My list of 20 recommended Jewish books

One question adults ask when they want to learn about Judaism is what books they should read.

It's not as simple a question as it might seem. There are thousands upon thousands of Jewish books. The question they're asking is which ones they should start with.

The first criterion for most is that the books have to be in English, precisely because these people are beginning their adult Jewish learning. 

The second is that the books have to be good: they have to be authentic, accurate, and readable.

And the third is that they have to be for sophisticated adult readers who just happen to be at the early or even beginner stages of their Jewish learning.

These three reasons make the question of what Jewish books to start with not simple at all. And so I put together my own list of recommended Jewish books - 20 of them, a nice even number, as it turns out - that all meet the three criteria above. 

Is this list exhaustive? Of course not. Is it a solid list of Jewish books from a variety of authors and viewpoints that offer adult readers a good introduction to Judaism and to Jewish learning? Totally.