Diary of the Fall

Jewish Book Council Diary of the Fall Michel Laub; Margaret Jull Costa, trans. Other Press, 2014. 240 pp. US$20.00 A cruel schoolboy prank leaves the only Catholic boy in an elite Jewish school in Porto Alegre terribly injured. Years later, one of his classmates revisits that episode, trying to come to terms with the choices he made then and his present demons. Diary of the Fall is the story of three generations: a man's struggle for forgiveness; a father with Alzheimer's, for whom recording every memory has become an obsession; and a grandfather who survived Auschwitz, filling notebook after notebook with the false memories of someone desperate to forget.

With Heart in Mind: Mussar Teachings to Transform Your Life Alan Morinis Trumpeter, 2014. 192 pp. US$17.95 Mussar draws from the vast storehouse of Jewish wisdom, law, revelation, and text and brings it right home in a way that is completely practical. Judaism teaches that Torah (the collective wisdom of the tradition) provides the blueprint for human experience - and so the more of it we acquire, the more we gain a clearer, truer perspective on life and learn how to navigate its pathways. The phrase "acquiring Torah" is code for the process of internalizing this wisdom to bring about a genuine transformation of the inner self. In short chapters, this book describes forty-eight methods through which we can acquire Torah - and turns them into a straightforward practice. These methods include cultivating humility, joy, awe, goodheartedness, closeness with friends, not taking credit for oneself, judging others favorably, and so on. The fruits of working through each quality or method are a refined soul and a strong and open heart.