Below are the first lines of the 6 books I finished reading in December, of which 2 fiction, 3 non-fiction and 1 Bible book. 1,358 pages.
Books in which disabilities portrayed: none or one, considering how you count a genetic condition causing lack of growth to limbs.
Book 1
I love Christmas. When I was a child, I sang Christmas carols in the public schools in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, and to this day, in the car, or in the shower, or sometimes in the hallways of Vanderbilt Divinity School.
Book 2
Disaster Reaches the Very Gates
Y-hw-h’s message that came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah*, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
Book 3
A Good Friend Is Like A Hill
Driving to the office in her battered white van, down the Tlokweng Road, past the stand of whispering gum trees, Mma Ramotswe, founder and owner of the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, allowed her mind to wander.
Book 4
1968
On a sticky August evening two weeks before her due date, Ashima Ganguli stands in the kitchen of a Central Square apartment, combining Rice Krispies and Planters peanuts and chopped red onion in a bowl.
Book 5
I was born on June 24, 1946, ten days after the birth of Donald John Trump, twelve days before the birth of George Walker Bush, and fifty-six days before the birth of William Jefferson Blythe III, whose name was later changed to Bill Clinton.
Book 6
Prologue: We Need A New Story
The Talmud poses a question: If you steal from a Jew who dies with no living relatives, how do you pay back the money? It then dismisses the premise: No Jew is without relatives.
The titles and authors revealed:
Book 1
Light of the World: A Beginner’s Guide to Advent
By Amy-Jill Levine
139 pages • first pub 2019
I really like Dr Levine’s style and substance. This book is a good and short introduction to some themes of the Advent season. The quote shows the remarkable nature of Dr Levine’s scholarship: she is a practicing Jewish scholar of the New Testament, and shows great appreciation for her subject matter. I read it for discussion at church.
Book 2
Micah - The Bible
23 pages. Date of completion: Late 8th Century BCE to early 5th Century BCE.
I read this short book of the Bible via Dr Goldingay’s translation and his commentary in Daniel and the Twelve Prophets for Everyone By John Goldingay.
Goldingay’s translation is often clunky, but it is good to stretch the mind and read unfamiliar translations of familiar scripture.
Some of the accusations by this prophet apply today, just as much as they did thousands of years ago. The Lord Y-hw-h has it out for the people, because they have rebelled, been faithless, and tried to rely on themselves, and basically have done evil. The Lord threatens to come down to earth and cause destruction. Then the language flips into promises of restoration and healing. And it goes back and forth for all 7 chapters. Some of the language is the same as in Isaiah, e.g. beating “spears into pruning hooks”. In my experience nobody talks about pruning hooks except biblical prophets.
Book 3
Precious and Grace (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #17)
By Alexander McCall Smith
227 pages • first pub 2016
fiction mystery
Just what I needed for this frantic time of year. The focus is on forgiveness, also a message I needed right now. Bonus: includes plenty of tea drinking. I will note that this book was written before the current era of utter madness.
Book 4
The Namesake
By Jhumpa Lahiri
336 pages • first pub 2003
fiction contemporary literary
This book (and movie) was mentioned at a public discussion event. It’s the story of a family of immigrants from India to the US. It was okay, but I am not sure why it didn’t strike a chord for me. I thought the writing was very good, but about half-way through I tired of the main character. There is a fascinating exploration of how people are named, and the consequences. The notion of having a name for public use and a completely different name for use within the family is not unheard of in American culture, but it has added significance in the culture of the immigrants in the book.
Book 5
Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America
By Robert B. Reich
461 pages. first pub 2025
nonfiction economics memoir politics
I appreciate Reich’s point of view on policy issues, and even more than that, his sincerity on those issues, so I appreciated this book going into it. This memoir adds his personal history, which informs those policy stances. The world is better off because we have Robert Reich in it, and I am better off having read his memoir.
I don’t know why Storygraph says this is 416 pages. It was 461 pages in my kindle version, without the notes, 506 with notes.
Book 6
Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning
By Peter Beinart
172 pages • first pub 2025
nonfiction politics religion
Oof. A tough but important read. I read it for book club, and am looking forward to the discussion.
And now some fun quotes from Micah, to finish out the year (Goldingay’s translation):
Hey, you people planning wickedness, doing evil on their beds.
At morning light they do it, because it’s in the power of their hand.
They covet fields and steal them– houses, and take them.
They defraud a man of his house, a person of his own possession.
Therefore Y-hw-h has said this: Here I am, against this family I’m planning evil that you won’t free your neck from. You won’t walk tall, because it will be a time of evil.
- Micah 2:1-3 (The members of that family seem to be walking tall right now, but…)
They’re people who repudiate good and give themselves to evil,
Who tear the skin from on my people, their flesh from on their bones, who eat my people’s flesh and strip off their skin, and break up their bones, who cut them up as in a pan, like meat inside a pot.
- Micah 3:2-3 (This is one up on “they’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats.”)
They’ll sit, each person under his vine and under his fig tree, with no one disturbing.
- Micah 4:4 (Hooray for some positive vibes from Micah!)
He has told you, people, what’s good, what Y-hw-h seeks from you:
Rather, implementing decisions and giving yourself to commitment,
And being diffident in how you walk with your God.
- Micah 6:8
“Diffident” means modest or shy.
Goldingay interprets: what God is interested in is simple; God wants two things.
1. “Make decisions in a way that expresses giving of yourselves to commitment.” Exercise authority in a way that emphasises commitment of people to one another.
2. “Diffidence in the way people walk with” God. The Hebrew word for “diffident” is rare but suggests the opposite of arrogance.
Shall I forget the faithless household,
The faithless storehouses,
The accursed short measure?
Shall I be innocent with faithless scales, with a bag of false weights? –
Whose rich people are full of violence,
Whose residents speak falsehood,
And their tongue is deceit in their mouths?
- Micah 6:9-12 (A lot of the Bible talks about economic justice, which is often ignored by American Christians)
The committed person has perished from the country,
There’s no one upright among the people.
All of them lie in wait for blood;
One person hunts his brother with a net.
Both hands are on evil, to do it well:
The official asking, and the leader, with a reward.
- Micah 7:2-3 (In other words, bribery and grift are the prevailing winds.)
Happy Random Passage of Time Holiday!
