TribeWrite - Because We Are the People of the Booktag:blogger.com,1999:blog-119732362006-05-18T14:20:29ZBlogger
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trueThis 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.Benyamin2006-05-18T10:18:00-04:002006-05-18T14:20:29Z2006-05-18T14:20:29Ztag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-114796202984639324Novelists invade the Mideast ... literallyUSA Today rounds up five new novelists whose stories revolve around the Middle East. Still absent? Harry Potter and the Prince of Palestine.falseBenyamin2006-03-28T20:42:00-05:002006-03-29T01:54:12Z2006-03-29T01:54:12Ztag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-114359725272508802Reckless Rites: The 5-second review
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 MegillatfalseBradford2006-01-19T13:18:00-05:002006-01-19T20:04:25Z2006-01-19T18:32:17Ztag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-113769553723078350Oprah meet Elie. Elie meet James Frey.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 NazifalseSilas Reeves2005-12-29T10:59:00-05:002006-01-04T14:18:36Z2005-12-29T16:12:14Ztag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-113587273487424628REVIEW: The Bubbelah Factor
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,falseSilas Reeves2005-12-19T09:34:00-05:002005-12-19T20:43:56Z2005-12-19T14:41:39Ztag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-113500329980544759REVIEW: MatchesWar 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, anfalseBradford2005-12-05T11:15:00-05:002005-12-05T16:57:50Z2005-12-05T16:45:53Ztag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-113380115378955995The art of the interviewIf 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 merefalseBradford2005-11-23T10:18:00-05:002005-11-23T15:42:03Z2005-11-23T15:19:08Ztag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-113275914832316775REVIEW: The Jezebel LettersGive 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 beenfalseBradford2005-11-21T11:06:00-05:002005-11-21T16:23:19Z2005-11-21T16:13:58Ztag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-113258963823460864INTERVIEW: Rochelle KrichRochelle 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 werefalseBradford2005-11-18T09:45:00-05:002005-11-18T19:04:47Z2005-11-18T18:46:42Ztag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-113233960248081130REVIEW: The Genesis Prayer: Discover the Ancient Secret to Modern MiraclesOh 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 itsfalseBradford2005-11-17T09:45:00-05:002005-11-17T16:00:27Z2005-11-17T16:00:27Ztag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-113224322746839969REVIEW: The Truth (with Jokes)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-upfalseBradford2005-11-16T09:30:00-05:002005-11-16T15:05:42Z2005-11-16T14:47:23Ztag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-113215244330989598REVIEW: 700 SundaysBilly 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 justfalseBradford2005-11-15T09:30:00-05:002005-11-15T15:12:16Z2005-11-15T14:44:36Ztag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-113206587636029825REVIEW: The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of ReasonWe 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 religionfalseBradford2005-11-14T09:30:00-05:002005-11-16T21:44:23Z2005-11-16T15:24:00Ztag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-113215464039926901REVIEW: Radiant Days, Haunted NightsYiddish, 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 wonderousfalseBradford2005-11-11T09:38:00-05:002005-11-11T14:29:04Z2005-11-09T14:38:29Ztag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-113154710932440583REVIEW: Barrier: The Seam of the Israeli-Palestinian ConflictIt 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 withfalseBradford2005-11-10T09:30:00-05:002005-11-10T15:23:31Z2005-11-09T14:37:58Ztag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11973236.post-113154707875622894REVIEW: The Promise of PoliticsYet 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.
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