Welcome to the June Jewish Book Carnival, A Feast of Literary Links

June 15, 2012

Trying to give your summer reading list a Jewish flavor? Want to know what it’s like to be an author on the Jewish Book Council tour circuit?

Check out the wide variety of offerings in this month’s Jewish Book Carnival, a collection of links to blog posts and articles about the Jewish literary world. As hostess, I’ll include a few extras, pointing you to posts I loved by Jewish authors and a few tributes to the late Maurice Sendak.

For newcomers to the carnival, here’s a little background. The Jewish Book Carnival was founded on behalf of the Association of Jewish Libraries. Heidi Estrin, a temple librarian who came up with the idea, wanted to build community among bloggers and blogs who feature Jewish books. So check out the links below. Read the posts. Comment on them. Provoke thought. And consider submitting your own link to the next carnival or hosting it on your site. To find out more, email Heidi at heidi@cbiboca.org.

Without further ado, here are this month’s links:

Book reviews:

1. Jonathan Kirsch, book editor of The Jewish Journal reviews a book about Anne Frank on the Jewish Journal site: Anne Frank’s Family: The Extraordinary Story of Where She Came From” by Mirjam Pressler with Gerti Elias, translated from the German by Damion Searls .

2. On My Machberet, Erika Dreifus recommends The Liberal Case for Israel: Debunking Eight Crazy Lies About the Jewish State, an e-book by Jonathan Miller.

3. The Jewaicious blog offers a two-fer: a review of the novel This is America!, by Henye Meyer and of the nonfiction book, On the Eve: The Jews of Europe Before the Second World War, by Bernard Wasserstein.

4. On her blog, Here in HP, Leora Wenger takes us to Iran in her review of Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer.

5. Amy Meltzer gives parents a guide to books on Shavuot in a Washington Jewish Week article.

6. Kathy Bloomfield leads us to children’s books that stem from pages of the Torah on her blog, Forwordsbooks.

Remembering Maurice Sendak:

1. Several bloggers paid tribute to Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are and other children’s faves. You can read my thanks for what he brought into our home here on my blog, Jewish Muse.

2. Barbara Saltzman, a guest blogger on The Christian Science Monitor’s Modern Parenthood, wrote a beautiful post about Sendak and how he helped with the publishing of The Jester Has Lost His Jingle, a book written by Saltzman’s late son.

Essays by Jewish authors:

1. Randy Susan Meyers, author of The Murderer’s Daughters, takes us inside the Jewish book tour circuit in a humorous post in the Huffington Post.

2. Leslea Newman, an author of adult and children’s books, including ones with Jewish themes, writes a beautiful essay about the love of her life – books, of course, –   on the Spalding MFA faculty blog.

3. Linda Cohen, author of 1,000 Mitzvahs, gives parents ideas for summer mitzvot with children on her blog.

4. Ah, what would summer be like without the joy and struggle of swimming lessons? Ann Koffsky, author of Noah’s Swim-a-thon, wrote an essay in Jewish Action Magazine about swimming and the obligation to make sure our children learn to swim.

Recommended Reading, Author Interviews, & Misc:

1. Happy Father’s Day from the Jewish Book Council, which provided links to books that might appeal to dads. Another offering: Links to suggested summer reading.

2. Find out more about the June 17-20 Association of Jewish Libraries convention on the People of the Books blog.

3. On Jewishboston.com, Rachel Solomon interviews Justin Halpern, author of Sh*t My Dad Says and the new I Suck at Girls.

4. PJ Library is not the only game in town that gives free books to Jewish children. In her blog, children’s author Barbara Bietz passes along the news about Sifriyat Pijama B’America, which mails free children’s books in Hebrew to families in America.

Thanks to everyone who provided links for this month’s carnival. Hopefully, you’ll read Randy Susan Meyers’ post, but if not,at least read her closing passage:

“Being Jewish means a host of things — including ensuring provision of a big tent. I was invited, I felt cherished, and I belonged. And, as my agent wisely said: Jewish people really love books,” Randy wrote.