Litsy

IndoorDame

Poetry of Yehuda Amichai | Yehuda Amichai

#vengeance #poetrymatters @TheSpineView

28 likes

ManyWordsLater

Salome of the Tenements | Anzia Yezierska

Ah yes. 1923 NYC. Talking about Jews as foreign and overly sexual.
On the next page the author refers to the same character as “oriental.”

Classic racism.
There is nothing new in the world.

Texreader ☹️😠 4mo

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ManyWordsLater

Salome of the Tenements | Anzia Yezierska

“Even downtown we got differences. Let me and the landlords wife go to the butcher store for meat. For who will the butcher pick out the fattest piece of meat? For me, who bargains herself every penny, or the landlords wife that pays him over any price he asks?”
Unintended bias is everywhere. Even in 1923.

Texreader Probably especially in 1923. We know what to call it now 4mo

25 likes1 comment

ManyWordsLater

Salome of the Tenements | Anzia Yezierska

Honestly, what were the freaking odds of finding this book.

It has no reviews on Litsy. It isn‘t mentioned in any of the other “also by this author.”

But there it was on a to be shelved used books trolley.

I‘m so excited. Talk about beshert!

44 likes

dabbe

Twilight: A Novel | Elie Wiesel

#SpringSkies
#2BksWithSimilarTitles
@Eggs
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Eggs Perfection 🍎💙🌖 (edited) 5mo

dabbe @Eggs 💙🩵💙 5mo

59 likes2 comments

rachelsbrittain

Wandering Stars | Sholem Aleichem

My audiobooks for the weekend #WeekendReads

Kristy_K This one looks interesting!

The Woman with No Name: A Novel

6mo

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hissingpotatoes

The Shtetl | Joachim Neugroschel

so-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

hissingpotatoes #52BookClub24 includes wedding @Kristy_K, @LaraReads, @KarenUK, @Hooked_on_books, @BarkingMadRead, @brittanyreads, @Graciouswarriorprincess, @Magpiegem, @BookBelle84, @Larkken, @jenniferw88, @julesG, @Deblovestoread, @MidnightBookGirl, @Librarybelle, @triplem80, @Tove_Reads, @Read4life, @Bluebird, @eeclayton, @BarbaraBB, @Book_Lover95, @TheAromaofBooks, @kwmg40, @Crazeedi 8mo

Librarybelle Pretty cover! 8mo

TheAromaofBooks Great review!! 8mo

BarbaraBB Interesting! 8mo

27 likes4 comments

monalyisha

The Promise | Chaim Potok

@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.💞

monalyisha Overview: https://youtu.be/kI_spMxp6t8?si=eh_VjTndfIfxtwJ_ 9mo

monalyisha Documentary: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt16378034/ 9mo

monalyisha Book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77920745-a-day-in-the-life-of-abed-salama 9mo

See All 15 Comments

monalyisha Interview (with the author): https://open.spotify.com/episode/7fX4pPcSOHBG6eruqT0wJG?si=SP3a2cnlSiWQNsB8whLD-... 9mo

monalyisha #AuldLangSpine 9mo

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. 9mo

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. 9mo

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. 9mo

monalyisha The book sounds great! Adding it now. 💓 (Will look into the statement, too.) 9mo

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) 9mo

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.

I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity

9mo

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). 🖤🤍 9mo

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? 9mo

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.

The Tiny Journalist: Poems

9mo

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! 9mo

47 likes15 comments