I did not receive any emails this week from other North Shore Readers, so you’re all stuck with this North Shore Reader. I hope the placement of this column with the obits last week wasn’t an omen. (Wink, wink). My hope for North Shore Reading Round Up is to continue to share what others in the area are reading, because I think sharing what we love about books inspires us to love books even more.
Recently I was inspired by a featured North Shore reader who was re-reading The Lord Is My Shepherd by Harold S. Kushner. It had been a while since I read something that could really feed my soul, so I decided to dive into Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.
It is a book that keeps being mentioned in podcasts I listen to, referred to in other things I’ve read, and in multiple interviews I’ve heard. When I saw a brand-new copy for the low, low price of fifty cents at a garage sale this spring, I nabbed it. What a coincidence that the foreword happened to be by Harold S. Kushner.
Man’s Search for Meaning was first published in 1946, shortly after Frankl was liberated from imprisonment in a series of concentration camps. It has sold millions of copies worldwide and has been translated into more than twenty languages. Its reach says a lot about how often readers turn to it when they need clarity or grounding.
The book is Frankl’s account of surviving Nazi concentration camps and the psychological framework he built from that experience. The first part is narrative. He describes the brutal routines, the stripping away of identity, and the small inner decisions that determined whether a prisoner could hold on to hope. Frankl argues that even in the worst conditions, a person’s freedom lies in choosing their attitude and finding meaning in suffering.
Part 2 shifts into his therapeutic method, logotherapy. Frankl explains that people are driven by a will to meaning, and that despair often comes from feeling life has no purpose. He outlines three ways meaning is found: through work or creation, through love or connection, and through the stance we take toward unavoidable suffering. The writing becomes more abstract because he moves from lived experience to theory, but the core idea is that meaning is discovered through responsibility, service, and the choices we make when life is difficult.
My thoughts on this one were that it was a tough read but an important one. When I read Part 2, I had to read passages more than once to fully grasp them. I am still not certain I do. I am better when there are stories to illustrate the point, and though there are here and there, I found myself working harder to stay with it. It’s one that I will think about for a long time.
After finishing it, I shifted quickly into another adventure story by Richard Morenus, an author I never would have heard of if I hadn’t talked to another North Shore Reading Round Up reader. That conversation led me to Crazy-WhiteMan earlier in June, and now I am working my way through more of his wilderness tales. It reminded me again that the best part of this column is not just the books themselves, but the way one reader’s recommendation can open the door to something entirely new.
Which brings me back to the beginning. North Shore Reading Round Up works best when it reflects what people in our community are reading, discovering, and passing along. If you have a book that moved you, challenged you, surprised you, or simply kept you company, send it my way. Your reading might be the spark for someone else’s next great find. Write to sarahwritesnsj@yahoo.com. You can remain anonymous if you would like.
