LITERACY IS LIFE

LITERACY IS LIFE

Literacy is most commonly described as the ability to read and write and it is un-questionably my life’s blood. For me, reading is breath. Not to be too dramatic but honestly, reading gives me a reason for being and serves as a refuge from the chaos in my mind. I am a voracious reader who usually has two or three books going at once. Because books and stories have always been my window into the world, and because I am an innate storyteller, writing book reviews is a favorite hobby.

I am honored to be a member of NetGalley, a website that allows professional bibliophiles (librarians mostly) to request, read, and recommend advanced, digital review copies before they are published (ARCs.) NetGalley claims reviews and feedback are essential to publishers, authors, and other readers and that is why I am going to start sharing some of my book reviews right here.

First up is a look at the book The Orchard by David Hopen,

NetGalley Review by: Melani E, Librarian

My Recommendation  ***** (5 stars out of a possible 5 stars)

This book slayed me and stayed with me long after I put it down.  A commanding debut and a poignant coming-of-age story about a devout Jewish high school student whose plunge into the secularized world threatens everything he knows of himself.

Ari Eden’s life has always been governed by strict rules. In ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn, his days are dedicated to intense study and religious rituals, and adolescence feels profoundly lonely. So when his family announces that they are moving to a glitzy Miami suburb, Ari seizes his unexpected chance for reinvention.

Enrolling in an opulent Jewish academy, Ari is stunned by his peers’ dizzying wealth, ambition, and shameless pursuit of life’s pleasures. When the academy’s golden boy, Noah, takes Ari under his wing, Ari finds himself entangled in the school’s most exclusive and wayward group. These friends are magnetic and defiant—especially Evan, the brooding genius of the bunch, still living in the shadow of his mother’s death.

Influenced by their charismatic rabbi, the group begins testing their religion in unconventional ways. Soon Ari and his friends are pushing moral boundaries and careening toward a perilous future, one in which the traditions of faith are repurposed to a mysterious, tragic end.

Mesmerizing and playful, heartrending and darkly romantic, The Orchard probes the conflicting forces that determine who we become: the heady relationships of youth, the allure of greatness, the doctrines we inherit, and our concealed desires. 

One of the best books I’ve read during the pandemic(!) 

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.