Yes, we’re still reading – five or six a night – so forgive my lameness in not picking out the best and sharing them with you. This selection, however, finally succeeded in pulling me out of my lethargy.
You Never Know: A Legend of the Lamed-Vavniks by Francine Prose may sound overwhelming, but it’s not. It’s actually quite simple. (Prose is an accomplished writer (in all genres, it seems)  and critic whose first published novel, Household Saints remains a favorite and whose Reading Like a Writer is really excellent. She also cuts an thoroughly intimidating, high-artsy, black-clad figure in person. I spent two weeks at a writer’s conference on a mountain in Tennessee avoiding her, just because she rather terrified me. Lucky me, the day I ended up at a lunch table with Russell Banks, which was bad enough, but with her, too. Fortunately it was her husband (also black-clad and artsy, him being an painter and all) who actually sat next to me, and I wasn’t quite so intimidated…)
Anyway.
This book is wonderful – it’s of the angels among us genre, rooted in a Jewish legend. Take it away, PW capsule:

Jewish tradition inspires this original tale about Schmuel the shoemaker, called Poor Stupid Schmuel by the townsfolk of Plotchnik because of his habit of forgetting to charge his customers. When a 40-day (and 40-night) drought threatens the town, the rabbi and other worthies pray for rain, but only when Schmuel prays does rain indeed fall. The rain continues for another 40 days and nights; once again, only Schmuel’s prayers restore balance. A dream shows the rabbi that Schmuel is one of the 36 righteous men who, according to legend, are born to every generation (lamed-vav is Hebrew for 36). But when the townspeople go to Schmuel’s shop, he has disappeared: a Lamed-vavnik’s identity must remain secret.

So, of course….you never know.