Review: People of the Book

In People of the Book author Geraldine Brooks provides a compelling historical novel around the very real Sarajevo Haggadah. While there are some aspects of her story I could quibble with, I found it largely to be a pleasure to read listen to. After nearly 14 hours of audio, my first thought when the playback ended was: wow, that was a lot.

Spoilers Below

First off, I give full credit to Brooks for creating a clever story that brings the 650-year lifespan of the haggadah to life. I was expecting we'd be jumping back in time as the main character, Dr. Hanna Heath, worked on restoring the text. Which we did, but Brooks found interesting ways to pull this off that exceeded my expectations.

I was also not expecting a modern connection to the book. And while a bit silly at times (there's a heist!) this brought yet another dimension to the story, which I appreciated.

One message of the Haggadah's story, which one of the characters in the book directly voices, is the never-ending battle between acceptance and rejection of minorities. Brooks brings the reader face to face with moments throughout history when Jews go from feeling safe and included to being tormented and decimated. Even with my knowledge of Jewish events, I found Brooks' storytelling to reveal new aspects of our tragic and miraculous history.

The section on the Inquisition, for example, was so vivid and heartbreaking that I wanted to abandon the book altogether. Though, I knew this was exactly the wrong thing to do, and I'm glad I persevered.

At times, the book did test my ability to suspend disbelief. Take the Ruti storyline. Am I really supposed to believe that a young lady on the run from the Inquisition, with no resources, can bring a traumatically born baby to a new life in a new country? And yet, the moment that Ruti converts the infant to be a Jew is a powerful one, and so sure, I guess I'm onboard with this storyline.

Or how about the moment in the vault where the improvised red light reveals the name of the book's illustrator? I mean, really?

I suppose this is a fundamental challenge in historical fiction: the author can conjure up any story they wish and it's up to readers to buy it or not. I guess I'm more of a romantic than I'd like to admit.

The other potentially troubling aspect of the text is how nearly every character in the text is packing a heap of flaws. In the Venetian scenes, Father Vistorini is an alcoholic and Rabbi Aryeh has a gambling problem. Nearly all the characters are having sex with people they shouldn't be. And then there's the main character, Hanna, who's carrying around her own baggage.

Are these faults simply there to move the story along? Are they designed to humanize the characters and make the story better fit reality? In this case, I fear it's me, not Brooks that has the problem. I suppose I want a simpler story, where the bad people behave badly and the good people are model citizens.

I'm still not entirely sure what to make of Hanna and her mother's story. Other than to say that Hanna's behavior strikes me as logically following her upbringing. She's acting like a person with insecure attachment, and which makes sense, as her mother crafted a daughter with insecure attachment. So I may not love all of Dr. Heath's actions, but they fit within the world Brooks has established. And that world, like ours, is filled with people who carry the scars of trauma with them.

My only true criticism of the audiobook is that it does not include the afterword that the print version appears to offer. I'm guessing that the afterword sheds some light on what was truth and what was fiction in the story, which would have been highly appreciated. I'm guessing this is the publisher's, not author's sin.

As I've let this story gel for the last few days, I've found that I've enjoyed it more and more. Does Brooks get a bit dramatic in her telling? Sure, but a 600-year-old text that by all accounts should not exist is worth getting dramatic over.

A Bissle Torah

I would be remiss if I didn't tack on this story that occurred while I was listening to People of the Book. For context, I've been leigning at shul on a regular basis. This means that I've been chanting parts of the Torah at services and doing so from a traditional scroll that lacks vowels, punctuation and musical notation. It's tricky business, to say the least.

My strategy for success has been to focus on understanding the text in as much depth as possible. With understanding, the words and tune are much more predictable.

In the sofer's storyline, Brooks spends time explaining to the reader the different ways David Ben Shoushan's children relate to the Torah. For Shoushan's son, Reuben, the connection is technical. He's training as a scribe, so it's all about getting the letter forms and spacing correct. For his daughter, Ruti, it's a connection based on meaning, so her emphasis is on exploration and insight.

To elucidate Ruti's perspective, Brooks offers a specific example. Out of the entire Torah, she selects Exodus 25:8 as her prooftext. In English, the verse reads as follows:

And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.

Pause here and imagine me listening to this section of the book. Not only am I vibing with Ruti on the value of appreciating every word and every letter, but the example that Brooks selected is one that I chanted just a few days earlier. What are the odds that I'd be poring over this same text?

But wait, it gets better.

Brooks' point is best appreciated by looking at the Hebrew of this verse, which is:

ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם

The insight Brooks offers is all about the last letter in the verse. Hebrew is read from right to left, so the letter we're looking at is that squarish final mem: ם.

Because the last word is בתוכם it means "in them." Had the last letter been a ו, the verse would have been translated as "in it."

The Torah is telling us that the newly minted Jewish people were commanded to build a holy space so that G-d could dwell in them, the people. Not, as one might expect, so G-d could dwell in it, the building. The former being a far more sophisticated approach to holy spaces than the latter. What a profound distinction, and all powered by a single letter.

I'd totally missed the elegance of this one letter distinction until Brooks brought it to my attention.

Perhaps I need to cut Brooks some slack in the believability department. After all, who would believe that out of a Torah full of interesting verses, she would both select one that I'd studied days before and teach me a valuable insight that I'd missed.

Maui Adventure - Day 4 - Hula and Stilts

[Composed 1/4/2026]

On our way from the Kapalua Tidepools to the aquarium we stopped by our hotel for a potty break. Leaving the hotel, we passed by a hula show in the lobby that was already in progress.

The family friendly event pulled us in, and I found myself thoroughly engrossed in the show. Unlike the the 3 hour extravaganza the hotel hosts in the evening, this show featured adults and kids from local clubs. It was a mix of storytelling, music and dance. Sure, it was a bit corny, but something about it was equally wholesome and entertaining.

Ultimately, the pull of the aquarium and other activities we had for the day got the best of us and we left the show early. But kudos to the Westin for high quality, free entertainment like this.

On our way to the aquarium, we stopped at the Keālia Pond National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge has both a main area as well as coastal boardwalk. Seeing the boardwalk first, we stopped there.

The boardwalk is relatively short, just about .3 miles long. And for most of it, there wasn't a ton to see. I was just about to call the short trail a bust when we came upon a small pool. There, we came upon an Ae`o, a Hawaiian stilt bird just chilling. These birds are both endemic to Hawaii and on the endangered species list. Unlike their hyperactive cousins in Hosmer Grove, they're glad to stand still while you snap pictures of them. This, combined with the mirror effect offered by the water, makes them especially photogenic. Coming up on this guy totally made the boardwalk a worthwhile destination.

From the boardwalk I was able to see the main refuge in the distance. From this vantage point, there were quite a few black specks in the ponds. Looking with my binoculars, it appeared that there were tens, if not hundreds of Ae`o in the ponds there. We didn't have time to explore the main refuge, but my guess is that it would have offered quite a few more specimens for us to watch.

Still, the short boardwalk did the job nicely.

Nearby the Ae`o, enjoying the same water feature, we came across this guy:

I do believe he's a wandering tattler, or ʻŪlili. If so, what he lacks in snazzy plumage, he makes up for in mad skillz.

This relatively small bird has Alaska(!) as its breeding ground. That means it commutes some 2,800 miles between its winter and summer home. Not only is it covering this massive distance, but it shows incredible navigational skills by opting to return to the same location year after year. Finding a 50 mile wide spec of land among 2,800 miles of land-markless ocean is all but an impossible task. And yet, it completes it without giving it a second thought. Staggering.

And if that weren't enough, Wandering Tattlers like to mess with traditional gender roles: moms make the babies, but leave the nests before the dads, leaving the dads to raise the little ones. What's next? Are you going to tell me that the dads stop and ask directions on their migration? Yeah, never going to happen.

Maui Adventure - Day 4 - Kapalua Tidepools

[Composed 1/4/2026]

I was psyched to learn over breakfast that we were a mere 15 minute drive to the Kapalua Tidepools. While we had plans to hit up the aquarium and other sites today, I couldn't resist starting our day with a detour to the North.

I have a special affinity for tidepools, as in the past, I've found them to be little wonderlands. The idea is that as the tide recedes, it leaves behind small pools teeming with marine life.

Accessing the area around the Kapalua Tidepools was straightforward. At a couple of points, I feared we were entering resort or private property, but that never happened. We found public parking and a well marked path that took us down to the cliffs, ocean and tidepools.

As tide pools go, the area was a bust. Perhaps we caught it at the wrong part of the day, or season. We found some small pools, but they were empty.

What the area lacked in marine life, it more than made up for in unique geology and views. The area is the result of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object, that is, a lava flow meeting the ocean. Between the unique rock formations and the pounding sea, the scene was stunning.

From what I can tell, this unique shaped rock is known as dragon's teeth. That's when hot lava met wind and waves, and was shaped into sharp, upward formations.

I'm not sure what made these patterns in the rock. But it's a cool effect, nonetheless.

The lava flow also gave Shira and me the perfect opportunity to recreate this photo which we captured some 25 years ago:

Hawaiian lava: check. Goofy hat: check. Belt pouch: check. Smoking hot wife: check. I'd say the important stuff has remained unchanged.

Pro tip: we couldn't tell if Kapalua Tidepools would be best explored wearing beach or hiking footwear. Definitely, hiking. I had on flimsy sneakers and Shira had on flip flops, and while we made do, we should have been wearing our trail runners. The area may butt up to the water, but it's the farthest thing from beach-like.

Overall: the Kapalua Tidepools are a hit. This is a quintessentially Hawai'ian landscape and a joy to explore.

Creatures Of Note

This guy here is a Brown Anole:

Alas, he's an unwelcome invader to the islands.

These guys here are common mynas:

They're also unwanted guests, but unlike the Anole, they were invited here. They were introduced in the 1860s to control, among other pests, armyworms in sugarcane fields. In 1885, they were hailed as heroes:

No more useful bird has ever been introduced into this country. Where they are numerous, they have all but exterminated the army worm which, before their introduction, destroyed pasture and good cattle feed every year of greater value than all the ducks and chickens in the Kingdom. Let the mynahs be protected, despite their pugnacity and occasional mischief. They are the friends of graziers and market gardeners.

34 years in, these heroes were now considered a self-inflicted plague:

The lantana was introduced into this country from tropical America in the year 1858, and the mynah bird in the year 1860. The one might not have proved so great a curse without the other, but the two combined have already rendered almost worthless thousands of acres of pasture land, and if some prompt, vigorous methods are not adopted by the next Legislature and enforced to the strict letter of the law for the extermination of these two great evils, the day is not far distant when there will be no pasture land in the Islands upon which to raise either horses or cattle.

To this day, they remain on the list of the top 100 invasive species in the world. They're one of only a few birds to make the list.