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...
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How two Israeli psychologists taught the world how to re-think…thinking
The Undoing Project Michael Lewis 362 pp. W.W Norton & Co, 2017 ISBN 978-03932544594 362 pages, $28.95 In the early 1940s, young Danny Kahneman was walking the streets of Paris after curfew. He had gone to school early so he could take off his sweater before his...
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...
The Devil’s Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich
The Devil’s Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich Robert K. Wittman and David Kinney Harper,513 pages, $35 The Devil’s Diary of interconnected significant dramas is an invaluable addition to the continued growth of Holocaust literature and...
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...
One tale from two perspectives
Nathan’s Famous: The First Hundred Years William Handwerker with Jayne A. Pearl Morgan James, 2016 192 pages, $17.95 Paper Famous Nathan Lloyd Handwerker and Gil Reavill Flatiron Books, 2016 306 pages, $26.99 As a child growing up in New York during the Great...
Delightful, intelligent and personal
The Seven Good Years: A Memoir Etgar Keret Riverhead Books, Penguin Random House, 2015 171 pages, $26.95 Last spring, Etgar Keret’s The Seven Good Years, appeared in my mailbox. The cover and press release promised a fun read, so i gave it a try. After the first...
Pain of Syria’s war captured
The Morning They Came For Us (Dispatches From Syria) Janine Di Giovanni New York: Liveright Publishing 206 pages, $25.95 The Morning They Came For Us is an important book with lasting consequence by author Janine Di Giovanni, award-winning (including two Amnesty...
A well-written analysis of the “Arab Spring”
A Rage For Order—The Middle East in Turmoil: From Tahrir Square to ISIS Robert F. Worth Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016 259 pages, $26 ISBN978-0-374-25294-6 When Robert Kaplan published his collection of articles, Balkan Ghosts, in 1995, it was immediately recognized...
A compelling view of Israel
The Victory of Zionism Emmanuel Navon 2014 366 pages, $18 (paper) ISBN 1-502-32794-5 Ari Shavit’s best-selling cri de coeur, My Promised Land, was naturally not a hit with the American Israel Political Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and its supporters. Yet despite its...
Illustrated by a Portsmouth native
Retelling Genesis by Barry Louis Polisar Illustrations by Roni Lynn Polisar Rainbow Morning Music: Silver Spring, Maryland 32 pages, $7.95 Author, musician, recording artist, songwriter and entertainer Barry Louis Polisar was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. and grew up in the...
Don’t pass on this one
Passing in Review 30 Years of Literary Criticism and Articles from Jewish News of Southeastern Virginia Hal Sacks Edited by Terri Denison Parke Press, 2015 248 pages, ISBN 978-0-9883969-6-8 Hal Sacks knows a lot—about a lot of things. This local treasure of a...
A documentation of events surrounding the Nazi pogroms
75 Jahre Reichskristallnacht Anna Rosmus Grafenau: Samples, 2013 157 pages Anna Rosmus, the German author and public intellectual, is well-known to quite a few in the Jewish community of Hampton Roads since the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Old...
A national award-winning book
Violins of Hope (Violins of the Holocaust—Instruments of Hope and Liberation in Mankind’s Darkest Hour) by James A. Grymes Harper Perennial, 2014 319 pages, $15.9 Author James Author James A. Grymes, noted professor of musicology at the University of North...
Almost ‘Norfolk native’ creates Haggadah for baseball fans of all ages
The Baseball Haggadah: A Festival of Freedom and Springtime in 15 Innings by Rabbi Sharon Forman Illustrated by Lisa J. Teitelbaum 54 pages 2015/5775 A Reform rabbi and a mom of “dedicated little leaguers,” Rabbi Sharon Forman has created a Haggadah that covers all of...
A brilliant essay
Jews and Words by Amos Oz and Fania Oz-Salzberger Yale University Press, 2012. 232 pages Jews and Words is not an ordinary book. It is the enchanting outcome of a unique collaborative conversation between a father and daughter. Amos Oz and Fania Oz-Salzberger are both...
From a Nobel winner
Suspended Sentences Patrick Modiano Translated by Mark Polizzotti Yale University Press, 2014 ISBN 978-0-300-19805-8, 215 pp.(paper) Patrick Modiano, French writer of Flemish/ Italian/Jewish ancestry and winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature is almost unheard...
Structurally complex family saga
Dissident Gardens Jonathan Lethem Doubleday, 2013 366 pages, $27.95 ISBN 978-0-385-53493-2 As the American literary giants of the mid-20th century gradually leave the scene, the young literary lions who follow are now producing mature works. Among them is Jonathan...
Revealing and personal
Open Heart Elie Wiesel Translated from the French by Marion Wiesel New York, Knopf. 2012 79 pages, $20 Originally published in France in 2011, prolific author Ellie Wiesel’s bestseller is light only in size. Open Heart is a generous gift from a truly loving heart of...
Book Festival cookbook for busy cooks
Kosher Cuisine: For a New Generation Cantor Mitch, The Singing Chef Red Portal Press, 2014 168pp., $16.95, ISBN 978-1-938063-53-4 On Thursday, Nov. 6, at noon, Cantor Mitch Kowitz will be present in partnership with Beth Sholom Village and Jewish Family Service as...
Just in time for author visit
Hanna and Walter Hanna and Walter Kohner With Frederick Kohner iUniverse, reissued 2008 147pp., $14.95 ISBN 978-0-595-46598-9 On Sunday, Nov. 16, at the Women’s Cabinet PLUS ONE brunch, co-hosted by the UJFT Holocaust Commission, attendees will hear a Holocaust story...
Complex and interesting from a Norfolk native
Father, Son, Stone Allan H. Goodman Solomon Publications, 2014 463 pp., $18.99 ISBN 978-0-9670973-6-7 So, what does a Norfolk kid who graduated from Granby High School, practiced law for 18 years and served as a federal administrative judge for a couple of decades do...
A mesmerizing tale
The Pope and Mussolini (The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe) David I. Kertzer Random House, 2014 549 pages, $32 We are in the debt of prolific and award-winning author David I. Kertzer, the Paul Dupee, Jr. University professor of social...
Recipes that even ‘non-bakers’ should try
The Holiday Kosher Baker Paula Shoyer Photos by Michael Bennett Kress Sterling, 2014 222 pages, $35 ISBN:978-1-4549-0714-5 Your reviewer is admittedly a non-baker. However, Paula Shoyer, a former attorney, author of the very successful The Kosher Baker (2010) and now...
Food, Family and Tradition Hungarian Kosher Family Recipes and Remembrances
Food, Family and Tradition Hungarian Kosher Family Recipes and Remembrances Lynn Kirsche Shapiro The Cherry Press, 2014 279 pages, $35 ISBN: 978-0-9898479-0-2 As the “2,000 Year Old Man,” Mel Brooks, used to say “Oy, I love a nectarine; half a plum, half a peach, not...
A great collection
The 40s: The Story of a Decade The New Yorker Random House, 2014 696 pages, $30.00 ISBN: 978-0-679-64479-8 When Harold Ross, a hard-drinking, card-playing, heavy smoker, conceived of The New Yorker his plan was to create a Manhattan-centered “fifteen-cent comic...
Reflections on a tenacious spirit
Paula’s Window: Papa, the Bielski Partisans and a Life Unexpected Paula Berger, as told to Andrea Jacobs Paula Burger, 2013 ISBN:978-1-938859-47-2 $18 In Paula’s Window, Paula Berger nee Koladicki re-spins the wheel of her life. At age five the Russians occupied the...
My Mother Has the Finest Eyes
My Mother Has the Finest Eyes: A Collection of Poetry and Reflection Lois Zachary, 2013 3rd edition, 51 pages ISBN 978-1-491-20041-4 What’s Left Behind Poems by Michal Mahgerefteh Poetica Publishing, 2013 Second edition, 32 pages, $15.00 ISBN 978-0-9636410-2-5 Michal...
Cooking Inspired: Bringing Creativity and Passion Back into the Kitchen
Cooking Inspired: Bringing Creativity and Passion Back into the Kitchen The Best of KosherScoop.com Estee Kafra Feldheim Publishers, 2013 366 pages, $35.99 ISBN: 978-1-59826-048-9 It takes a lot of confidence to publish expensive, glossy cookbooks—and pricey ones at...