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Notes from Around the Web: Literary Links for Shabbat

by Erika Dreifus on
1
  • Josh Lambert examines “why a growing number of today’s young Jewish fiction writers…are grounding their novels in scholarly research.”
  • Author Hans Keilson has passed away.
  • “You are Jewish. Or you aren’t Jewish. Either way, you wonder about the relationship of Jews in the United States to Israel. Is it love/hate? Despair/hope? Anger/fondness? Fear/longing? You have your own thoughts on the matter. But you want to learn more.” (Reason #15 in Becky Tuch’s “21 Reasons Why You Should Read Dissent.”)
  • Check out The Forward‘s Summer Books section.
  • It’s been a busy week for my short-story collection, Quiet Americans.
  • Jeffrey Goldberg responds to a Scottish boycott of Israeli books.

    • Shabbat shalom!

    Jewish Newsweekly Seeks Editor

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    “J., the Jewish newsweekly of Northern California, is seeking a dynamic editor to lead its editorial staff. J. serves the San Francisco Bay Area, reaching approximately 45,000 members of the local Jewish community via its print edition, website, e-mail newsletter, and social media. J. is independently operated and has been publishing since 1895. Our current editor is retiring after 27 years.”

    For the rest of the announcement and application information, please visit JewishJobs.com.

    Words of the Week: Jeffrey Goldberg

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    It always seemed to me that Israel and Egypt, two independent states, decided jointly to blockade Gaza. Does the Times believe the Mubarak regime decided to participate in the blockade of Gaza because Israel ordered it to participate? Does anyone actually believe that Egypt closed its border with Gaza only because it was in Israel’s interest? Or was Egypt’s government and military worried about the spread of Hamas ideology into Sinai and beyond?

    Part of Goldblog’s response to a New York Times article lede that had disturbed me, too.

    Notes from Around the Web: Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled
  • Ann Goldberg shares lessons learned at the Jerusalem Writers’ Seminar.
  • Carlin Romano reviews a new essay collection focused on Primo Levi and concludes: “Primo Levi was not just a Holocaust survivor or ‘great Holocaust author.’ He was a humanist who insisted on justice—one whose incisive voice against those who murder the innocent still speaks to all lands, and all cultures.”
  • A hearty Mazel Tov to Gary Shteyngart, the first American to win the Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction for his novel, Super Sad True Love Story. Named for the British humorist, the prize isn’t exactly kosher, though–it confers, among other items, a pig named in Shteyngart’s honor.
  • The Whole Megillah’s series on using social media to promote Jewish children’s books continues.
  • Finally, just in case you missed my musings on the Jewish Book NETWORK/Meet the Author programs, you’ll find my list of tbr discoveries here and an account of my Sunday evening here.

    • Shabbat shalom!

    TBR: Forthcoming Books by Jewish Book NETWORK Authors

    by Erika Dreifus on
    6

    One of the best parts of participating in the Jewish Book NETWORK‘s Meet the Author Program as one of the 2011-12 authors is the opportunity I had on Sunday evening to meet some fellow NETWORK authors whom I’ve admired for a long time. For example, I was able to tell Melissa Fay Greene how much I learned from The Temple Bombing; I finally met Joan Leegant; and, thanks to the privileges of alphabetical order, I sat right next to David Bezmozgis (whose novel, The Free World, I’m just starting to read on my Kindle).

    Many of the authors I had the good fortune to meet on Sunday–and others who may have shown up for one of the other sessions (this program is so large that not all of the authors can be accommodated in one evening)–are promoting books that have not yet been published.

    Here are just ten forthcoming titles that were discussed on Sunday and/or are featured in this year’s Jewish Book NETWORK guide that I’m especially eager to read. (And if you’re a book reviewer looking for summer/fall titles to review, maybe you’ll find some here to interest you as well.)

  • Ellen Feldman, Next to Love (Spiegel & Grau, July)
  • Martin Fletcher, The List (St. Martin’s, October)
  • Pam Jenoff, The Things We Cherished (Doubleday, July)
  • Jodi Kantor, The Obamas (Little, Brown, November)
  • Peter Orner, Love and Shame and Love (Little, Brown, November)
  • Alyson Richman, The Lost Wife (Berkley/Penguin, September)
  • Rebecca Rosenblum, The Big Dream (Biblioasis, September)
  • Philip Schultz, My Dyslexia (Norton, September)
  • Anna Solomon, The Little Bride (Riverhead, September)
  • Evelyn Toynton, The Oriental Wife (Other Press, July)

    • Two more things: Evan Fallenberg’s novel, When We Danced on Water, was released just last week. So, technically, it’s no longer “forthcoming.” But I wanted to give it (and Evan, an author I’d heard about but hadn’t met before Sunday) a shout-out here, anyway. I also have to mention Randy Susan Meyers’s The Murderer’s Daughters. Randy was there on Sunday to promote the paperback, and I told her very honestly that a copy is atop the stack on my nightstand right now.

    Reactions? Thoughts?