One advocate’s argument for Israel’s longevity
Jonathan Kirsch
August 23, 2011
When Hirsh Goodman speaks about the destiny of Israel, people listen.
Category
book review
Moroccan murder mystery weaves web of deception
Jonathan Kirsch
August 2, 2011
From the opening passage of “The Honored Dead: A Story of Friendship, Murder, and the Search for Truth in the Arab World” by Joseph Braude (Spiegel & Grau: $26), we suddenly find ourselves in an atmospheric scene right out of “Casablanca” — an empty alleyway in the storied Moroccan city, a morning mist, a warehouse where the deep silence is suddenly broken by a squad of soldiers and detectives, and the sight of a mutilated corpse.
Expert Mystery-Making by Worthy Heir to Famous Family Name
Jonathan Kirsch
April 7, 2010
Four years ago, Jesse Kellerman famously entered the family business when he published his first novel, “Sunstroke.” His father is Jonathan Kellerman and his
mother is Faye Kellerman, both of whom are name-brand mystery novelists in their own rights.
Edward Hirsch’s Living Poetry, Ripe for Passover Readings
Jonathan Kirsch
March 24, 2010
The Kirsch family and the Solomon family have long shared a set of haggadot that include a selection of additional texts that we read aloud at our Passover
seders. One of my favorite readings is an article by Yehuda Lev that first appeared in The Jewish Journal, an account of his trek across war-ravaged Europe in the company of Holocaust survivors heading toward Palestine in 1946. Another is a poem by Karl Shapiro titled, “The Alphabet” — “The letters of the Jews are dancing knives/That carve the heart of darkness seven ways.”
Books: Pot-smoking antihero proves cathartic for her creator
Naomi Pfefferman
March 14, 2008
Twenty-nine-year-old Dahlia Finger, the antihero of Elisa Albert\’s debut novel, \”The Book of Dahlia,\” has an inoperable brain tumor and an attitude.
Firsthand accounts bring WWII London ‘Blitz’ to life
Amanda Susskind
December 14, 2007
There is no shortage of books, historical and fictional, on the bombing of London during World War II. Peter Stansky\’s new book, \”The First Day of the Blitz,\” combines history, political commentary and firsthand testimony in a compelling account.
Books: A stranger on a journey
Sandee Brawarsky
September 28, 2007
In Amy Bloom\’s novel \”Away,\” Lillian Leyb makes her way from the Lower East Side to Seattle and then Alaska, hoping to get to Siberia to find her daughter.
Chart a new course with these spiritual guides for the New Year
Sandee Brawarsky
September 14, 2007
As we think about rewriting our personal narratives in the New Year, adding new pages and chapters, several new books inspire new visions, renewed creativity and new relationships between the calendar and a sense of holiness.
Conning a con man
Jay Firestone
August 24, 2007
Rich Siegel\’s day typically consisted of waking up, going to work, coming home and checking his e-mail. This routine probably would have continued had Siegel not become a bit curious about an e-mail he received from a Nigerian businessman offering him 25 percent of $45.5 million in exchange for his bank account information.
Author’s advice on sex and intimacy makes her hot stuff
Sandee Brawarsky
August 24, 2007
I open Esther Perel\’s new book on the bus, and I know that my seatmate is staring at the cover photo of a man and woman in bed not touching beneath the red sheets. \”Mating in Captivity: Reconciling the Erotic & the Domestic\” (HarperCollins) has caught the man\’s attention, but he maintains the bus rider\’s code and doesn\’t ask about it. Perel\’s book has also captured the attention of large numbers of readers, journalists and producers.
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