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#JewLit
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rachelsbrittain
Wandering Stars | Sholem Aleichem
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My audiobooks for the weekend #WeekendReads

Kristy_K This one looks interesting! 1mo
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review
hissingpotatoes
The Shtetl | Joachim Neugroschel
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Mehso-so

2.5/5⭐ This anthology of Yiddish stories translated into English is important from a cultural/religious standpoint. I can see it being used with great effect in a Jewish studies course. The editor did an excellent job organizing the stories and introducing each section with contextual information. However, the storytelling styles are very different from what I'm used to, often going on tangents and tedious to get through. #roll100

27 likes4 comments
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monalyisha
The Promise | Chaim Potok
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@BarbaraJean I want to read The Promise from your list (and The Chosen, the book that precedes it)…but I‘m also hyper-conscious of the fact that I need to increase my awareness about our current political reality & the history that‘s gotten us here. It feels daunting…and it feels important.

A friend recommended some resources (which I‘ll link to in the comments). If anyone has additional (or contrary) suggestions or advice, please let me know.💞

See All 15 Comments
Sapphire I love Chaim Potok. He is one of my all time favorite authors and I have read everything he wrote. He gives a portrayal of observant Judaism of his time (and issues of identity converging with modernity). I am not sure how much it is a history of the nation-state of Israel. 4mo
monalyisha @Sapphire I don‘t know that I expect(ed) it to be. It just kind of feels wrong for me to pay attention to the fiction and not to the world, you know? I‘m probably overthinking it. I tend to do that. 😉 But whatever leads me into pursuing more knowledge and awareness can‘t be bad, right? Maybe I‘ll just make these twin commitments adjacent to one another but not consider them inextricably linked, or make one a prerequisite of the other. 4mo
Sapphire @monalyisha I totally get that. Not unbiased, but check out Bill Maher on YouTube for his recent statement about the current war. While it‘s not about Israel per se, Mary Doris Russell‘s “Dreamers of the Day” is an amazing tale of how the modern Middle East was drawn by people who had little to no knowledge of the region and its people. The author was an anthropologist before becoming a writer and commits to research I highly recommend it. 4mo
monalyisha The book sounds great! Adding it now. 💓 (Will look into the statement, too.) 4mo
BarbaraJean I hear you on this. This topic is so charged and so complicated. I‘m going to check out the resources you posted—I haven‘t had the emotional bandwidth to engage with this more deeply, but I know I need to. Also, I echo @Sapphire re: Potok in general, and this book particularly—it examines Judaism much more closely, in a specific place and time (New York City post-WWII), rather than looking at broader historical context. But I very much ⤵️ (edited) 4mo
BarbaraJean Cont‘d) …understand the desire to broaden the focus (and the tendency to overthink!). I‘m definitely interested in your adjacent project. For what it‘s worth, I read the tagged book YEARS ago, but it gave me a much more complex perspective on modern Palestine/Israel than I had previously considered. Other recs: I recently added Yehuda Amichai‘s poetry to my TBR, and would also recommend Naomi Shihab Nye, a contemporary Palestinian American poet. 4mo
monalyisha @BarbaraJean OoOo. I may consider the Naomi Shihab Nye an official #AuldLangSpine recommendation. I‘ve loved every poem of hers I‘ve ever stumbled across (especially Valentine for Ernest Mann). 🖤🤍 4mo
monalyisha @BarbaraJean Also, should I read The Chosen first, do you think? Would my reading experience be enriched? Or should I just head right into The Promise? 4mo
BarbaraJean Oh, definitely put Naomi Shihab Nye in the mix! I love her so much. My favorite is Red Suitcase (which has Valentine for Ernest Mann as well as another favorite, Shoulders). More recent/related to current events is the tagged, which I'd also highly recommend! With The Chosen/The Promise, they both work well as standalones. The Chosen gives you the main characters' growing-up years, but I don't think The Promise suffers without that context. 4mo
BarbaraJean My caveat is that it's been over 10 years since I read The Chosen, so my own memory of it is a bit... faded. The ideas in The Promise were SO fascinating, though, that I wanted to go back and re-read them both--so take that for what it's worth! 4mo
47 likes15 comments
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TheBookgeekFrau
Bread Givers | Anzia Yezierska
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#HumbleHarvest #Bread

An oldie from my college days. I think it was a good read 🤷🏻‍♀️

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks 🥖📚🍞 5mo
Eggs Love B&W pic! 🖤🥖🤍 5mo
33 likes1 stack add2 comments
review
Eggs
Day: A Novel | Elie Wiesel, Anne Borchardt
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Pickpick

“Man carries his fiercest enemy within himself. Hell isn‘t others. It‘s ourselves. Hell is the burning fever that makes you feel cold.”

The author once again grapples with life and love and death, just as he did in the first of his series: Night. This time he is flat in bed, after an accident in which he was run over by a NYC cab…

#SeriesLove2023
#RushAThon Day 8
#Bookspinbingo

― Elie Wiesel, quote from Day

DieAReader 🥳🥳🥳 5mo
TheSpineView Fantastic! 5mo
TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! 5mo
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Eggs @TheSpineView 🤗🤗 5mo
Eggs @TheAromaofBooks 🥰🥰 5mo
Andrew65 Looks an excellent read. Well done 👏👏👏 5mo
Eggs @Andrew65 Thanks, it was awesome 👏🏻 5mo
68 likes7 comments
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shawnmooney
Mendelssohn is on the Roof | Ji? Weil, Marie Winn
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https://youtu.be/BhiPsquNRXc

Intro

Weekly Highlights

The Imaginary Lives Of James Pōneke by Tina Makereti

Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry by B.S. Johnson

And Then He Sang a Lullaby by Ani Kayode Somtochukwu

The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico

Mendelssohn is on the Roof by Jiří Weil, Marie Winn (Translator)

No Bones by Anna Burns

shawnmooney Leave My Bones In Saskatoon by Michael Afenfia

The Sex Life of My Aunt by Mavis Cheek

Breast Stories by Mahasweta Devi, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (Translator)

Selected Short Stories of Liam O'Flaherty

The Dry Heart by Natalia Ginzburg, Frances Frenaye (Translator)

The Tin Flute by Gabrielle Roy, Alan Brown (Translator)

A Decent World by Ellen Hawley

Loop Tracks by Sue Orr

9mo
25 likes1 comment
review
BarbaraJean
The Promise | Chaim Potok
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Pickpick

The Promise is a sequel to Potok‘s The Chosen, and it‘s just as thought-provoking & reflective. It follows Reuven Malter, a young Orthodox Jew in post-WWII NYC, during his time in seminary, as he struggles to define his faith in contrast to more conservative and more liberal sects within his community. I was fascinated by parallels to contemporary debates between fundamentalist/evangelical Christians & more progressive versions of Christianity.⤵️

BarbaraJean There‘s another thread to the plot that I was conflicted about—Reuven is caught up in helping a troubled boy, the son of a progressive Jewish scholar. The descriptions of and theory behind the treatment this boy receives feels very dated (granted, this was written in the 60s), and that whole thread felt a bit overwrought. But that aside, the ideas this explores are fascinating. I‘m wanting to go back and re-read The Chosen & then read this again! 9mo
BarbaraJean #SeriesLove2023 prompted me to finally read this sequel, and I‘m using it for #1969 in the #192025 challenge. @TheSpineView @Andrew65 @Librarybelle (edited) 9mo
MommyWantsToReadHerBook It makes me happy that my good friend is reading these books that I love so much and have read so many times! I always find the parallels with conservative Christians fascinating. 9mo
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TheSpineView Great job!😊🌞📖 9mo
TheLudicReader I remember reading The Chosen as a kid…and seeing the movie with Robby Benson, with whom I was madly in love for most of my teenage years. (edited) 9mo
BarbaraJean @MommyWantsToReadHerBook 💜 💜 I think Art of Soul read The Chosen right after I left; I remember reading it on my own and wishing I could join you all to discuss it!! @TheLudicReader I didn't know there was a movie! I will have to track that down! 9mo
43 likes6 comments
quote
BarbaraJean
The Promise | Chaim Potok
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“…often I would read as I walked—and one day I bumped heavily into a sycamore and bruised my knee. But the book I was reading remained undamaged and I walked more carefully from then on, but continued reading. I lived in a world two thousand years in the past, in a time when sages had been remarkably unafraid of new ideas…”

💜📚🌳

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BarbaraJean
The Promise | Chaim Potok
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Well, my goal for #SeriesLove2023 was to finish at least one series book per month (not counting #LittleHouse). I‘ve done that, except I didn‘t mean to start 3 new series! 🤦🏻‍♀️

I caught up on Murderbot & read the new Wayward Children, read two sequels, & have one more sequel in progress (tagged). But I want to focus on in-progress series for the rest of the year: Chronicles of St. Mary‘s and the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries are top of the list.

Andrew65 Brilliant 👏👏👏 That is what happens, we start other series! 10mo
Karisimo I love Murderbot too! 10mo
TheSpineView Fantastic! I always have multiple series going at once. 10mo
BarbaraJean @Karisimo When I saw Murderbot on your Auld Lang Spine list, I knew it would be a good list! 😁 10mo
33 likes4 comments