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Our APRIL 2020 Update

Welcome to MyJewishBooks.com

Welcome to MyJewishBooks.com, where, since 1998, we list new, diverse, and eclectic books of Jewish interest and sort them by publication date (we do not categorize by fiction and non-fiction). All net proceeds go to tzedaka. (SORRY.. our TZEDAKA site was hijacked for the time being) Look at the hyperlinks to the left for books by publication data or season.

Be sure to visit our pages for releases in Spring 2020,releases in Winter 2020, releases in Autumn 2019, releases in Summer 2019, and releses in Spring 2019. Feel free to browse all the rest of our pages (oFrah, Passover, Hanukkah, MLK books, Tu b'shvat books, and more).

Eat Something:
A Wise Sons Cookbook
for Jews Who Like Food
and Food Lovers Who Like Jews
by Evan Bloom
Rachel Levin
and George McCalman (Illustrator)
March 3, 2020
Chronicle Books

From nationally recognized Jewish brand Wise Sons, the cookbook Eat Something features over 60 recipes for salads, soups, baked goods, holiday dishes, and more.

Here's a fanatical, pathological, humorous take on Jewish food obsession, with photos, illustrations, shared recipes, and schmaltz.

This long-awaited cookbook (the first one for Wise Sons!) is packed with homey recipes and relatable humor; it is as much a delicious, lighthearted, and nostalgic cookbook as it is a lively celebration of Jewish culture.

Stemming from the thesis that Jews eat by occasion, the book is organized into 19 different events and celebrations chronicling a Jewish life in food, including: bris, Shabbat, Passover and other high holidays, first meal home from college, J-dating, wedding, and more.

• Both a Jewish humor book and a cookbook
• Recipes are drawn from the menus of their beloved Bay Area restaurants, as well as all the occasions when Jews gather around the table.
• Includes short essays, illustrations, memorabilia, and stylish plated food photography.

Wise Sons is a nationally recognized deli and Jewish food brand with a unique Bay Area ethos—inspired by the past but entirely contemporary, they make traditional Jewish foods California-style with great ingredients.

Recipes include Braided Challah,
Big Macher Burger, Wise Sons' Brisket,
Chinese Chicken Salad, Chicken Salad, Smoked Fish Salad, Tuna Salad, Egg Salad,
Oven Poached Salmon,
“Jewish Chicken” with onion powder and garlic powder,
Challah Onion Rolls
DIY Cured Fish,
Fall Vegetable Hash,
Honey Cake from the Box (using Betty Corcker Super Moist French Vanilla mix as a starter),
Challah Apple Fritter Monkey Bread,
Apricot Chicken,
Not a Lower East Side Knish,

Challah Strawberry Shortcake,
Chicken Schnitzel with Lemon-Caper Mayo
Roumanian Skirt Steak with Scallion-Garlic Sauce,
Chopped Liver Toast, Kreplach Wontons, and Silver Dollar Potatoes,
Green Bean Casserole, Rugelach, Russian Dressing,
Carrot Tzimmes, and Morning After Matzoquiles,
while essays include Confessions of a First-Time Seder Host,
So, You Didn't Marry a Jew,
and Iconic Chinese Restaurants, As Chosen by the Chosen People.

• The perfect gift for Wise Sons fans of all ages, lovers of Jewish food and humor, as well as gift-givers young and old looking for Jewish-themed gifts for bar mitzvahs, birthdays, weddings, and more
• Great for those who enjoyed Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking by Michael Solomonov, The 100 Most Jewish Foods: A Highly Debatable List by Alana Newhouse, and Russ & Daughters: Reflections and Recipes from the House That Herring Built by Mark Russ Federman
• A must for anyone looking to expand their knowledge of Jewish cuisine and culture

Baby Ever After:
Expanding Your Family After
Postpartum Depression
by Rebecca Fox Starr
January 31, 2020
Rowman and Littlefield Press

After perinatal or postpartum depression, the decision to have another baby can be fraught with emotion. Rebecca Fox Starr movingly shares her story and those of others who have decided to carry, adopt, or not have another child and helps readers explore their own feelings about their own baby ever after.

In her last book Beyond the Baby Blues: Anxiety and Depression During and After Pregnancy Rebecca Fox Starr gave a candid account of her battle with prenatal and postpartum anxiety and depression. Rebecca’s story has touched readers deeply and, as her own journey has continued, so has her story, having veered in an unexpected direction: the decision about a future baby.

What many people do not realize is that the idea of another pregnancy post-postpartum can be cripplingly frightening to a woman and her loved ones. Rebecca addresses this woefully in her first book, opening up about her sadness that her “shop is closed.” Having a baby was an option taken off the table, for a reason completely out of her control.

Until it wasn’t.

In 2017 Rebecca and her husband began exploring the idea of expanding their family, and, therefore consulted experts in the fields of obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, perinatal mental health, fertility, adoption, surrogacy, and grief (in coping with the idea that, despite all of the options, the most sound of all could be to not have another child). Books on the topic of pregnancy after postpartum depression are scarce, making it difficult to find support or advice.

This book, anchored in Rebecca’s story, offers an informative guide to the expert advice and insight, alongside current research, for women who want to explore pregnancy and other family expansion options after postpartum depression. With heartfelt stories, clinical data, and a consideration of the range of options and the emotions that along with them, Rebecca’s book fills a gaping hole in an area that leaves too many women feeling abjectly alone.

The Promise of the Land: A Passover
Haggadah Paperback
by Ellen Bernstein
Galia Goodman (Illustrator)
February 2020
Berman House

Ellen Bernstein is the founder of Shomrei Adamah, the first national Jewish environmental organization. She is also the author of Ecology and the Jewish Spirit and The Splendor of Creation, and coauthor of Let the Earth Teach You Torah. She lives in Holyoke, MA.
Beautiful. ...Will reopen the wonder of Passover, adding a deep layer of connection to the planet that makes the old rituals new for the 21st century. ---Bill Mckibben, Co-founder of 350.org, Author of Falter: Has the Human Game begun to Play Itself Out?
Magnificent. ...An extraordinary contribution to the 21st century Jewish community. -Ruth Messinger, Global Ambassador for American Jewish World Service
This Passover, celebrate both our freedom and the role of nature in the seder and in our lives.

From the unassuming matzah that reveals the simplicity of earth, wheat, and water, to the first fruits of the soil that the Israelites offered in gratitude, the earth has always been at the center of who we are as a people.

Passover marks the Jewish people's liberation from slavery in Egypt and the coming of spring. Yet it is also a story about land and the natural world. All our biblical holidays - Passover included - originally commemorated the agrarian and pastoral soil out of which Judaism grew.

Our well-being and our freedom ultimately depend on the earth's well-being. This haggadah seeks to reveal the seder's ecological dimensions and awaken its environmental meaning.

Original and fascinating. ...A knowledgeable and heartfelt piece of work. Includes traditional liturgy with beautiful translations and wide-ranging commentary. -Rabbi Jill Hammer, Author of the Jewish Book of Days, A Companion for all Seasons

The Passover Haggadah:
An Ancient Story for Modern Times
by Alana Newhouse
Tablet magazine
2020
Artisan

Each generation is called to perform a Passover Seder, a ritual designed to help us imagine personally experiencing the exodus from Egypt. But how can we do this together, when today our tables include people of different backgrounds, knowledge, and beliefs? Let this Passover Haggadah be your guide.

Both proudly traditional and blazingly modern, it is a perfect blueprint for remembering the past, living in our present, and imagining the future. Here you’ll find the entirety of the Seder text for those who don’t want to miss a thing—including Hebrew, English, and a newly developed transliteration that makes the Hebrew surprisingly accessible. And, alongside, contemporary questions, illustrations, and meditations on freedom, community, destiny, and other topics that will engage the whole group in a lively and memorable discussion, especially once you’ve started in on those obligatory four cups of wine.

Finding Meaning:
The Sixth Stage of Grief
by David Kessler
November 5, 2019
Scribner

DENIAL
ANGER
BARGAINING
DEPRESSION
ACCEPTANCE
….and
….. MEANING

In this groundbreaking new work, David Kessler — an expert on grief and the coauthor with Elisabeth Kübler-Ross of the iconic On Grief and Grieving — journeys beyond the classic FIVE STAGES to discover a sixth stage: MEANING.

In 1969, Elisabeth Kübler Ross first identified the stages of dying in her transformative book On Death and Dying. Decades later, she and David Kessler wrote the classic On Grief and Grieving, introducing the stages of grief with the same transformative pragmatism and compassion. Now, based on hard-earned personal experiences, as well as knowledge and wisdom earned through decades of work with the grieving, Kessler introduces a critical sixth stage.

Many people look for “closure” after a loss. Kessler argues that it’s finding meaning beyond the stages of grief most of us are familiar with—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—that can transform grief into a more peaceful and hopeful experience.

In this book, Kessler gives readers a roadmap to remembering those who have died with more love than pain; he shows us how to move forward in a way that honors our loved ones. Kessler’s insight is both professional and intensely personal. His journey with grief began when, as a child, he witnessed a mass shooting at the same time his mother was dying. For most of his life, Kessler taught physicians, nurses, counselors, police, and first responders about end of life, trauma, and grief, as well as leading talks and retreats for those experiencing grief. Despite his knowledge, his life was upended by the sudden death of his twenty-one-year-old son.

How does the grief expert handle such a tragic loss? He knew he had to find a way through this unexpected, devastating loss, a way that would honor his son. That, ultimately, was the sixth state of grief—meaning. In Finding Meaning, Kessler shares the insights, collective wisdom, and powerful tools that will help those experiencing loss.

Finding Meaning is a necessary addition to grief literature and a vital guide to healing from tremendous loss. This is an inspiring, deeply intelligent must-read for anyone looking to journey away from suffering, through loss, and towards meaning.

Cilka's Journey
by Heather Morris
October 1, 2019

From the author of the TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITz

Lale Sokolov, a death camp survivor, shared her life stories with Heather Morris, who based a screenplay on them and later a novel, The Tattooist of Auschwitz. Now she goes back to the well and tells a tale based on or influenced by the life of Cilka Klein.

Cilka is just sixteen years old when she is taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp, in 1942. The Commandant at Birkenau, Schwarzhuber, notices her long beautiful hair, and forces her separation from the other women prisoners. Cilka learns quickly that power, even unwillingly given, equals survival.

After liberation, Cilka Klein is charged as a collaborator for sleeping with the enemy and sent to Siberia. But what choice did she have? And where did the lines of morality lie for Cilka, who was sent to Auschwitz when still a child?

In a Siberian prison camp, Cilka faces challenges both new and horribly familiar, including the unwanted attention of the guards. But when she makes an impression on a woman doctor, Cilka is taken under her wing. Cilka begins to tend to the ill in the camp, struggling to care for them under brutal conditions.

Cilka finds endless resources within herself as she daily confronts death and faces terror. And when she nurses a man called Ivan, Cilka finds that despite everything that has happened to her, there is room in her heart for love.

The Man Who Saw Everything
a novel
by Deborah Levy
October 8, 2019

An electrifying and audacious novel about beauty, envy, and carelessness by Deborah Levy, two-time Man Booker Prize finalist.

It is 1988 and Saul Adler, a narcissistic young historian, has been invited to Communist East Berlin to do research; in exchange, he must publish a favorable essay about the German Democratic Republic. As a gift for his translator's sister, a Beatles fanatic who will be his host, Saul's girlfriend will shoot a photograph of him standing in the crosswalk on Abbey Road, an homage to the famous album cover. As he waits for her to arrive, he is grazed by an oncoming car, which changes the trajectory of his life--and this story of good intentions and reckless actions.

The Man Who Saw Everything is about the difficulty of seeing ourselves and others clearly. It greets the specters that come back to haunt old and new love, previous and current incarnations of Europe, conscious and unconscious transgressions, and real and imagined betrayals, while investigating the cyclic nature of history and its reinvention by people in power. Here, Levy traverses the vast reaches of the human imagination while artfully blurring sexual and political binaries--feminine and masculine, East and West, past and present--to reveal the full spectrum of our world.

Fleishman Is in Trouble:
A Novel
by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
June 2019
Random House

Dr. Toby Fleishman, 41, a liver specialist, thought he knew what to expect when he and his wife of almost fifteen years separated: weekends and every other holiday with the kids, some residual bitterness, the occasional moment of tension in their co-parenting negotiations.

He could not have predicted that one day, in the middle of his summer of sexual emancipation on online apps and new women to sleep with every night (even though he is 5'5”, and his entire life he was made to feel like an unworthy nerd by women), that his ex-wife Rachel would just drop their two children off at his place and simply not return.

He had been working so hard to find equilibrium in his single life. The winds of his optimism, long dormant, had finally begun to pick up. Now this.

The story is narrated by Libby Epstein, Dr. Toby's friend of two decades. They met as college students in Israel. Libby is a journalist, just like the author of this funny Summer must read novel (but now a stay at home parent in the burbs of NJ). Libby is at times like an anthropologist, observing from a distance.

As Toby tries to figure out where Rachel (a talent agent) went, all while juggling his patients at the hospital, his never-ending parental duties, and his new app-assisted sexual popularity, his tidy narrative of the spurned husband with the too-ambitious wife is his sole consolation. But don't resent Rachel so quickly; maybe Toby is not that saintly a doctor. If Toby ever wants to truly understand what happened to Rachel and what happened to his marriage, he is going to have to consider that he might not have seen things ALL THAT CLEARLY in the first place.

A searing, utterly unvarnished debut, Fleishman Is in Trouble is an insightful, unsettling, often hilarious exploration of a culture trying to navigate the fault lines of an institution that has proven to be worthy of our great wariness and our great hope.

“Blisteringly funny, feverishly smart, heartbreaking, and true, Fleishman Is in Trouble is an essential read for anyone who’s wondered how to navigate loving (and hating) the people we choose.”—Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, author of The Nest

“From its opening pages, Fleishman Is in Trouble is shrewdly observed, brimming with wisdom, and utterly of this moment. Not until its explosive final pages are you fully aware of its cunning ferocity. Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s debut is that rare and delicious treat: a page-turner with heft.”—Maria Semple

“This is a remarkable debut from one of the most distinctive writers around.”—Tom Perrotta

How to Fight Anti-Semitism
by Bari Weiss
NYT editor/writer, Pittsburgh native
September 3, 2019
Crown

See her at Sixth and I in Washington, DC in October

Could it happen here? The prescient New York Times writer delivers an urgent wake-up call to all Americans exposing the alarming rise of anti-semitism in this country--and explains what we can do to defeat it.

On October 27, 2018, the synagogue where Bari Weiss became a bat mitzvah was the site of the deadliest attack on Jews in this country's history. For most Americans, the massacre at Tree of Life came as a total shock. But to those who have been paying attention, it was only a more violent, extreme expression of the broader trend that has been sweeping Europe for the past two decades.

No longer the exclusive province of the far right and far left, anti-semitism finds a home in identity politics and the reaction against identity politics, in the renewal of "America first" isolationism and the rise of one-world socialism. An ancient hatred increasingly allowed into modern political discussion, anti-semitism has been migrating toward the mainstream in dangerous ways, amplified by social media and a culture of conspiracy that threatens us all.

This timely book is Weiss's cri de couer: an unnerving reminder that Jews must never lose their hard-won instinct for danger, and a powerful case for renewing Jewish and liberal values to guide us through this uncertain moment. Not just for the sake of America's Jews, but for the sake of America.

SABABA
Fresh, Sunny Flavors
From My Israeli Kitchen
by Adeena Sussman
with a Foreword by Zahav's Michael Solomonov
September 3, 2019
Avery

"The pages of this book ooze with [Adeena's] passion for the romance and beauty of Israeli cuisine. The recipes are soulful, elemental and stunningly delicious." --from the foreword by Michael Solomonov

Michael Solomonov (Zahav) moved from Israel to Philly. Adeena Sussman moved from California to Israel (near shuk hacarmel). Both are dedicated to Israeli cuisine. Few of us will get invited to their homes to eat. SO this is the next best thing.

In an Israeli cookbook as personal as it is global, Adeena Sussman celebrates the tableau of flavors the region has to offer, in all its staggering and delicious variety. Adeena is the secret powerhouse recipe developer behind the scenes on many cookbooks, including her collaboration on Cravings and Cravings: Hungry for More with Chrissy Teigen and The Sprinkles Baking Book with Candace Nelson. She has also written about Jewish and Israeli cooking and food culture for Food & Wine, The Wall Street Journal, Epicurious, and the now defunct Gourmet.

In Hebrew (derived from the original Arabic), sababa means "everything is awesome," and it's this sunny spirit with which the American food writer and expat Adeena Sussman cooks and dreams up meals in her Tel Aviv kitchen. Every morning, Sussman makes her way through the bustling stalls of Shuk Hacarmel, her local market, which sells irresistibly fresh ingredients and tempting snacks--juicy ripe figs and cherries, locally made halvah, addictive street food, and delectable cheeses and olives. In Sababa, Sussman presents 125 recipes for dishes inspired by this culinary wonderland and by the wide-varying influences surrounding her in Israel.

Sussman shows readers how to use border-crossing kitchen staples -- tahini, sumac, silan (date syrup), harissa, za'atar, hawaiij, dukkah, baharat -- to delicious effect, while also introducing more exotic spices and ingredients. From Freekeh and Roasted Grape Salad and Crudo with Cherries and Squeezed Tomatoes, to Schug Marinated Lamb Chops and Tahini Caramel Tart, Sussman's recipes make a riot of fresh tastes accessible and effortless for the home cook. Filled with transporting storytelling, Sababa is the ultimate, everyday guide to the Israeli kitchen.

Some early recipes include Salt-Brined Crispy Dill Pickles from Kibbutz Yavneh; 24-Hour Salted Lemon Spread courtesy of Jonathan Borowitz of M25 steakhouse; 40-Minute Amba; Amba Mayo; Rosh Hashanah Pomegranate Molasses; Zucchini, Dill & Feta Shakshuka; Amba Egg Salad; Preserved Lemon-Date Tuna Salad; CHEESY ASPARAGUS Sheet Pan PASHTIDA; Honey and Olive Oil Challah; Erez's (Kamarovsky) Wedding Lamb Focaccia (which was served at the author's wedding (plus a variation of Date, Kumquat, Kashkaval Focaccia Pizzas); Sweet Oitati Frico Burekas; Magical Hummus from Ariel Rothstein's Hakosem (Magical) bistro; Broccoli Cottage Cheese Pancakes; Charcoal Gray Tahini; Pink Tahini; Pecan-Lime Huhamarra; “The Best Baba Ghanoush;” Israeli grilled sweet corn ears with labaneh, feta, sea salt and cilantro; Oven-Roasted Artichokes with Roasted Garlic by way of Rome and Northern California; Chilled Beet and Cherry Borscht; over half a dozen Israeli salads; Okra Fries; Tahini-Glazed Carrots (which is always in high demand); Cinnamony Smoky Eggplant P'titim (or how you should request Israeli couscous, aka Ben Gurion Rice); Jeweled Rice; Yerushalmi thin egg noodle Ge'ula style Kugel; a unique Roasted Tomato and Labaneh Pappardelle; Ricotta Dumplings with Pistachio-Cilantro Pesto; and Crispy Sesame Schnitzel.

Other pages include standout recipes (to name a few) for Root Vegetable and Medjool Date Stew; Turkish Coffee-Rubbed Rib-Eyes with Seared Broccoli; Schug-Marinated Baby Lamb Chops; Fried Barbounias with Lemon Chips and Sage; Lemony Salmon with Fennel and Orange Salad; Fluffy Israeli Cheesecake with Fresh Plum Compote; Triple Ginger Persimmon Loaf; Rinat Tzadok's Moroccan Fish Cakes (Ktyzitzot Dagim) which use sweet paprika instead of hard to find shoshka peppers; “Eser” Halvah and Baharat Coffee Cake (Sussman named it Eser for the 10 AM snack Aruchat Eser) Chewy Tahini Blondies; and Pistachio-Crusted Lemon Bars.

SHUK
FROM MARKET TO TABLE
the Heart of Israeli Home Cooking
by Einat Admony and Janna Gur
September 17, 2019
ARTISAN

With Shuk, home cooks everywhere can now inhale the fragrances and taste the flavors of the vivacious culinary mash-up that is today’s Israel. The book takes you deeper into this trending cuisine, through the combined expertise of the authors, chef Einat Admony of Balaboosta and food writer and author Janna Gur..

Admony’s long-simmered stews, herb-dominant rice pilafs, toasted-nut-studded grain salads, and of course loads of vegetable dishes—from snappy, fresh, and raw to roasted every way you can think of—will open your eyes and your palate to the complex nuances of Jewish food and culture. The book also includes authoritative primers on the well-loved pillars of the cuisine, including chopped salad, hummus, tabboulehs, rich and inventive shakshukas, and even hand-rolled couscous with festive partners such as tangy quick pickles, rich pepper compotes, and deeply flavored condiments. Through gorgeous photo essays of nine celebrated shuks, you’ll feel the vibrancy and centrality of the local markets, which are so much more than simply shopping venues—they’re the beating heart of the country.

With more than 140 recipes, Shuk presents Jewish dishes with roots in Persia, Yemen, Libya, the Balkans, the Levant, and all the regions that contribute to the evolving food scene in Israel. The ingredients are familiar, but the combinations and techniques are surprising. With Shuk in your kitchen, you’ll soon be cooking with the warmth and passion of an Israeli, creating the treasures of this multicultural table in your own home.

Named one of Publishers Weekly’s Top 10 Cookbooks of Fall 2019...“Admony (Balaboosta), who owns the restaurants Balaboosta and Taim in New York City, and Gur (Jewish Soul Food) excel at crafting recipes for Israel’s flavorful melting-pot cuisine, and they organize this fascinating cookbook around eight shuks, or markets. They include Tel Aviv’s Levinsky Market, which houses a stall selling roasted seeds and nuts and a spice store that traffics in potions and powders reputed to “drive away an evil eye, lift a curse, or help you find your soul mate.” Dishes are equally intriguing: a chopped salad of avocado and kohlrabi highlights the country’s abundant produce. Traditional selections and clever inventions intermingle, the latter exemplified by challah braided around mushrooms and za’atar, and, in a chapter on stuffed items, a cake of cabbage leaves encasing a filling of pine nuts, almonds, pistachios, ground beef, and rice. A chapter on couscous includes a brace of stews for ladling over the pasta, as well as two options for creating couscous from scratch. A grilling primer features whole fish, kebabs, and arayes—pitas stuffed with beef and lamb and cooked over a flame. Sidebars range from suggestions for optimizing Israeli salad to an explanation of the evolution of date syrup. This energetic and exciting volume serves as an edifying deep dive into Israeli food market culture and cuisine.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

And now, my take on it...
The authors visit eight major shuks (open air marketplaces, mazes of stalls and stands) in Israel. Einat would shop as a child in Tel Aviv with her father at the century old Shuk Hacarmel. They would buy “Mizrachi” ingredients, since her mother was Persian who grew up in an Iraqi household and her father grew up in the Yemenite quarter. Janna first visited loud, sensual, boisterous Shuk Hacarmel as a teen, fresh from the politeness of Nordic Latvia. The shuks they visit in this book are: Levinsky (with roots in Salonika), HaCarmel, the welcoming T.A. HaTikva, Hanamal (the relatively new market of sixty stalls in Tel Aviv's old Port), Mahane Yehuda in Jerusalem, Ha'ir Haatika in Jerusalem's Old City (home of Arafat/Nazmi Hummus), Haifa's Wadi Nasnas, and Shuk Akko (the Old Akko Market), and from them they bring the shuks into your home kitchen. For each market they list a few of their favorite stalls/shops. There are fourteen chapters with over 13 dozen recipes. The chapters are Salad All Day; Cauliflower and Eggplant; Dairy and Eggs for Breakfast and for Dinner; Mad About Chicken; All About the Rice; Ktzitzot: Patties, Latkes, and Meatballs; Soups to Comfort and Refresh; Deliciously Stuffed; The Couscous Table, The Flavor of Fire; Flatbreads, Traditional Breads, and Savory Pies; and... Sweet Endings. They recommend about a dozen items for your pantry, and nother dozen spices, including zaatar sumac, hawaij, ras el hanout, cinnamon, cumin, dried mint, and turmeric. Actually, just in the pantry intro, they share several recipes for sumac mayo; dressings; lemon and mint pesto; chermoula (cumin, parsely, cilantro, coriander, paprika, oil, lemon) for fish; dukkah; harissas; olives; and s'chugs.
The Salad chapter begins with Israeli Salad, and a list of salad rules. Some other salads of interest are a cerviche' chopped avocado, cucumber and kohlrabi (did you know Israelis adore kohlrabi); spicy tomato and garlic with tahini; three-tomatoe with sub-dried tomato dressing; caramelized fennel and radicchio with Arak Vinaigrette; orange and olive with harissa vinaigrette; and fresh mango with AMBA and mustard vinaigrette. And take note of the summer watermelon with salty feta cheese recipe. Chapter 2 pays homage to heroic eggplants and cauliflowers (are you aware of the whole roasted cauliflower craze in Israel and on Manhattan's West 72nd Street?), and begins with a cauliflower salad that includes a peanut tahini sauce and sliced bamba snacks. A sampling of recipes include ones for grilled cauliflower steaks; sweet and sour baked (fried then baked) eggplant a la Einat's mother; and Sabich. In Chapter 3, Tahini and Chickpeas (and Hummus), with eight tahini recipes, including honey-soy tahini sauce, and a tahini banana date shake.

Chapter 5 is focused on dairy and breakfast, and the cheese that has been coveted in Israel back to the time of the Knights Templar. Recipes includes ones for homemade Labneh; marinated Labneh balls; Shakshuka (3 types); Balkan-style scrambled eggs; and Egg Salad with Preserved Lemon, Caramelized Onions and Zucchini. Chapter 6 on Chicken explains how you can master Israeli Schnitzel, and includes recipes for an Orange Blossom-scented Roast Chicken; Ethiopian Doro Wot; chicken LIVER schnitzel; and Musahan on Flatbread a la chef Nof Atamna-Ismaeel. In Chapter 7, which is All About Rice, there is a recipe for Persian bottom of the pot Tahdig Rice; Tbit (Iraqi chicken with rice); Chicken Maqloubeh (Upside down; Palestinian jasmine rice, eggplant, cauliflower, vegetables and chicken pilaf); Bakhsh; and Ghormeh Sabzi. Chapter 8 is dedicated to Ktzitzot (minced ones, chopped ones) which they wrote are the “epitome of Israeli home cooking: inexpensive and designed to stretch a bit a protein to feed a family.” Some of their faves are Beet (and russet potato) Latkes with preserved lemon and yogurt dressing; Chicken Patties with chard, leeks and celery in lemony broth; Persian Beef and Duck Meatballs (Fassenjan); Persian Meatballs stuffed with prunes (Gondy Berenji); and Ktzitzot Abu Hatzerah.

The title for Chapter 9: Soups that Comfort and Refresh sounds poetic to me. Their southern French inspired chicken soup with knaidlach uses saffron, fennel and tarragon. The lentil with carrot soup is thick with cumin, turmeric, coriander and garlic. The Yemenite White Bean Soup is seasoned with Hawaij, tomato paste, beef bones and cilantro. Their Kubbeh soup uses a beet based broth, and the tomato, strawberry and arak gazpacho refreshes and is based on a recipe from chef Guy Zarfati. Chapter 10 shares recipes for “Deliciously Stuffed” Seer Memulayim, where the authors stuff onions, cabbage cake, peppers, beets, delicata squash... with lamb, freekah, prunes, quinoa, lemon, silan sauce, spiced beef, pomegranate, dried mint sauce, raisins, and more. Chapter 11 is focused on couscous, which in some Israeli households is traditionally eaten twice a week: on Shabbat, and for Tuesday lunch; and its fixings, including Mafroum, Lamb Tagine, Matboucha, Mesayer, and short ribs.

Al-Ha'esh (on fire) and Mangal (Arabic for “a grill”, cookout) foods are the focus of Chapter 12. Recipes include ones for whole grilled fish with za'atar; grouper kebabs with chermoula; grilled chicken wings that are shawarma spiced; and Arayes, which are grilled meat-stuffed pitas. Chapter 13's breads include a challah stuffed with mushroom, leeks, and za'atar; pita bread; laffa; lahmajun topped with beef; phyllo bourekas; Yemenite semolina and flour pancakes (Lachuch); spinach and pine ut fattayers; Jerusalem “bagels” stuffed with feta and scallions; and kubenah stuffed with caramelized onions. Among the happy treats in Chapter 14: Sweet Endings are recipes for a Fresh Orange Pound Cake; lazy easy baklava; Israeli cheesecake with pistachios and labneh; and chocolate Kadurey biscuits balls.

The Lost Art of Scripture:
Rescuing the Sacred Texts
by Karen Armstrong
November 5, 2019
KNOPF

FROM THE PUBLISHER: “Today the Quran is used by some to justify war and acts of terrorism, the Torah to deny Palestinians the right to live in the Land of Israel, and the Bible to condemn homosexuality and contraception. The significance of Scripture may not be immediately obvious in our secular world, but its misunderstanding is perhaps the root cause of many of today's controversies… The sacred texts have been coopted by fundamentalists, who insist that they must be taken literally, and by others who interpret Scripture to bolster their own prejudices. These texts are seen to prescribe ethical norms and codes of behavior that are divinely ordained: they are believed to contain eternal truths. But as Karen Armstrong shows in this chronicle of the development and significance of major religions, such a narrow, peculiar reading of Scripture is a relatively recent, modern phenomenon. For most of their history, the world's religious traditions have regarded these texts as tools that enable the individual to connect with the divine, to experience a different level of consciousness, and to help them engage with the world in more meaningful and compassionate ways… At a time of intolerance and mutual incomprehension, The Lost Art of Scripture shines fresh light on the world's major religions to help us build bridges between faiths and rediscover a creative and spiritual engagement with holy texts.”

She Said:
Breaking the Sexual Harassment
Story That Helped Ignite a Movement
by Jodi Kantor and
Megan Twohey
September 10, 2019
Penguin Press

How did Weinstein get away with it for years?
Who covered for him and enabled him?
Who were the Israelis that were hired to crush his victims?
Which lawyers helped him re-victimize the women who told the truth?
How did the reporters gain the confidence of the victims?

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters who broke the news of Harvey Weinstein's sexual harassment and abuse for the New York Times, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, the thrilling untold story of their investigation and its consequences for the #MeToo movement

For many years, reporters had tried to get to the truth about Harvey Weinstein’s treatment of women. Rumors of wrongdoing had long circulated. But in 2017, when Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey began their investigation into the prominent Hollywood producer for the New York Times, his name was still synonymous with power. During months of confidential interviews with top actresses, former Weinstein employees, and other sources, many disturbing and long-buried allegations were unearthed, and a web of onerous secret payouts and nondisclosure agreements was revealed. These shadowy settlements had long been used to hide sexual harassment and abuse, but with a breakthrough reporting technique Kantor and Twohey helped to expose it. But Weinstein had evaded scrutiny in the past, and he was not going down without a fight; he employed a team of high-profile lawyers, private investigators, and other allies to thwart the investigation. When Kantor and Twohey were finally able to convince some sources to go on the record, a dramatic final showdown between Weinstein and the New York Times was set in motion.

Nothing could have prepared Kantor and Twohey for what followed the publication of their initial Weinstein story on October 5, 2017. Within days, a veritable Pandora’s box of sexual harassment and abuse was opened. Women all over the world came forward with their own traumatic stories. Over the next twelve months, hundreds of men from every walk of life and industry were outed following allegations of wrongdoing. But did too much change—or not enough? Those questions hung in the air months later as Brett Kavanaugh was nominated to the Supreme Court, and Christine Blasey Ford came forward to testify that he had assaulted her decades earlier. Kantor and Twohey, who had unique access to Ford and her team, bring to light the odyssey that led her to come forward, the overwhelming forces that came to bear on her, and what happened after she shared her allegation with the world.

In the tradition of great investigative journalism, She Said tells a thrilling story about the power of truth, with shocking new information from hidden sources. Kantor and Twohey describe not only the consequences of their reporting for the #MeToo movement, but the inspiring and affecting journeys of the women who spoke up—for the sake of other women, for future generations, and for themselves.

Be sure to see the authors speak in DC with Bob Woodward at the Sixth and I Syngaogue. Check C-SPAN BOOK-TV for the video in October 2019.

Learning from the Germans:
Race and the Memory of Evil
by Susan Neiman
August 2019
FS&G

As an increasingly polarized America fights over the legacy of racism, Susan Neiman, author of the contemporary philosophical classic Evil in Modern Thought, asks what we can learn from the Germans about confronting the evils of the past

In the wake of white nationalist attacks, the ongoing debate over reparations, and the controversy surrounding Confederate monuments and the contested memories they evoke, Susan Neiman’s Learning from the Germans delivers an urgently needed perspective on how a country can come to terms with its historical wrongdoings. Neiman is a white woman who came of age in the civil rights–era South and a Jewish woman who has spent much of her adult life in Berlin. Working from this unique perspective, she combines philosophical reflection, personal stories, and interviews with both Americans and Germans who are grappling with the evils of their own national histories.

Through discussions with Germans, including Jan Philipp Reemtsma, who created the breakthrough Crimes of the Wehrmacht exhibit, and Friedrich Schorlemmer, the East German dissident preacher, Neiman tells the story of the long and difficult path Germans faced in their effort to atone for the crimes of the Holocaust. In the United States, she interviews James Meredith about his battle for equality in Mississippi and Bryan Stevenson about his monument to the victims of lynching, as well as lesser-known social justice activists in the South, to provide a compelling picture of the work contemporary Americans are doing to confront our violent history. In clear and gripping prose, Neiman urges us to consider the nuanced forms that evil can assume, so that we can recognize and avoid them in the future.

The 100 Most Jewish Foods:
A Highly Debatable List
by Alana Newhouse
(EIC OF TABLET.COM)
March 19, 2019
Artisan

Tablet’s list of the 100 most Jewish foods is not about the most popular Jewish foods, or the tastiest, or even the most enduring. It’s a list of the most significant foods culturally and historically to the Jewish people, explored deeply with essays, recipes, stories, and context. Some of the dishes are no longer cooked at home, and some are not even dishes in the traditional sense (store-bought cereal and Stella D’oro cookies, for example). The entire list is up for debate, which is what makes this book so much fun. Many of the foods are delicious (such as babka and shakshuka). Others make us wonder how they’ve survived as long as they have (such as unhatched chicken eggs and jellied calves’ feet).

As expected, many Jewish (and now universal) favorites like matzo balls, pickles, cheesecake, blintzes, and chopped liver make the list. The recipes are global and represent all contingencies of the Jewish experience.

You might be surprised to learn the Jewish histories of Sweet n Low and Bazooka bubble gum.

Contributors include Ruth Reichl on Lamb, Elissa Goldstein on leftovers, Alana Newhouse on Kiddush cookies and Haminados, Gabriel Sanders, Éric Ripert on Gefilte FIsh, Joan Nathan, Michael Solomonov, BKG/Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett on Flanken, Dan Barber, Gail Simmons, Yotam Ottolenghi, Tom Colicchio, Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, Maira Kalman on Herring (and Chekhov), Action Bronson, Daphne Merkin on Beet Horseradish, Shalom Auslander, Merissa Nathan Gerson on Honey and honeycake, Marc Tracy on Hebrew National Hot Dogs, Gabriela Geselowitz on Joan Nathan's Azerbaijani Style Eggplant, David Sachs, Rosie Schaap (yes of the grape Schaap's) on Concord Grape Huice, Wayne Hoffman on Chicken, Marjorie Ingall on Bokser, Paola Gavin on Roman Artichokes, MaNishtana on Haroset, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Eve Jochnowitz on Dill, Leil Leibovits on Treyf, and Phil Rosenthal, and many many others. Presented in a gifty package, The 100 Most Jewish Foods is the perfect book to dip into, quote from, cook from, and launch a spirited debate.

Mrs. Everything:
A Novel
by Jennifer Weiner
June 11, 2019
ATRIA

From Jennifer Weiner, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Who Do You Love and In Her Shoes comes a smart, thoughtful, and timely exploration of two sisters’ lives from the 1950s to the present as they struggle to find their places—and be true to themselves—in a rapidly evolving world. Mrs. Everything is an ambitious, richly textured journey through history—and herstory—as these two sisters navigate a changing America over the course of their lives.

Do we change or does the world change us?

Jo and Bethie Kaufman were born into a world full of promise.

Growing up in 1950s Detroit, they live in a perfect “Dick and Jane” house, where their roles in the family are clearly defined. Jo is the tomboy, the bookish rebel with a passion to make the world more fair; Bethie is the pretty, feminine good girl, a would-be star who enjoys the power her beauty confers and dreams of a traditional life.

But the truth ends up looking different from what the girls imagined. Jo and Bethie survive traumas and tragedies. As their lives unfold against the background of free love and Vietnam, Woodstock and women’s lib, Bethie becomes an adventure-loving wild child who dives headlong into the counterculture and is up for anything (except settling down). Meanwhile, Jo becomes a proper young mother in Connecticut, a witness to the changing world instead of a participant. Neither woman inhabits the world she dreams of, nor has a life that feels authentic or brings her joy. Is it too late for the women to finally stake a claim on happily ever after?

In her most ambitious novel yet, Jennifer Weiner tells a story of two sisters who, with their different dreams and different paths, offer answers to the question: How should a woman be in the world?

The Lost Girls of Paris
by Pam Jenoff
January 29, 2019
PARK ROW

1946, Manhattan

One morning while passing through Grand Central Terminal on her way to work, Grace Healey finds an abandoned suitcase tucked beneath a bench. Unable to resist her own curiosity, Grace opens the suitcase, where she discovers a dozen photographs—each of a different woman. In a moment of impulse, Grace takes the photographs and quickly leaves the station.

Grace soon learns that the suitcase belonged to a woman named Eleanor Trigg, leader of a network of female secret agents who were deployed out of London during the war. Twelve of these women were sent to Occupied Europe as couriers and radio operators to aid the resistance, but they never returned home, their fates a mystery. Setting out to learn the truth behind the women in the photographs, Grace finds herself drawn to a young mother turned agent named Marie, whose daring mission overseas reveals a remarkable story of friendship, valor and betrayal.

Vividly rendered and inspired by true events, New York Times bestselling author Pam Jenoff shines a light on the incredible heroics of the brave women of the war and weaves a mesmerizing tale of courage, sisterhood and the great strength of women to survive in the hardest of circumstances.

BORN TRUMP:
Inside America’s First Family
by Emily Jane Fox
(writer, Vanity Fair)
June 19, 2018
Harper

An examination of the Trump children and what is was like to grow up Trump

Chapter One, Page One, Inauguration Day 2017. Ivanka and Jared rush to the White House Lincoln Bedroom. Shabbat approaches. They have borrowed candle holders from the White House butler. They need to kindle the Sabbath candles before sundown...

As a writer at Vanity Fair covering the Trump family, Emily Jane Fox has spent the last year doing a deep dive into the lives of the President’s children. She’s developed a personal relationship with Ivanka and has cultivated sources close to Eric, Donald Jr., and Tiffany. She has scoured their Instagram accounts, combed through all their public speeches, spoken to their childhood friends, college acquaintances, business associates, close advisors, and campaign operatives. She’s become the foremost expert on the Trump kids and, now, in this exclusive account, Fox chronicles the experiences of the Trump children, individuals who possess more control than any other First Children in the history of the presidency.

Wonderfully gossipy, Born Trump examines what shaped the Trump children into who they are—a shared familial history that will inevitably form American history in the coming years. Born Trump explores what it was like to grow up Trump and what this reveals about living in Trump’s America, in turn painting an intimate portrait of the 45th President of the United States from the perspective of his most inner circle. Given their father’s need to be in the spotlight, his bellicose and litigious nature, and how often his personal life played out in public, it seems astonishing that his children remain so close to him. And yet this is part of the Trump ethos—like royalty, they stand together, encased not in palaces, but in Trump Tower.

Fox looks at the childhood privileges and traumas, the individual adolescences and early adulthoods that have been lightly chronicled in the tabloids but never detailed thoughtfully or in depth, the family business that brought them back together and the dynamics therein, the campaign that tested the family in ways the children could not have imagined, and now, the wide-open slate in front of them in Washington, D.C.

Full of surprising insights and previously untold stories, Born Trump will quench the ever increasing desire for a greater understanding of who these people are, how they were raised, and what makes them tick.

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