Monday, December 19, 2011

Musing Mondays- My Favorite Book to Recommend


This week’s musing asks…
What’s one book you always recommend to just about anyone?


When I'm asked for recommendations for adult reading, the one book I come back to again and again is Ariel Sabar's masterful, moving and wonderful My Father's Paradise. It's not always easy to sell this memoir and biography of an Iraqi Jewish father and son to a non-Jewish audience, but even if you think you're not interested in the subjects of this book, you will love it. You will. Sabar is an accomplished journalist and his writing is fluid, accessible and beautiful. The story is universal, despite the apparent niche audience- it's about immigration, about a family, about parents and children, fathers and sons. It's about a man who turned a disadvantage- being from a backwoods rural area with a language no one else spoke- into the thing that built his life. And it's about another man who grows to appreciate a father whose nerdiness and nonconformity embarrassed him. It's just the most wonderful book.

I've known almost no one who didn't like this book. One woman, a patron at one of the libraries I've worked in, wrote me a letter to express how much she loved it. It's a winner. Read it!

More Musing Monday at Shouldbereading.wordpress.com.

10 comments:

caite said...

I have never read it and I can't say that I might have picked it up, but if you say I will like it, who am I to disagree...

Anonymous said...

Great choice!
Here’s my Musing Mondays post. :)

Jeanne said...

Okay. I would never in a million years pick this kind of book up, except for your recommendation...I love the favorite recommendation. Even if I don't love the book, I learn something about somebody I'm interested in.

Zibilee said...

This was one of the first books that I ever reviewed, and I still remember the pertinent points and how much I loved it. It's a great read, and I am glad that you are recommending it. I will totally second your recommendation!

JC Jones said...

Mine is a similar book. I will have to check your's out.

Sandy Nawrot said...

Well, I will say this. I would never have picked it up. Never. But hearing you say all these things, knowing your high criteria for a good book, I think I'm going to have to read it.

bermudaonion said...

Excellent choice!

Col (Col Reads) said...

I'm embarrassed to say I've never even heard of this title. But I am going to check it out now!

Suzanne said...

It does sound like an interesting book, I don't know why I've not heard of it before. Thanks for the recommendation.

rhonda said...

i have it on my TBr pile moving it to the top.