ROSH HODESH BOOK GROUP

Shir Tikvah women are invited to be part of the Rosh Hodesh Book Group.  Please contact Anne Whitaker if you would like to be on the e-mail list.  Otherwise check the Week’s Worth and website.

Upcoming Events–all at 1:30 PM on a Sunday, unless noted

May 20– Triangle: The Fire That Changed America by David von Drehle. We will meet at Sima Schorr’s home.

From Publishers Weekly – Triangle: The Fire That Changed America
It was a profitable business in a modern fireproof building heralded as a model of efficiency. Yet the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in New York City became the deadliest workplace in American history when fire broke out on the premises on March 25, 1911. Within about 15 minutes the blaze killed 146 workers-most of them immigrant Jewish and Italian women in their teens and early 20s. Though most workers on the eighth and 10th floors escaped, those on the ninth floor were trapped behind a locked exit door. As the inferno spread, the trapped workers either burned to death inside the building or jumped to their deaths on the sidewalk below. Journalist von Drehle (Lowest of the Dead: Inside Death Row and Deadlock: The Inside Story of America’s Closest Election) recounts the disaster-the worst in New York City until September 11, 2001-in passionate detail. He explains the sociopolitical context in which the fire occurred and the subsequent successful push for industry reforms, but is at his best in his moment-by-moment account of the fire. He describes heaps of bodies on the sidewalk, rows of coffins at the makeshift morgue where relatives identified charred bodies by jewelry or other items, and the scandalous manslaughter trial at which the Triangle owners were acquitted of all charges stemming from the deaths. Von Drehle’s engrossing account, which emphasizes the humanity of the victims and the theme of social justice, brings one of the pivotal and most shocking episodes of American labor history to life. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

June 24– Foreskin’s Lament by Shalom Auslander

We plan to meet on Sunday, June 24, at 1:30 PM, tentatively at Caroline’s home.

From Publishers Weekly – Foreskin’s Lament
Auslander, a magazine writer, describes his Orthodox Jewish upbringing as theological abuse in this sardonic, twitchy memoir that waits for the other shoe to drop from on high. The title refers to his agitation over whether to circumcise his soon to be born son, yet another Jewish ritual stirring confusion and fear in his soul. Flitting haphazardly between expectant-father neuroses in Woodstock, N.Y., and childhood neuroses in Monsey, N.Y., Auslander labors mightily to channel Philip Roth with cutting, comically anxious spiels lamenting his claustrophobic house, off-kilter family and the temptations of all things nonkosher, from shiksas to Slim Jims. The irony of his name, Shalom (Hebrew for peace), isn’t lost on him, a tormented soul gripped with dread, fending off an alcoholic, abusive father while imagining his heavenly one as a menacing, mocking, inescapable presence. Fond of tormenting himself with worst-case scenarios, he concludes, That would be so God. Like Roth’s Portnoy, he commits minor acts of rebellion and awaits his punishment with youthful literal-mindedness. But this memoir is too wonky to engage the reader’s sympathy or cut free Auslander’s persona from the swath of stereotype—and he can’t sublimate his rage into the cultural mischief that brightens Roth’s oeuvre. That said, a surprisingly poignant ending awaits readers. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

July 29–The book has not been definitely selected.

We also plan to meet on Sunday, July 29, at 1:30 PM, tentatively at Robbie’s home.

Books read in 2012

January 22-Walking Israel by Martin Fletcher

February 19 – The Septembers of Shiraz

March 18-The Left Hand of God: Healing America’s Political and Spiritual Crisis by Michael Lerner

April 29–My Father’s Paradise by Ariel Sabar

Books Read in 2011

January 9-The Jew in the Lotus by Rodger Kamenetz
February 13- The Sacrifice of Tamar by Naomi Ragen
March 27-The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew — Three women Search for Understanding by Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, and Priscilla Warner
April 24-Kaballah: A Love Story by Lawrence Kushner
May 22-The Sabbath World by Judith Shulevitz
June 26-Destiny Disrupted by Tamim Ansary
July 31-The Ladies Auxiliary by Tova Mirvis
September 25-The Evolution of God by Robert Wright
October 30 – Away by Amy Bloom
November 11 – By Fire, By Water by Mitchell James Kaplan
December 4 – American Pastoral by Philip Roth

Books Read in 2010

January 10-The Bible Unearthed by Israel Finklestein and Neil Asher Silberman
February 21-The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick
April 4-Sarah the Priestess by Savina Teubal
May 16-All Other Nights by Dara Horn
July 11- The Color of Water by James McBride
August- The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan
Sept/Oct. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
November-The Butcher’s Theater by Jonathan Kellerman

Books Read in 2009

February 1 – As a Driven Leaf by Milton Steinberg
March 22 – Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
May 3 – Women’s Minyan by Naomi Ragen
June 14 – The Saturday Morning Murder by Batya Gur
July 19 - The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit by Lucette Lagnano
September 13 – A Double Thread: Growing up English and Jewish in London by John Gross
October 25 – A Life Worth Living by Byron Sherwin
November 22 – Miriam’s Kitchen by Elizabeth Erlich

Books Read in 2008

May 31 – The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks – Our initial meeting
August 13 – Rashi’s Daughters: Joheved by Maggie Anton
September 24 – Rachel Calof’s Story by Rachel Calof
November 12 – The Mezuzah in the Madonna’s Foot by Trudi Alexy

ONLINE BOOK CLUB

Ask about participating in our online Book Club at GoodReads. Send an e-mail to Leah Hershey.