J Is for Janucá by Melanie Romero
When I think of Hanukkah, I think of a winter celebration that I know a little about, but not enough to say much about. So, when J Is for Janucá came up on a list of books to read online via Edelweiss, I thought here is a great way to learn. And I learned more than expected. You see, this book is bilingual. Spanish and English words and phrases fill this alphabet book in ways you will be amazed at. Words you might know, such […]
Jewish Holidays: A Brief Introductions for Christians by Kerry M. Olitzky
Jewish Holidays: A Brief Introduction for Christians by Kerry M. Olitzky My rating: 3 of 5 stars This book is a really good overview of Jewish holidays for those that are curious about their origins and practices, particularly from a Christian context. If you are looking for a “how-to” this is not that book. Like the title says, it’s brief. Each holiday is presented in it’s context from the Torah followed by a socio-historical context. There is an overview of how the holiday is practiced […]
Esther by Norah Lofts
CBR 14 Bingo: Snake There are several snakes in the grass who lie in wait for the king, most of all his favorite Haman. Esther is Jewish, but her husband the king of Persia doesn’t know it. Which is rather a problem, as he has allowed his courtier Haman to order the massacre of all the Jews in his empire. Did I really need to give a summary? It’s in the Bible! This was a short, swift read, starting with the casting out of the […]
Gangsters vs. Nazis: How Jewish Mobsters Battled Nazis in Wartime America by Michael Benson
CBR 14 Bingo: Bodies Bodies hit the floor a whole lot of times, if not permanently. With Nazism on the rise in 1930s America, protected by free speech laws, a Jewish judge sets out to deal with them in the only way he knows how – by setting gangsters on them. I’m not big on WW2 stories, mostly because I feel like the market is rather oversaturated. But rather perversely I’m still always on the lookout for unique stories in this setting, because those stories […]
The Cage by Bonnie Kistler
Gangsterland by Tod Goldberg
Gone 'Til November by Wallace Stroby
Cover Story by Susan Rigetti
Survivor's Guilt by Robyn Gigl
The Old Man by Thomas Perry
Iron Annie by Luke Cassidy
The Drop by Michael Connelly
The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw
Barbed Wire Heart by Tess Sharpe
Amateur City by Katherine V. Forrest
Booth by Karen Joy Fowler
The Fury of Blacky Jaguar by Angel Luis Colón
He Kills Coppers by Jake Arnott
Lysistrata by Aristophanes
I was dealing with work turmoil and on vacation for most of June so I didn’t get the chance to write as many in depth reviews as I’d have liked to. Which is a shame because some of these deserved a longer look; I just didn’t have the time or energy… The Cage **** I went back-and-forth on my review. I’ve been giving out a lot of 4-star reviews lately and considered docking the book for that reason since it’s very borderline. But the more I […]
Artifacts of Orthodox Jewish Childhood by Dainy Bernstein (editor)
Artifacts of Orthodox Childhoods is a book of personal and critical essays that cover a historically under-researched topic. The book is inclusive of a wide range of viewpoints and backgrounds, and it benefits from the thought that went into the editing of the essays and the impulse to widen instead of narrow the people who contributed. I appreciated that this book didn’t retread the same familiar ground we see in the media of the triumphant escape from the backwards evil of Ultra-Orthodoxy. Instead, the collection gave […]
