David: the Divided Heart / David Wolpe 153 pp.

Part of Yale University Press' Jewish Lives Series, this is a slim biography of David, Israel's great king. It's dry reading, considering the material the author had to work with.  David's story (or stories, as there are many) are some of the most dramatic in scripture: he slays Goliath, commits adultery and murder to have Bathsheba, and endures the death of his son Absalom when that son's rebellion is crushed.  Still, Wolpe sticks to a frustratingly straightforward unspooling of the texts, saving the more reflective material for a too-brief concluding chapter.  A worthwhile starting point for further reading, but not much more.