It took a call to customer service at Mendele, the Israeli online bookseller, for Ariela Baum to figure out how to download her first e-book by a pioneering romance author two years ago, but when she finally did, her life changed.
Say what you will about journalism as a profession, you are never unemployed. Instead, you are \”between assignments,\” a condition I found myself in during the early 1980s at the same time that The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles was preparing to launch its new Jewish Journal. The two situations dovetailed nicely, and for the first 11 years of The Journal\’s existence, I was its associate editor, until I retired in 1993.
Since 1968, when his novel \”My Michael\” — exquisitely narrated by a despairing young wife in Jerusalem — mesmerized thousands of readers, Amos Oz has been recognized as one of Israel\’s most gifted and prolific authors. He has produced 22 books — 11 novels, three collections of stories and novellas, one children\’s book, and seven books of articles and essays — that have been translated into 35 languages. His work is his autobiography, and until now Oz had been reticent about his own life.
Anne-Marie Baila Asner decided that she was going to reinvigorate Yiddish by writing and illustrating cute, brightly colored children\’s books that would help people develop an affinity for the language.
\”I don\’t ever read reviews,\” playwright Jessica Goldberg said. \”I\’m too sensitive … I\’d rather not know.\”
\”The Pet Press is distributed to pet-related venues and many other places, including libraries, car washes and my favorite locations — Jewish delicatessens from Calabasas to Long Beach … and all points in between,\” Lori Golden said.
In a key scene in \”Masterpiece Theatre\’s\” \”Daniel Deronda,\” adapted from George Eliot\’s 1876 novel, the hero attends a Zionist meeting.\n
Dara Horn wrote an exuberant scene in her stunning debut novel, \”In the Image,\” upon returning to her dreary garret flat during a year abroad in 1999. \”I\’d been to this dismal British market in which an entire aisle was devoted to butter and fats,\” the ebullient Horn, 25, said animatedly. \”I recall a product called \’beef drippings.\’ The produce was wilting. All the milk was expired yesterday. I was very homesick.\”
Tashbih Sayyed told me he has cried three times in his adult life: once when his father died, once when his mother died and once when he had to sell his house.
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