cannot recommend it highly enough.

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Timely and Inspiring!

Reviewed: 03-27-24

So many gems and deeply meaningful teachings in The Amen Effect! Stories and studies, tears and laughter, ancient wisdom made relevant in these precarious times. How to keep one's broken heart open and big enough for joy, along with pragmatic and inspiring recommendations how to make a positive difference in this world. Beautifully written and narrated.
I'm deeply grateful to the Ezra Klein Show for pointing my way to Rabbi Sharon Brous and this book in the wake of October 7th... Highly, highly recommended!! (Also the IKAR podcast.)

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Loved, loved, loved this!!

Reviewed: 12-07-23

Loved, loved, loved this!! The characters are so endearing, and the story so wonderful in all its facets! The narrator nails it! VERY much looking forward to the next in this series! Thank you, Becky Chambers and Em Grosland!

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Kept me up way past my bedtime to finish listening

Reviewed: 11-28-23

Yup, this novel kept me up past midnight in order to finish the last two hours of listening (after having been drawn in from the very beginning a couple of days earlier), and the ending did not disappoint.
There are several remarkable aspects to this novel/audiobook, not in order of importance:
It was both a fun time-travel back into the 80s - I had not thought of my beloved waterbed in a long, long time - and surprisingly fresh, hard to believe the author wrote this story all these decades ago.
It reads like a fictional memoir, which is a common form of narrative these days but was not common at all back then.
The language is beautiful, as is the arc of the story. Feels like the chapters are made up of artful vignettes that, as the novel progresses, flow into each other in an almost dreamy way.
The narrator is excellent! Her voices/inflections bring the poignant prose even more to life. A couple of mispronunciations of the Hebrew in no way diminished my enthusiastic five star rating for the narrator's performance!
Funny at times, deep and nuanced always, the "slice of life" storytelling that is both entertaining and a kind of empathy gym, allowing us insight into how history and culture and a confluence of circumstances create distinct characters - villains and heroes/heroines and unsung folks in between - while deepening our sense of common humanity.
Highly recommended!

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Fun!

Reviewed: 11-10-23

Fun!
Quite a few laugh-out-louds, which was much needed in the current challenging climate in the human family. Once in a while I need to take time out from serious (and/or literary) fiction and get carried away by a somewhat superficial, predictable story. Kept me up way past my bedtime a couple of nights. My favorite character was Lizzy (spelling?), the protagonist's flat mate and best friend.
Well done, Ms. Kinsella!

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Cannot overstate the importance of this book

Reviewed: 11-10-23

I simply cannot overstate the importance of this book. Thank you, Yascha Mounk, for leading the reader through such a comprehensive journey in service of true antiracism and social justice in a way that honors the intentions of well-meaning folks pursuing lofty goals in a misguided and ultimately ineffectual way. Very different from right wing criticism of woke culture, which has always made me bristle.
I too was trapped in the framework of the identity synthesis and have been feeling an intense sense of new possibilities for actual equality since reading this book. I'd bought into a "woke" worldview pretty fully, with cultural appropriation being the one concept that was the most difficult to make sense of in a world that has again and again been made more beautiful through cultural cross pollination. The clarification here is so helpful, and the suggestions how to move forward are so wise, also pointing to the importance of common humanity and how vilifying "the other" is never useful, even when pushing back at the "identity trap."
The one thing I missed was more reference to how industrialized societies--many of them liberal democracies--have led not only to a climate crisis (which to some is still debatable) but to continued, enormous loss of biodiversity and very possibly to the Anthropocene. I would also have loved to have seen more explicit reference to how the Indigenous have been treated on this continent, along with how the Iroquois Confederacy influenced the writing of the US constitution. But I understand that it would likely have gone beyond the scope of this book, and not for a moment did I consider giving this book--including the narrator--any less that five enthusiastic stars.
I've ordered the printed version to review the key takeaways in writing. Beyond words grateful!

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Couldn't stop listening...

Reviewed: 01-26-23

Couldn't stop listening and finished it in less than 24 hours! Inspiring, uplifting, and even funny while recounting the heartbreak and horrors of racism and sexism past and present. Also really interesting for writers, especially fiction writers. I loved Girl, Woman, Other and am now looking forward to reading/listening to more of Bernardine Evaristo's books.

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So grateful for the stories behind the stories

Reviewed: 11-28-22

Beautifully written and read--makes me love and miss Terry Pratchett ever more. Some interesting and heartfelt stories behind the stories. So wonderful to find out how Stephen Briggs entered Terry's life and that they were friends. Stephen remains my favorite narrator of Terry's stories. Thank you, Rob. Well done!!

PS Terry was my my main spiritual teacher and mentor during a recent ordeal --his Tiffany Aching stories were all I listened to (for the third time...) during the first days after open-heart surgery, and then the timing of the release of this biography was perfect. I've also revisited many other favorites since then, currently back to the Bromeliad trilogy (my spouse is listening with me this time around...)

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Even better the second time

Reviewed: 07-21-22

I listened to this some months ago and loved the writing, though I must have been distracted, because I quickly forgot the details. This week we got to stay with friends and met their African Gray. Of course I immediately thought of this book and considered gifting it to our hosts, but decided to listen to it again to make sure I knew what I was giving.
I'm so glad I did! The writing is amazing in true Michael Chabon fashion. The characters and their inner and outer workings (including the parrot's) are deeply moving and poignant. Both tongue-in-cheek, even laugh-out-loud witty humor as well as deep sadness and effects of traumatization that are so central to the human family. The novella strikes me also as a parody of crime and historical fiction. Mildly embarrassed I admit that last time I missed the most important part of the ending and thus had felt squeamish about the book's title.
An enthusiastic five stars all around: the narrator too does a wonderful job with the various voices and the quietness, sensitivity, and the occasional brutality (no more but no less graphic than the average crime novel) in this story.
I just ordered the print version as a belated houseguest gift!

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More than a Romance Novel

Reviewed: 06-25-22

Glad this book came my way. Highly entertaining romance that also deals with deep issues. It was both fun to vicariously live in the world of Hollywood stars and heartbreaking to be confronted with our common human condition. Wonderful writing, a wide cast of characters beyond traditional white-bread-fair, sizzling, funny, plenty of plot twists, topped off with a thoughtful/thought-provoking, and satisfying end. Well done, Ava Wilder, keep up the good work!

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