Books with Jewish/Israeli themes/authors in the 999 challenge

I noticed that several of us have Jewish/Israeli books as one of our categories. We could talk about them here.

For example 3 of my 9 categories are Jewish fiction, Jewish non-fiction, and Kabbalah.

I know that first book form the first category I will read is The Genizah at the House of Shepher by Tamar Yellin and from the third category Dreams of being eaten alive by David Rosenberg. The Genizah book is popular (96 people has it) and has 25 reviews already (which I will not read just yet.) 28 people has the other book in LT, but nobody wrote a review of it yet. I might end up being the first one.

I don't have such a category, but a lot of my favorite books have Jewish themes or authors (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, The History of Love, Crossing California and The Washington Story to name a few), so I'd like to see what you guys end up reading.

I'll be reading The Yiddish Policemen's Union for my 999 challenge, anyways.

Cool - I have this topic starred now too!!

I have a Jewish-interest category (my thread, msg 7). I think it will be all fiction, but I'm keeping it general for now - there are two nonfiction books on Yiddish I'd like to read.

I'll add my few cents to your discussion.

I'm starting out 2009 with reading a book sent to me by biblioholic13. (Thanks!) It's The Girl on the Fridge, a book of wild and weird short stories by the very popular Israeli author Etgar Keret. His books are great fun to read. I've already read The Nimrod Flipout which had been sent to me by Cariola, but I no longer have that book to share. I sent it out via BookMooch. I'm on the look out for more of Keret's books!!

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chanale, I added you to my list of 999 challenges to follow based on your Judaica list. Of all the books you listed, I've only read The Book Thief. That was an interesting book because, not only was it a great read, but it was the first book I ever read by an Australian author as well as one of the few books that got me turned on to reading YA fiction this past year.

I have a "Jewish religious literature" category (I confess I don't really like most Jewish fiction) but incidentally I want to read The Yiddish Policemen's Union for my "SF published in the past five years" category... I'll see how it goes.

I was trying to figure out if I'd like to follow your "Jewish religious literature" category. Which are some of the books that you might read (as I don't want to pin you down into anything too specific yet).

I finished reading The Girl on the Fridge by Etgar Keret and am willing to send it to anyone else in the U.S. through BookMooch (I need the points). If you'd like it next, let me know, and I'll reserve this book for you when I post it as "available to be mooched".

If you are not familiar with BookMooch, it's a book trading site which involves no fee other than the payment for media mail postage to the person who is mailing the book. The recipients pay nothing!

Re post #10...

chanale got the book! I'm just waiting for a screen name at BookMooch.

Got your screen name. I'll put the book in the mail to you in the next few days, chanale.

Thanks so much!

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Don't know yet, whatever strikes my fancy (I'm quite capricious so I didn't try to make lists of books in each category in advance).

I have a collection of essays by Adin Steinsaltz I've been meaning to finish for ages, but it's in a language I don't speak (French), so it takes some effort. I can slog through it without a dictionary but "slogging" is *the* exact word.

I've also been meaning to read Rabbi Nachman's Wisdom, though it looks a bit chaotic. And I have a book on yichud on my tablet PC and also The Tree of Life by Sholom Dovber Schneersohn. Lubavitch are great about having their books available for free online, but right now I feel someone would have to *pay* me to read one more anthology of "the Rebbe's sayings". So I'm going back to the older Lubavitcher books.

Basically what I end up reading is heavily influenced by what I can get ahold of. I'm Modern Orthodox but I don't have anything against reading Chasidic books either. Not really interested in Reform or Conservative religious literature unless they are VERY interesting for some reason. But I'm fine with secular scholarship on Judaism, though I don't want to put those books in this category. (I'm interested in reading books not in any of my categories too. I've just read Vertraute Fremde and this is explicitly ruled out by my "Books in German" category because it's manga, and it doesn't fit into any of the others either.)

I'm very much open to recommendations too. I basically decide what to read on a whim, and this is why I thought it'd be cool to participate in this challenge (other than the fact that I love lists, and I also love talking about books), because there are certain categories of books I *should* be reading (like books in German!) and this should serve as a constant reminder.

(Edit: something seems to be wrong with the touchstones so I removed them.)

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Thanks for the info, prezzey. It looks as if your reads will not intersect mine, but seem they will be very interesting nonetheless. I'll be following them with you so be sure to note what you think of them.

I don't have a specific category for Judaica or Jewish/Israeli authors, but I am planning to read Man's Search for Meaning. Does that count?

It certainly counts - as the author was both born into a Jewish family and had been an inmate in a concentration camp.

I'm not sure when I'll read it, as I'll have to get it from the library, but it's one of those books that I've heard so much about that I really want to read it for myself.

Man's Search for Meaning touched me so deeply when I read it umpteen-years ago. Thanks for reminding me.

Has anyone read any of these books:

The Way to the Cats by Yeholshua Kenaz (edit: SqueakyChu, looks like you own this one. I'm still learning how to use the touchstones and all the other features here at LT) (and now the touchstone for this one has reverted to that Lee Ames book and I can't fix it. Sheesh!)

Persian Brides by Dorit Rabinyan

A Perfect Peace by Amos Oz

Scream Queens of the Dead Sea by Gilad Elbom

??

That's what I came up with when I searched B&N for Israeli settings -- this thread inspired me to choose an Israeli author for my non-English-speaking-country-based author category (really need to memorize those category numbers for posting purposes. Or rename them something short {grin}.).

Hi megi53,

No, I haven't read The Way to the Cats by Yehoshua Kenaz, but I highly recommend his novel Returning Lost Loves about a group of families in a Tel Aviv apartment building. This book had been made into a movie, I believe.

I haven't read Persian Brides by Dorit Rabinyan, but I did read Strand of a Thousand Pearls. I don't remember the details of that book, but I do remember liking it and thinking it was similar in writing style to the writing of Asian Indian author Arundhati Roy.

I'll have to add Man's Search for Meaning to my wish list.

Anything by Amos Oz is great! After you have read some of his books, give yourself a treat and read his autobiography, A Tale of Love and Darkness. He tells what it was like to live in Jerusalem in Palestine (before the state of Israel). He also reveals how his political beliefs came about. It's a marvelous read and perhaps the book of his that I like the best although his greatest fame is of being a novelist (and a peacenik).

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I actually know Gilad Elbom in passing, he's a nice guy with a talent for controversy. I admit I haven't read his book yet, though.

Okay. I just looked up Scream Queens of the Dead Sea, and it looks just weird enough for me to enjoy it! It's now on my wish list. :)

I've read A Perfect Peace and thought it was brilliant - a few years since I've read it though. I second squeakChu's recommendation of A tale of love and darkness - one of my best all time reads.

I just ordered a copy of A Tale of Love and Darkness - it sounded really good.

I read ten thousand lovers by Edeet Ravel just before Christmas. She was brought up in a kibbutz in Israel but now lives in Canada. I really enjoyed this book, fiction.

What a good thread! Gotta star. :)
If you like children's books, try Morris Gleitzman. I'm hoping to get to his "Then", which is a sequel to "Once", the latter is about a Jewish kid in Poland during WWII. By the way, Morris writes lovely books - on important themes in a funny yet touching way. Highly recommend.

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What a great book!! It had a most amazing ending, didn't it?

I now have another of Ravel's books but just have to find the time to read it.

Oh great - I have Ten Thousand Lovers on my tbr pile as well as the 2 Morris Gleitzman books, I don't have them in this challenge but will probably read them sometime this year anyway.

This was the first of her books that I had read, the style was great. As a linguist, I loved the language notes, really made me think about the words I use.

I second the recommendation for Ten Thousand Lovers. My blog entry about it is here.

I finished The Genizah at the House of Shepher by Tamar Yellin and wrote a review for it in LT. Liked bits of it, but not the whole book.

I also finished The Wonder Spot by Melissa Bank. I mention it, because the main character is Jewish, a girl who decided not to get bat-mitzvah-ed. There are some nominal Jewish themes throughout the book, but none of them are very deep or interesting. I can say the same thing about the book as well.

I thank you all for mentioning more titles here I haven't heard of yet.

Some interesting information on here. I almost ended up with a Jewish authors category, since I started out with The Trial, Collected Stories of Isaac Babel and The Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass--but I ended up going with Eastern European instead to get Nabokov and Dostoyevsky into the category.

I also plan to listen to The Yiddish Policeman's Union as part of my audiobooks category.

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break, I also posted a review of The Genizah at the House of Shepher and felt the same way you did about that book. I thought the author had great potential and some parts of the book shone. To me, though, the story was incohesive and jumped all over the place.

I would give this author another chance. Perhaps her next book will be better.

Yep, I read and agreed with your review, SqueakyChu. Also, you could feel that a sequel is coming, about the Gideon character. As far as I can tell Tales of the Ten Lost Tribes is a kind of a continuation.

I don't have a category for jewish fiction/authors but it seems to be a theme in my reading lately. I have just read Maus: A Survivor's Tale and the sequel (my first graphic novels). I then read The Fiftieth Gate by Mark Raphael Baker which is also a son's story of his parents' survival during the holocaust and how it impacted on their lives. Baker tries to find documents that verify his parents' memories of that time. His mother was only 6 at the start of the war and was the sole survivor from her village. Baker is an Australian and the book is a set text for my daughter's final school year English course. I'm also the only LibraryThinger to have this book in my library!

All three of these books were excellent, however, I'm looking forward to starting a more recent book purchase The Nimrod Flip Out by Etgar Keret for a change of pace.

i'm not doing a 999 challenge, but have been following this particular thread and finding it very interesting.

was wondering if anybody can comment on 3 books on this theme i've just received: The Chosen by Chaim Potok, The Lover by A.B. Yehoshua, and Second Hand Smoke by Thane Rosenbaum.

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I was blown away by the two Maus books. Spiegelman's father so reminded me of my own dad. He had been a Holocaust survivor from Germany, not Poland, but fortunately had never been in a concentration camp. My maternal grandparents, however, died in Auschwitz. My review of it can be found part-way down this journal at Bookcrossing. I read both books as part of a travelling bookray.

I liked the Nimrod Flipout a lot, but The Girl on the Fridge, also by Etgar Keret, less so. I'm curious to know what you think of Keret's writing. Not everyone likes it, although he seems to be very popular in Israel.

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The Chosen by Chaim Potok is a wonderful book and has been around a long time. It has always been one of my husband's favorite books. Actually, my favorite book by Potok was My Name is Asher Lev, although it's sequel was not as good.

I have Yehoshua's The Lover somewhere here at home but have never gotten around to reading it. Tell us what you think of it!

I have both The Chosen and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay on my 999 list in "Novels That Have Sat on My Shelf For Years." I also have a category for religion, current events, politics, and history, and some Jewish/Israeli themes may find their way into that.

#34 SqueakyChu. I checked out your review of Maus. This book is one that will stay with me for a long time and I would recommend to all. I actually insisted my teenage daughter read it. I think that by using the graphic book form Spiegelman will manage to reach a whole new audience. Using animals to represent different races/religious groups was a very effective way to bring the story alive. When I was reading The Fiftieth Gate I kept seeing the characters as either cats, mice or pigs in my mind's eye. It seems the survivors of the war are unwilling to talk about their experiences but it becomes very important for their families to know their history.

I have read Etgar Keret's first book of short stories published in Australia - I think the title had something about a bus driver with a god complex. It was a few year's ago but I remember thinking what an interesting author Keret was. I'll probably start the Nimrod Flip Out in February (something humerous to read in between chapters of The Brothers Karamazov). I'll let you know what I think when I finished it.

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I agree with what you expressed about Maus. It's just brilliant. I look to Holocaust literature *precisely* because I never learned about the Holocaust from my parents. Anything an author can do to make people want to read about it (and that is the tricky part) is great.

That Keret book you mentioned is called The Bus Driver Who Wanted To Be God. I'm still looking around for copy of it. :)

Maus is great! I first read it in German, which was... spooky to say the least. Then I read it in English too.

The Chosen... hmm. I personally liked it when I read it, but here in Hungary this book was quite popular and consequentially ended up being many people's ONLY exposure to Judaism, in which respect it massively fails. I have quite an amount of extremely strange questions I was asked which directly stemmed from it. Example:

"So you're an Orthodox Jew! Fascinating? Do you cry in shul a lot?"
"I.... *blinkblinkblink* what? Why would I?" (Frankly, I prefer to cry at home. :D )
"I read all about it in that Chaim Potok book!!"

Or "Did your parents talk to you?" and all that you can imagine based on the book.

(When Gentiles have these impressions, then I'm like, of course, where would they know these things from if not books... but when secular Jews took *everything* in the book as either factual or very close to that, I was quietly horrified.)

So I'd say read it, but keep it in mind that it's FICTION. Prettyprettyplease. Chaim Potok does a great job at making everything seem absolutely realistic but it might not necessarily be so. It's kind of deceptive. Here in Hungary even one of his nonfiction books was published and marketed as fiction! So the border is kind of blurry and many people assume even the stuff in his books that is completely made up has a basis in reality.

(I'm apparently not oversensitive - this topic even made it into the Chasidism FAQ written by a Breslover guy, so I guess people asked him too. spoilers: http://upstel.net/~rooster/hasid1-b.html#HASID1-Q10 )

BTW The Chosen also has a sequel, The Promise - I read it, but I prefer the first book. I also read My Name is Asher Lev and liked that too, but never got around to reading the sequel.

But what I originally wanted to mention is that I've just found out Walter Mosley is Jewish. I'm reading some of his books for my "African-American authors" category. (His mother is Jewish and his father is African-American.) I'd especially recommend 47, which is a YA SF book I found simply superb. It has absolutely nothing to do with Judaism though, it's about plantation slavery.

Some interesting points you've made. I've read most of Potok's books and enjoyed them, but like you have stated they are fiction. Anyway I have started my reading of David Grossman's See under: Love and so far I'm finding it fascinating at about 50 pages in.

avatiakh, I'm so happy you're enjoying See under: Love - I was hoping you would so that I would get a kick to get through it too! :)

So far, I've gotten through a few books for this thread:

Israeli Writers:
Weeping Susannah by Alona Kimhi Review
A Guide to the Perplexed by Gilad Atzmon Review

Israeli Themes:
Palestine by Joe Sacco Review

Jewish Themes:
The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming by Lemony Snicket Review
The Book of the Unknown Review

I had a hard time with Atzmon's book, but otherwise I really liked all of them. I seem to be on a lucky roll at the moment when it comes to books - hope it continues! Currently reading (and liking) Returning Lost Loves by Yehoshua Kenaz that came to me via SqueakyChu (thanks for that!).

>13 suzecate:, bookoholic13, I love that you included The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming. I got it for Xmas a year or two ago & thought it was pretty funny.

>44 fannyprice:, fannyprice, it pretty much had me laughing the whole evening - maybe I was just in one of "those" moods... :)

I love the Latke!

My daughter is reading The Diary of Anne Frank in English and learning about World War II. She's finding it heavy going - not that it's above her head, just that it's really heavy stuff. But she enjoys graphic novels. Maybe I'll suggest Maus for her.

Thanks for starting this thread! I read some Chaim Potok when I was in college, just for fun, but I don't think I've really done much study of Jewish authors. Oh, and I loved Henderson, The Rain King. That was just so funny and so good. Maybe it's time to reread that one.

#41> I live in a predominantly Jewish town and in middle school, the Maus books were really really popular because someone's synagogue gave them to some of the kids. I've always thought they were so good because they use such great symbolism and can be read by younger kids than many Holocaust books. I mean books like Night, I Never Saw Another Butterfly, and Diary of a Young Girl are great and we did read/learn about them, but at an age when those didn't make much sense Maus did. Number the Stars was another I remember being very popular in middle school (ages 10-13 for those who don't know).

As for my own reading this year I have a bunch on my list, but not a category. I plan on rereading Night (barely remember it), The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I was also considering Schindlers Ark and The Yiddish Policeman's Union. Michael Chabon will be at the our local Jewish Book Festival, so I'd like to read as much by him as possible!

Thanks to all the recommendations on the threads here I got sidetracked reading non challenge graphic novels such as Palestine, Maus& Maus 2, Katin's We are on our own and then sidetracked again by a short article I was writing which led to Jella Lepman's writings on bringing books to German children at the end of World War 2, so I've been reading that as well. Anyway I'm almost halfway through See Under Love- it is hard going but I am enjoying it in a difficult sort of way. The other reading has helped I must admit.

#47 You're so lucky to be getting the chance to hear Michael Chabon - his books are great. Has anyone read his wife's work?

>48 avatiakh:, I read See Under: Love in college for an Israeli lit course and I remember it being very dense & rather challenging to slog through. Sadly it was so long ago, I cannot recall if it ended up being worth it. Might be time for a re-read but I have so much else to get to!

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I gave it a good try, but could not make it through See Under: Love. I remember the exact point at which I gave up and the feeling I had at that point. The feeling was one of "I can't believe I've worked so hard to get to this point, but now I refuse to believe what I'm reading and will therefore give up completely!" I've read other (easier) books by David Grossman (The Zig Zag Kid, Someone to Run With) and have enjoyed them very much. I recommend both of them highly.

For those who read Israeli authors, please let me know which of David Grossman's books are worth reading. I enjoyed those geared to a younger audience (The Zig Zag Kid, Someone to Run With - as noted above). I remember starting two other Grossman books and then putting them aside, not picking them up again. I'm back now to this author, currently reading Friendly Fire: A Duet.

Friendly Fire is a book with alternating chapters told by two narrators, a husband and a wife. the wife goes to East Africa as a follow-up to her sister's death there. I'm trying to like this book, but it is slow going. I remember loving A Late Divorce which is one of my best friend's all-time favroite books. Why am I not enjoying Grossman's works as much as I think I should? Are others having as much difficulty as I am with the others? Has anyone else read Friendly Fire: A Duet?

Addendum: I know that Grossman's son Uri had been killed in the Israel-Lebanese conflict. Do you know if his death had been the result of "friendly fire"?

Recommendation: By the way, if you have not yet read Beaufort by Ron Leshem, now is the time to read it because there is a movie out (directed by Joseph Cedar) of that book. The book is excellent! It is about a platoon of Israeli soldiers stationed in Lebanon.

I just found this article by author David Grossman in today's copy of The Washington Post. In this article, he echoes the same theme Obama did in his presidential campaign. There comes time when a country must agree to dialogue with its bitterest of enemies - even if they fail to listen, we must nevertheless make that effort.

>52 SqueakyChu:, Thanks! Good article.

Last year I read and enjoyed The Zookeeper's Wife. It's set in Poland during WWII. I thought it was really well done, mostly because it gave a good picture of how the continuing war affecting the relationship and the minds of those going through it. The one thing I didn't like is that it didn't have a 'where are they now' sort of thing to wrap it up. Still, a good read and easy to find.

I actually have that book (The Zookeeper's Wife) in hand. I haven't read it yet, but I'm lending it to a friend whose bookclub is reading it now. I'll be sure to read it when I get it back, though.

I finished Friendly Fire by A.B. Yehoshua and posted my review. If anyone else reads it, I'd love to hear what you think of it (or of any of Yehoshua's other books).

I enjoyed your review, SqueakyChu, but I haven't read the book. Let me know what you think of Zookeeper's Wife when you do get it.

I've finished See Under: Love and posted a review on my thread. Overall I did like it but it was hard work. I should reread parts of it to reinforce my impressions but I can't see myself doing that. I'll probably read Beaufort in the next couple of weeks.

I just got The Rabbi's Cat and am looking forward to reading it! Thanks to all who recommended it.

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Hard work is an excellent way to describe See: Under Love. I was willing to do this through the first quarter of the book as the story was interesting enough. By the way, I *hate* to work at reading a book. It doesn't bother me if there are several layers to a story, but I could not get through the first layer of this one. At the point the guy turned into a fish and swam away, I simply gave up!! :)

Great review of that book, by the way! It almost makes me want to go back and try again (notice that I said "almost"!).

I just started The Trial today. I found the notes about the publishing history of the book very interesting. Apparently it was one of the books never published during the author's lifetime, and he left instructions for it and some other works to be destroyed after his death. But the friend he asked to be responsible for it refused and worked very hard to get it published.

Sotah

I think this is the book I read several years ago, and couldn't forget. Having found it through 'Name that Book' and having come to the conclusion that it must be the book I read back then I'm not sure whether

A) The book got a lot deeper while I wasn't looking.

B) I got a lot deeper while I wasn't looking.

C) The bit of Hebrew I learned in the meantime, and the experience of knowing practicing Jews as opposed to just reading about them made more difference than I would have thought.

Anyway, I was right to want to read this book again.

#54,55: I just finished The Zookeeper's Wife today: http://www.librarything.com/topic/53537. It's not a book I'd heard of, but I noticed it in the train station last week, because of the zoo aspect. There is a brief where-are-they-now about the central family, and bits about some of the other people. I would've been interested to read more on the son's perspective as an adult. I suppose that tracing 300 people 60 years after the fact would be next to impossible, and significantly extend the scope of the book. Some of them were prominent enough that more information may be available, and I'd guess that others passed through anonymously. I was so impressed by the people that I now want to read more about Poland.

Loads of great books on this thread!

Here are a few more Israeli writers from my 999 reads:

Homesick by Eshkol Nevo Review
Returning Lost Loves by Yehoshua Kenaz Review
Waltz with Bashir - A Lebanon War Story by Ari Folman Review

I'm so glad you liked Returning Lost Loves. I enjoyed reading your review of it.

#65 Yes, I'll be reading more of Kenaz!! Thanks for the Manil Suri tip.

Qebo - I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I finished The Trial and while I appreciated the symbolism, I didn't really enjoy it. The main character Joseph K. was so annoying that it was hard to feel sympathy for him and what he was going through. This was one of the books that Kafka wanted destroyed after his death, and I wonder how he would have changed the book if he had the chance.

Ok, this article about the paintings of Bruno Schulz is tangentially about books, more about art, I guess, but fascinating, and most certainly "of Jewish interest".

Behind Fairy Tale Drawings, Walls Talk of Unspeakable Cruelty

Thanks for the link - what an interesting story.

I have just finished Etgar Keret's The Nimrod Flip Out. It's the second book of his short stories I've read. I like his writing style and his stories are interesting and deceptively easy to read. My favourite in this collection was about the faithful dog - the dog kept attacking people so the father tried various ways to rid the family of the dog but it kept coming back. I'd rate this book 3.5 stars.

I've just read Valerie Zenatti's A Bottle in the Gaza Sea a YA book about an unlikely correspondence between an Israeli teenager and a young Gazan man.
Zenatti moved to Israel from France as a teenager and her first book When I was a soldier covered her service in the IDF. She is now living back in France. I liked this story, it's honest and effective - Zenatti tries really hard to cover the peace process, the politics and how it affects the lives of ordinary young people.

I have When I was a Soldier on my 999 list, so aybe I'll add A Bottle in the Gaza Sea too... :) Thanks, avatiakh!!

I just started Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian. I didn't like a previous book I read by this author ver much, but I decided to give him another chance. This novel is about the Holocaust. Has anyone else read it? If so, what did you think of it. I haven't gotten very far into it yet.

I have read several about the Holocaust this year. So far I've read The Hiding Place, Man's Search for Meaning, and The Long Walk, which is more about WWII in general, and not really about Jewish themes. I also read Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman. Although Feynman wasn't a practicing Jew, he has a couple of anecdotes about his faith, one being a surprise bit of bigotry he encountered after he went to Caltech.

I forgot to mention this one here:

http://www.librarything.com/work/15528 (Hebrew Manuscript Painting)

I finally scanned and printed one of the illustrations so I could keep on drooling over it after returning the book to the library.

I recently finished reading Wall to Wall, a travel book written by a American writer who wants to travel to the Ukraine from where her family emigrated to escape the pogroms. A wee bit self-absorbed at times, but an interesting read.

I've just finished Beaufortwhich is about a group of Israeli soldiers based in Southern Lebanon around the time of withdrawal. I highly recommend both this book and the movie.
I'm now reading Black Box by Amos Oz which is an epistolary novel based on correspondence between a divorced couple which is slowly uncovering the past story of their marriage while they deal in the present with their wayward son.