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her search in community. "I'm really
not interested in solo journeys," she
says. "None of us forms our identity
in isolation."
At age 40, when her quest begins,
she is already very involved in the
Jewish community. But although she
feels committed, she realizes that
there's a great void in her knowledge
and spiritual connection.
She begins to attend synagogue reg-
ularly, studies and tries to infuse her
home with Jewish ritual. Through
much of her story, her husband and
children are not yet convinced.
Her down-to-earth memoir is tem-
pered with humor; the title The Year
Mom Got Religion (Jewish Lights;
$19.95) is a direct quote from her son.
"Humor is a leveler," she says, "a way
of not talking myself too seriously. It's
very Jewish."
Like Rabbi Firestone and Hendler,
Roberta Israeloff is a woman in her
40s when she embarks on her journey.
The only one of this group of writers
to have written previous books, she is
the author of other works of autobio-
graphical nonfiction, including a book
on her psychotherapy.
"The way I figure things out is to
write about them," she says. Israeloff,
who lives in East Northport, Long
Island, frames Kindling the Flames
(Simon & Schuster; $23) in the prepa-
rations for her son's bar mitzvah.
Shifting gracefully back and forth
between the present and stories of her
parents and grandparents and the role
of Judaism in their lives, she explains
her skepticism and then her growing
interest in religion, and how those two
threads coexist.
"I still have no answers," she says.
"I'm more comfortable with my level
of doubt, and it doesn't disqualify me
from conversations." She adds, "There
are a lot of ways in."
Often, identifying a trend signals
its end. But that doesn't seem to be
the case with books like these.
"There's much more to come. No
question," says Jane Roseman, execu-
tive editor at Scribner.
This year, Rabbi Niles Goldstein, a
program officer at the Jewish Life
Network, offers a book with a slightly
different twist. God at the Edge is about
the darker side of spirituality. It's a per-
sonal book, although he asserts it's a
book of self-knowledge, not self-help.
"In today's culture of warm and
fuzzy spirituality, the experiences that
are darker are being ignored but are
vital to the spiritual quest. We can
find God everywhere, even in the
uncomfortable." II

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