Tonight we light the 5th candle. Here’s the question: what five books have been influential or made a difference in your life? If you want, you can also include movies that make you laugh or cry. 
Here are mine (it was very difficult to only choose five):
Torah– especially the stories in Genesis & the wisdom gained from wrestling with the imperfect people who are my ancestors. My favorite commentary is The Torah, A Women’s Commentary by my teacher Rabbis Tamara Eskenazi & Andrea Weiss. It is the first ever commentary written exclusively by women scholars and rabbis (brag – I co-wrote a brief piece.)
The Big Lebowski – This movie never fails to make me laugh out loud. Especially the parts where John Goodman talks about “not rolling on Shabbes.”
Invisible Lines of Connection – this delightful and deep by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner weaves spiritual principles into everyday life stories.
The Golden Notebook – I read this book by Doris Lessing in college, and it became my entry into feminism. I think I still have it because it reminds me of those days, learning about empowerment. I can’t remember the content of the book.
This Is Real & You Are Completely Unprepared – The way Rabbi Alan Lew z’’l tells the story of the High Holy Days with an eye toward mindfulness and seeing below the surface always blows me away.
What about you? I’d love to hear.
Travels with Charlie made me daydream about taking off with my dog and having time with the people we met along the way.
Mans Search for Meaning spoke to me about the resilience of the human spirit.
The War of Art is something I re-read fairly often (when my creative butt needs a swift boot)
Making Love with the Light by John Daido Loori (zen priest and photographer) — partly because it’s brilliant and beautiful, partly because it is one of the first gifts my husband gave me.
Secretariat for so many reasons but I,lol stick with the lessons in courage
And if you ask me tomorrow? Probably a different list entirely.
Happy Chanukka.
Andrea I love your list! Man’s Search for Meaning should have been one of my five too. I will check out the Making Love with the Light book – sounds so perfect for this time, this year. Finding the light in the darkness. Thank you so much for sharing this with me. RJ
The Bible for the guidance, support, and challenge to follow the teachings of Jesus and strive to live an authentic life, The Complete Works of Shakespeare for the wit, language and poetry, the bone people by Keri Hulme because it speaks to me of places I know and love, challenges me to think about the complexity of relationships and because my cousins helped get it published, Ngā Pikituroa o Ngāi Tahu because it tells the stories of my people. It is a regular re-read because I always find something I hadn’t noticed before and anything by Dorothy L Sayers who, to me, is far superior to Agatha Christie.