Andrew Friedman, Chefs, Drugs and Rock & Roll, How Food Lover, Free Spirits, Misfits and Wanderers Created a New American Profession, Ecco, $27.99, 464 pages © Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — Andrew Friedman gave a reading at San Francisco’s Omnivore Bookstore. After the talk I asked the author if the book has some Jewish content. […]
Jews and the culinary revolution Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Oliver Pollak, Travel and Food
By Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — This story is based on The House of Twenty Thousand Books by Sasha Abramsky published in 2014. My wife Karen picked it up from the half price table at Powell’s Books in Portland last summer. Abramsky, an English born scholar lives in the Sacramento area. I read the book
The unifying effect of Passover Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Oliver Pollak
Irreverent Forever: True Tales From a Newspaperman’s Outrageously Rewarding Life by David Arledge Feldman; © 2018, Gray Castle Publishing, ISBN 9781987-713190; 226 pages plus appendix and acknowledgments. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Journalist David Arledge Feldman inherited his father’s sense of humor, but not his Jewish religion. For most of his life,
A journalist’s life in David Feldman’s memoir Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Middle East, San Diego County, USA
Absolutely on Music: Haruki Murakami Conversations with Seiji Ozawa (2017), 353 pages. © Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — I saw this book at the Jackson Hole Book Trader. Music and conversation between a brilliant author and a conductor — buy the book, find the time to read it. I already owned Parallels and Paradoxes:
Jews, Japan, and Music Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Oliver Pollak© Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — The measurement of time changes after you retire. You do not have to go to work, and you can do pretty much what you want to do within financial and physical limits. The change of direction can be dramatic. Do not confuse sleeping late with depression, but exhaustion from
Trysts with the Nobel Prize in Literature Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Oliver Pollak(((Semitism))) Being Jewish in the Age of Trump by Jonathan Weisman, St. Martin Press, New York, © 2018, ISBN 978-1250169938, 224 pages, plus acknowledgements and notes, $25.99 By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California – The introduction to author Jonathan Weisman’s newest book (((Semitism))), in which he chronicles the unchecked growth of hate in this country against
Book rebukes Jews for passivity toward haters Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, USATheir Promised Land; My Grandparents in Love and War by Ian Buruma; Penguin Random House, 2017 By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — I found this book so fascinating that I read it more or less in one sitting and, having read it on my Kindle, proceeded to order the paperback version from Amazon as I knew I
German Jews fared well in 20th century Britain Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Jewish History
Thou Shalt innovate: How Israeli ingenuity Repairs the World by Avi Jorisch; © 2018; Gefen Publishing; ISBN 9789652-299345; 176 pages with 90 additional pages of acknowledgments, notes, bibliography, and index. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Discover a problem; figure out how to fix it; create a company to market your solution; and in
Non- fiction book profiles 15 Israeli inventions Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education
By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — Simon Sebag-Montefiore brings impeccable credentials to the monumental task of writing Jerusalem: The Biography. A history Ph.D. from Cambridge, he has been a banker and a foreign correspondent reporting on, among other events, the fall of the Soviet Union. He is also the great-great-nephew of Sir Moses Montefiore, the international
Biography of Jerusalem has its agenda Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History, Middle East, Shoshana Bryen
The Game Isn’t Everything: The reality beyond the arena by Bruce Lowitt; Barstad Comminications; © 2015; 281 pages; 14.95. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – I learned when I was a rookie reporter for the Associated Press back in 1967 that any fool, including yours truly, could write a story about an athletic contest.
It could be, it might be, it is (!) a great sports book Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Bruce F. Lowitt, Donald H. Harrison, Sports & Competitions
Beyond the Instant by Rabbi Mark Wildes; Skyhorse Publishing © 2018; 141 pages. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – I read this book with great enthusiasm, possibly because I agreed with almost everything Rabbi Mark Wildes writes about such subjects as happiness, love, sex, success, blaming, taking charge of one’s life, understanding one’s place
A Jewish guidebook for life’s big questions Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish ReligionJulius Matthias; a Pact with the Devil by Michelle Mazel; New Meridian (c) 2017. By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — This family saga spans the first half of the twentieth century, focusing primarily on good-looking Julius Matthias, the son of a poor Jewish family, whose one ambition in life is to become a doctor. In
Book details pre-war Jewish life in Romania Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson
The Soul of a Thief by Steven Hartov; Hanover Square Press © 2018; ISBN 9781335-144577; 293 pages; $24.99. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – War, sex, hidden identities, betrayal—you can find all these in this fast-moving novel. Shtefan (as Stefan is pronounced) had a Jewish great-grandmother, enough for him to also be considered Jewish
Jewish descendants fight for lives in WWII novel Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison
The House Always Wins by Brian Rouff; Huntington Press © 2017; 324 pages; $16.95. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – This novel seems like two separate stories, loosely connected. In the first, Christian girl meets Jewish boy, a bass player in a band, and after interviewing him for a local newspaper, finds herself falling
Las Vegas ghost story invokes the mob Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison