Rating: 
Summary: Putting together the puzzle...
Review: Hearing Dubner tell his story is like watching a richly intricate puzzle-picture coming together piece by piece.Dubner's tenacity is incredible, as is the detail with which he has gathered every piece of family lore, putting them together and creating order out of religious chaos. My respect for Dubner is unspeakable -- this is easily the project of a lifetime, and he has taken it on at a young age and accomplished it with an ease which belies its complexity on so many levels. I was pleasantly surprised by his interactions with the late John Cardinal O'Connor. What a great man O'Connor was -- a gift to the religious world, Jewish and Catholic alike. As are all men (and women) who, like Dubner, earnestly strive to create a meaningful religious life for themselves and those around them.
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Summary: Rediscovering Religious Roots
Review: This book was a gift and one of the best gifts that I have ever received! Stephen Dubner's road of discovery was not a simple straight road to Judaism, but one with twists and turns of family history and religious understanding. He posed mamy of the same questions I posed when I began my own inquiry of religious identity. I am an adopted woman, raised a Jew and know now that I will remain one for my lifetime Books like Mr. Dubner's are the light to which we who are struggling with our Jewish identities can turn. What a true blessing this man is to not only his parents, but to those of us allowed to share his plight. Thank you Mr. Dubner!
Rating:
Summary: An Incredible Journey
Review: It has been a very long while since being touched so deeply by a book. As a Jew, I had been asked so often by my children as to what exactly is a Jew, finding specific explanations a most challening task. My responses of tradition, home, and spirit were not enough to satisfy their feelings of being "different" from most of their friends. Stephen Dubner addresses and answers all of those questions. His touching insight that evolves in his discovery, understanding, and eventual embracing of the Jewish faith provides some of the most meaningful explanations I have ever read. His respect and concern for his parents while on his journey, was the most touching of all. I have recommended this book to everyone I know, including my children. Don't overlook the interview with author at the end of the book. It provides some of the best insight of all!
Rating: 
Summary: Good Discussion Book
Review: Our book club of 6 Jewish women read and discussed this book. We found a lot of thought-provoking material here, not the least of which is the question of whether there is such a thing as a Jewish soul versus a Christian soul. The path of discontent and decision that Dubner describes is his parents' lives mirrored my theory that basically two types of people become converts--those raised in a too-fundamentalist household(in whatever religion their parents were), like Dubner's father, and those raised without sufficient religious education to fulfill their spiritual needs like Dubner's mother. Both sorts of people often search for spirituality in a different place than where they were raised. Dubner's personal search is different--though his upbringing was strong, it didn't seem to be fundamentalist. Just internal and perpetual from his early youth. These feelings, so well expressed by Dubner, gave us good subject matter as we followed his trail to Judism.
Rating: 
Summary: Neither turbulent nor soulful
Review: This is an oft-told story told which offers little originality and less insight. The style is dreary and commonplace. I'm not sure why so many people were so moved by this book. May I recommend alternate books like "In this Dark House", "The color of Water" or "Fugitive Pieces" which are all excellent, beautifully written and gripping stories.
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Summary: Am fairly sure I will embrace this book, but first...
Review: I am going to need a Yiddish dictionary! Have only finished the first chapter during my morning commute, and had to scratch my head a few times. I am "Yiddish illiterate." :)
Rating: 
Summary: Return to what?
Review: I found this memoir disappointing. It was not in the least inspirational or fascinating. In fact, I have not given much thought to Dubner's journey. I don't know what the rave was all about, but it was rather dry and boring.
Rating:
Summary: A stunner
Review: I'm neither Jewish nor Catholic, nor all that interested in religion, but a friend told me about this book and I plunged in. It's amazing. Dubner is a great writer: he tells stories with aplomb and grace and humor, and I learned more about human nature from him than in a lot of the philosophy and literature I have read.
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Summary: This book has changed my life
Review: This is, very simply, an amazing book. I am the daughter of a Catholic mother and Jewish Father who for the past 10 years has been searching for some semblance of spirituality in my life. I could have written many of the passages in this book, as they tell so accurately how I feel about my mixed background. On Jesus Christ: "...how shabbily he had treated me, leaving me to trudge between the mountains of belief and disbelief, too uninspired to climb the first, too timid to climb the latter." I had to stop when I read that as it is exactly how I feel! I always thought I was crazy because I feel so almost magnetically pulled toward my Jewish heritage, but now I know it is because I have "curling around somewhere inside me a neshuma, a Jewish soul." According to Jewish halachah (law), I am not Jewish because I am patrilineally descended...but, thank you, Stephen Dubner, for validating my Jewishness and letting me know that it's OK to follow my soul's longing for Judaism no matter what obstacles may stand in my way.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Story of Family, Self and Faith.
Review: Books should make you feel, they should make you look at your life, and the life around you, with a different POV. Stephen Dubner's book does that without preaching, but simply by telling the Dubner family story. Stephen's search for his roots corresponds with his search for self, and in the end he finds both. A wonderful soul-touching story of family, self and faith.
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