Quotation of the Week for Writers: Ann Patchett
“Ask me if writing can be taught, and I say yes. But I can’t teach you how to have something to say.”
–Ann Patchett
Source: @Quotes4Writers
“Ask me if writing can be taught, and I say yes. But I can’t teach you how to have something to say.”
–Ann Patchett
Source: @Quotes4Writers
Disclosure: I’ve been impressed by Jonathan Miller‘s intelligence and leadership for 25 years, since the long-ago Shabbat when, as a pre-freshman, I visited Harvard Hillel for the first time and met him at the Reform minyan service. At the time, Jonathan was a sophomore, but, with the NFTY presidency behind him, he was already chairing the full Hillel community–while also gearing up to run the national “Students for Gore” effort. I’ve expected great things from him ever since, and his new e-book, The Liberal Case for Israel: Debunking Eight Crazy Lies About the Jewish State, meets (if not exceeds) those high expectations.
Moreover, the text provides a clear and documented guide for those of us who want to join in this effort, those of us who are so frequently frustrated and infuriated by those “crazy lies” about Israel that we see so often in the media (and, for those of us in literary and/or academic communities, among our colleagues). You can review all eight of the “crazy lies” if you take up Amazon‘s “Look Inside” offer. For now, I’ll simply cite the first two: “Imperialist” and “Apartheid.” (You can also read about another one, “Pinkwashing,” in an excerpt from the book that appeared on The Huffington Post this week.)
Time prevents me from writing an in-depth review of Jonathan’s e-book, and I hope I’ll be forgiven for not giving The Liberal Case for Israel the detail it deserves. But I’m so eager to let others know about it. I’ve made no secret of my own wish to be able to do pretty much precisely what Jonathan has done here. I am most grateful–though, given what I recall about him, utterly unsurprised–that Jonathan got there first.
Our regularly scheduled “Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat” will return next week. But I’ve been on “staycation” this week here in New York City, and I haven’t been keeping up with the online offerings quite as assiduously as usual.
On the other hand, I did have the chance to stop by the Book Expo America (BEA) trade show yesterday. I expected to be entranced by all of the new and forthcoming books for adults (and I was), but I’m not sure I was fully prepared for the enormous appeal of the displays of books for children.
Including the displays set up by Kar-Ben Publishing, a wonderful source for Jewish-themed books for children. The Kar-Ben displays were among the first I saw, and my chat with publisher Joni Sussman was my first BEA conversation of the morning. Take a peek at some of the books she told me about (Aunt Erika is already preparing that Chanukah gift list!) and find others on the Kar-Ben website.
Shabbat shalom!
No, I’m not really out there fishing.
But I am going to pause with the blog posts for these last several days of my vacation from the day job. I’ll be back here on Monday, with a fresh batch of markets, jobs, and opportunities for you.
Thanks for your patience. Have a great several days ’til we meet again here. (But don’t be surprised if you see me on Twitter between now and Monday!)