Daughters of Abraham Book Clubs

While trying to track down the extent of this phenomenon(just how many Daughters of Abraham Book Clubs --or similar groups---are there in this country?), I decided I'd post one of the gems I found on the internet exploring... A Reading List! I haven't read all the books mentioned on the list, so I only edited the list to include only ones I could personally vouch for. The list if far from perfect, but I thought it was a good start.

Readers: Do you have suggestions to add to such a list? Any knowledge of a "Daughters of Abraham" group in your area? Please share...

Jewish:

NUMBER OUR DAYS by Barbara Myerhoff. A study of aging through a portrait of elderly Jews in Venice, California. Describes ethical Jewish culture through the lives of this mostly immigrant community.

AS A DRIVEN LEAF by Milton Steinberg. Historical fiction based on Judea in the time of the Roman occupation. Examines the tension between religious life and secular high culture.

THE RED TENT by Anita Diamant. A retelling of the life of the biblical character Dinah through her childhood, short marriage, and adulthood.

AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE GARDEN OF EDEN by Yossi Klein Halevi. Jewish Israeli journalist spends time getting to know and worshipping with Muslims and Christians.

TALES OF THE HASIDIM by Martin Buber. Martin Buber has assembled and translated a comprehensive two-volume set of stories from the early and late Hasidic masters. Organized by master, with historic introduction and reference material.

JOY COMES IN THE MORNING by Jonathan Rosen. Contemporary American tale of a woman rabbi who falls in love with a secular Jewish man. Issues of faith, ethics, creating a Jewish home, observance of rituals, and the balance of public, rabbinic and family life.

A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS by Amos Oz. Covers the history of modern Israel from the vantage point of a participant.

HOLY DAYS by Lis Harris. A secular Jewish writer spends a year with a Brooklyn Hasidic family.

THE CHOSEN by Chaim Potok. Fiction about a relationship between two Jewish boys, one secular and one Orthodox, set in New York in the 1940s and '50s.


Christian:

CLOISTER WALK by Kathleen Norris. A married Protestant Christian woman spends two nine-month periods living with a celibate society of Benedictine monks. She discusses the life of having one's days lived in an environment of frequent, scheduled prayer and one's year marked by the saint days as well as other festivals. She also discusses celibacy and women's history through the stories of the saints and the life stories of the nuns and monks she gets to know.

TRAVELING MERCIES by Anne Lamott. Memoir of finding faith and trying to live it.

LYING AWAKE by Mark Salzman. Fiction about a nun/mystic who faces serious illness and difficult decisions.

THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS by C.S. Lewis. Senior devil advises his apprentice on how to corrupt the soul of a hapless young man. A good view of Christian ideas of evil and temptation. (also SURPRISED BY JOY by C.S. Lewis)

THINGS SEEN AND UNSEEN by Nora Gallagher. Liturgical year as seen by a woman who returned to faith as an adult Christian in the Episcopal tradition.

GILEAD by Marilynne Robinson. This novel in the form of a letter to a son from his minister-father covers the time of the American Civil War and the generations beyond.

THE HEART OF CHRISTIANITY by Marcus Borg. A discussion of the emerging paradigm of Christianity and how this way of embracing the faith works.

Muslim:

BORDER PASSAGE by Leila Ahmed. Egyptian woman's memoir of growing up in an Egyptian/Turkish family in the 1950s, going to college in England, and understanding the complex identity of Egyptian women in her time.

EVEN ANGELS ASK by Jeffrey Lang. Memoir of finding faith and trying to live it.


THE HADJ by Michael Wolfe. American convert to Islam visits Morocco and goes on the Hadj.

POEMS OF ARAB ANDALUSIA. Amazing thirteenth-century poetry.

THE STORYTELLER'S DAUGHTER by Saira Shah. European-raised Muslim journalist has the opportunity to visit her Afghani homeland while covering the beginning of war years there.

ISLAM: THE STRAIGHT PATH by John Esposito. Thorough review of Islam. More historical and philosophical than it is social or practical.

STANDING ALONE AT MECCA by Asra Q. Nomani. Memoir of an American-born Muslim woman who had been a foreign journalist and a friend of the late Daniel Pearl. She returns to America unmarried with her son, joins her family on Hadj, and defies the right-wing swing at her local mosque.

ISLAM IN AMERICA, a video produced by Lindsay Miller (Christian Science Publishing Society). Demonstrates the Five Pillars of the faith through interviews with American Muslims. At the same time, the history of Muslim communities in America is shown.

Multifaith:

THE WORLD'S RELIGIONS by Huston Smith. We read the chapters on the three Abrahamic faiths to establish a common background from which to begin our dialogue.

ORNAMENT OF THE WORLD: HOW MUSLIMS, JEWS AND CHRISTIANS CREATED A CULTURE OF TOLERANCE IN MEDIEVAL SPAIN by Maria Rosa Menocal. Tells of a time and place (from 786 to 1492 in Andalusia, Spain) that is largely and unjustly overshadowed in most historical chronicles. It was a time when the three cultures -- Judaic, Islamic and Christian -- forged a relatively stable, though occasionally contentious, coexistence.

DAUGHTERS OF ABRAHAM: FEMINIST THOUGHT IN JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM edited by Yvonne Yazback Haddad and John Esposito

ABRAHAM: A JOURNEY TO THE HEART OF THREE FAITHS by Bruce Feiler. A review of the biblical and historical Abraham.

A HISTORY OF GOD by Karen Armstrong. A comprehensive history of religious thought from Abraham to the present.

COMMON PRAYERS by Harvey Cox. About an interfaith Jewish/Christian marriage. Written through the eyes of a well-informed Christian husband who celebrates the Jewish liturgical year with his Jewish wife and child.

THE LEMON TREe;AN ARAB,A JEW AND THE HEART OF THE MIDDLE EAST by Sandy Tolan. A good introduction to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict through a compelling personal story.