Join us for Speed Reading Book Club, a book discussion inspired by both special exhibitions and artworks in the Speed’s permanent collection! You can find copies of all the Book Club books in the Museum Store.

Speed Reading Book Club is free with admission and will be in person.

December 20, 10:30 am – 12:00 pm

Book: My Father’s Paradise: A Son’s Search for His Family’s Past by Ariel Sabar

Exhibition: Otherworldly Journeys – The Fantastical Worlds of Bosch and Bruegel

(October 17, 2025 – February 1, 2026)

In a remote corner of the world, forgotten for nearly three thousand years, lived an enclave of Kurdish Jews so isolated that they still spoke Aramaic, the language of Jesus. Mostly illiterate, they were self-made mystics and gifted storytellers and humble peddlers who dwelt in harmony with their Muslim and Christian neighbors in the mountains of northern Iraq. To these descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel, Yona Sabar was born.

Yona’s son Ariel grew up in Los Angeles, where Yona had become an esteemed professor, dedicating his career to preserving his people’s traditions. Ariel wanted nothing to do with his father’s strange immigrant heritage—until he had a son of his own. Ariel Sabar brings to life the ancient town of Zakho, discovering his family’s place in the sweeping saga of Middle-Eastern history. This powerful book is an improbable story of tolerance and hope set in what today is the very center of the world’s attention.