tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-119732362010-05-07T09:53:50.686-04:00Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16336460088532584018noreply@blogger.comBlogger53125This is an XML content feed. It is intended to be viewed in a newsreader or syndicated to another site, subject to copyright and fair use.tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-1147962029846393242006-05-18T10:18:00.000-04:002006-05-18T10:20:29.873-04:00

USA Today rounds up five new novelists whose stories revolve around the Middle East. Still absent? Harry Potter and the Prince of Palestine.

Benyaminnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-1143597252725088022006-03-28T20:42:00.000-05:002006-03-28T20:54:12.750-05:00

Just in time for next Purim, Princeton University Press decides to publish Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence a good 11 months before the holiday comes round again. Um, paging the Pricenton University Press PR department: Here's a Hebrew calendar. Use it. As for the book itself, well it's certainly a doozy. How's this for a topic? Remember the last section of Megillat Esther

Benyaminnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-1137695537230783502006-01-19T13:18:00.000-05:002006-01-19T15:04:25.406-05:00

Oy. Is there any other word for the juxtaposition of James Frey, whose memoir/novel/load of bunk has been revealed to be a gross exaggeration (at best) or a gaggle of outright lies (at worst), and Elie Wiesel, whose originally Yiddish, then French, then English and now English again Night has just been announced as Oprah's next book club selection?Wiesel's retelling of his life in Nazi

Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16336460088532584018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-1135872734874246282005-12-29T10:59:00.000-05:002006-01-04T09:18:36.956-05:00

Getting advice from your friends is always good. Getting advice from your parents is also good, for the most part. However, your parents are apt to say, "See, we told you so," after you tell them how that really hot Emory girl dumped you more than your friends. Getting advised by your grandmother-no matter how dear she to you she may be-can be excruciating. "What happened to that nice girl, Cindy

Silasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-1135003299805447592005-12-19T09:34:00.000-05:002005-12-19T15:43:56.286-05:00

War novels are not for everyone. War is a dirty thing, a taboo topic. In many books on the subject, authors struggle with capturing the reality of what is often a horrible situation. The author must also show the depth of the characters as they deal with their inner conflicts, as well as the external horrors of war. Alan Kaufman's latest novel Matches is a fictional account of Nathan Falk, an

Silasnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-1133801153789559952005-12-05T11:15:00.000-05:002005-12-05T11:57:50.856-05:00

If I am asked anything about what I do -- and I am often asked anything, things you can't imagine and wouldn't want to -- it is what it's like to sit down and speak with So-and-So. So-and-So, you see, is a mythic creature of great power and untold fame. So-and-So is not human, though it occasionally looks like it might have once been, before it evolved into something far more glamorous than mere

Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16336460088532584018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-1132759148323167752005-11-23T10:18:00.000-05:002005-11-23T10:42:03.793-05:00

Give Eleanor Ferris Beach credit. Ancient archeological research isn't exactly the most scintillating of subjects (though I admit to being quite the nerd in my own interest in the topic), so why not dress it up in novel-esque clothes? It's a noble effort, an attempt to show the intrigue and drama that so typified the lives of such epic figures as the Kings of Israel and she who has been

Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16336460088532584018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-1132589638234608642005-11-21T11:06:00.000-05:002005-11-21T11:23:19.576-05:00

Rochelle Krich was an unlikely author. The Orthodox Jewish author was raising six children when she embarked on her writing career. A high school English teacher, she admitted to having fantasized about becoming a published author for years."I think my husband said stop kvetching about it and do it," Krich says during a recent phone interview. She admits, however, there were difficulties."

Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16336460088532584018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-1132339602480811302005-11-18T09:45:00.000-05:002005-11-18T14:04:47.226-05:00

Oh bother.This is what I think of a particular genre of books (I won't deign to call it literature) that seeks to show us how we can be filty rich, find the most stunningly beautiful spouse, cure cancer, make peace in the Middle East, and be named supreme ruler of the world. No really, if you just buy this book and follow its advice you'll get all of that. You'll walk on water too.When its

Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16336460088532584018noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-1132243227468399692005-11-17T09:45:00.000-05:002005-11-17T11:00:27.490-05:00

I should probably just admit it. I'm not an Al Franken fan. His radio show, which I tried to listen to, does nothing for me. His style is not engaging. His wit falls flatter than a warm Coca-Cola left out in the southern sun.See that last sentence? See how badly it was written. That's kind of how I feel about Franken. That's kind of how I feel about his film work and his stand-up "routines."But,

Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16336460088532584018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-1132152443309895982005-11-16T09:30:00.000-05:002005-11-16T10:05:42.023-05:00

Billy Crystal guesses he had about 700 Sundays to spend with his father. After that, his father died when Billy was just 15-years-old and immediately after an eternally unresolved argument between the two. There lies the weight that keeps Crystal's book version of his popular Broadway one-man show from being little more than a series of zingers and laughable riffs.Indeed, 700 Sundays is just this

Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16336460088532584018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-1132065876360298252005-11-15T09:30:00.000-05:002005-11-15T10:12:16.256-05:00

We often take it as indisputably obvious that religious tolerance is good, that a pluralism of belief is a recipe for cooperation and prosperity. When people argue that religion is its own evil they are marginalized only slightly less than those who argue that science is the Devil's playground.So it is certainly a tempting read when an author pipes up and pens an entire book on why religion

Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16336460088532584018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-1132154640399269012005-11-14T09:30:00.001-05:002005-11-16T16:44:23.730-05:00

Yiddish, they say, is all the rage. People just love their Yiddish. Musicians insert Yiddish into their lyrics. Authors rewrite old Yiddish folk tales. Long dead authors who wrote in Yiddish are finding their work consumed by an audience of their great-grandchildren.I'm not altogether sure why Yiddish is so popular, though I won't complain. There is a treasure of mirthful stories and wonderous

Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16336460088532584018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-1131547109324405832005-11-11T09:38:00.000-05:002005-11-11T09:29:04.323-05:00

It is -- we might as well stop fighting it -- possible to recognize the necessity of something while simultaneously recognizing the hardship it places on others, and our moral responsibility for that. It's never as simple as a reasonable justification excusing the need for further contemplation or attempts to alleviate the suffering caused by an action. And if you were at all having problems with

Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16336460088532584018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-1131547078756228942005-11-10T09:30:00.000-05:002005-11-10T10:23:31.770-05:00

Yet another piece of previously-unpublished material from Hanna Arendt was released under the tender care of editor Jerome Kohn. As opposed to Responsibility and Judgment, this latest volume (published in July of this year - a hardback edition of Responsibility and Judgment was originally published in 2003) entitled The Promise of Politics isn't nearly as, what's the word for it... good.This is

Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16336460088532584018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-1131470773364238472005-11-09T09:30:00.000-05:002005-11-09T09:31:12.503-05:00

Hannah Arendt, it would be fair to say, was a particularly controversial and considerably misunderstood "political theorist" (she eschewed the term philosopher). The daughter of secular Jews in Hanover, she was raised in the hometown of Immanuel Kant and had a long-standing love affair with Martin Heidegger (both of whom caught flack for his Nazi sympathies). The rise of Hitler and the outbreak

Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16336460088532584018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-1131394678355433412005-11-08T09:03:00.000-05:002005-11-08T09:43:54.090-05:00

As the 350th year of American Jewry's existence comes to a close, we thought we'd take the opportunity to add a few history books to our Chanukah wish list. Below you'll find four of the more engaging reads on the subject of Jewish history, and they all have the added bonus of being certified AJL Educationally Kosher. If that means anything to you.A History of the Jews in the Modern World, by

Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16336460088532584018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-1130358912293035732005-11-07T09:30:00.000-05:002005-11-07T09:35:50.713-05:00

That the Israeli-Palestinian conflict plays out on TV newscasts and in the pages of international newspapers just as much as on the streets of Gaza and Tel Aviv is not news to anybody following the conflict. For partisans on both sides, massive quantities of money have been used to fund "watchdog" groups that comb through major media's coverage and deluge them with phone calls and letters when

Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16336460088532584018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-1130357754003251692005-11-03T09:30:00.000-05:002005-11-11T00:15:28.573-05:00

Odds are you've heard of at least one of the following: Charles Darwin, the theory of evolution, or the Scopes Monkey Trial. Perhaps you've also heard of the theory of intelligent design, or seen a piece on the news regarding the latest lawsuit or school board decision about teaching evolution in schools. If you're really savvy (and Jewish), you might also have followed the controversy of Rabbi

Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16336460088532584018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-1130346308813321182005-11-02T09:30:00.000-05:002005-11-03T09:44:25.826-05:00

An admitted favorite sub-genre of literature, at least the non-fiction variety, is histories that take as their point of departure some singular event. Elsewhere in our November/December issue we discuss a book that uses a single recording session of Bob Dylan's to discuss a larger cultural context. It's a trick that is often used, and often used poorly.But when it is used well, say by

Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16336460088532584018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-1130345368013566792005-11-01T09:30:00.000-05:002005-11-02T14:21:03.930-05:00

Susan Nathan is a bold woman, not a stranger to political and cultural divides. At the age of 16, as a British Jew residing in South Africa she slept with a black servant of her aunt's. One must imagine that is a bold act in a nation gripped by apartheid. Nathan certainly did.So it is hardly surprising that years later, after immigrating to Israel under the Right of Return, she would make another

Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16336460088532584018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-1130344229735766802005-10-31T09:30:00.000-05:002005-10-31T11:33:52.470-05:00

You would expect a novel about a Jewish artist fleeing her working class, immigrant background to spend considerable time discussing personal neurosis. You'd expect it to center on New York. What you would absolutely not expect is for it to end up on a South Pacific island for thirty years of sacred tattoo work.Where does one begin with Jill Ciment's The Tattoo Artist? In the simplest description

Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16336460088532584018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-1130343269097551752005-10-28T09:30:00.000-04:002005-10-28T11:43:36.520-04:00

"Dylan managed to do something that not one of us was able to do: put poetry in rock n' roll and just stand up there like a mensch and sing it."Those were the words of songwriter Gerry Goffin regarding legendary musician Bob Dylan. Perhaps no other artist more encapsulated their era in music than Dylan. He did more than merely capture the mood and culture of his times; he shaped them. A

Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16336460088532584018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-1130342041806726962005-10-26T11:52:00.000-04:002005-10-27T10:17:59.223-04:00

Don't expect Finkelstein's latest book to be very popular with the AIPAC set. Formerly infamous for The Holocaust Industry, Finkelstein indicted those who have wielded the Holocaust as a billy club for their own political and financial interests. More recently he has been feuding with Alan Dershowitz over the Harvard legal scholar's pro-Israel polemic The Case for Israel. It was only a matter of

Bradfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16336460088532584018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-1129295021925720352005-10-14T09:01:00.000-04:002005-10-14T09:04:43.710-04:00

From the New York Daily News:Movie star Natalie Portman fasted yesterday for Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement."I really like eating," the 24-year-old beauty tells author Abigail Pogrebin in "Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish," her new book."But a couple years ago, one of my friends got really mad at me and it happened on Yom Kippur," Portman confides. "It made me go

Benyaminnoreply@blogger.com0