Welcome to Gaia! ::

Also try these:

http://www.chabad.org -- Excellent outreach with a Chasidic outlook
http://www.rosenblums.com -- Large Judaica store (spend your money in the Jewish community, not by Amazon!)
http://www.convert.org -- A Conservative rabbi's view on conversion, also contains much information for a Jew who wants to be more Jewishly educated
http://www.jewfaq.org -- An Orthodox man's research, but also sensitive to non-Orthodoxy.

For specific books, I'd suggest reading one or two from the perspective of each major movement, so as to understand a wide variety of opinions on how best to express one's own Judaism. Even if something is more or less traditional than you're really looking for, it will help you zero in on what you truly believe and feel to be important. I liken it to becoming a great writer: You have to learn the laws of the language (grammar, syntax, spelling, punctuation) before you can know when and why to modify them in order to express yourself. With Judaism, I think it helps to know the laws, and live by them for a while at least, before deciding that they're not what you want to do, or that you want to learn to reinterpret them.

ReVisions: Seeing Torah Through A Feminist Lens - Rabbi Elyse Goldstein
To Be A Jewish Woman - Lisa Aiken
The Red Tent - Anita Diamant (fiction, but very well written)
Embracing the Covenant: Converts to Judaism Talk About Why & How - edited by Rabbi Allan L. Berkowitz and Patty Moskovitz
Body & Soul: A Handbook for Kosher Living (call 1-888-GO-KOSHER; I think the suggested donation is about $15)
The Reform Judaism Reader - Meyer & Plaut
The Chosen - Chaim Potok
The Promise - Chaim Potok
Sarah The Priestess - Teubal
Becoming a Jew - Maurice Lamm
A Hedge of Roses - Norman Lamm
To Pray as a Jew - Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin
Settings of Silver: An Introduction to Judaism - Stephen M. Wyler
Life on the Fringes - Haviva Ner-David
Living Judaism - Rabbi Wayne Dosick
Judaism for Dummies - Rabbi Ted Falcon, Ph.D. and David Blatner

And there's one more by Blu Greenberg. I think it's called something like A Guide To Running A Jewish Household.

bit o' halacha getting in your way there. an isha, eved, or katan cannot be yotze for an ish. (in other words, a servant, child, or woman can't, for lack of a better word, include a man in a mitzvah.) a shliach tzibur is a prime example of being yotze for someone else, so a woman connot lead a congregation of men. on shabbos mornings, one cannot eat until having said kiddush. but, since a woman can't be yotze for a man, if a man hears a woman say kiddush, it doesn't count for him.

I'll start by stating that I would never say of a fellow Jew that they weren't a Jew, but there are Jews who really hork me off. Example: Someone who tells a joke which is only funny if you accept as true a negative stereotype about Jews... and then follow it up with, "It's okay if I say that. I'm Jewish! ... Don't be so SENSITIVE, geesh."

You know what? I am sensitive. I hope to heaven I'm sensitive to the feelings of the creatures on this earth. That goes for animals, plants, humans -- whatever. Do I think that plants have the same rights as animals, or that either has the same rights or responsibilities as a human? No, of course not. That said, I don't think that we as humans have the right to waste life in any form. Use, yes. Waste, no.

And I hope to heaven that I'm sensitive to the hurts felt by my fellow human beings. A lot of those hurts are caused by the perpetuation of 'anti' humor: anti-Jewish, anti-nonwhite, anti-nonChristian, anti-any-group. That humor depends on negative stereotypes, and it perpetuates the notions embodied in those stereotypes, even when the joke teller isn't consciously serious about those cultural assumptions. And if you're not somewhat supportive of one of those stereotypes, why make the joke at all?

there's a difference, i think, between those jokes that actually seek to derive humor from a stereotype, and those which are merely comedized insults.

for example: jews are cheap vs the pizza joke

People like that annoy me immensely... stare

Have you heard the talk about Elvis being a jew?

I've heard this, too. Apparently his maternal grandmother was Jewish. However, since she apparently did embrace Christianity, and no one in his lineage embraced or re-embraced Jewish belief or observance before his birth or during his life, he wasn't a Jew himself, nor are his descendants.