Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.36 AVERAGE
3.36 AVERAGE
I was hoping to learn about basic tenants of Jewish belief, but this book began by speaking about the holocaust, and then comparing it to Christianity, as if the reader is Christian. Fine information, but not a good introduction to a religious practice and I’m not the target audience.
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Started reading this book because I was briefly dating someone who is Jewish and it occurred to me that despite having several Jewish friends, I really hadn't taken the time to learn much about the religion (I suspect because the athiest in me doesn't really care about religion all that much). Nevertheless, it was a good quick read to get the very very basics (and a little time was wasted with too much comparison to Christianity).
other than the section on Israel, this was super helpful!
Good as an introduction if you don't know anything about Judaism. Anyway, it provides interesting facts and data.
fast-paced
Very surface level, and somewhat Christian centred, but I suppose that is the expectation in a “very short introduction”
The factual and historical bits of this book were really interesting but you could defiantly tell the authors biases on certain topics.
informative
slow-paced
informative
reflective
fast-paced
The pieces of this book are better than the sum of its parts.
My main complaint is with the order of the book's sections. Before you can learn anything about Judaism's beliefs or traditions, you have to sit through about a dozen different mini-biographies about different Jewish historical figures. The section is really confusing for an introduction, since almost no context has been discussed yet. It's like giving an introduction to Catholicism, and starting with detailed biographies of all the 14th century popes. Like, sure, they're probably important, but not as important as establishing the subject's necessary basics. I don't know why Soloman's editor let him do this.
The other sections were fine, and much more fitting for an introduction. Some of the parts about Israel are outdated, but that's to be expected for a book published 30 years ago.
In the end, I'm lukewarm.
My main complaint is with the order of the book's sections. Before you can learn anything about Judaism's beliefs or traditions, you have to sit through about a dozen different mini-biographies about different Jewish historical figures. The section is really confusing for an introduction, since almost no context has been discussed yet. It's like giving an introduction to Catholicism, and starting with detailed biographies of all the 14th century popes. Like, sure, they're probably important, but not as important as establishing the subject's necessary basics. I don't know why Soloman's editor let him do this.
The other sections were fine, and much more fitting for an introduction. Some of the parts about Israel are outdated, but that's to be expected for a book published 30 years ago.
In the end, I'm lukewarm.