FALL 2005 RECOMMENDED JEWISH BOOKS

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FALL 2005 BOOK READINGS

Sep 11, 2005: 9/11 Interfaith Memorial Service, NY Jewish Healing Center, Stephen Wise Free Synagogue 7PM
Sep 13-25, 2005: 2005 NY Jewish Music and Heritage Fesrival, NYC. See OyHoo.com
Sep 14, 2005: NOVEL JEWS - Richard Stern reads from ALMONDS TO ZHOOF and Daniel Stolar reads from THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. KGB Bar 7:00
Sep 14, 2005: BRUCE FEILER reads from WHERE GOD WAS BORN, B&N Lincoln Center NYC 7:00
Sep 15, 2005: BRUCE FEILER reads from WHERE GOD WAS BORN, The Temple, 1589 Peachtree St., NE, Atlanta, GA 7:30pm
Sep 17, 2005: BRUCE FEILER reads from WHERE GOD WAS BORN, B&N Savannah GA 2:00
Sep 19, 2005: Heeb Presents a Jewish Music Awards program. Musee Jewish Heritage, NYC
Sep 20, 2005: JENNIFER WEINER reads from GOODNIGHT NOBODY, B&N Lincoln Center NYC 7:00
Sep 20, 2005: BRUCE FEILER reads from WHERE GOD WAS BORN, Quail Ridge Books RALEIGH NC 7:30pm
Sep 21, 2005: PEARL ABRAHAM reads from THE SEVENTH BEGGAR, B&N GV NYC 7:30
Sep 21, 2005: ROBERT PINSKY reads from THE LIFE OF DAVID, B&N Union Sq NYC 7:00
Sep 22, 2005: LAURIE GUNST reads from OFF-WHITE, Library of Virginia, Richmond, VA 12 Noon
Sep 22, 2005: Njop.org Finals for the National Great Shofar Blast Off
Sep 25, 2005: JewzaPalooza. NYC Riverside Park. See OyHoo.com. 11AM - 9PM
Sep 26, 2005: BRUCE FEILER reads from WHERE GOD WAS BORN, Borders in Framingham MA, 7pm
Sep 28, 2005: MYLA GOLDBERG reads from WICKETT's REMEDY, B&N Astor NYC 7:00
Sep 28, 2005: BRUCE FEILER reads from WHERE GOD WAS BORN, Politics and Prose, DC, 7pm
Sep 28, 2005: PHILIP ROTH. A retrospective at the Museum of Jewish Heritage NYC. With David Remnick, Judith Thurman, Ed RothStein, and ROSS MILLER. 7PM

Oct 02, 2005: BRUCE FEILER reads from WHERE GOD WAS BORN, Bryant Park, NYC, NYT Great Reads
Oct 10, 2005: DAVID RAKOFF reads from DON'T GET TOO COMFORTABLE, B&N Chelsea NYC 7:00
Oct 17, 2005: JOSHUA BRAFF reads from THE UNTHINKABLE THOUGHTS OF JACOB GREEN, B&N GV NYC 7:30
Oct 18, 2005: JENNIFER WEINER reads from GOODNIGHT NOBODY, B&N San Mateo Hillsdale 7:00
Oct 18, 2005: JOSHUA BRAFF reads from THE UNTHINKABLE THOUGHTS OF... , B&N Menlo Park NJ 7:00
Oct 19, 2005: JENNIFER WEINER reads from GOODNIGHT NOBODY, B&N Santa Monica 7:30
Oct 19, 2005: MICHAEL CHABON hosts Selected Shorts. Symphony Space, NYC 6:30
Oct 25, 2005. AARON HAMBURGER reads from his novel FAITH FOR BEGINNERS. B&N NYC Chelsea.
Oct 26, 2005. JACK KLUGMAN reads from TONY AND ME. B&N Scottsdale AZ.
Oct 27, 2005: A private View of Highlights from the New York Sale of Important Hebrew Manuscripts from the Salman Schocken Collection . Christie's, 8 King Street, St James London SW1. 6:30 PM
Oct 28, 2005: Opening at the Brooklyn Museum of TREE OF PARADISE. Jewish Mosaics from the Roman Period. To June 4, 2006
Oct 28-31, 2005: ReJewVenation Conference in Toronto. The Future of Jewish Culture. See rejewvenation2005.com

Nov 01, 2005. JIMMY CARTER, former U.S. President reads from his new book. B&N NYC Union Square.
Nov 01, 2005. Premier of Bee Season, the film, NYC at Makor.
Nov 02, 2005: Writer's Beit Midrash with Daniel Septimus, featuring Melvin Jules Bukiet, Johanna Kaplan, and Binnie Kirschenbaum. Nov 2-Dec 21, Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning, NYC
Nov 03, 2005. Premier of Go For Zucker, the film, NYC at Makor.
Nov 04, 2005. JAMES SIEGEL reads from DETOUR, a novel. B&N Carle Place LI NY.
Nov 06, 2005. Jews and Medicine. Symposium. YIVO, NYC
Nov 08, 2005. TAB HUNTER reads from his memoirs. B&N Danbury CT.
Nov 09, 2005: NOVEL JEWS - Henry Roth Tribute. KGB Bar 7:00
Nov 10, 2005. ELIE WIESEL at the 92nd St Y, NYC 8pm.
Nov 12-14, 2005: Jewish LA-Then and Now. UCLA
Nov 13-17, 2005. NY Arab American Comedy Festival, NYC.
Nov 14, 2005: SUAD AMIRY reads from SHARON AND MY MOTEHR IN LAW. Columbia University. 12:30 PM
Nov 15, 2005: CHRISTIE's Auction in NYC of Important Hebrew Manuscripts 10 AM
Nov 11-14, 2005: CHRISTIE's Viewing of Important Hebrew Manuscripts 10-5
Nov 16, 2005. Jason Alexander, Leonard Nimoy and Kyra Sedgwick discuss WHAT BEING JEWISH MEANS TO ME. 92nd St Y, NYC.
Nov 17, 2005. ROCHELLE KRICH reads from NOW YOU SE ME. B&N Encino.
Nov 17-19, 2005. The Comedy Festival, Las Vagas.
Nov 18, 2005. JACK KLUGMAN reads from TONY AND ME. B&N NYC Dallas.
Nov 19, 2005. Doing Likewise. Conference on mimicry at NYU. Free. Featuring Oliver Sacks, Ricky Jay, Anne Hollander, Jonathan Miller and others.
Nov 20, 2005: Omer Bartov on the Last Jews of Buczacz. UCLA Faculty Club (LA)
Nov 20, 2005: 92nd St Y, NYC, Seminar for Children's Books Authors
Nov 21, 2005: ROGER BENNETT etc read from BAR MITZVAH DISCO. B&N 82nd Bway NYC 7PM
Nov 22, 2005: Leon Wieseltier (KADDISH) speaks on Messianism at NYU Law School. 6:30
Nov 27-29, 2005. Sothebys Auction House NYC. Important Judaica and Books. Preview.
Nov 28-12/2, 2005. Conference on Humanism and the Rabbinic Tradition in Italy and Beyond. CJH, NYC. PrimoLeviCenter.org
Nov 30, 2005. MACK FRIEDMAN reads from SETTING THE LAWN ON FIRE. B&N NYC Chelsea.
Nov 30, 2005: Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks speaks in Virtue, KJ NYC 8PM
November 2005: National Adoption Day. Nationaladoptionday.org

Dec 07, 2005: Freeing The Captive. The Jewish Response to Human Trafficking. HUC NYC 6:30
Dec 07, 2005: NAOMI ROSENBLATT reads from AFTER THE APPLE. B&N Rockville MD
Dec 09, 2005: Abigail Pogrebin reads from STARS OF DAVID. B&N Skokie IL
Dec 14, 2005: NOVEL JEWS - DARA HORN reads from THE WORLD TO COME and AVIVA KUSHNER reads from FOR A PLACE IN THE NEXT WORLD. KGB Bar 7:00
Dec 25-30: KLEZKAMP. Check LivingTraditions.ORG They best Winter camp, featuring top musicians and chef Anne Rosenzweig, and authors Henry Sapoznick and Michael Wex.
Jan 05, 2006: Abigail Pogrebin reads from STARS OF DAVID. B&N NYC 82nd Bway
Jan 15, 2006: Jewish Writers Conferences, Sinai Temple, Los Angeles, wioth Ayelet Waldman and her man, Michael Chabon, Adam Langer, Josh Braff, Dara Horn and Jonathan Rosen
Jan 16, 2006: Elliot Perlman reads from REASONS I WON'T BE COMING. B&N NYC Linc Sq.
Jan 20, 2006: SchmoozeDance 2006 Film Festival. Park City UTAH. Temple Har Shalom
Jan 21, 2006: KidzDance 2006 Children's Film Festival, Park City, UT.

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SEPTEMBER 2005

WHERE GOD WAS BORN
A JOURNEY BY LAND TO THE ROOTS OF RELIGION
by BRUCE FEILER
William Morrow (September 2005)
Bruce Feiler is the Indiana Jones of Biblical locations or assumed locations. He travels through Iraw, Iran, Israel, and the Middle East. The reader gets to visit places incluiding Eden (Nassariya?), Babylon, Ur, and David's Jerusalem. While the NYT review criticized Feiler for not being politically correct (he dares to open the book with a helicopter trip over Jerusalem and the West Bank with Yoram "Yaya" Yair, one of Israel's most decorated generals), for being too pro-Israel and too pro-US policy in Iraq, I personally did not feel that way while reading the book.


FYI: Two years ago, I happened to see the Nineveh tablets at the British Museum right before Yom Kippur, and this year, coincidentally, I made it to page 154 on the eve of Yom Kippur. How fitting. Since in this portion of the book, Feiler gets to Nineveh and the story of Jonah, Yonah, Yunus, the exact story of exile, professional responsibility, whining more over a plant than 120,000 people, that God is willing to accept the repentance of a illiterate population in a city that historically destroyed Israel, and the repentance of an entire city that is read on the afternoon of Yom Kippur. I asked Feiler if, when he was in Nineveh, whether he saw a gourd or giant shade plant. No, he didn't.
Where God Was Born combines the adventure of a wartime chronicle, the excitement of an archaeological detective story, and the insight of personal spiritual exploration. Taking readers to biblical sites not seen by Westerners for decades, Feiler's journey uncovers little-known details about the common roots of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and affirms the importance of the Bible in today's world. In his intimate, accessible style, Feiler invites readers on a never-in-a-lifetime experience: In Israel, Feiler takes a perilous helicopter dive over Jerusalem, treks through secret underground tunnels, and locates the spot where David toppled Goliath; In Iraq, after being airlifted into Baghdad, Feiler visits the Garden of Eden and the birthplace of Abraham, and makes a life-threatening trip to the rivers of Babylon; in Iran, Feiler explores the home of the Bible's first messiah and uncovers the secret burial place of Queen Esther. In Where God Was Born, Feiler discovers that at the birth of Western religion, all faiths drew from one another and were open to coexistence. Feiler's bold realization is that the Bible argues for interfaith harmony. It cannot be ceded to one side in the debate over values. Feiler urges moderates to take back the Bible and use its powerful voice as a beacon of shared ideals. Bruce Feiler has written a brave, uplifting story that stirs the deepest chords of our time. Where God Was Born offers a rare, universal vision of God that can inspire different faiths to an allegiance of hope.
From Publishers Weekly: The third of Feiler's books on the Bible and the Middle East, this is another absorbing blend of travelogue, history, Bible commentary, memoir, current events and passionate preaching. In Walking the Bible (2001), Feiler surveyed the Torah. This sequel picks up with Joshua, first of the prophetic books, and follows Israel's story through the Hebrew scriptures: from the invasion of Canaan through the reigns of David and Solomon to the Babylonian captivity and the Diaspora. What differentiates Feiler from most other Bible commentators is that he actually visits the places he describes, despite Palestinian suicide bombers, Iraqi insurgents, Iranian fundamentalists and his very worried family back home. Readers will almost effortlessly learn a lot about antiquity-thanks again to his travel companion, archeologist Avner Goren-and also about recent history, today's headlines and Feiler's own spiritual journey. Enlarging on his vision of unity in Abraham (2002), he contends that the Bible's moral vision transcends land, power and nationality. "The only force strong enough to take on religious extremism," he concludes, "is religious moderation." For Feiler, now ready to affirm his Jewishness, this means "willingly asserting your faith in public, not with raging fire but with a single, quiet flame." Click the book cover above to read more.






BORN TO KVETCH
Yiddish Language and Culture in All Its Moods
by Michael Wex
September 2005. St martins press
From Publishers Weekly: Fortunately, despite its title and cover photo, this is not a kitschy book about a folksy language spoken by quaint, elderly Jews. It is, rather, an earthy romp through the lingua franca of Jews, which has roots reaching back to the Hebrew Bible and which continues to thrive in 21st-century America. Canadian professor, translator and performer Wex has an academic's breadth of knowledge, and while he doesn't ignore your bubbe's tsimmes, he gives equal time to the semantic nuances of putz, schmuck, shlong and shvants. Wex organizes his material around broad, idiosyncratic categories, but like the authors of the Talmud (the source for a large number of Yiddish idioms), he strays irrepressibly beyond the confines of any given topic. His lively wit roams freely, and Rabbi Akiva and Sholem Aleichem collide happily with Chaucer, Elvis and Robert Petrie. Academics, and others, will be disappointed at the lack of source notes, and a few errors have crept in (the fifth day of Sukkot is not Hoshana Rabba, for instance). Overall, however, this treasure trove of linguistics, sociology, history and folklore offers a fascinating look at how, through the centuries, a unique and enduring language has reflected an equally unique and enduring culture. Click the book cover above to read more.
Excerpt from Chapter Six: You Should Grow Like An Onion: THE YIDDISH CURSE: "You should own a thousand houses... with a thousand rooms in each house... and a thousand beds in every room. And you should sleep each night in a different bed... in a different room... in a different house... and get up every morning... and go down a different staircase... and get into a different car... driven by a different chauffeur... who should drive you to a different doctor -- and he shouldn't know what's wrong with you, either." Think of it as a kvetch with a mission, a bellyache that knows where it's going; it's a classic example of the klole, the Yiddish curse. It might be formulaic--you have to wonder if it's subtlety or an oversight that every room in every house seems to be a bedroom--but it shows how much you care. This kind of elaborate curse--delivered in a Talmudic sing-song--isn't an imprecation, it's a pastime, a form of recreation that lets standard Yiddish thought and speech run wild
http://hometown.aol.ca/myveksl/wex/page3.html






THE FIRST DESIRE
by NANCY REISMAN
Anchor (Summer 2005)
Now in paperback. 1929. Buffalo, New York. A beautiful July day, the kind one waits for through the long, cold winters. Sadie Feldstein, née Cohen, looks out her window at the unexpected sight of her brother, Irving. His news is even more unexpected, and unsettling: their elder sister, Goldie, has vanished without a trace. With Goldie's disappearance as the catalyst, The First Desire takes us deep into the life of the Cohen family and an American city, from the Great Depression to the years immediately following World War II. The story of the Cohens is seamlessly told from the various perspectives of siblings Sadie, Jo, Goldie, and Irving-each of whose worlds is upended over the course of the novel, the smooth veneer of their lives giving way to the vulnerabilities and secrets they've managed to keep hidden-and through the eyes of Lillian, the beautiful woman their father, Abe, took as a lover as his wife was dying. But while Abe's affair with Lillian stuns his children, they are even more shocked by his cold anger in the wake of Goldie's disappearance. The First Desire is a book of great emotional power that brings to life the weave of love, grief, tradition, and desire that binds a family together, even through the tumultuous times that threaten to tear it apart. Click the book cover above to read more.








You Are SO Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah!
by Fiona Rosenbloom
Hyperion (September 7, 2005)
Stacy Friedman is getting ready for one of the most important events of her young life­ -- her bat mitzvah! All she wants is the perfect BCBG dress to wear, her friends by her side, and her biggest crush ever, Andy Goldfarb, to dance with her (and maybe even make out with her on the dance floor). But Stacy's plans soon start to fall apart. . . . Her stressed-out mother forces her to buy a hideous beaded sequined dress that she wouldn't be caught dead in. Her mitzvahs are not going at all well. And then the worst thing in the entire world happens -- Stacy catches her best friend, Lydia, making out with Andy! And thus she utters the words that will wreak complete havoc on her social life . . . You are so not invited to my bat mitzvah! Fiona Rosenbloom was born and bred in Rye, New York. When she is not writing, Fiona likes to design and sew her own clothes. If she had her own line, she would call it Fabloom. Unlike the protagonist in this novel, Fiona had little-to-no say about her bat mitzvah dress. Regardless, she still speaks to her mother. Click the book cover above to read more.








DEAR RABBI, DEAR DOCTOR
By Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, M.D.
Fall 2005. Artscroll
Denial is more than a river in Egypt. It can be a root to many problems and issues. Rabbi Twerski is an esteemed rabbi and Pittsburgh-based psychiatrist who is called upon the world over for his opinions. I was so addicted (a good addiction) to this book, I had to buy two more copies, because I kept loaning out my other copies to friends. There are over 200 questions and answers in this book covering issues including marriage, medicine, anxiety, 9/11 trauma, child rearing, chronic discontent, causeless hatred (sinas chinam), jealousy, pettiness, shalom bayit, retirement woes, depression, bi-polarity, addiction, an immature spouse, a paranoid shulmate, emotional dependecies, issues with parents and in-laws (who goes for help, the person with the headache or the person who causes the headache?), issues of self esteem, issues of hashkafah (perspective/ideology), dyselxia, and shidduchim. You learn a lot; it is a tiny bit voyeuristic; and if you are like me, you will find yourself disagreeing with him in some cases, and finding him Solomonic in other cases.
Some of my favorite questions were: One "BT" asks why he is being discriminated against for a shidduch even though he is a great student (is it his perception, or something different?) An educated questioner is frustrated that no one listens to him/her (is it the ideas, or the way they are presented). May a shul move from a deteriorated neighborhood to a new suburb if it will leave older congregants without a house of worship? Can a rabbi recuse himself of giving advice to a nudnick if he has a vested emotional interest in the outcome? What if a teen crosses the street rather than walk quickly past an older slower walker so as not to embarrass them, but actually cuase them to feel ostracized? Why would Rabbi Twerski discourage the use of tranquilizers by a widow or widower to overcome shiva grief? What should one do if their husband is beloved in the community, but a tyrant at home? What if one's father abandoned the family and now wants to come to the daughter's wedding since she is marrying into a prestigious family? How can one overcome exam anxiety? Is marriage a hospital (will a shidduch solve emotional issues)? Must you honor a parent who calls you derogatory names? If a wife likes nail polish and her husband does not (due to religious reasons) , but the wife feels pretty with it on, but her husband doesn't, what should they do? If you act like a doormat, will people (or your daughter in law) wipe their feet on you all the time? It is a treasure trove of tsurris and intelligent answers
From the cover: If you could spend a day with Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski M.D., and ask about every problem that plagues you, your friends, or your family - wouldn't you take that opportunity? It wouldn't matter if your questions were about "small" things that fray your nerves daily or about larger, life-changing struggles. He would listen patiently, carefully consider your situation, and help you build a bridge over your predicament. Even better ¿ how to make your predicament disappear! That day has come! Flip through the table of contents of this amazingly insightful book and find that your question has already been asked - and answered! Ever since Rabbi Twerski began writing his weekly question-and-answer column "Seeking Solutions," he has been flooded with thousands of letters. This book contains new letters and answers that have not been printed before, as well as some of the classic questions and solutions from his column. This book contains nearly 200 letters, reflecting real problems faced by real people. You deserve the peace of mind Dear Rabbi, Dear Doctor can bring. Rabbi Twerski's advice is always down-to-earth, rooted in Torah and drawn from his long experience as a nationally known mental health professional. He believes that every individual and every family is entitled to a happy, healthy outlook. As he says in his introduction, "A Jewish home should be an oasis of stability, decency, and righteousness in a toxic world." This book is an important step in that direction. Click the book cover above to read more.






Kibitzers and Fools
by Simms Taback
Viking (September 2005)
Ages 4-8. A saying: It pays to have a little chutzpah (nerve). With Old World charm, universal humor, and just a bit of chutzpah, Simms Taback offers this lively spin on thirteen playful tales-as only he could. Paired with his trademark vibrant and hilarious artwork, these stories illustrate ultimate universal truths and important life lessons, from the difference between a shlemiel and a shlimazel to the idea that just because you can talk doesn't mean you make sense.Taback delivers the perfect combination of wisdom and humor-just the way your zayda (grandpa) would. Click the book cover above to read more.










The Beggar King and the Secret of Happiness
A True Story
by Joel ben Izzy
September 2005. Algonquin
From Publishers Weekly: First-time author ben Izzy's vocation as a professional storyteller may fill his life with heady myth and poetry, but as he acknowledges early on in this slim but memorable recollection of personal tragedy, "the absence of magic" in his childhood is the very thing "that sent me looking for it." He found it in the unlikeliest and most cruelly ironic way. After undergoing surgery to remove thyroid cancer, ben Izzy lost his voice-the instrument of not only his art, but also his livelihood. Telling himself that a return to the routine of performance would spark a recovery, ben Izzy accepted an offer to perform at a bar mitzvah, but only "whispers and gasps" emerged.

Retreating into self-pity, anger, hopelessness and sullen solitude, the author searched, like the protagonists in the stories he used to tell, for a spiritual explanation of the loss. He reconnected with his estranged, cantankerous mentor, who offered support by telling dizzyingly enigmatic stories hinting at the idea that ben Izzy had been given a magical gift by losing his voice. When a doctor suggested he might be able to help ben Izzy speak again in a risky procedure, ben Izzy's wife told him she liked him better without it, an incident the author does not satisfyingly explain. But ben Izzy successfully translates the best elements of oral storytelling to the page; his memoir shines with brisk suspense as well as his unerring, precise eye for including only the elements of his hard-won wisdom that matter the most Click the book cover above to read more.








Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants
Based on a True Story
by Jill Soloway
September 2005. Free Press
I just want you to know that I bought this book since the original title was WHY DO JEWS GO TO THE BATHROOM WITH THE DOOR OPEN? She is quite hilarious.
From Publishers Weekly: There's one joke that Soloway, writer and co-executive producer of Six Feet Under, keeps coming back to, about a little girl who tells her mom a boy has paid her to climb a telephone pole. Her mom keeps telling her he just wants to see her panties... so the girl says she's "fooled" him, by taking them off. It's an apt metaphor for Soloway's view of women's situation today, which, she says, is ruled by the "Porno-ization of America," with younger women wanting breast implants and white boys thinking pimps are the height of cool. Soloway's rants are right-on and entertaining, too, probably because she includes herself among the occasionally deluded. She recounts her own 1970s upbringing as a liberated child who thought she might become president, only by seventh grade she'd "forgotten what Bella Abzug looked like" and gotten her "Ophelia card stamped." Fortunately, she recovered to become a delightfully sex-positive "Jewess" ("a word invented by others to conjure someone bossy... that I have reappropriated as prideful") who can joke about her cute "Jewish bush," her fun lesbian sister and her own unaccountable attraction to "Toolbelts" (hunky construction worker kind of guys). Soloway's book is an amusing work of feminist humor. Click the book cover above to read more.






What Do You Mean, You Can't Eat in My Home?
A Guide to How Newly Observant Jews and Their Less Observant Relatives Can Still Get Along
by Azriela Jaffe
Schocken (September 2005)
Here is a book of workable, sensible solutions to the everyday problems faced by newly observant Jews as they try to explain the parameters of their new lives to the people who love them-but think they've gone around the bend. For the formerly nonobservant Jew who has decided to live an observant life, the most daunting task can be dealing with less-observant loved ones. How can you explain to them what you now feel and believe? How can you continue to be part of the lives of your parents, your siblings and their families, and your in-laws, given how differently you now live your life? In this book, Azriela Jaffe-the observant daughter of less-observant parents-answers these and other pressing questions. Jaffe discusses how to eat kosher and observe the Sabbath and Jewish holidays in the home of a non-observant relative, and how to host nonobservant relatives in your own home; how to explain the laws of modesty and courtship practices; how to attend family life-cycle events-or explain why you sometimes can't; and how to help your relatives understand the decision to put secular education temporarily aside to attend yeshivah and further your knowledge of Jewish law, rituals, and customs. Insightful, helpful, and readable, What Do You Mean, You Can't Eat in My Home? will be an invaluable tool in the lives of an ever-increasing number of Jewish families. Click the book cover above to read more.
See Azriela.com






INHERITING THE HOLY LAND
by JENNIFER MILLER
Ballantine (September 2005)
Ms. Miller is the daughter of U.S. diplomat Aaron D. Miller. Her father is the President of Seeds of Peace (one of several recipients of revenue from this website). She was able to use contacts to meet both Barak and Arafat. But her interviews with her fellow Seeds of Peace alums are the best, since they are blunt and honest. They are the future leaders.
From Publishers Weekly: Though only 24, Miller, the daughter of a U.S. State Department negotiator and a mother active in the leadership program Seeds for Peace, is something of a veteran of Middle Eastern matters. Her own involvement with Seeds for Peace, which primarily helps Arab and Israeli students learn the delicate arts of negotiation and conflict resolution, begins in 1996, and it is the intensity of her first experiences with the group-which took place in the hopeful period between the Oslo accords and the rise of the second intifada-that inform her fundamentally optimistic point of view. But the past half-decade has been hard for such optimists, and Miller's ambitious, personal exploration of the conflict (especially its ruinous effect on the youth of the region) is often conflicted and raw, angry and impatient. Her best diplomatic instincts don't preserve her from disgust at much of what she hears and sees from everyone from Arafat to Powell, from a settlement mayor to the denizens of a Ramallah pizza joint; she is even prepared to condemn her own father's "watery evasions." Miller's passionate advocacy of fairness and clarity can seem at times naïve, but her commitment to the process of peace comes through at every point
Jay Freeman wrote: "...Miller is a 24-year-old alumnus of Seeds, a youth program that brings students from the Middle East to the U.S. in an effort to build trust between them and to stress the value of compromise and negotiation. Miller places her hopes for peace upon the young Israelis and Palestinians whom she lives with and interviewed. There are fascinating and surprising vignettes here that provide interesting perspectives. Omri, a Jew of Yemenite ancestry, is torn between his desire that Palestinians would "disappear" and his basic sense of decency. There is an interesting but frustrating look at Israeli and Palestinian history textbooks and their seemingly irreconcilable views of the past. Perhaps most touching is the story of Yara, a 15-year-old Israeli Arab girl who attends a Jewish high school and seems "assimilated" but cannot feel fully Israeli in a self-proclaimed Jewish state. Miller also interviewed key political figures, including Arafat, Barak, Abbas, and Dahlan...." Click the book cover above to read more.






The Mystery Bear: A Purim Story
by Leone Adelson, Naomi Howland (Illustrator)
Clarion (September 2005)
Ages 4-8. Grade 1-3-When Little Bear wakes up early from hibernation, he is hungry. He follows his nose to where a family is celebrating Purim with a lively parade outside their home. He is invited to join them, and they all marvel at his clever costume. Everyone has an idea of which villager might be disguised beneath the fur-except a boy named Itzik. He is wearing a bear suit, and repeatedly insists that their guest is a real animal, but no one believes him. Hours of food, drink, and dancing later, Little Bear nods off just before the Purim play is to start. Various people prod him to join in until finally he wakens with a loud roar and shows his big teeth. All of the partygoers flee, including Little Bear, who stumbles home for the rest of his long nap. With a muted palette and folksy touches, Howland's appealing gouache paintings perfectly capture the flavor of the Jewish festivities that signal the end of winter. A note explains the history of the festival of Purim. Children will appreciate the fun of a family gathering with an uninvited and unexpected guest and will enjoy learning more about the holiday. Click the book cover above to read more.










Goodnight Nobody
A Novel
by Jennifer Weiner
Atria (September 2005)
New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner's newest novel tells the story of a young mother's move to a postcard-perfect Connecticut town and the secrets she uncovers there. For Kate Klein, a semi-accidental mother of three, suburbia's been full of unpleasant surprises. Her once-loving husband is hardly ever home. The supermommies on the playground routinely snub her. Her days are spent carpooling and enduring endless games of Candy Land, and at night, most of her orgasms are of the do-it-yourself variety. When a fellow mother is murdered, Kate finds that the unsolved mystery is one of the most interesting things to happen in Upchurch since her neighbors broke ground for a guesthouse and cracked their septic tank. Even though Kate's husband and the police chief warn her that crime-fighting's a job best left to professionals, she can't let it go. So Kate launches an unofficial investigation -- from 8:45 to 11:30 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, when her kids are in nursery school -- with the help of her hilarious best friend, carpet heiress Janie Segal, and Evan McKenna, a former flame she thought she'd left behind in New York City. As the search for the killer progresses, Kate is drawn deeper into the murdered woman's double life. She discovers the secrets and lies behind Upchurch's placid picket-fence facade -- and the choices and compromises all modern women make as they navigate between independence and obligation, small towns and big cities, being a mother and having a life of one's own. Engrossing, suspenseful, and laugh-out-loud funny, Goodnight Nobody is another unputdownable, timely tale; an insightful mystery with a great heart and a narrator you'll never forget. Click the book cover above to read more.






THE LIFE OF DAVID
by ROBERT PINSKY (former U.S. Poet Laureate
Schocken (September 2005)
PW writes: Emphasizing biographies of Jewish luminaries but also including books on Jewish themes, the new Jewish Encounters series aims to satisfy the interest in popular and intelligent books on Jewish subjects. The inaugural book in this commendable venture is a well-executed biography of David, written by Pinsky, former poet laureate of the United States. His poetic language is singularly appropriate for recounting the life of the king who is traditionally accepted as the author of the poetic psalms, some of which are included in the narrative. Pinsky's broad scope is reflected in his references to Greek literature, Shakespeare, Dante, Simone Weil, Talmudists and Robert Frost, among others. He acknowledges his indebtedness to Robert Alter, whose definitive book The David Story appeared in 1999, but fails to mention recent biographies by Steven McKenzie, Baruch Halpern and Gary Greenberg. His primary sources are the actual biblical texts that recount David's life. Pinsky dispels the conventional image of David as a simple shepherd who slew Goliath and became Israel's greatest king, depicting him realistically with all his failings as an adulterer, assassin and predator. Pinsky also portrays David's stellar achievements, presenting him as a complex character who deserves to be seen in shades of gray.
Writing in the SF Chronicle, Daniel Schifrin wrote, "..fascinating, lyrical... [david] is both Homer and Odysseus" "Pinsky saves his awe and ecstasy for the artistry of the Psalms and their putative creator... Pinksy's language and insights are gorgeous..." Click the book cover above to read more.








Winkler
by Giles Coren
September 2005, J. Cape
BRIT LIT. A comic account of a man's search for meaning, identity and a suitable response to the burden of history; Coren's examination of the nature of Jewishness (and, incidentally, of Englishness), of the lies we tell to survive and the stresses of urban life, is irreverent, funny, provocative and brave. Click the book cover above to read more.









I thought this was party in the BLINTZ ! Oops... it is the Blitz

PARTY IN THE BLITZ
The English Years (Hardcover)
by Elias Canetti
September 2005, New Directions Publishing Corporation
"It is time for me to turn to England again, for I sense how these memories gradually fade, and it would be a pity if nothing remained of forty years in that country" Exceedingly perceptive, at times amusing and always unpredictable, this autobiography of Nobel Prize winner Elias Canetti is a fascinating and enjoyable read. Canetti spent many years in London, beginning in 1939, and during which time he moved in elite circles, numbering the great writers, artists, thinkers and politicians of the time among his friends and acquaintances. In this beautifully written and often sensational collection of portraits of those who were meaningful in his life, Canetti is an honest observer of the personalities of those around him: of T.S. Eliot (whom he detested); of Iris Murdoch (with whom he had a torrid affair) and of the English themselves (whose stiff upper lip he both admired and disparaged). His style is at times staccato, at times elaborately philosophical, but always displays the author's sharp-tongued wit and intelligence. A challenging and rewarding read from the man John Bayley called "the godmonster of Hampstead", this is bound to cause a stir.
Elias Canetti arrived in England in 1939, fleeing Hitler, with his wife and (soon) two mistresses. He was known in his adoptive Vienna for a single novel Auto-da-Fé, a black comedy of justified paranoia and misogyny. In England he boasted one reader only, sinologist Arthur Waley. His first three autobiographies - which helped win him the 1981 Nobel prize for literature - chronicle Viennese literary life between the wars. Now, 11 years after his death in Zürich, here are his memoirs of the war years in England. Despite carelessnesses - Herzog von Northumberland stays in German; Margaret Gardiner and JD Bernal were unmarried; it was not Churchill who lost India - they are splendidly entertaining. Canetti's method is to string together small scenes, like beads, into a continuing story. Here are vignettes of London in 1940, of life among Amersham and Hampstead expatriates, of awful war-time parties. Downshire Hill was a street to delight in. His mistress Friedl's lodgings at number 35 had a private gallery of Ben Nicolsons and Hepworths; Mountbatten visited; Lee Miller and Roland Penrose, who had organised the International Surrealist Exhibition, lived diagonally opposite at number 21. And Canetti, unencumbered by any war work, was free to survey the battle of Britain from the Heath...
Click the book cover above to read more.








DON'T GET TOO COMFORTABLE
The Indignities of Coach Class, The Torments of Low Thread Count,
The Never-Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems
BY DAVID RAKOFF
DOUBLEDAY, September 2005
Whether contrasting the elegance of one of the last flights of the supersonic Concorde with the good times and chicken wings of Hooters Air, working as a pool boy at a South Beach hotel, or traveling to a private island off the coast of Belize to watch a soft-core Playboy TV shoot, where he is provided with his very own personal manservant, David Rakoff takes us on a bitingly funny grand tour of our culture of excess, delving into the manic getting and spending celebrated as moral virtues in David Brooks's Bobos in Paradise. He comes away from his explorations hilariously horrified. Somewhere along the line, our healthy self-regard has exploded into obliterating narcissism, and Rakoff is there to map that frontier, blasting off into the rarified universe of Paris fashion shows, where an evening dress can cost as much as four years of college. He sits through the grotesqueries of filthy vaudeville in Times Square immediately following 9/11. Twenty days without food allows him to experience firsthand the wonders of "detoxification," and the frozen world of cryonics, whose promise of eternal life is the ultimate status symbol, leaves him very cold indeed (much to our good fortune). At once a Wildean satire of our ridiculous culture of overconsumption and a plea for a little human decency, DON'T GET TOO COMFORTABLE shows that far from being bobos in paradise, we're in a special circle of gilded-age hell. Click the book cover above to read more.







BEATING AROUND THE BUSH
BY ART BUCHWALD
SEVEN STORIES, September 2005
Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist Art Buchwald returns undaunted to examine the ridiculous people and preposterous events that we call our daily reality. Collected from his recent columns, with a foreword by Garry Trudeau, Buchwald's satirical voice darts at politicians, power, corporations and the media without pause. A self-described troublemaker Buchwald continues to represent the great American traits of skepticism, humor, and a refusal to compromise in the face of absurdity. A better title would have been BETWEEN IRAQ And A HARD PLACE. What a great read it is. He takes on Wal-Mart and Larry Summers at Harvard. He dissects "compassionate conservatism." He takes on all the American patriotic products, all made in Asian sweat shops, and compains about all the shows that cater only to 18-39 year olds. Each essay is under 3 pages, which makes for an easy but entertaining read.Click the book cover above to read more.







The Vanishing Man
(Paperback)
by Aaron Bushkowsky
Cormorant Books, Summer 2005
The Vanishing Man is a collection of linked short stories about a man trying to come to terms with his past, a religious upbringing, in an ever-changing personal world that constantly throws him into self-doubt. He marries, finds happiness, only to go through a terrible divorce. He recovers, finds true love, marries, and goes through another terrible divorce and family death. He goes into therapy and tries to make sense of his failures and unhappiness by attempting to reclaim his past life. But this only partly succeeds. It's not until the man discovers his true self that he is finally able to find hope, and his love of life again. This is a book about faith, families, and the meaning of love, told from a distinctly masculine point of view. The men in these stories are often defined by what they don't say, what they do instead, and how they react to each other between the lies and between the lines. They are often right about everything except themselves and it's within this hazy, poetic world of self-doubt that the narrator of the stories lives and breathes. Aaron lives in Vancouver, where he teaches playwriting and filmwriting at Langara College, Studio 58, Playwrights Theatre Centre, and at the Vancouver Film Centre. The Vanishing Man is Aaron's first book of prose Click the book cover above to read more.







The Doll with the Yellow Star
by Yona Zeldis McDonough, Kimberly Bulcken Root (Illustrator)
Schwartz Henry Holt, September 2005
Ages 9 - 12
Nine-year-old Claudine doesn't want to leave her much-loved home in France to go live in America, not without her parents. But she knows about the shortages, about the yellow stars Jews must wear, and about Adolf Hitler. And she knows that there are some things she needs to do even when she doesn't want to. It's wartime, and there is much that is different now. There are more things that Claudine will lose to this terrible war. But not everything that is lost must be lost forever. Here is a moving story about lost and found lives, and the healing power of love. Click the book cover above to read more.







BEER SCHOOL
Bottling Success at the Brooklyn Brewery
by Steve Hindy, Tom Potter
WILEY, SEPTEMBER 2005
Entertaining and informative, Beer School is the true story of two neighbors-a banker and a journalist-who decided to quit their jobs and open the Brooklyn Brewery. Starting with no knowledge of commercial brewing, cofounders Steve Hindy and Tom Potter quickly learned that their four combined Ivy League degrees would only take them so far in this competitive business. Nevertheless, they were determined to tackle one of the hardest challenges imaginable: building a sales-driven manufacturing company from scratch in the heart of New York City. Through the firsthand experiences of Hindy and Potter, Beer School takes readers on a long brewing journey (more than 15 years in the making), from the kitchen of a Brooklyn brownstone (where the beer was initially brewed) to the shelves of stores around the world. More than just an interesting read about barley and hops, Beer School looks at the business side of this lucrative industry. It contains practical lessons on starting a business under difficult circumstances and important insights on managing expectations and growth. Beer School is an exciting read-for both seasoned business owners and those dreaming to strike out on their own-that proves hard work and determination still pays off. Click the book cover above to read more.







I've Seen A Lot Of Famous People Naked,
And They've Got Nothing On You
Business Secrets From The Ultimate Street-smart Entrepreneur
(Paperback) by Jake Steinfeld. Intro by Steven Spielberg
AMACOM, SEPTEMBER 2005
I always look forward to the Fall offering of AMACOM. This year has a book that combines a Jewish persona with a business guide. I missed out on meeting Jake in NYC in June 2005, but I did pick up an advance copy. T fitness trainer and Body by Jake founder really has seen a lot of famous in gym clothes including Steven Spielberg (Jewish) and Harrison Ford (half Jewish). Steinfeld worked his way up from bodybuilder to businessman, and so can you. In the second half of the book, Steinfeld talks about branding and marketing. Steinfeld's goofy sense of humor also adds a down-to-earth honesty to the book and makes it a worthwhile read for those who need to get pumped up about starting a business. Click the book cover above to read more.







AMERICA'S CONSTITUTION
A BIOGRAPHY
By Akhil Reed Amar
RANDOM, September 2005
You can read the U.S. Constitution, including its 27 amendments, in about a half-hour, but it takes decades of study to understand how this blueprint for our nation's government came into existence. Amar, a 20-year veteran of the Yale Law School faculty, has that understanding, steeped in the political history of the 1780s, when dissatisfaction with the Articles of Confederation led to a constitutional convention in Philadelphia, which produced a document of wonderful compression and balance creating an indissoluble union.Amar examines in turn each article of the Constitution, explaining how the framers drew on English models, existing state constitutions and other sources in structuring the three branches of the federal government and defining the relationship of the that government to the states.Amar takes on each of the amendments, from the original Bill of Rights to changes in the rules for presidential succession. The book squarely confronts America's involvement with slavery, which the original Constitution facilitated in ways the author carefully explains.Scholarly, reflective and brimming with ideas, this book is miles removed from an arid, academic exercise in textual analysis. Amar evokes the passions and tumult that marked the Constitution's birth and its subsequent revisions. Only rarely do you find a book that embodies scholarship at its most solid and invigorating; this is such a book. (PW) Click the book cover above to read more.







The Man from Beyond
A Novel (Hardcover)
by Gabriel Brownstein
Norton (September 2005)
From Publishers Weekly: Inspired by the complex relationship between Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the celebrated author and champion of spiritualism, and Harry Houdini, the famed magician and escape artist, Brownstein's uneven first novel reimagines the consequences of the séance, held in 1922 after a chance meeting on the New Jersey shore, in which the spirit-writing Lady Doyle delivered a message from Houdini's late mother to her skeptical son. While the author does a good job of getting inside the heads of his two historical protagonists with their opposing philosophies, much of the story focuses on the admirable but less interesting 22-year-old Molly Goodman, an intrepid reporter who follows the two great men's activities. In a vivid scene, after Houdini barely escapes from a locked box under the Hudson far down river from where he was supposed to emerge, he realizes that, like Sherlock Holmes after surviving his struggle with Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls, everyone believes he's dead. After this delicious twist, however, the story rushes to a hasty climax involving an insufficiently developed villain. Brownstein's story collection, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Apt. 3W (2002), won the PEN/Hemingway Award. Click the book cover above to read more.






Heir to the Glimmering World
A novel
by Cynthia Ozick
Mariner, September 2005
Cynthia Ozick has been known for decades as one of America's most gifted and extraordinary storytellers; her remarkable new novel has established her as one of the most entertaining as well. Set in the New York of the 1930s, Heir to the Glimmering World is a spellbinding, richly plotted novel brimming with intriguing characters. Orphaned at eighteen, with few possessions, Rose Meadows finds steady employment with the Mitwisser clan. Recently arrived from Berlin, the Mitwissers rely on the auspices of a generous benefactor, James A'Bair, the discontented heir to a fortune his father, a famous childen's author, made from a series of books called The Bear Boy. Against the vivid backdrop of a world in tumult, Rose learns the refugee family's secrets as she watches their fortunes rise and fall in Ozick's wholly engrossing novel. Click the book cover above to read more.









Torah And Company
by Rabbi Judith Z. Abrams
Ben Yehuda Press (September 30, 2005)
Enlighten your Sabbath table "Torah and Company," a new Torah portion discussion guide by Rabbi Judith Abrams. In "Torah & Company", Rabbi Abrams, who teaches Talmud online at Maqom.com, supplements a key passage on the weekly Torah portion with related passages of Mishnah and Gemara -- and then provides background information and discussion questions for each text. Taken together, "Torah and Company" provides the ingredients for thoughtful, open-ended, illuminating discussion of Jewish themes and beliefs, as reflected in the Torah, the Talmud, and our own lives today. With clear, accessible translations and explanations and introspective questions, "Torah and Company" is perfect for anyone who wants to bring Torah study and religious discussion to their dinner table, class room or synagogue. The breadth of Rabbi Abrams' selections ensure that everyone -- including those who have studied extensively in seminaries and yeshivas -- will find new, enlightening texts and interpretations. Serve up a rich feast of spiritual discussion from an age-old recipe:One part Torah. Two parts classic Jewish texts. Add conversation. Stir... and enjoy! "Offers readers easy access and guided questions which lead to thought-provoking discussion. A valuable guide for the Shabbat table of every Jew."- Rabbi Burton L. Visotzky, Appleman Professor of Midrash and Interreligious Studies, Jewish Theological Seminary. Click the book cover above to read more.









A Holocaust Controversy:
The Treblinka Affair in Postwar France
(Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry Series)
by Samuel Moyn
Brandeis University Press (September 2005)
A provocative study of a French Holocaust controversy of the 1960s and the dynamics of postwar memory. How has the world come to focus on the Holocaust and why has it invariably done so in the heat of controversy, scandal, and polemics about the past? These questions are at the heart of this unique investigation of the Treblinka affair that occurred in France in 1966 when Jean-Francois Steiner, a young Jewish journalist, published Treblinka: The Revolt of an Extermination Camp. A cross between a history and a novel, Steiner's book narrated the 1943 revolt at one of the major Nazi death camps. Abetted by a scandalous interview he gave, as well as Simone de Beauvoir's glowing preface, the book shot to the top of the Parisian bestseller list and prompted a wide-ranging controversy in which both the well-known and the obscure were embroiled. Few had heard of Treblinka, or other death camps, before the affair. The validity of the difference between those killing centers and the larger network of concentration camps making up the universe of Nazi crime had to be fought out in public. The affair also bore on the frequently raised question of the Jews' response to their dire straits. Moyn delves into events surrounding the publication of Steiner's book and the subsequent furor. In the process, he sheds light on a few forgotten but thought-provoking months in French cultural history. Reconstructing the affair in detail, Moyn studies it as a paradigm-shifting controversy that helped change perceptions of the Holocaust in the French public and among French Jews in particular. Then Moyn follows the controversy beyond French borders to the other countries-especially Israel and the United State-where it resonated powerfully. Based on a complete reconstruction of the debate in the press (including Yiddish dailies) and on archives on three continents, Moyn's study concludes with the response of the survivors of Treblinka to the controversy and reflects on its place in the longer history of Holocaust memory. Finally, Moyn revisits, in the context of a detailed case study, some of the theoretical controversies the genocide has provoked, including whether it is appropriate to draw universalistic lessons from the victimhood of particular groups. Click the book cover above to read more.









Indivisible by Two
Lives of Extraordinary Twins, (Hardcover)
by Nancy L. Segal
Harvard University Press, September 2005
An anecdotal study of fraternal and identical twins, including a set in which one grew up in Hitler Youth, and the other grew up Jewish in Trinidad. Click the book cover above to read more.









Light And Fire of the Baal Shem Tov
by Yitzhak Buxbaum
Continuum International Publishing Group (September 1, 2005)
This is a life, in stories, of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov (1700-1760), the founder of Hasidism. The Baal Shem Tov, or the Besht, as he is commonly called, led a revival in Judaism that put love and joy at the center of religious life and championed the piety of the common folk against the rabbinic establishment. He has been recognized as one of the greatest teachers in Jewish history, and much of what is alive and vibrant in Judaism today, in all denominations, derives from his inspiration. Abraham Joshua Heschel, who was descended from several illustrious Hasidic dynasties, wrote: "The Baal Shem Tov brought heaven to earth. He and his disciples, the Hasidim, banished melancholy from the soul and uncovered the ineffable delight of being a Jew."
"Yitzhak Buxbaum's book is the scripture that should have been written about the Baal Shem Tov two-hundred-and-fifty years ago, but wasn't....No one who wants to draw from the wellsprings of Hasidism should be without this book. If you don't have enough money to buy it, pawn your shoes and run to the bookstore barefoot." -Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
"Buxbaum has put his finger on the pulse of the values that lie at the heart of the Baal Shem Tov's message and conveys them in words that speak to the heart of our generation."-Arthur Green
Click the book cover above to read more.







THE OTHER SIDE OF ISRAEL:
MY JOURNEY ACROSS THE JEWISH/ARAB DIVIDE
By SUSAN NATHAN
Harvard University Press, September 2005
From the Washington Post Book World review: ".... Nathan, a British-born Jew, came to Israel in 1999. Three years later, she moved from Tel Aviv to the Arab town of Tamra, choosing to live within and identify with Israel's Arab minority -- so much so that she uses "we" when describing the daily life of the Tamra clan with which she took up residence. An incident from her childhood, retold without irony, foreshadows what's wrong with Nathan's writing here. When she was 2, her family spent six months in South Africa, where a black servant taught her how to carry her doll strapped to her back, the way local black women carried their babies. Back in England, "I would see other little girls in the street holding their dolls in their arms and tell them off, showing them how to do it properly." Alas, she is still telling off anyone who dares hold her doll in a politically incorrect fashion.... Nathan describes her Jewish identity, prior to coming to Israel, as built on the Holocaust and British anti-Semitism. In her "romantic notions of Zionism," taken from Leon Uris's tub-thumping novel Exodus , "the Jews had reclaimed an empty, barren land." In short, her version of the Israeli narrative was a crude caricature of the country's history. Only after immigrating did she discover that the country has Arab citizens, discrimination and ultra-nationalist settlers. Her fantasy -- that Jews could simultaneously exercise power and enjoy the righteousness of victimhood -- shattered.
So Nathan concludes that the Palestinians are the true righteous victims and embraces an equally crude version of their narrative. Palestinian nationalism is legitimate, Zionism a "damaging ideology" of colonialism. Israeli doves who seek a two-state solution are insufficiently radical. Nathan condemns Jews interested in coexistence as hypocrites and blasts like-minded Arabs as cowed. Facts mix with canards (her repeated equating of the Israeli occupation to apartheid in South Africa, rather than seeing it as part of a fight between two legitimate nationalisms over one shared land, is particularly simple-minded) as she persistently reads people's motives as good or evil based on their nationality. Unintentionally, Nathan demonstrates the potential power of the collective stories, Israeli and Palestinian alike, to shape and deepen the conflict -- at least when told without humor, nuance or doubt...."
From Publishers Weekly: "When she was 16, Nathan, a British Jew living in South Africa, had sex with her aunt's black servant. "Sex between a black man and a white woman in apartheid South Africa," Nathan writes, "was not just a physical act, it was an act of powerful political dissent." Decades later, Nathan would again make a striking political statement with a simple physical gesture: she moved from her home in Tel Aviv and settled in a small Arab town in northern Israel, quietly but clearly renouncing the Zionist philosophy that had facilitated her citizenship in Israel through the Right of Return. Nathan matter-of-factly describes the impossibility of getting furniture delivered or an airline reservation made with an address that doesn't appear in any of the state's databases, although 25,000 Muslims live there. These quotidian details nicely illustrate her critique of Israel as a state that "enforces a system of land apartheid between... two populations," just as South Africa had. It is a shocking comparison, but Nathan goes further, drawing a parallel between the Holocaust and Israel's practices toward its own Arab citizens. Yet, even when throwing down a gauntlet, Nathan's writing is poised, emotionally candid and ultimately empathic to the plight of both groups. The Arabs' displacement mirrors the Jews' wandering, Nathan observes, and before the two groups can coexist peacefully, each must recognize itself in the other." Click the book cover above to read more.



INTELLIGENT JOKES
By ZION RUBI
The Manic D Press
Click through to read a sample of these Israeli jokes.
The joke is a literary genre - a folksy interpretation of a short story. Written in a colloquial style, Intelligent Jokes appeals to clever readers looking for more than a rudimentary punch line and features more than 500 jokes. Fans of "shaggy dog stories" as well as those who appreciate clever insights into parent/child and husband/wife relationships, send-ups of human folly, and the preoccupation with sex will find these amusing jokes enormously entertaining. Click the book cover above to read more.









This Terrible Business Has Been Good to Me
An Autobiography
By NORMAN JEWISON
Thomas Dunne, September 2005
Norman JEWISON is not JEWISH
But he made several Jewish films.
From Publishers Weekly: Jewison's movies have received 12 Academy Awards and 46 nominations, a remarkable record for a filmography that numbers only 25 films. His autobiography's unassuming style offers a clear, accessible portrait of the man and overflows with revealing anecdotes about such luminaries as Steve McQueen, Doris Day, Al Pacino, Sidney Poitier and Denzel Washington. After finding success in live television working with Judy Garland, Jackie Gleason and Danny Kaye, Jewison began his motion picture career with 40 Pounds of Trouble (1962); survived a bomb, The Art of Love (1965); and eventually turned out a series of classics: The Cincinnati Kid (1965), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Fiddler on the Roof (1971) and Moonstruck (1987). He defines Doris Day (The Thrill of It All, 1963) as a consummate comedian who lacked confidence in her appearance; and Sylvester Stallone (F.I.S.T., 1978) as someone who "behaved like he believed his own publicity." Jewison also describes his approach to filmmaking, explaining his actions at the all-important pitch meeting, and demonstrates how focused a director must be. Honest without becoming a tell-all or an airing of personal problems, the book is a successful study of what it takes to triumph in Hollywood and achieve artistic satisfaction. Click the book cover above to read more.









THE PUBLISHER IS REPRINTING 100,000 COPIES OF THIS NEW CLASSIC BOOK, since the film is being released on September 16, 2005. ELIJAH WOOD APPEARS ON THE COVER










Everything Is Illuminated Tie-In
by Jonathan Safran Foer
2005, Perrenial tie in to the film
With only a yellowing photograph in hand, a young man - also named Jonathan Safran Foer - sets out to find the woman who might or might not have saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Accompanied by an old man haunted by memories of the war, an amorous dog named Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior, and the unforgettable Alex, a young Ukrainian translator who speaks in a sublimely butchered English, Jonathan is led on a quixotic journey over a devastated landscape and into an unexpected past. As their adventure unfolds, Jonathan imagines the history of his grandfather's village, conjuring a magical fable of startling symmetries that unite generations across time. Lit by passion, fear, guilt, memory, and hope, the characters in Everything Is Illuminated mine the black holes of history. As the search moves back in time, the fantastical history moves forward, until reality collides with fiction in a heart-stopping scene of extraordinary power.














Setting the Lawn on Fire
A novel
by Mack Friedman
University of Wisconsin Press, September 30, 2005
Setting the Lawn on Fire, the first novel by critically acclaimed writer Mack Friedman, trails its narrator through his obsessions with sex, drugs, art, and poison. Ivan, a young Jewish boy from Milwaukee, embarks on a journey of sexual discovery that leads him from Wisconsin to Alaska, Philadelphia, and Mexico through stints as a fishery worker, artist, and finally a hustler who learns to provide the blank canvas for other people's dreams. The result is a new kind of coming-of-age story that sees passion from every angle because its protagonist is every kind of lover: the seducer and the seduced, the pornographer and the model, the hunter and the prey, the trick and the john. In the end, Setting the Lawn on Fire is also something rare-a fully realized, contemporary romance that illuminates the power of desire and the rituals of the body, the brain, and the heart that attempt to contain our passions. Click the book cover above to read more.







DYBBUK: A VERSION
BY BARBARA ROGASKY
September 30, 2005. Holiday House
Ages 9 - 12
Sender, the richest man in town, only wants the best for his daughter, Leah. Her husband-to-be must be extremely wealthy. But when Leah and Konin, an orphaned scholar, fall in love, Sender recalls a pact he made long ago with his best friend: If one man had a daughter and the other a son, the two would be married. Though Konin is the son of his beloved friend, Sender cannot bear to permit the poor scholar to wed Leah. Konin dies of a broken heart once he hears Leah has been promised to another. Konin has his revenge, though, on Leah's wedding day when his spirit inhabits her body and refuses to leave. Click the book cover above to read more.







Setting the Lawn on Fire
A novel
by Mack Friedman
University of Wisconsin Press, September 30, 2005
Setting the Lawn on Fire, the first novel by critically acclaimed writer Mack Friedman, trails its narrator through his obsessions with sex, drugs, art, and poison. Ivan, a young Jewish boy from Milwaukee, embarks on a journey of sexual discovery that leads him from Wisconsin to Alaska, Philadelphia, and Mexico through stints as a fishery worker, artist, and finally a hustler who learns to provide the blank canvas for other people's dreams. The result is a new kind of coming-of-age story that sees passion from every angle because its protagonist is every kind of lover: the seducer and the seduced, the pornographer and the model, the hunter and the prey, the trick and the john. In the end, Setting the Lawn on Fire is also something rare-a fully realized, contemporary romance that illuminates the power of desire and the rituals of the body, the brain, and the heart that attempt to contain our passions. Click the book cover above to read more.







DYBBUK: A VERSION
BY BARBARA ROGASKY
September 30, 2005. Holiday House
Ages 9 - 12
Sender, the richest man in town, only wants the best for his daughter, Leah. Her husband-to-be must be extremely wealthy. But when Leah and Konin, an orphaned scholar, fall in love, Sender recalls a pact he made long ago with his best friend: If one man had a daughter and the other a son, the two would be married. Though Konin is the son of his beloved friend, Sender cannot bear to permit the poor scholar to wed Leah. Konin dies of a broken heart once he hears Leah has been promised to another. Konin has his revenge, though, on Leah's wedding day when his spirit inhabits her body and refuses to leave. Click the book cover above to read more.







The Journey That Saved Curious George
The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H.A. Rey
by: Louise W Borden; Illustrated by Allan Drummond
September 2005. Houghton Mifflin
Ages 9 - 12 or more
In 1906, Hans Augusto Reyersbach was a boy growing up in Hamburg, Germany, a port city with canals and a thousand bridges . . . and the River Elbe that ran to the North Sea ...
In 1940, Hans and Margret Rey fled their Paris home as the German army advanced. They began their harrowing journey on bicycles, pedaling to Southern France with children's book manuscripts among their few possessions. Louise Borden combed primary resources, including Hans Rey's pocket diaries, to tell this dramatic true story. Archival materials introduce readers to the world of Hans and Margret Rey while Allan Drummond dramatically and colorfully illustrates their wartime trek to a new home. Follow the Rey's amazing story in this unique large format book that resembles a travel journal and includes full-color illustrations, original photos, actual ticket stubs and more. A perfect book for Curious George fans of all ages. Click the book cover above to read more.
From the NYTimes... "Curious George is every 2-year-old sticking his finger into the light socket, pouring milk onto the floor to watch it pool, creating chaos everywhere. One reason the mischievous monkey is such a popular children's book character is that he makes 4- to 6-year-olds feel superior: fond memories, but we've given all that up now. In the years since the first book was published in the United States in 1941, "George" has become an industry. The books have sold more than 27 million copies. There have been several "Curious George" films, including an animated one featuring the voice of Will Ferrell that is scheduled for release this February, and theater productions, not to mention the ubiquitous toy figure... . But in truth, "Curious George" almost didn't make it onto the page. A new book, "The Journey That Saved Curious George: The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H. A. Rey" (Houghton Mifflin), tells of how George's creators, both German-born Jews, fled from Paris by bicycle in June 1940, carrying the manuscript of what would become "Curious George" as Nazis prepared to invade. ... For her research, Ms. Borden combed the Rey archives of the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi, interviewed people who knew them and traced their journey through letters and postmarks. Hans Reyersbach was born in Hamburg in 1898 into an educated family, and lived near the Hagenbeck Zoo, where he learned to imitate animal sounds, as well as to draw and paint. During World War I, Mr. Reyersbach served in the German Army; afterward, he painted circus posters for a living. After studying at two German universities, he went to Rio de Janeiro in the mid-1920's, looking for a job. He wound up selling bathtubs on the Amazon. Margarete Waldstein, who was born in 1906, also in Hamburg, had a more fiery personality. After Hitler began his rise, she left Hamburg to become a photographer in London. In 1935, she too went to Rio. Mr. Reyersbach had first seen her as a little girl sliding down the banister of her family's Hamburg home, and now they met again. They eventually married, and founded an advertising agency. Margarete changed her name to "Margret" and Hans changed his surname to "Rey," reasoning that Reyersbach was difficult for Brazilians to pronounce. Crucially, the two became Brazilian citizens.... The Reys ended up in the Parisian neighborhood of Montmartre, where they began writing and illustrating children's books. In 1939, they published "Raffy and the 9 Monkeys." Mr. Rey drew the illustrations, and his wife helped to write the stories. Hans initially had sole credit for the books, but eventually Margret's name was added. "We worked very closely together and it was hard to pull the thing apart," she later said. ... The Reys found shelter in a farmhouse, then a stable, working their way by rail to Bayonne, and then to Biarritz by bicycle again. They were Jews, but because they were Brazilian citizens, it was easier to get visas. One official, perhaps thinking that because of their German accents they were spies, searched Mr. Rey's satchel. Finding "Fifi," and, seeing it was only a children's story, he released them. They journeyed to Spain, then to Portugal, eventually finding their way back to Rio. "Have had a very narrow escape," Mr. Rey wrote in a telegram to his bank. "Baggage all lost have not sufficient money in hand." The couple sailed to New York in October 1940, and "Curious George," as Fifi was renamed - the publisher thought "Fifi" was an odd name for a male monkey - made his first appearance the following year. The Reys wrote a total of eight "Curious George" books; Hans died in 1977, Margret in 1996. The ensuing "George" books were created by writers and illustrators imitating the Reys' style and art....



IT's NOT MY FAULT
Or Can A Rabbi's Son Find Happiness as a Tennis Pro
BY Daniel Waintrup
September 2005.
Stuck in a dead-end career - divorced - beaten and battered - this rabbi's son wasn't down for the count. He was just warming up. Country club tennis pro Dan Waintrup never played the US Open. He never made it onto the World Tour or emulated tennis greats like John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg or Jimmy Conners. His career flourished in high school and college, but dwindled into playing lessons with young studs of Fortune 500 companies and couples' tournaments where divorces capped a weekend ending in defeat. But his tennis-teaching exploits did provide the backdrop for this humorous memoir that reveals how a rabbi's son from Philadelphia with a hankering for Tastykakes chose his unconventional line of work. He also tells all - how he ruined his parents' dreams, met The Donald, ran his car into a tree and lived to tell about it, and enrolled in business school without ever having used a computer. Committing these ups and downs to paper has been a form of therapy for Dan, who's happy to be the butt of any joke. Have a laugh at his expense, bubby. Click the book cover above to read more.







Never Have Your Dog Stuffed : And Other Things I've Learned
by Alan Alda
September 2005. Random House.
Alan Alda is not Jewish. But his surname is Alda, so who knows... 500 years ago he might have been in an Italian Jewish famiglia. HeHe.
A star on Broadway, an Oscar nominee for The Aviator, and the only person to ever win Emmys for acting, writing, and directing, during his eleven years on M*A*S*H. (Did you see him rip up his speech in September 2005's Emmy telecast when he lost?) Now Alan Alda has written a memoir as elegant, funny, and affecting as his greatest performances. "My mother didn't try to stab my father until I was six," begins Alda's irresistible story. The son of a popular actor and a loving but mentally ill mother, he spent his early childhood backstage in the erotic and comic world of burlesque and went on, after early struggles, to achieve extraordinary success in his profession. He overcame polio. Yet Never Have Your Dog Stuffed is not a memoir of show-business ups and downs. It is a moving and funny story of a boy growing into a man who then realizes he has only just begun to grow. Click the book cover above to read more.







A Match Made in Hell
The Jewish Boy and the Polish Outlaw Who Defied the Nazis
by Larry Stillman
September 2005. Wisconsin Press.
Also in paperback
Rarely has the old saw about war making strange bedfellows been more appropriate than in this story of a small 16-year-old Jewish boy and one of rural Poland's most notorious criminals, Jan Kopec. Stillman has found a very different kind of Holocaust story, full of drama and adventure. When Hitler's army invaded Poland in 1939, Goldner and his rural Jewish family were spared from immediate roundup. But by 1943, he had witnessed his mother and sister being herded onto a train and been left for dead beneath his father's body, both of them shot and bayoneted by a collaborator who had been one of his father's childhood friends. After Kopec, Goldner's unlikely rescuer, nursed him back to health, the pair began an 18-month partnership in which Kopec received money from partisans for having Goldner carry out acts of sabotage against the Nazis. His small size, courage and ability to learn-Kopec trained his young charge in marksmanship, a renegade German soldier taught him fluent German and a Gypsy trained him in hand-to-hand combat-resulted in impressive victories for area partisans. Goldner blew up trains and bridges used by the Nazi army and photographed Jews arriving at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Stillman has done a remarkable job tracking down what little documentation exists in order to corroborate Goldner's unique story, making a trip to the region, meeting with former neighbors and with the children and grandchildren of Jan Kopec. . Click the book cover above to read more.





Connecting to God :
Ancient Kabbalah and Modern Psychology
by Abner Weiss
September 2005. Bell Tower Press.
South African born scholar and former YU teacher, Abner Weiss, focuses on the spiritual genome in his latest book. Armed with advance degrees in Jewish philosophy and psychology, as well as decades of work as both a licensed therapist and a congregational rabbi, Weiss merges psychological analysis with a keen awareness of kabbalistic relationships as illustrated by the 10 sefirot (or spiritual roots) of the Tree of Life. (he has studied kabbalah since 1965) Weiss tempers his academic approach with dozens of examples (taken from 28 patients and congregants, as well as the Bible) that illustrate the links between common and rare psychological disorders and imbalances within the development of what he has termed the "spiritual genomes" within all of us. As PW writes, this is NOT for the RED-STRING, POP CULTURE SET, this serious examination of psychology and spirituality includes references to and discussions of the ancient and contemporary Jewish sages-including Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Elijah, the Vilna Gaon, Maimonides, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan and Rabbi Schneur Zalman-and a wide array of luminaries in philosophy and psychology, such as Hegel and Jung. Those looking for a more intellectually rigorous approach to spiritual self-help and those in the fields of philosophy and psychology will find this a valuable read. Click the book cover above to read more.





Mandrakes from the Holy Land (Hardcover)
by Aharon Megged
September 2005. Toby Press.
Israeli novelist Megged sets his historically rich epistolary and diary-based novel (after Foiglman) in turn-of-the-century Palestine, then mostly a backwater of small Arab villages and start-up Jewish farming settlements. In 1906, Englishwoman Beatrice Campbell-Bennett, a devout Christian and frustrated lesbian, travels to the Holy Land ostensibly to paint biblical flowers, but her true goal is to "purify" herself. The child of a prosperous but unhappy family, she fraternized with the famous Bloomsbury group of intellectuals, falling in love with Vanessa Stephen, Virginia Woolf's sister. In her quest to explore what she calls "this land of wonders," the fiercely independent Beatrice hires a young Arab guide named Aziz, with whom she develops an increasingly tense relationship. She also spends time with the famous Zionist pioneer Aaron Aaronsohn and his attractive younger sister, Sarah, until her conflicting emotions-and ecstatic religiosity-threaten to completely overwhelm her. Megged annotates the letters and diary entries with notes by a Dr. P.D. Morrison, a psychologist hired by Beatrice's parents to examine her mental state, and his rather hilarious Freudian commentary adds a sharp satirical edge. This, plus Megged's graceful use of biblical history and evocation of early Zionist culture makes for a learned, compelling book. Click the book cover above to read more.





The Living on the Dead
By Aharon Megged
September 2005. Toby Press.
The Living on the Dead is the history of a book that has not been written. Its central theme is the debt of the living to the dead, and in particular the effects on the heirs of Israel of their new and dearly bought nationality. Jonas is a writer, on trial for breach of contract. Commissioned to write the biography of a national hero, Davidov, he has after eighteen months and thousands of pounds of payment produced not a word. Despite the mountains of research and testimonies, he is oppressed and even rebuked by his subject's sanctity... even when he perceives that the idol's feet are of clay. He simply cannot write the book of the legend of Davidov. Translated from the Hebrew Ha Chai Al Ha Met by Misha Louvish. Click the book cover above to read more.









JUDAISM'S ENCOUNTER WITH AMERICAN SPORTS
By Jeffrey S. Gurock (Yeshiva University)
September 2005. Indiana University Press.
Judaism's Encounter with American Sports examines how sports entered the lives of American Jewish men and women and how the secular values of sports threatened religious identification and observance. What do Jews do when a society-in this case, a team-"chooses them in," but demands commitments that clash with ancestral ties and practices? Jeffrey S. Gurock, author, teacher, and NYC Marathon runner, uses the experience of sports to illuminate an important mode of modern Jewish religious conflict and accommodation to America. He considers the defensive strategies American Jewish leaders have employed in response to sports' challenges to identity, such as using temple and synagogue centers, complete with gymnasiums and swimming pools, to attract the athletically inclined to Jewish life. Within the suburban frontiers of post-World War II America, sports-minded modern Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform rabbis competed against one another for the allegiances of Jewish athletes and all other Americanized Jews. In the present day, tensions among Jewish movements are still played out in the sports arena. Today, in a mostly accepting American society, it is easy for sports-minded Jews to assimilate completely, losing all regard for Jewish ties. At the same time, a very tolerant America has enabled Jews to succeed in the sports world, while keeping faith with Jewish traditions. Gurock foregrounds his engaging book against his own experiences as a basketball player, coach, and marathon runner. By using the metaphor of sports, Judaism's Encounter with American Sports underscores the basic religious dilemmas of our day. Click the book cover above to read more.





America's Great Delis
Recipes And Traditions from Coast to Coast
by Sheryll Bellman
September 2005. Collectors Press
Whether it's a pastrami on rye or a bagel with a schmear, America's Great Delis, by Sheryll Bellman, explores the history and recipes of the country's most beloved delis. From New York's Lower East Side to Detroit and all points west, the delicatessen remains a quintessential part of the American landscape. In New York, as in much of America, lunch is synonymous with deli. Perfected in the early twentieth century by Eastern European Jewish immigrants, the deli, short for delicatessen, quickly won our hearts - and stomachs! From Barney Greengrass "The Sturgeon King" to Katz's Deli, with their beloved slogan "Send a Salami to Your Boy in the Army," and the renowned Carnegie Deli, celebrity hotspot for generations, America's Great Delis is the authoritative answer to all your noshing needs. Vintage photographs, menus, and signs complement the mouth-watering recipes made famous in delis across the country. Matzo ball soup, classic coleslaw, and cheesecake are just a few of the classic made-to-order tastes included for deli aficionados everywhere. Features: More than one hundred nostalgic deli photographs, historical food and deli details, and a guide to "deli speak." Recipes including Ben's Kosher Noodle Kugel, Zingerman's Hamentaschen, Ratner's Potato Pancakes, Nate 'n Al's Corned Beef Hash, and many more. Famous delis such as 2nd Avenue Deli, Ratner's, and The Stage Deli in New York, and Canter's and Langers in Los Angeles, among others across the country. Click the book cover above to read more.



Angel Secrets
Stories Based on Jewish Legend
by Miriam Chaikin, Leonid Gore (Illustrator)
Henry Holt and Co. (September 1, 2005).
Ages 8 - 12
From Booklist Gr. 4-6. Chaikin, author of many books about Judaism and Jewish myths, turns her attention to angels in this compendium that draws on Midrash and other Jewish writings. She takes readers to heaven and earth, where angels of all orders serve the Holy One and link above and below. The first story is a reshaping of a familiar one in which God sends angels to make an indentation in the spot above a baby's lips so the baby will forget all the knowledge he or she had before birth. In Chaikin's telling, one of Satan's minions is determined that one child will retain that knowledge. In another story, Chaikin uses the idea that each letter of the Hebrew alphabet is ruled by an angel to show how angelic presence affects earthly happenings. The parables sometimes raise more questions than they answer, but this increases their worth, as readers ponder their meanings. The lively writing style is enhanced by evocative, full-page paintings that begin each story. The subtle incorporations of angels and Hebrew letters make the pictures as worthy of study as the tales. Click the book cover above to read more.







PRINCES OF DARKNESS
THE SAUDI ASSAULT ON THE WEST
by Laurent Murawiec (Hudson Institute, Rand)
September 2005. Rowman and Littlefield
Princes of Darkness is the English translation of La guerre d'apres (The Next War), originally published by Albin Michel Publishers in Paris in 2003. This book is a highly critical expose of Saudi Arabia and attacks the elite inside that country as enemies of the western world. By extension this is also a criticism of the US foreign policy that has supported the royal family. It should be noted that the genesis of this book comes from the author's intensely controversial and subsequently leaked Defense Department briefing in July 2002, while serving as a senior international policy analyst at RAND. According to the author, The Saudis are active in the terror chain; that the U.S. should threaten the Saudis with reducing oil imports and focusing on Iraq's oil supplies instead; Saudi Arabia is not a state, but a family business; and their Wahhabism and anti Zionist are used to support that family's power. Click the book cover above to read more.







Judaism's Encounter With American Sports
(Modern Jewish Experience)
by Jeffrey S. Gurock
September 2005. Indiana University Press
Jeffrey S. Gurock, Libby M. Klaperman Professor of Jewish History at Yeshiva University, is author or editor of 13 books. Judaism's Encounter with American Sports examines how sports entered the lives of American Jewish men and women and how the secular values of sports threatened religious identification and observance. What do Jews do when a society-in this case, a team-"chooses them in," but demands commitments that clash with ancestral ties and practices? Jeffrey S. Gurock uses the experience of sports to illuminate an important mode of modern Jewish religious conflict and accommodation to America. He considers the defensive strategies American Jewish leaders have employed in response to sports' challenges to identity, such as using temple and synagogue centers, complete with gymnasiums and swimming pools, to attract the athletically inclined to Jewish life. Within the suburban frontiers of post-World War II America, sports-minded modern Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform rabbis competed against one another for the allegiances of Jewish athletes and all other Americanized Jews. In the present day, tensions among Jewish movements are still played out in the sports arena. Today, in a mostly accepting American society, it is easy for sports-minded Jews to assimilate completely, losing all regard for Jewish ties. At the same time, a very tolerant America has enabled Jews to succeed in the sports world, while keeping faith with Jewish traditions. Gurock foregrounds his engaging book against his own experiences as a basketball player, coach, and marathon runner. By using the metaphor of sports, Judaism's Encounter with American Sports underscores the basic religious dilemmas of our day.
Click the book cover above to read more.







Tree of Paradise
Jewish Mosaics from the Roman Empire
by Brooklyn Museum
September 2005.
Companion Book to the Brooklyn Museum Show. Click the book cover above to read more.







Beyond Glory
Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink
by David Margolick
September 2005. Knopf
From Publishers Weekly: Fought with thunderclouds of war on the horizon, the 1938 heavyweight rematch between Detroit's Joe Louis and Germany's Max Schmeling qualifies as the sort of sporting event that coalesces into a symbolic moment with much larger themes. The African-American Louis's success and demeanor were an unsubtle rebuke to the Aryan theories of race; the affable Schmeling, for his part, would be shoehorned into the role of "Nazi Max," despite the uneasiness of the fit-later that year, on Kristallnacht, he would courageously protect two German Jews. Vanity Fair contributor Margolick (Strange Fruit) keeps his bold, colorful focus squarely on the hubbub leading up to the bout; the all-consuming welter of hype-almost every utterance in the book is tinged by race or geopolitics-makes for compelling reading. The fight pitted talent against tactics: Schmeling's previous defeat of the hitherto "unbeatable" Louis depended on Schmeling's shrewd perception of a flaw in Louis's technique. Louis was a critical transitional figure between the controversial first African-American champ, Jack Johnson, and the equally polarizing Muhammad Ali. Schmeling, in turn, was truly the antithesis of the thugs who were running his country. Every chapter in the company of such estimable and likable stalwarts is an unalloyed pleasure."
INCLUDES GREAT INFO of Schmeling and Hitler, Schmeling's "Jewish" boxing manager, the Jewish boxing promoters, and how Max Baer and other boxers always tried to be "jewish" even though they were not. Click the book cover above to read more.







Love, with Noodles
An Amorous Widower's Tale
A novel by Harry Freund
September 2005.
Stockbroker Dan Gelder (60) has a posh Fifth Avenue address, is two years a widower, and remains faithful to his deceased wife. Numbed by grief, he is annoyed-not flattered-by the attentions of the women introduced to him by friends. Then he meets Violet Finkel. And Susan Klein. And Myra Cox. And Tatiana Andrevsky. Violet tempts him with limitless luxury and then with truly profound affection, which he discovers on a journey with her to Jerusalem. But plumpish, pretty Susan offers him cookies in her kitchen, while Myra, an activist dedicated to the cause - and jewelry - of Native Americans, tests the strength of his lower back. Exotic Tatiana weds beauty to mystery, and grace to pride, as she strives to overcome a Russian immigrant's poverty for herself and her young son. Dan's son, Eric, meanwhile, is facing bankruptcy, which Dan can handle more readily than Eric's marriage proposal to the non-Jewish Carol Hoffman. Forced to examine this unexpected crisis in terms of his own faith and his Jewish heritage, Dan at sixty finds that more than his libido has been renewed. This comic, yet wise, delightful novel views the follies and fallibilities of romance at a certain age-serving up love deliciously, with noodles. Click the book cover above to read more.





The Man Who Swam into History
The (Mostly) True Story of My Jewish Family
Jewish History, Life, and Culture
by Robert A. Rosenstone (Professor Cal Tech)
September 2005. University of Texas Press
The story begins with a grandfather who heroically escaped from Russia by swimming the Pruth River to Romania-or did he? Then there are stories of another grandfather who kept a lifelong mistress; grandmothers who were ignored except in the kitchen; migrations legal and illegal from Eastern Europe to Canada to California; racketeers on one side of the family and Communists on the other; and a West Coast adolescence in the McCarthy years. All of these (mostly true) stories form a Jewish family's history, a tale of dislocation and assimilation. But in the hands of award-winning historian Robert Rosenstone, they become much more. The fragments of memory so beautifully preserved in The Man Who Swam into History add unforgettable, human characters to the now familiar story of the Jewish diaspora in the twentieth century. This combination memoir/short story collection recounts the Rosenstone family's passage from Romania to America. Robert Rosenstone tells the story not as a single, linear narrative, but through "tales, sequences, windows, moments, and fragments resurrected from the lives of three generations in my two parental families, set in five countries on two continents over the period of almost a century." This more literary and personal approach allows Rosenstone's relatives to emerge as distinct personalities, voices who quarrel and gossip, share their dreams and fears, and maintain the ties of a loving, if eccentric, family. Among the genre of "coming to America" tales, The Man Who Swam into History is a work of unique vision, one that both records and reconstructs the past even as it continuously-and humorously-questions the truth of its own assertions. Click the book cover above to read more.





Between Camelots
(Drue Heinz Literature Prize)
by David Harris Ebenbach
University of Pittsburgh Press (September 30, 2005)
From Publishers Weekly: Ebenbach captures the anxious musings of characters in transition in this debut collection of 15 stories, many focusing on younger male protagonists who find themselves adrift in the wake of romantic failures. In the title story, a lonely young man whose nights are marked by "masturbation, sighing journal entries, and then... bed" goes to a party hoping to meet a particular girl, but instead encounters a pretzel-noshing pseudo-philosopher who posits that in life, one is always moving from one false Camelot to the next, and that only fools keep seeking interpersonal bonds. The recently dumped, morose Oberlin grad of "Getting Back onto Solid Foods" returns to his college town for a vegetarian Thanksgiving with old friends, while the confused narrator of "Rebbetzin" feels awkward at a memorial service for his wife's former art professor. Ebenbach does a fine job of exploring his characters' longing for connection-between brother and troubled sister in "Pointing Up"; between a young teacher and his students (and his brand-new girlfriend) in "Social Games"-but his emphasis on interior monologue dampens the stories' power. Click the book cover above to read more.







Be Still and Get Going
A Jewish Meditation Practice for Real Life
by Rabbi Alan Lew
Little Brown - Summer 2005
From Publishers Weekly: Once again Rabbi Lew (One God Clapping; This Is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared) beautifully marries the ancient traditions, history and lore of the Torah and Talmud with the serene meditative practices of Zen Buddhism. His singular distinction of founding and leading a meditation center, Makor Or (in San Francisco), the first of its kind connected to a Conservative synagogue, gives him a unique perspective. He says that Jews have had the written treasures, rich discussions and the sacred Sabbath right in front of them for 3,000 years, but have often overlooked them. Using selected Torah passages, Talmudic musings and contemporary stories of friends and congregants, Lew illustrates the intrinsic spiritual path within Judaism and suggests ways to incorporate that path into an everyday spiritual practice. Like any good teacher unafraid to address big, broad issues-suffering, fear, conflict-and agile enough to make sense of the more elusive ones-listening for and finding God, connecting to and appreciating sacred emptiness-Lew follows each lesson with a summation of "practice points." Seekers need not be Jewish to engage the ancient wisdom of these meditations that offer a rich, multileveled path to everyday spirituality. Click the book cover above to read more.














OCTOBER 2005

MAIMONIDES
The Jewish Encounter Series
By Sherwin Nuland
Schocken, OCTOBER 4, 2005
From Publishers Weekly: Maimonides, one of the preeminent personalities of medieval Jewish history, was a jurist, philosopher, expert in Jewish law, physician at the court of Saladin and a respected and dedicated communal leader. Given all that, it's difficult to understand the decision to present Maimonides's legacy primarily through the lens of his work as a physician. The 12th century was a time of stagnation in the history of medicine, and the author himself concedes that Maimonides contributed very little that was new or innovative to the field. By contrast, his jurisprudential magnum opus, the Mishne Torah, constituted a groundbreaking work in its own day and continues to be authoritative almost a millennium later. Although Nuland acknowledges this in a chapter on Maimonides's religious scholarship, it is dwarfed by the overarching concern with medicine-which seems the primary interest of Nuland, a clinical professor of surgery at Yale. The author does a serviceable job of stitching together this slight, popular biography of the larger-than-life Maimonides, but his writing is marred by an overwrought prologue and some glib generalizations. Click the book cover above to read more.

Also.. Part of the Jewish Encounter Series will be books on Moses, Barney Ross, Military Jews, Spinoza, Hillel Halkin on Halevi, ben katchor on dairy restaurants, jewish bodies, the Song of Songs, Seth Lipsky on Abraham Cahan, the Rebbe, David Mamet will write about self hatred; Gluckel of Hameln; The Altalena; Emma Lazarus; messianism; Chagall; and Jewish-and-power.






FAITH FOR BEGINNERS
A novel
by Aaron Hamburger
Random House, OCTOBER 4, 2005
From Publishers Weekly: A woman hopes a family trip to Israel will help her reclaim her confused, rebellious son in Hamburger's entertaining, irreverent first novel (after the collection: THE VIEW FROM STALIN'S HEAD). Jeremy's been at NYU for five years, but he's still just a junior, and Helen Michaelson, 58, thinks he might have a much-needed spiritual awakening on the "Michigan Miracle 2000" tour. But while Jeremy's more interested in cruising Jerusalem's gay parks, Helen herself is primed for revelation, as she finds that her connection to Judaism and her family is more complicated than she'd thought. Hamburger has an exacting eye for mundane detail and suburban conventions, and in Jeremy he's created the classic green-haired, pierced college student ranting about social injustice. But beneath Jeremy's sarcastic, moralizing banter, there's a convincing critique of Americans' way of being in the world. In Israel in 2000, the Michaelsons are like Pixar creations trapped in a movie filmed in Super 8-the Middle East may be fraught with political tension, but their biggest problem is the heat outside their air-conditioned bus. Hamburger goes further than witty satire, though, and when the plot takes a dark turn he demonstrates that he's capable of taking on global issues, even if his characters aren't."
Mrs. Michaelson just doesn't seem to get it. Why cant good manners lead to Middle East peace. But what is up with son calling her by her first name. It seems to be just the beginning crack of all that is sacred. If you let him call her Helen, will everything collapse? Also, what the author shows so beautifully, is the state of people who arrive in Israel awaiting epiphanies and idealism, but reality nastily doesn't comply. Click the book cover above to read more.







Matches
A Novel
by Alan Kaufman
October 23, 2005
I have been attracted to Kaufman's writing since he did TattooJew, and JewBoy. I always think of how he would make minyans for a collection of some very unique older Jewish San Franciscans. I am therefore looking forward to reading Matches. I have it in my hand.. but just have to place it in the pile of next books to read,
From Publishers Weekly: The title is an Israeli army term for a soldier, or one who "strikes, burns, and dies." Nathan Falk, an American-born Jew and the son of a Holocaust survivor, arrives in Israel seeking "for once, to be generally human, immersed in a kinky-haired majority"-and to do the three years of regular military service and subsequent one-month-a-year reserve duty required of every Israeli male. The narrative falls into 13 Israel Defense Forces patrol vignettes, centered by one novella-size chapter that follows Falk's affair with his best friend's alcoholic girlfriend, along with the honor killing of a 17-year-old Bedouin girl by a man in Falk's (very multi-culti) unit. Throughout, Kaufman (Jew Boy), an American Jew who did multiple IDF tours and now lives in San Francisco, sketches the fault lines of Israeli society as heightened by the highly charged, often violent patrols in the West Bank and Gaza: Sephardic vs. Ashkenazi; native vs. emigré; Arab vs. Jew. The political turmoil, ruined relationships, coiled anger and psychological damage the patrols leave in their wake is made vivid-and personal-at every turn, as are IDF procedures and moments of unexpected cooperation across borders