Jewish Archives - BookDragon

Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*! by Art Spiegelman [in Booklist]

02 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Jewish, Repost, Short Stories

*STARRED REVIEW Among the perennially relevant, permanently indisputable pioneers of the graphic genre is Art Spiegelman, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus remains a groundbreaking masterpiece. The provenance for that achievement is a 1972 three-page strip, included in this celebrated historical compilation, which was first published in 1978...

Canción by Eduardo Halfon, translated by Lisa Dillman and Daniel Hahn [in Shelf Awareness]

09 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Jewish, Memoir, Repost, South American, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Eduardo Halfon (Mourning; Monastery) has published a dozen books in Spanish; four are currently available in English translations. Seeming to challenge his substantial output, Halfon explained in a 2015 comment to Shelf Awareness, "I'm only writing one book, and everything I publish along the way is just...

Lunch from Home by Joshua David Stein with Niki Russ Federman, Ray Garcia, Preeti Mistry, Mina Park, illustrated by Jing Li [in Shelf Awareness]

14 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Indian American, Jewish, Korean American, Latina/o/x, Repost, South Asian American

Journalist/author Joshua David Stein (Notes from a Young Black Chef) goes back to school in Lunch from Home, a delectable celebration of comfort foods with origins from all over the world that converge in a single classroom. "This story [is] based on the lives of four...

The Lost Ryū by Emi Watanabe Cohen [in School Library Journal]

09 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Japanese American, Jewish, Middle Grade Readers, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW A sigh of relief is almost immediate as Kurt Kanazawa effortlessly pronounces “ryū” – with exacting attention to that diacritical – then “Hiroshima” just so. The Julliard-trained actor displays his Japanese fluency, adroitly enhancing Emi Watanabe Cohen’s poignant first novel in which dragons –...

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin [in Booklist]

02 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Jewish, Korean American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

In her fifth adult title, Gabrielle Zevin (Young Jane Young, 2017) impressively interweaves multiple threads that twist and tangle around what is essentially a decades-long love story. Jennifer Kim ciphers most of the narration, deftly distinguishing the main three players, with a brief interlude voiced...

The Lemon Tree (Young Readers’ Edition): An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan [in School Library Journal]

31 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Arab, Audio, Biography, Jewish, Middle Eastern, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Palestinian, Repost, Young Adult Readers

“I wanted to write a history book in disguise,” journalist and professor Sandy Tolan announces, “and to make it feel, throughout, like a good novel. Even though the story is true.” Tolan voiced his original; here Rami Medina makes his audiobook debut: his rich, youthful...

A Rebel in Auschwitz: The True Story of the Resistance Hero Who Fought the Nazis from Inside the Camp by Jack Fairweather [in School Library Journal]

22 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Biography, European, Jewish, Nonfiction, Polish, Repost, Young Adult Readers

What’s immediately striking here is the casting of a woman to narrate: the titular rebel is the Polish hero – a man – Witold Pilecki. So, too, is the author, Jack Fairweather, who adapted his 2019 award-winning The Volunteer. The reasons for choosing a female...

The Racers: How an Outcast Driver, an American Heiress, and a Legendary Car Challenged Hitler’s Best by Neal Bascomb [in School Library Journal]

10 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Audio, European, French, German, Jewish, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

History alchemized through the Neal Bascomb lens – Russian battleship Potemkin, WWI prison camp, Nazi Germany – is a guaranteed thrill-ride; his latest takes readers into the speediest cars of the 1930s. Adapting Faster for younger audiences, Bascomb details a prominent Nazi upset played out...

Booklist Backlist: Tales of Dementia [in Booklist]

02 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese American, European, Fiction, French, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese American, Jewish, Lists, Malaysian American, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Palestinian American, Repost, Spanish, Translation

Gerda Saunders, who wrote Memory’s Last Breath (2017), an exquisitely bittersweet record chronicling her experiences with dementia, is one of my most beloved friends. We have books in common, in that we find great solace and escape in the (well-)written word. Inspired by our last visit...

How to Find What You’re Not Looking For by Veera Hiranandani [in Booklist]

25 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Indian American, Jewish, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, South Asian American

The second of Veera Hiranandani’s novels with geneses in the award-winning author’s Indian Jewish family history is ideally paired with versatile Priya Ayyar. For Hiranandani’s The Night Diary, Ayyar persuasively drew on her own South Asian heritage. Here Ayyar ciphers Hiranandani’s maternally-inspired latest, channeling her...

I’d Like to Say Sorry, but There’s No One to Say Sorry To: Stories by Mikołaj Grynberg, translated by Sean Gasper Bye [in Shelf Awareness]

05 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Eastern European, European, Fiction, Jewish, Repost, Short Stories, Translation

Photographer/psychologist/author Mikołaj Grynberg is best known in his native Poland for his documentary nonfiction featuring his generation of Polish Jews, born after the Holocaust and raised by survivors. Grynberg turns to fiction for the first time with I'd Like to Say Sorry, but There's No One...

Leonard Cohen: On a Wire by Philippe Girard, translated by Helge Dascher and Karen Houle [in Shelf Awareness]

14 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Biography, Canadian, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Jewish, Nonfiction, Repost, Translation

Award-winning Canadian cartoonist Philippe Girard (Obituary Man) admirably condenses seven decades into a concise 120 pages in Leonard Cohen: On a Wire. It's a valuable introduction to the tumultuous life of the iconic singer/songwriter/poet perhaps best remembered for his classic "Hallelujah," eventually covered by some...

Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training by Adam Stern [in Booklist]

26 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Jewish, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

Adam Stern began his Harvard career feeling like an impostor when he was matched into a Harvard Medical School psychiatry residency impeded, he worried, by his upstate-New York medical degree: “I found myself soaring into one of the most prestigious residency programs in the country,...

Monkey Boy by Francisco Goldman [in Shelf Awareness]

11 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Jewish, Latin American, Latina/o/x, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW That the protagonist's name is Francisco Goldberg – an amalgam of maternal Guatemalan immigrant and paternal Jewish parentage – presents an irresistible invitation to explore autobiographical overlaps with award-winning creator Francisco Goldman. The parallels are immediate: both are peripatetic journalist/writers with connections to Boston,...

City of a Thousand Gates by Rebecca Sacks [in Booklist]

22 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Israeli, Jewish, Middle Eastern, Palestinian, Repost

Lameece Issaq reads languidly, her voice an ongoing invitation to Rebecca Sacks’ debut in which so much happens, but by book’s end might feel narratively stagnant – not because of Sacks’ writing, but because Israel and Palestine remain relentlessly enshrouded in conflict. The opening credits wisely...

Listen-Alikes: Tell Me a (Short) Story [in Booklist]

22 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Chinese American, Fiction, Indian American, Japanese, Jewish, Korean American, Latina/o/x, Lists, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Short Stories, South Asian American, Translation

Short stories can be the perfect antidote to these days of winter blues, pandemic panic, and cabin fever. Deesha Philyaw’s debut short-story collection – The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, a much-lauded, National-Book-Award-finalist – illuminates the lives of nine Black woman with a performance from Janina...

To Be a Man by Nicole Krauss [in Booklist]

04 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Jewish, Repost, Short Stories

Nicole Krauss hasn’t audiobooked since joining an all-star cast for the aural adaptation of Etgar Keret’s collection, Suddenly, a Knock on the Door (2012). She is clearly an ideal choice for narrating her own writing in this, her full aural debut, with her collection examining and...

The Lehman Trilogy by Stefano Massini, translated by Richard Dixon [in Booklist]

06 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, European, Fiction, Jewish, Repost, Translation, Verse Novel/Nonfiction

*STARRED REVIEW On September 11, 1844, Heyum Lehmann from Rimpar, Germany disembarked from a ship in New York harbor to become Henry Lehman. Brothers Emmanuel and Mayer soon followed. From immigrant store owners turned cotton traders in pre-Civil War Alabama, the brothers moved to banking in...

Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed [in Booklist]

22 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Jewish, Pakistani American, Repost, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

Friends from infancy, Jamie and Maya haven’t seen each other in almost 10 years – until food-related fiascos (runaway tangelos, tipped-over soggy pastries) lead to an awkward reunion. Both now 17, white Jewish Jamie has grown up shy, clumsy, and especially wary of public speaking....

The Last Interview by Eshkol Nevo, translated by Sondra Silverston [in Booklist]

01 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Israeli, Jewish, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Internationally bestselling author Eshkol Nevo and award-winning translator Sondra Silverston are five-for-five in enabling Anglophone readers seamless access to Nevo’s engrossing novels. Reminiscent of the retired judge in his last title, Three Floors Up (2017), who communicated with her dead husband via answering-machine messages,...

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