Reflection on A History of American Law by Lawrence Friedman

            This book was excellent, and I would recommend it to other law students. I read it during the winter break of my first year in law school and I recognized many concepts from my Torts, Property, and Civil Procedure courses that I took last semester. I am sure that I also read plenty of pages covering topics that will come up in my next semester. The book is thorough and well-written. People who saw me reading it assumed that from the name and topic that it would be dry, but this was actually an extremely engaging book.

            On the subject matter, the book goes chronologically through American history, starting in colonial times. But it flies quickly through the twentieth century. The main focus is definitely pre-20^th century, especially the post-revolutionary period through the nineteenth century. All in all, this was an excellent read.

Reflection on Crash Course: If You Want to Gt Away with Murder Buy a Car

 This is an interesting book and a good topic to read about- the excess of car-related injuries and deaths. However, the author's polemic tone is a little frustrating and it feels like a very negative book that offers more criticism than problem-solving.

Reflection on The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien

              This is a great book and I loved re-reading it. The Hobbit is just really special and has such a warm feeling to it. Tolkien’s writing is much more for children in this book than the more adult-level Lord of the Rings. There are talking animals and lots of assurances from Tolkien that things will turn out alright. It has the feel of a grandpa telling stories to his children. Anyway, this is a five star book that everyone should read at least once.

Reflection on How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

              This was a great book that was extremely well written. Kendi takes the reader through his life’s story and in each chapter he also covers an important aspect of racism and how it intersects with other issues. The most important lesson of the book is that it is not enough to be non-racist; we should all be anti-racists. Non-racists are complicit in racism, but anti-racists make change. I didn’t really take a lot of notes on this book unfortunately but I would highly recommend.

Reflection on Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain

              I was watching one of Anthony’s Bourdain’s shows (I think the Travel Channel one) a few days back when I started looking him up and came across this book he wrote in 2000. It is an awesome memoir of his life working in kitchens across America and is a very interesting and entertaining book for any fan of Bourdain’s and anyone interested in professional cooking.

              Bourdain says that a good cook is marked by reliability, which means always showing up and having integrity. These lessons are very applicable to everyone’s life. However, in the culinary world it goes to extremes- kitchen staff are expected to show up sick and take tons of verbal, physical, and sexual harassment. It is sad to see that the people in this industry treat each other so badly. But that said, Bourdain’s book is full of life lessons and you’ll learn a lot about how things really work in the hearts of the nice restaurants you go to for birthdays and anniversaries.

Reflection on Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life by Brian Grazer

              I didn’t love this book, but it was a nice, easy read. While I didn’t learn much about curiosity besides the fact that it’s good to be curious, Grazer peppers the book full of interesting anecdotes about being a Hollywood producer.

Reflection on The Sabbath: Its Meaning for the Modern Man by Abraham Joshua Heschel

              I was looking for a book on spirituality in Judaism or theology and I really loved this short book that I found and finished today. The Sabbath is all about the seventh day of the week and what it means and how best to observe it. Heschel is an excellent writer and I plan to read more of his works. He can be confusing to read at times, but that’s really because his work can get really dense with meaning. I found the first third of the book especially interesting an the middle third not as interesting.

              In the prologue, Heschel is very concerned with the contrast between space and time. He claims that many people equate reality with “thinghood,” focusing on space and objects, but that Judaism is a religion of time. Consider native American religions that have sacred mountains and rivers and other sites against Judaism, which has sacred days like the Sabbath and the high holy days. Heschel sums it up by saying that “Judaism is a religion of time aiming at the sanctification of time.” In fact, the first holy object was not an object in space but a day—the Sabbath— “And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.” This is why in Judaism there are fixed times but no fixed place of prayer that is holy by itself.

              Heschel moves on to discuss how to observe the Sabbath and one important thing is that it is not a means to an end. The Sabbath is a day of rest, but not in the sense of resting from exercise so that the body can heal and be stronger. Rather, it is a rest for rest’s sake. Heschel says that “Labor is a craft, but perfect rest is an art… The seventh day is a palace in time which we build.” The Sabbath is given by God to us and we are not given to the Sabbath, so Heschel implores us to take advantage of that day and enjoy it because it is an example of the reward given to the worshippers of God. You shouldn’t even get angry on the Sabbath. He goes on to say that the likeness of God is not found, therefore, in any image, and though we may think of God as all-present in space, that’s not really it either. Rather, God’s likeness is found in the Sabbath and “our keeping of the Sabbath day is a paraphrase of His sanctification of the seventh day.”

              Another really important concept in the book is the qualitative difference between different moments in time. It is unfortunate that for many people time is just a “measuring device rather than a realm in which we abide,” meaning that people just use time to say that something was before or after another thing. Yet, says Heschel, “everyone will admit that the Grand Canyon is more awe-inspiring than a trench. Everyone knows the difference between a worm and an eagle. But how many of us have a similar sense of discretion for the diversity of time?”

              This quick read is excellent reading for any Jewish person and really any student of philosophy. It was very thought-provoking for me and I would highly recommend to others.