A must read for anyone interested in exploring art, difficult family dynamics, Jewish culture, and the struggle to do what you love in a difficult world.
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
This is a book that asks the big questions of life. It uses cancer as the medium to bring about the masterpiece. The characters are fleshed out and they become real to you. You find yourself dealing with the heartaches and challenges they face alongside them in the story.
The Chosen by Chaim Potok
I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing. But the man who lives that span, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant. Do you understand what I am saying? A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life.
The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry
I have learned over the course of my many years that it is a bad idea, usually, to investigate piteous weeping but always a fine thing to look into a giggle.