by Erika Dreifus on Friday, August 19, 2011
As an academically trained historian of modern France, I subscribe to an active listserv on French history. This week, the listserv presented a review of The Hidden Children of France, 1940-45: Stories of Survival, edited by Danielle Bailly and translated by Betty Becker-Theye.
Barbara Krasner (The Whole Megillah) recently returned from Prague, where she visited the graves of Franz Kafka and Arnost Lustig.
I neglected to create a dedicated post on the 15th to announce the latest monthly Jewish Book Carnival. But it’s a good one, so please go over to the August host, the HUC-JIR librarians’ blog, and take a look.
Tablet profiles the impressive founder of Yaldah magazine.
Commentary magazine has launched a literary blog: Literary Commentary. According to the magazine’s editor, John Podhoretz, the blog “will be a place to discuss matters fictional, science-fictional, Jewish-fictional, and all other manner of story, and it will be the charge of D.G. Myers, long a professor of English literature at Texas A&M and now a member of the faculty of the Melton Center for Jewish Studies at Ohio State University.”
The Adventures of Augie March, by Saul Bellow, is Chicago’s latest “One Book, One Chicago” pick.
I purchased two novels for my Kindle this week: The Submission, by Amy Waldman (whom Eric Herschthal has just profiled for The Jewish Week), and, at long last, Sarah’s Key, by Tatiana de Rosnay, which I hope to read before going to see the movie (my parents saw it last week, and they are still talking about it).
Shabbat shalom!
Labels: Holocaust, Jewish Press, Jewish-American literature, Random Cultural Notes, Resources for Jewish reading, TBR
by Erika Dreifus on Friday, August 05, 2011
This week, Josh Lambert’s new books column looks at an array of “post-Holocaust” titles.
Judy Bolton-Fasman reviews Avi Steinberg’s Running the Books for The Jerusalem Report.
Interesting item on “Creativity and Cultural Arts in Today’s Jewish Europe.”
I am going to have to go see this exhibit at The Jewish Museum.
A new podcast from The Book of Life reminds me that Joan Leegant’s novel, Wherever You Go, remains on my tbr list.
In the July-August Moment magazine: Katharine Weber’s review of the new Wendy Wasserstein biography by Julie Salamon. And much more.
Shabbat shalom!
Labels: Holocaust, Israel, Jewish-American literature, Museums, Random Cultural Notes
by Erika Dreifus on Friday, July 29, 2011
Another superb glimpse into French-Jewish literature, courtesy of Benjamin Ivry/The Forward.
Received an alert this week from the Museum of Jewish Heritage about what looks to be an excellent fall exhibition: “Emma Lazarus: Poet of Exiles.” Opens October 26.
Papers sought for a panel on “Translating the Holocaust” (event: Northeast Modern Language Association Conference, Rochester, N.Y., March 2012).
The PJ Library seeks a “PJ Goes to School Educator.” Job is based in West Springfield, Mass.
Jonathan Kirsch, on Jews and Baseball.
Shabbat shalom!
Labels: French-Jewish literature, Holocaust, J-Jobs, Jewish-American history, Jewish-American literature, Museums, Translation
by Erika Dreifus on Friday, July 22, 2011
One of this week’s highlights was the latest Jewish Book Council “Twitter Book Club”. Up for discussion this time: Deborah E. Lipstadt’s new book, The Eichmann Trial. If you missed the chat, you can read the transcript (the author participated).
Another fascinating piece by Adam Kirsch, this time about Israeli writer Lea Goldberg, whose novel And This Is the Light (trans. Barbara Harshav) is available from Toby Press.
New podcasts on the Association of Jewish Libraries website!
A writing prompt led to this lovely pre-Holy Days post from Frume Sarah.
I am going to have to see this film.
This week marked the six-month anniversary of my short-story collection, Quiet Americans, which was released last January. Read my “half-birthday” reflections here.
Shabbat shalom, everyone.
Labels: Holidays, Holocaust, Israeli Literature, Quiet Americans, Resources for Jewish reading
by Erika Dreifus on Friday, July 15, 2011
This past week came the very excellent news that poet and professor Rick Chess has joined the blogging team over at “Good Letters,” the blog of Image Journal. Go read his first post, “Torah in My Mouth,” and look forward, as I am, to his future contributions.
Kenneth Sherman’s appreciation of Yuri Suhl’s One Foot in America (originally published in 1950), reminded me that Sherman’s own What the Furies Bring remains on my nightstand, still waiting to be read.
The New York Times reveals what’s interesting to Israeli author Etgar Keret.
I’ve been a fan of Curb Your Enthusiasm for many seasons, in part because my dad and his parents and grandmother were neighbors of Larry David’s family in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, way back when. Also, my dad is occasionally mistaken for Larry David himself! The show always makes me laugh, and this season, which began Sunday night, is no exception. Check out this column from The Forward, focusing on the show’s particularly Jewish qualities. (Bonus: some down-home NYC footage.)
On a much more serious note: Adam Kirsch has yet again added a book to my tbr list: “There is a double meaning in the subtitle of René Blum and the Ballets Russes: In Search of a Lost Life (Oxford, $29.95), the new biography by Judith Chazin-Bennahum. The life of René Blum was lost in the Holocaust: Like tens of thousands of French Jews, he was deported from Drancy, the internment camp in Paris, to Auschwitz, where he died in 1942. But it was the way he lived, not the way he died, that makes him such an elusive presence even in his own biography.”
Don’t forget that the next Jewish Book Council Twitter Book Club is scheduled for next Wednesday, July 20. Featured title: Deborah Lipstadt’s The Eichmann Trial. Lipstadt will participate in the chat.
Shabbat shalom!
Labels: Holocaust, Israeli Literature, Jewish-American literature, Random Cultural Notes, TBR
