Summer Readings # 1

This summer I was tasked with reading four mandatory books to prepare for my Honors English class. Those four were : The Chosen, Bless Me Ulitma, King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, and Mythology. These four are not books i would pick up on a daily basis as I have found myslef preferring more childish books or fantasy novels. I have found though reading these four that not only is picking up a book that you would not normaly read agreat thing to do, but that it can challange you to think outside of your normal capasity.

The first of these books that I picked up was The Chosen by Chaim Potok. The book focuses on the life of a boy named Rueven. Rueven, a young Orthadox Jew living with his father in Booklyn, is not your typical teenager as the book is set during the horrific period of World War II and the years that foloowed. Rueven meets a boy named Danny Suanders who is a young genious and the son of a Tazzadick or Hazzick Rabi who is a link to god in the eyes of his followers. Danny and Reuven should have never met had it not been for the Baseball match they played against eachother.  Though a series of events, the two become unlikely friends and learn about each others lives and family bonds.

 The story is one of friendship and loyalty in a time of great suffering. It makes you think about the ties we share with our family and the places we are assigned by those who have raised us. The Chosen shows how religion can seperate or bind us together and how things beyond our capacity to understand or accept whether it be gennocide or silence, tradition or the path we chose to follow, all have results we could never imagine.

Overall,  The Chosen was a phenominal book in my opionion. For me, it was a tale of learning to accept someone diffrent than you. It was a story of a changing world and the lives of people living at that time. One reason I liked The Chosen was that it made me think about religion and human nature. Those are both things that as humans in a busy modern society we don't often devote time to considering. Part of the book deals with these topics and how humans can be fast in there diversity of opion whether it is how to connect to God or how to raise a child.

While reading The Chosen, I came across may Jewish terms that I did not have a clear understanding of. My suggestion is that google and the dictioary be your guides. Do take th etime to look up terms you may not know, it will make the book much more powerful and easier to understand. As a Jew myslef, even I had trouble understanding some of the slight diffrences in the terms.