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Israelis living in America…not unusual

Israelis living in America…not unusual

Don’t Tell Your Brother Meir Shalev Am Oved Publishers, 2022 263 pages Close to one million Israelis live in the United States and Canada. I happen to be one of them. Thus, Don’t Tell Your Brother by veteran and master Israeli author Meir Shalev (born in Nahalal,...

From Belarussian “Balaboosta” to Broadway Madam

From Belarussian “Balaboosta” to Broadway Madam

 Madam—The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age   Debby Applegate  553 pp  Doubleday, 2021 Frank Sinatra, Walter Winchell, Lucky Luciano, Dorothy Parker, Duke Ellington, Dutch Schultz, Robert Benchley, Desi Arnaz—and likely FDR. This is just a partial list...

Insightful reflections by Pittsburgh writers

Insightful reflections by Pittsburgh writers

Bound In The Bond Of Life (Pittsburgh Writers Reflect on the Tree of Life Tragedy) Edited by Beth Kissileff and Eric Lidji University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020 242 pages   The utterly shocking and deeply unsettling 83-minute attack on Shabbat morning, October 27,...

Close to home

Close to home

The Serpent Papers Jeff Schnader The Permanent Press, March 2022 ISBN: 978-1-57962-648-8 302 pages, $29.95 I recently finished reading The Serpent Papers, a new novel about the Vietnam era by Jeff Schnader, a local retired physician and EVMS professor turned author....

Untold Story

Untold Story

X Troop— The Secret Jewish Commandos of World War II Leah Garrett Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021 351 pages Ask most American Jews about Jewish warriors and they will promptly mention the Maccabees and contemporary Israeli soldiers. In X Troop—The Secret Jewish...

Difficult Decisions – Shadow Strike

Shadow Strike: Inside Israel’s Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power Yaakov Katz May 2019 St. Martin’s, 320 pages ISBN: 978-1-250-19127-4 Shadow Strike is a must read for followers of Israel’s military history, as well as for those that follow serious world...

More than pain, this book is also about lifestyle

Outsmart Your Pain! The Essential Guide to Overcoming Pain and Transforming Your Life Lisa Barr, MD Illustrations by Tim Sovine Synergy Health Quest, LLC, 2018 ISBN 13: 978-1-7320011-0-7 In the opening pages of Outsmart Your Pain!, Lisa Barr, MD, says, “The science of...

If You Could See Me: Life,Motherhood, and the Pursuit of Sanity

Richmond author shares personal and universal stories in new book Erin Mahone Motivational Press, 2017 Reviewed by Amy Zelenka Did you ever feel like you were living in that famous idiom: the inmates are running the asylum? Well, Erin Mahone, in her new book, If You...

The Lost Family: A Novel

Tragedy impacts generations Jenna Blum Harper Collins Publishing | New York, New York Reviewed by Lynn Woods In The Lost Family, author Jenna Blum explores how tragic grief and loss can impact a family for generations. Years have passed since Peter Rashkin, chef and...

The Spy Who Played Baseball

Perfect for baseball and history fans Carrie Jones Kar-Ben Publishing | Minneapolis, MN Reviewed by Sam Levin I had the opportunity to read a great book called, The Spy Who Played Baseball. It is about how Moe Berg played baseball and was a spy. Nobody expected Moe to...

Jenna Blum | The Lost Family: A Novel

Tragedy Impacts Generations Jenna Blum | The Lost Family: A Novel Harper Collins Publishing New York, New York In The Lost Family, author Jenna Blum explores how tragic grief and loss can impact a family for generations. Years have passed since Peter Rashkin, chef and...

The Opposite of Hate: A Field Guide to Repairing Our Humanity

An unfortunate topic The Opposite of Hate: A Field Guide to Repairing Our Humanity Sally Kohn Workman Publishing, 2018 Wendy Juren Auerbach To be honest, the copy of The Opposite of Hate: A Field Guide to Repairing Our Humanity by Sally Kohn languished on my pile of...

This Is The Year I Put My Financial Life In Order

Memoir meets financial guide This Is The Year I Put My Financial Life In Order John Schwartz Penguin Random House LLC, 2018 Money is often an overwhelming and stressful topic. While some people love discussing financial matters, others cringe at the thought of...

Sadie’s Snowy Tu B’Shevat

Can be read alone Sadie’s Snowy Tu B’Shevat Jamie Korngold Kar-Ben Publishing I like this book very much because although I could read it by myself, I read it with my mom. Like Sadie, I love Tu B’Shevat, and while I know that it’s winter here, in Israel for...

Thou Shalt Innovate: How Israeli Ingenuity Repairs the World.

Thou Shalt Innovate: How Israeli Ingenuity Repairs the World. Avi Jorisch Gefen Publishing House LTD In the summer of 2014, along with the rest of the world, I was watching closely as Israel launched  Operation Protective Edge to protect her citizens from Hamas-led...

Gone To Dust

Gone To Dust, A Novel Matt Goldman Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC If the litmus test for a compelling murder mystery is not being able to put a book down, Matt Goldman’s first novel, Gone To Dust, is quite the success and already a New York Times Best Seller. Aided...

The Attachment Effect

Peter Lovenheim explains, “It began wonderfully, as romances do, but later devolved into a turbulent on again, off again affair. She was looking for a commitment I couldn’t make and I was looking for emotional intimacy she couldn’t give.” Years of breakups and makeups. The relationship became polarized—he was an anxious partner demanding more intimacy and she was an avoidant partner who shut down and withdrew. His Anxious Attachment style and her Avoidant Attachment style led to the Anxious-Avoidant Trap.

Escape to Virginia. From Nazi Germany to Thalhimer’s Farm

Robert H. Gillette Charleston: History Press, 2015 252 pages Robert H. Gillette is a retired educator living in Lynchburg, Va., who researched this intriguing story and retraced it within its larger historical context through the experiences of Werner (Töpper) Angress...

An epic and relevant tale

Politics, Faith, and the Making of American Judaism Peter Adams Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2014, 230 pages ISBN: 978-0-472-07205-7 Peter Adams is a former journalist who teaches English at Old Dominion University. His study recounts the story of...

An ardent peace activist’s’ latest novel

Judas Amos Oz Translated by Nicholas de Lange Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016 305 pages, $25 Amos Oz, Israel’s premier author, is the very embodiment of Eretz Yisrael Hayafa, that beautifully inspiring Israel—particularly in its early pioneering phase—a reborn nation...

Researched and emotional

Violins of Hope (Violins of the Holocaust-Instruments of Hope and Liberation in Mankind’s Darkest Hour) James A. Grymes Harper Perennial, 2014 319 page, $15.99 Author James A. Grymes is a noted professor of musicology at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte who...

A complex critique: Inside the Middle East

Inside the Middle East Avi Melamed Skyhorse Publishing 2016 374 pages, $26.99 Dennis Ross was astonished to realize that senior White House, State, and Defense officials had little or no knowledge of what transpired in previous administrations’ relationships with...

Investigative piece on top secret U.S. operation

Operation Paperclip (The Secret Intelligence Program That Brought  Nazi Scientists to America) Annie Jacobsen Little, Brown and Company, 2014 575 pages, $30  Author Annie Jacobsen, a Princeton University graduate, already proved her superb investigative and writing...

Definitive appraisal

Doomed to Succeed The U.S.-Israeli Relationship  from Truman to Obama Dennis Ross Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2015 474pp., $30 ISBN 978-0-374-14146-2  Dennis Ross must be doing something right. He has been criticized by both israelis and Palestinians, by...