The Jewish American paradox Embracing choice in a changing world

THE JEWISH AMERICAN PARADOX: Embracing Choice in a Changing World, by Robert Mnookin. (PublicAffairs, $28.) Mnookin, a Harvard law professor, delivers a methodical, legal brief of a book arguing that for American Judaism to survive it will need to become much more inclusive. THE CHOSEN WARS: How Judaism Became an American Religion, by Steven R. Weisman. (Simon & Schuster, $30.) American Judaism underwent a radical shift in the 19th century, adapting its rituals and its theology alike for an open, modern society. Weisman offers a thorough and fascinating history of these decades, which gave birth to the liberal branches of Judaism and allowed Jews to feel at home and thrive in America. NEWCOMER, by Keigo Higashino. Translated by Giles Murray. (Minotaur, $27.99.) A hyper-observant Tokyo detective solves a vexing puzzle: Who killed a lady who lived alone and had no enemies? HEAVY: An American Memoir, by Kiese Laymon. (Scribner, $26.) This searching account of a 1980s Mississippi boyhood is addressed to the author's mother, a brilliant, demanding and volatile single parent. Laymon candidly probes racism, obesity and sexual violence, but what lingers is his complex portrait of maternal love. THE FERAL DETECTIVE, by Jonathan Lethem. (Ecco/ HarperCollins, $26.99.) A young woman unmoored by the 2016 election embarks on a bizarre adventure in the California desert involving rival gangs, a missing teenager and the feral detective of the title, a private eye with Brillo sideburns. CHURCHILL: Walking With Destiny, by Andrew Roberts. (Viking, $40.) Churchill's extraordinary life was filled with triumph and disaster, adulation and contempt; the task for any historian is to strike a proper balance. Roberts's expansive narrative includes all the necessary details about the man he calls an indispensable figure. It is the best single-volume biography yet written. ACCESSORY TO WAR: The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military, by Neil deGrasse Tyson and Avis Lang. (Norton, $30.) Tyson, the celebrity astrophysicist, has co-written a serious and thought-provoking book about how the imperatives of war have pushed space exploration forward over the centuries. BEST OF ENEMIES: The Last Great Spy Story of the Cold War, by Gus Russo and Eric Dezenhall. (Twelve, $28.) A C.I.A. agent forms an unlikely friendship with his counterpart in the K.G.B., putting both men in danger. SCRIBE, by Alyson Hagy. (Graywolf, paper, $16.) Set in the wilds of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains in a future America ravaged by civil war, this incantatory novel draws on Appalachian folk tales to fashion a sensuous allegory about the power of storytelling. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books

"I am not an identity essentialist": A Harvard Law School professor carefully examines what it means to be Jewish in modern America.Was Erik Erikson a Jew? His mother was Jewish, and so, by the standards of Torah, he was. Yet, notes Mnookin (Bargaining with the Devil: When to Negotiate, When to Fight, 2010, etc.), he pretty much renounced Judaism, raising his children as Protestants and taking a Christian name. So does that make himwell, not a Jew? By the author's reckoning, yes, for identity is self-constructed as much as imposed from outside, and in America, at least in theory, one is what one wishes to be. In that, writes Mnookin, American Jews are different from Jews elsewhere, as they are in much else. For instance, the distinctions American Jews make among Orthodox, Reform, and Conservative elements are largely meaningless in Israel, while intermarriage and children who practice elements of both Judaism and Christianitycelebrating both Hanukkah and Christmas, sayare frequent in the U.S. Given the lack of religiosity among American Jews and this large dispersal outside the faith, to say nothing of considerable disagreement in the American community about the policies of the Israeli government, can Judaism qua Judaism still flourish here? Mnookin offers qualified answers while providing helpful guidelines on such matters as raising interfaith childrenit's best, for instance, not to suppress religious differences between the parents, especially during periods of stress such as the funeral of a family member or the December holidays. "These are not ideal moments to be dealing with unresolved conflicts about how you and your spouse are raising your children religiously," he wisely notes. As for the future, the author argues that the greatest danger to American Judaism is not intermarriage but "disengagement," a condition for which he suggests remedies to forge connections of religious, cultural, and personal identity.A wide-ranging, wise, and liberal perspectiveperhaps enough so to excite controversy. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.