Time travel fiction dramatizes first Chanukah
Ah, the joys of time travel! San Diego author Marcia Berneger, a retired teacher, uses this device to imaginatively retell the story of the first Chanukah in A Dreidel in Time, a chapter book for children between the...
Jewish cartoon book delights
Have I Got a Cartoon for You: The Moment Magazine Book of Jewish Cartoons, edited by Bob Mankoff, 2019: Moment Books, 86 pages, $19.95.
Thirty graphic artists are featured in this delightful 86-page book of...
Holocaust survivors remember childhood traumas
Survivors of the Holocaust: True Stories of Six Extraordinary Children, edited by Keith Shackleton, illustrated by Zane Whittingham; Sourcebooks, © 2019; ISBN pending, 96 pages.
This set of six memoirs, illustrated cartoon style, is intended...
‘A Trace of Smoke’ set in pre-war Berlin
I downloaded this ebook from Amazon’s Kindle Store in order to have something to read on the plane. I always like to have something to read in my phone-cum-Kindle, as that means I’m not...
Book Review: ‘An Unorthodox Match’
An Unorthodox Match by Naomi Ragen, St. Martin’s Press © 2019, ISBN 9781250-161222; 322 pages plus acknowledgments and glossary; $27.99
I once had a rabbi who inveighed against religious hypocrisy with this saying: “Big beard, small...
Book Review: The Talmud has defined the Judaism of today
The Talmud, a Biography: Banned, Censored and Burned, the Book They Couldn’t Suppress by Harry Freedman, Bloomsbury, 2014
I ordered this book from good old Bibliophile in an attempt to broaden my education. I feel...
Book on Local Jewish Stories
Whether you are new to San Diego are or an old-timer, I think it is always interesting to learn about local places and people. “Schlepping and Schmoozing through San Diego County, Volume One” is...
Book offers tips and facts about DNA testing
Seed of Israel: DNA Guide To Tracing Your Jewish Ancestry by Joshua Robbin Marks, 48 pages including endnotes; available on Amazon.com for $14.99.
Perhaps your friends or relatives have told you that they did a DNA...
Linguist learns of her biological father’s secret past (Book Review)
What Language do I Dream in? by Elena Lappin; HarperCollins, 2017, ISBN 9781554-684632.
As a bilingual speaker of Hebrew and English as well as having some knowledge of French and German, I was intrigued by...
A graphic novel of Jews hunting Nazis
his graphic novel is set shortly before the Six-Day War of 1967 with the action alternating between B’nei Barak, Israel, and Sao Paulo, Brazil. A Haredi Jew in B’nei Barak has nightmares remembering how...