Books, Poetry & Short Stories

By Dan Bloom CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — Jews and food, Jews and social movements, Jews and humor: they all go together like egg whites and egg yolks. Meet Robert Barsky, who grew up in a Jewish family in Canada and teaches now in the French and Italian departments at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Also holding

Children of the Stone, The Power of Music in a Hard Land, by Sandy Tolan, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015 By Sheila Orysiek SAN DIEGO — In a “Note to Readers” the author states that the events and facts presented in the book have been extensively sourced, checked and, to the extent possible, verified.  However, Tolan also

By Dan Bloom CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — Shari Becker grew up in a Jewish family in Montreal and now lives in Boston, where she is married and is raising two daughters with her husband John. Her first YA (young adult) novel has been published and there’s a fascinating story behind it I found out during

Everything You Ever Wanted by Jillian Lauren, Plume/Penquin Publishing Group, 2015 By Sheila Orysiek SAN DIEGO — This is the second of Jillian Lauren’s memoirs.*  Born in 1973, she was adopted as an infant by a middle class Jewish couple in Livingston, New Jersey.  Her childhood included the cultural norms of that time and place such

By Dan Bloom CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — Bill Tammeus is a former religion columnist for the Kansas City Star and the author of several books over the years, among them They Were Just People: Stories of Rescue in Poland During the Holocaust, which he co-authored with Jacques Cukierkorn. He knows the Jewish community in Kansas

Some Girls: My Life in a Harem by Jillian Lauren, published by Plume/Penguin Group, 2010 By Sheila Orysiek SAN DIEGO — Jillian Lauren was born in 1973 and was adopted as an infant by a Jewish couple in Livingston, New Jersey.  Later a son was adopted.  They were a middle class suburban family, gave their