The annual festival of ‘book week’ has been expanded to book month, and there are real bargains and lots of suggestions as to what to read.  But schools are on strike and the fourth grade kids are reading on second grade level.  So who are going to read the next generation of books?

Me, I’m reading the Alexandria Quartet again.  But I’ve also just read  Doma Mahmoud’s “Cairo Circles,” which reads like a jewish novel, Lucy Atkins,'”Magpie Lane,”  Lisa See, “The Island of Sea Women,”  Pip Williams, “The Dictionary of Lost Words,”  Louise Edrich, “The Night Watchman,” Dara Horn, “Guide for the Perplexed,” (Couldn’t get through “People Love Dead Jews”) and a whole lot of trash.  The book I liked best was Rachel Kadish, “The Weight of Words.” 

I’m still looking for books to distract me from the fact that like the children, I don’t want to learn anything either.