Time to set some goals - 2013 Edition

Plain and simple -- This is my public statement of my resolutions for the year. Don't feel obligated to read this one...it is more for me.

Reading
Last year it was 10 books and write more on the blog.  And that was do-able. So I will keep that resolution.  However I want to read at least three classics I have not read before and one book I read in the past but think I should review again as an adult.  I will consult with my English-major-almost-MD sister on the classics.  She most likely still has her collection of books from college.  As for the re-read I am pretty sure I will read The Great Gatsby.

Writing
I want more people to read this blog however I don't want to focus on one topic and sell my soul to the topic for an increase in traffic. So I will just have to write more and be more creative about the ways I talk about issues that are kind of boring.  In this area I also want to have more inbound traffic from fellow bloggers.

For the club, we will created a bad-ass news letter/blog type thing for which we will win many awards and the people will rejoice. 

Running
1,200+ miles for the year. I will PR the Kaiser Half Marathon in February and the Oakland Marathon in March. I will run a 3:45:00 and I will run a negative split marathon.  Extra points if that is one in the same.  I will also beat my 21:22 5K PR in Tulsa.  Because I have become one of "those" people, I want to take on a 50K. This may not happen next year, but I am putting it out there. 

Related Fitness Stuff - I will do planks five times a week and strength train at least twice a week.  Goal weight will be achieved and maintained before I turn 30 (in four weeks).

Life Stuff
Since living in Northern California, Abby and I have yet to go to wine country. This will be fixed this year and in honor of that goal I will drink more wine.   I will watch all of the Frontline episodes on my DVR. I will get back involved with the Jewish community and social justice causes I used to care more about. 

Yup that sums it up.  Here we go 2013. 

The once and future blog post

In four days the year will be over.  Thankfully.

While I have discussed that I am happy the year is coming to an end, it is my duty as a blogger to indulge in the self-indulgent review of my achievements.

Book Report: The Brothers Ashkenazi

I.J. Singer’s The Brothers Ashkenazi is fantastic.  The fictional biography of two brother spans what can only be described as the most important period of modern Jewish life.  As a student of modern Jewish history and a sucker for a good story, this book was a perfect novel to get me excited about reading quality literature.

The characters are developed so completely and the story line weaves expertly in and out of the home town, the book’s main location.  The period aspects of the book come through perfectly and the translation lends itself well to its original Yiddish, or so I suspect based on sentence structure and flow.  It was easy to forget that this was written in the 1930s rather than during the Brothers’ life times or in the present day.

I am not sure if I would have liked this novel as much if I did not have the history background to understand the nuances.  A somewhat expansive understanding of turn of the century Eastern European history and a working knowledge of the Haskalah are almost a pre-requisite to enjoying this book.  Familiarity with Capitalist, Unionist, Socialist, Bundist and Bolshevik political theory also help.   I would like to thank Dr. Hoffman and Professor Biale for the help in this regard.

Now I am sure Zionists will take offense in my saying that this period in Poland is the most interesting and important period in modern Jewish history.  To them I say you are wrong.  Without this period in Germany, Poland, and Russia (East to West, no value) there would be no truly modern Jewish life.  The Jews who pushed off the yoke of ancient restrictions and those who adapted it made it possible for all the other movements and experiences to take place.  Without these events and what came after them, Israel would be nothing more than a dream without will.

I enjoyed every aspect of this book.  Some of the life cycle transitions were a bit short but I believe that makes perfect sense considering Singer’s upbringing and his immigration to the United States.

Read this book. That is all. 

Five Out of Five Stars

Book Report: Beasts of No Nation

Remember that time I was going to read something that was both not depressing and not about Africa.  Oops.

Beasts of no Nation is a powerful and disgusting view into the lives child soldiers. The author, who was born in the U.S. but spent significant amounts of time with his family in Nigeria, opens the door to a world that anyone reading this book will have trouble imagining. This was Iweala's first novel and it reads painfully true.  War is awful and kids should not have to deal with it at this level.

This book is critically acclaimed and deservedly so. Ever so often there would be an allusion or point of clarity that was so beyond our narrator but always within his voice. Without giving too much away I was pleased that the fictitious ending was both true to history at the same time that it provided a glimmer of hope.

Read this book.

5 out of 5 stars.

Book Report: Little Bee

I would love to read a book about Africa that wasn't so damn depressing.  But hey, that isn't going to happen.

This is my second book with significant African themes I have read as part of my new year's resolution.  Not surprisingly, this book also was kind of a downer. However, it was beautiful. It was powerful. And it was thoroughly fiction.

The last book, Running the Rift, while also fiction, seemed more believable, even the end which was lacking in the believable.  Little Bee was a great story and I blew through it, wanting to know what was going to happen next.  However, it just did not have any bit of believability.  I suppose that is why it was fiction.

It also ended abruptly, but it was a perfect ending.

I was very impressed with the female voice that came from this author.  Chris Cleave wrote a wonderful book with powerful characters with deep flaws. I would recommend everyone to read this book.

4.75 out of 5 stars.

Book Report: Zeitoun

There is some really nasty stuff that happens in this country, and Zeitoun is the perfect example of this nasty stuff.

Set in the days leading-up to, during, and the months after Hurricane Katrina, this book follows the lives of the Zeitoun family as they deal with the city they loved under water, the business they built, and the strange after shocks of the Patriot Act.

As with all Eggers' books, this is beautifully written and provides a glimpse of reality that is just so close to unbelievable that it hurts to read.  However, I got home after work yesterday and read 100 pages before I went to workout and finished the next 150 after going to bed.

Abdulrahman Zeitoun (pronounced Zay-toon), a Syrian Muslim living in New Orleans, owned a contracting company, lived a normal life, and seemed to love his wife and kids.  He stayed behind to protect his investment and personal properties in New Orleans after the storm. He saved a few lives along the way.  He also saw things no one in this country should see.

He was wrongfully imprisoned on suspicions of terrorism and it changed him.  He was not extreme but devout according to the book.  This was clear based on his drive to pray regardless of conditions and rejection of pork product when he was feed during his illegal incarceration. But he was also, according to the book, a tolerant man who called a gay married couple close family friends and was honored to restore churches as Houses of God after the storm.

The book chronicles the PTSD that his wife was dealing with but it didn't really jump deeply into Zeitoun's issues.  Which is sad.  Because, as I went looking for a book cover photo today to include in this post I learned that the Zeitouns have divorced due to his violence against his ex-wife.  It is sad.

We could say it is because of the storm, his illegal processing at the hands of Homeland Security, or even, as his wife says in the above linked article, his "adoption of a 'radical' religious philosophy that she emphasized does not reflect true Muslim beliefs."  Anyway you slice it, it is sad.  In some ways I am happy I didn't Google them until after I finished the book. But in truth, his depraved violence against his wife and her sickness post-storm don't take away from the story nor does it change the injustice done.  It just makes me sad.

This book shines light on one of the worst times in Modern American History, so I suppose it was naive to expect the somewhat happy ending that was presented.

5 out 5 stars.

Book Report: Born to Run

If you run and have yet to read this book, you should.  The stories are fantastic, the "characters" are nearly unbelievable, and the writing is journalistic and induces rapid page turning.

I still wear shoes to run.

I do not believe we should toss all our technology in order to get back to the basics.  In Scott Jurek's book he discusses the need to find balance in our embrace of old traditions and the information based technology we can use to learn more about our running.  While it is great that people who have never worn shoes are able to run great distances without modern running shoes, I am not one of those people. 

I do have a few pairs of minimalist shoes and they hurt my feet. However, the form that I have learned by using them makes my stride more efficient and comfortable while I wear my supportive running shoes.  There is much to learn from other people and their heritage, however the fetish of barefoot running is just that.

The Tarahumara wore shoes that they had.  Their existence is hard and most people don't want it.  I have no interest in living in a cave in the Mexican desert. Anyone reading this blog and saying otherwise is either lying or crazy. This not a judgement on their choice to live this way, but it isn't for me.  I can take pieces of their story and change parts of my running...but beyond that I am lost at the drive to ditch our shoes.

Look at all the elite runners. All wear shoes when racing.  Many didn't wear shoes when they are kids...but all wear shoes when adults.  I just can't get my head around it.

All that said, I liked the story and the book was great.

4.75 out of 5 stars. 

(For those keeping count, I made my goal of 10 books in a year. This was one of the best New Year's resolutions I have ever made.)

Book Report: Eat & Run

While I read this in about two days (during the week and having work to do too), this book was not that good.  I suppose reading one of the best memoirs ever written according to some list I read somewhere and then reading this semi-self-help running book didn't set it up for what it could be...but overall I didn't love it.

Scott Jurek's story is an interesting one and one I trust others could learn something from.  However, as he notes, it isn't that special.  He was a kid who had it tough but not that hard (it might have been worse but the book doesn't dive that deep into it) and he had trouble with his marriage that doesn't seem that extraordinary (or it might have been but the book doesn't dive that deep into it) and he worked really hard at becoming the greatest ultra runner of all time but not harder than I think you would have to in order to run more than 100 miles in a day (or he did but the book doesn't dive that deep into it).

I will say that I very much enjoyed the stories of the races and wish he went into more detail (see above) about what he had to do and what made him run like this.  I run marathons and I have to change parts of my life to get by...I believe it would have made the book better to know more about his non-running struggles.

This was also my first "with" book.  I believe after flying through this light read that I could tell when Steve Friedman's hand was heavier than Scott Jurek's dictation.  It wasn't always extremely apparent but it was clear after a while.

A couple of words about vegans.  There is no such thing as a non-militant vegan.  I believe Jurek might come close, but not really.  A vast majority of the recipes in this book seem good, but would be improved with butter.  I will however, try to recover with less animal product now...so in some ways Jurek wins.  In others I had a burger last night and it was good.

Three and half out of five stars.

Book Report: Homage to Catalonia

George Orwell is a bad ass.

That could very much end this report but I cannot leave it there.  I choose to read this book because it was listed on a list of the best memoirs ever written by some person who read a lot of memoirs.  While I am no expert in such things, or any things really, I happen to agree.

The narrative chapters about Orwell's time at the front and his posts during the May fighting in Barcelona were raw and beautiful at the same time.  He pulled no punches and provided an honest view of something I never want to know.

While written in the 1930s, there are a number of parallels to today's economic situation in Europe generally and Spain specifically.

I will say that the chapters about the internal anti-Facist political struggles behind the front were extremely complicated and hard to follow.  I understand that, at the time, they were used to set the record straight (or as straight as they could be set) but they were tough to follow today.

War sucks and this book does nothing to convince you otherwise.  However, it does provide insight into the mind of someone willing to die in the muck to fight against what should not be.  It was clear that Orwell in someways enjoyed the fight and what he was doing, but he didn't pretend that it was something beautiful.  His heroism was beautiful, as was his desire to leave the country.  His dedication to democracy and workers' rights was as inspirational as was his dash to get out of Spain before he was killed or arrested.

4 out of 5 stars.

Book Report: Gentlemen of the Road

I have never read a book for pleasure so quickly.  In less than a week I flew through Chabon's 2007 adventure fiction, Gentlemen of the Road and think I loved every second of it.

The story is fast moving but written in Chabon's typically grand style.  Considering the tempo of the story, the multi-page sentence structure does not work for speed at which the narrative unfolds.  There were a number of places that required me to go back a few pages to make sure I read the storyline correctly...and most times I did not, which took a bit of the fun out of the page turning.

However, other than being well written, this book was great.  An easier read than Chabon's other novels but equally entertaining. I came to Chabon late and read The Yiddish Policemen's Union first, so I came to expect his books to be historically interesting and well-researched. 

Yet after reading the Afterward in my edition of this book, I learned that Chabon didn't write much out of his comfort zone of his own life prior to this book. It seemed effortless to me, but I am sure it was a labor of love and it came across as such in pages of this book. 

I have no need to provide a re-cap or analysis beyond that this was a good choice and I will be picking up The Amazing Aventures of Kavalier & Clay after I read some depressing stuff about the Spanish Civil War.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

Published in a Book

Almost two years ago, I was contacted by a woman who was working on her Master's thesis on 20's and 30's Jewish life in America.  I had written a pretty easy going post on the in-your-face Jewschool blog about joining Shaaray Tefila, my New York congregation, and its young adult program JeTSeT's Shabbat Unplugged and this student was interested in using the post for her work.

Sure, go for it. It would be my honor.  She then asked if she could put it in her book.  I said great! Thanks.  That was December of 2010.

A few weeks ago, I got an email saying that the book was out.  I looked at the cover, recognized a number of friends and "Liked" their links on Facebook but didn't think I was in the book because I didn't remember anything besides the brief interactions in October and December of 2010. 

Today, I thought, I should check to see who else made the final cut for the book.  And I found my name on the contributor's list.  A nice way to start a Monday.

Unplugging Expectations, By Donald C. Cutler

So I am now a published author. 

You may want to buy this book.  So here is the link: Living Jewishly: A Snapshot of Generation.

I have yet to get my copy, and I look forward to reading the other essays, but I got to say I am pretty proud that my essay made it into print.  I have written a lot of this subject and had another blog post (which I think is better) that was published on RJ.org on a very similar topic around the same time. The more we learn about engagement of younger people in the Jewish community, the better we will be in the longer term. And if my point of view will help make our communities and congregations stronger, then I am a very pleased, published author.

No Hair for Flowers

37,965 feet in the air and 971 miles to go on my way to San Francisco where I will be living.

Yeah.

Lots has happened since last I blogged, but I have this funny feeling that I will be hitting this forum up just a bit more over the next few months.

Here is why:

1. I am moving across the country
This is a significant change for me. A few facts to inform this move... I did grow up in California, I did leave as soon as I graduated in a pilgrimage of sorts to the Mecca of all things - New York City. I did said I would be happy living there forever. Then I got all married and my lovely wife said she wouldn't live in New York forever. So yeah. There is that. Now we are moving. (This is a slightly abridged version of reality.)

Granted neither of us were "ready" to leave but I suppose that makes it better; leaving at the top of your game is better than going all Brett Favre. So I am moving.