Week 8: Assignment 3 and 4--Nonfiction Recommendations

Week 8: Assignment 3--Choose 4 Nonfiction Genre

I chose Faith (296.833 F), Biography (B), History(940.5318 O) and Travel (910T).

Faith:  Unorthodox: the scandalous rejection of my Hasidic roots by Deborah Feldman.

Biography: Claudette Colvin: twice toward justice by Phillip M. Hoose.

History: Gertruda's Oath: a child, a promise, and  heroic escape during World War II by Ram Oren.

Travel: Sex Lives of Cannibals: adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by J. Maarten Troost.


Week 8: Assignment 4--Nonfiction Book Talk

Unorthodox: the scandalous rejection of my Hasidic roots by Deborah Feldman gives the reader an inside look into the very private life of the Hasidic Jew. As she recounts her life experiences Feldman reveals many of the restrictions and rules placed on the Hasidic Jew by religious tradition. These rules include everything from dress codes, food preparation, permissible reading materials, and dating, to bathing rituals and even the timing/approval of sexual relations with a spouse. Over the years Feldman questions the validity and/or necessity of some of these traditions but it isn't until the birth of her son (when she's 19) that she realizes she can no longer accept all of these rules and doesn't want her son brought up under all of these restrictions. The book chronicles her efforts to make a new life for herself outside these religious bonds.

While not the most literary of books Unorthodox is very informative and definitely holds the reader's interest. Since there are very few books on these religious traditions that are available to the general public it offers insight to the "outsider" and helps educate us to a strong cultural difference.

Fiction titles that could be recommended for further insight into the Orthodox religion are Hush by Aishes Chayil and I Am Forbidden: a novel by Anouk Markovitz.




Claudette Colvin: twice toward justice by Phillip M. Hoose is actually catalogued as a children's biography with a recommended readership for grades 7-12.  As an adult, I found it thoroughly appropriate for me, too.  Claudette Colvin was a 15-year-old African American living in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. When she got on a public bus and refused to give up her seat she was arrested. This all occurred before the famous incident with Rosa Parks. Hoose tells Colvin's story and how she was not selected to be the representative of the famous civil rights bus boycott because of her age and sometimes explosive personality. Hoose follows her life and court case as it affected and was affected by the civil rights movement. Using photographs and newspaper articles as sidebars to supplement his writing, Hoose does an excellent job of bringing to the forefront an "unsung hero" of that time and giving her credit for the part she played in history. Young adults and adults alike will find this book an informative, interesting and well-written "goodread".