by Erin Sheely Tolman
ages: adult (though it’s perfectly suitable for younger readers)
First sentence: “On August 22, 2000, I departed Salt Lake City, Utah with 175 other college age students to travel to the Brigham Young University Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies located on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, Israel.”
Review copy sent by the author.

I’ve never been to Jerusalem. Actually, to be completely honest, I’ve never really had much desire to go to Jerusalem. I’m just not a Middle Eastern, desert kind of gal. Even so, I do think, on some level, that religiously at least I ought to want to go to Jerusalem. Walk where Jesus walked and all that.

As such, I never expressed much interest in BYU’s Jerusalem Center while I was at BYU. I knew people who went — most notably Hubby’s older sister and younger brother — but I kind of thought, well, it’s there. That’s nice.

After reading Erin’s book, I think I’d like to visit; it sounds like being in Jerusalem (and at the BYU center) is a singular experience.

This book chronicles her time in Israel, from her classes in the center, to her wanderings around the city itself, to some of the field trips scheduled by the professors. It also happens that she was in Jerusalem in September of 2000, when the Second Infintada — the war between Israel and Palestine (though it seems like they are always at war) — began. I expected more about her feelings and experiences being there at that time, and I was a bit disappointed with what seemed to be just a travelogue (though I did enjoy seeing Jerusalem through her eyes). Erin did get more into her thoughts and feelings (and those of her family watching the news at home) near the end of the book. I also thought it was a nice touch to add her feelings as her husband left for Afghanistan three years later; it brought the story full circle. The book is best, though, when Erin writes down her observations and thoughts about the city and the sights she is seeing; it can be very evocative, almost poetic at times. My only real regret is that we didn’t get to see any of the photographs she so often talks about.

As a spiritual book, I wasn’t terribly touched (but that may just have been me; I’m a hard soul to move…), though I appreciated that Erin was trying to share her testimony about Jesus and the places he was with others. I just wasn’t able to connect on that level.

That said, it’s a worthy reflection on her time in Jerusalem, an interesting memoir of her time in an interseting place. And worth reading.