There is something about the world of the Orthodox Jews that I just find fascinating.  To me the rules and laws make the religion so difficult to follow yet people continue to do so. This story gives you a very clear picture of how difficult it is to follow all the laws of Judaism and the amazing woman who  make it all happen. The story takes place in a small knit orthodox community in Memphis, that prides itself on all those things a small town has to offer. The women of the Ladies Auxiliary Club make sure of that. They are in charge or everything, holidays, events, schooling, taking care of each others children, watching out for each other, and of course the gossip. This community is so close there are no secrets and if you are not part of the group and following things exactly like they  like things done you are not “one of them”. All is going according to how the women want things to go until one day a new comer joins the neighbor and brings with her new ideas, an openess to new ways and learning, a freshness to how to do things and a free spirit. This sets the community into an uproar to not have things down “their way”.  In some ways they are inspiredby these new ideas and at times are having more fun than they have ever had before but when things start to change they know there is only one person to blame, a widowed mother who converted to become an Orthodox Jew.  I really enjoyed this story and the look into a small town community and all it has to offer. It was so frustrating to see the close-mindedness of these women and mothers and how controlling they tried to be over every aspect of everyone’s lives. On the flip I was inspired by the religious convictions of this young convert.  I really enjoyed this book.

This is the second book I have read by this author. The first one I read was  called “The Outside World” which was also about an Orthodox family and very enjoyable.

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Dragon House is the newest book from one of my favorite authors John Shors. The story takes place in Vietnam and tells the story of Iris and Noah, two Americans on the quest to help get some of Vietnams street children off the streets and into a safe environment, where they can get an education and be children once again. Iris is there to to fulfill her fathers dream of opening the center and Noah is there to try and help himself get  out of the deep abyss of being a wounded war hero and getting his life back together. It is a simple story compared to his other books that are more elaborate but it is a nice story which is quite inspiring.  I have to say at one time during the story I was actually quite moved by the authors words and found myself  literally crying at one of his descriptions and I have to say that rarely ever happens when I am reading.  I enjoyed the book and I recommend it.

I also want to share that this book is not only a good read but  it is also helping street children in real life.  The book has raised enough money to help support over 200 street children in Vietnam so far. If you want to find out more about those children you can visit the website www.dragonhousebook.com Also if you haven’t readit already one of my favorite books of all time is Beneath the Marble Sky by John Shors and it is about  the incredible love story behind the building of the Taj Mahal. I loved it and couldn’t put it down.

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