Jewish Book Carnival - September 2019

Welcome to the Jewish Book Carnival, a monthly event where bloggers who blog about Jewish books can meet, read and comment on each others’ posts.


The purposes of the Jewish Book Carnival are to build community among bloggers who feature Jewish books on their blogs, and to promote Jewish reading, and fields supporting this reading such as publishing and library services.

It's September, which means back to school, back to a "regular" schedule, and time to think about the upcoming Jewish holidays.  Here's what our bloggers have been reading:

• "Honour thy father and thy mother." At A Jewish Grandmother, Batya Medad reviews 
• The Lost Kitchen, Miriam Green's story of how she and her father cope with her mother's
•  Alzheimer's Disease.  More than just the saga of dealing with Miriam's mother's 
• increasing dementia, The Lost Kitchen is also a cookbook and includes poetry.

On her My Machberet blog, Erika Dreifus recently posted a list of 12 Jewish books, new for 
this fall, that are on her radar, including Birthright - Erika's collection of poetry, which 
will be coming out in November.

The Book of Life Podcast shares an interview with Sadaf Siddique of the South Asian kidlit 
site Kitaab World, about her Counter Islamophobia Through Stories campaign. Listen for 
the parallels with AJL's Love Your Neighbor campaign to fight anti-Semitism through kidlit! 

The Association of Jewish Libraries has posted a new book list: 
Selected Holocaust Literature for Youth, pulled from the 200+ titles recognized 
by the Sydney Taylor Book Award over the years. 

Amalia Hoffman, whose The Brave Cyclist, about Righteous Gentile and champion
bicycle racer Gino Bartali was recently published (Capstone, 2019), reviews Susan 
Dubin's Katzele and the Silver Candlesticks (Armani the Cat Publishing, 2019). 

Gila Green is happy to share her interview with Rachel Barenbaum with you. Her debut 
novel, A Bend in the Stars, was a New York Times Summer Reading Selection and 
a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. It is also a Boston Globe Bestseller. 

Talia Carner's The Third Daughter (HarperCollins, 2019), was inspired by a story by 

Sholem Aleichem. Read Part I of her essay for the Jewish Book Council. 

From author/artist Ann Koffsky, coloring pages using the same designs from her book 

Creation Colors (Apples & Honey Press, 2019). Great for Rosh Hashanah!

At Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb, Deborah interviewed Debbie Levy about Levy's new 

children's picture book, The Key from Spain: Flory Jagoda and Her Music.

In the run-up to the Rosh HaShana, you can find a book-based pamphlet of

Reflections and Resources on Teshuvah on the Memory & Redemption site. While the 

questions for discussion are drawn from one of the darkest periods of Jewish history, 

they prove the transformative power of hope for the future.

And, at Life Is Like a Library, it's the annual Elul book list.

May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year!

Enjoy!

Virus-free. www.avast.com

Passover 5779

Because this year is a leap year on the Jewish calendar, Passover is relatively late this year, beginning on Friday night, April 19th. As with almost all Jewish observances, there are customary foods and family favorites.  

Haroset

Haroset is that mixture of fruit and nuts on the Seder plate in which we dip the bitter herbs.  In Haroset: A Taste of Jewish History (The Toby Press, 2019), Dr. Susan Weingarten "attempts to solve the riddle of the origins of haroset -- when and why it appeared, what it was made of and how it changed over the generations." Dr. Weingarten is an archaeologist and historian and has published many scholarly papers about the history of food. Full disclosure: what I thought would be an academic discourse (boring) is a fascinating exploration of both Jewish sources and cultural influences. As Weingarten explains in the introduction:

Haroset has always been something of a mystery. It was not one of the three original symbolic foods eaten at the first Passover in Egypt. It first appears in the Mishna, but with no explanation of why, and with few details of what it was made of or what it tasted like. The [Babylonian and Jerusalem] Talmuds tell us that haroset was said to resemble the mud or clay for the bricks made by the Children of Israel as slaves in Egypt, so it was clearly connected to the story of the redemption from an early stage, but we do not know when it arrived at the Seder. It seems to have been introduced to counteract the bitter herbs, which have been part of the Passover meal since the time of the Exodus. 

I learned that many ancient cultures using dipping sauces to offset the tastes of other foods. Ashkenazi Jews pretty much use the same basic recipe -- apples, nuts, wine, cinnamon, and all the ingredients have deep symbolic meaning. Sephardic Jews enjoy a variety of recipes, varying from community to community and depending on the fruits available in the spring. Some groups even "add a small amount of clay or scraped brick" into the mixture. History also influenced the development of haroset, as red wine used to be added at the Seder table, but the practice was discontinued in Europe because of blood libels. Communities often made a huge batch that was distributed to all the families. 

Most recipes are not exact; the important thing is that the consistency should be thick, like mortar. Sephardim often cook the mixture, and grinding the mixture is an important part of the process for all cultures. 

Want to add an interesting taste to your Seder? Try "Zoya Leviva's Haroset from Uzbekistan:"

black raisins

almonds

red wine

optional: walnuts

©The Toby Press and Dr. Susan Weingarten, 2019. Used with permission.

Passover Baking

Paula Shoyer is known as "the Kosher Baker," and she is an expert on the history of Jewish cookbooks. She is also the author of four cookbooks: The Kosher Baker (Brandeis University Press, 2010), and three from Sterling Epicure: The Holiday Kosher Baker (2013), The New Passover Menu (2015), and The Healthy Jewish Kitchen (2017). For Passover, she is sharing some recipes for the holiday that those who eat "keto"will also enjoy.

For those who have been living under rocks, the keto (ketogenic) diet is protein rich, high fat, low carbohydrate plan of eating. The diet has been suggested for children with epilepsy, those with neurological disorders, those on the spectrum, and Parkinson's Disease patients. Those who work out frequently have also embraced the keto diet. Since so many carbohydrates are either chametz or kitniyot (grains, beans, and soy that Ashkenazi Jews do not eat on Passover), you can literally have your cake and eat it, too, as the baking ingredients for her desserts include coconut oil, almond flour, and quinoa.

Lemon Quinoa Cake   - PAULA SHOYER

Serves 12

PREP TIME: 20 minutes • BAKE TIME: 15 minutes to cook quinoa, 65 minutes to bake cake • ADVANCE PREP: May be made 3 days in advance or frozen •

CAKE

¾ cup quinoa

1½ cups water

Cooking spray or 2 tablespoons oil

2 tablespoons lemon zest, from 2-3 large lemons

½ cup fresh lemon juice, from 2-3 large lemons

4 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (or other vanilla if for Passover)

¾ cup coconut oil

1 ¼ cups sugar

1 cup almond flour

¼ cup coconut flour, plus 2-3 tablespoon to dust bundt pan

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

Glaze

1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from 1-2 lemons)

Place the quinoa and water into a small saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover the saucepan, and cook the quinoa for 15 to 18 minutes, or until all the liquid has been absorbed. Let sit for 5 minutes off the stovetop. The quinoa may be made 2 days in advance and stored in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Use cooking spray or oil to grease a 12-cup Bundt pan. Sprinkle 1 to 2 tablespoons coconut flour, or more if needed, over the entire greased pan and then shake the pan all around to cover and then tap out the excess.

Place the quinoa in the bowl of a food processor. Add the lemon zest and juice, eggs, vanilla, oil, sugar, almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and process until the mixture is very smooth, about 2 minutes.

Pour the batter into the prepared Bundt pan and bake it for 1 hour, or longer, until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Let the cake cool for 30 minutes and then remove it gently from the pan onto a wire cooling rack.

Recipe by Paula Shoyer 

www.thekosherbaker.com

used with permission

As a responsible reviewer, I tried this recipe, and...

I am not a big fan of coconut, which came through more than the lemon for me. But, the cake is super easy to make, there are no weird ingredients that are not available during Passover, it does not require tons of eggs that have to be separated, and it was gone in less than 24 hours, so somebody enjoyed it very much.  Further proof is that my cake looks similar to the promotional picture of Paula's.

For more about Paula Shoyer, super colleague Heidi Rabinowitz spoke to her at the Limmud Conference in Boca Raton, Florida in December, 2018, and you can hear their conversation at Heidi's podcast - The Book of Life.

The Real Cats of Israel are enjoying the spring weather:

People watching at the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem

Chag Kasher V'Sameach!
A Happy and Kosher Passover!
Happy Reading!

May Jewish Book Carnival

Welcome to the May 2017 Jewish Book Carnival -- a selection of book reviews; interviews with authors, publishers, librarians and others about Jewish books; and essays about Jewish books and literature. 

The purposes of the Jewish Book Carnival are to build community among bloggers who feature Jewish books in their posts and to promote Jewish reading, and fields supporting this reading such as publishing and library services.

This month's selections:


At The Book of Life, Heidi Rabinowitz interviews Suzanne Nelson about her teen novel Serendipity’s Footsteps. Become a patron of The Book of Life for as little as $1/month and Suzanne will send you an autographed copy of Serendipity’s Footsteps!

Jill at Rhapsody in Books reviews I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes her Mark by Debbie Levy.  This book for children explains how Ruth's early experience of prejudice against Jews, women, and other groups inspired her later dedication to equal rights for everyone. Originally posted for Women's History Month (March), this 2017 Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner for Younger Readers is a great read any time of the year.

At AJL's People of the Book blog, Kathleen Bloomfield, the president of the School, Synagogue and Center Division of the Association of Jewish Libraries addresses the current violence and hate with "literary suggestions for children that affirm the values of kindness and acceptance of others."

At Israel Blogger, Batya Medad is very happy that Rabbi Emanuel Feldman has republished his lovely and honest memoir, The 28th of Iyar, his day by day journal written during the weeks leading up to the Six Days War and the war itself. Feldman and his family had been winding down their sabbatical year in Israel when the Arab countries began threatening to annihilate the State of Israel...

On the Fig Tree Books Blog, a series of posts spotlighting past winners of the Edward Lewis Wallant Award continues with a look at Allegra Goodman's Kaaterskill Falls, which took the prize for 1999.

I attended the Jerusalem Women Writers' Conference (JWWS) on May 9th.  You can read about the great speakers and sessions at Life Is Like a Library.

Over on the Jewish Book Review author Deborah Kalb shares her big secret with Rivka Levy (and you), and explains why she stopped writing for adults and started writing fiction for children instead.

On My Machberet, Erika Dreifus reports on the celebration for this year's finalists for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature (and looks back on the very first such event, ten years ago).

Deborah Kalb interviews a wide variety of authors on her blog, Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb. Here's a recent interview she did with Peter Szabo about his new book, Finding Maria, which looks at his family's history and his relationship with his grandmother.

Penguin Random House's Newsletter "Signature: Making Well-Read Sense of the World" covers all aspects of reading and literature, but I was drawn to two recent posts:

 from author David Samuel Levinson -- "5 Novels That Illuminate the Problems and Dangers of Anti-Semitism"

and "No Excuse for Ignorance: Books to Understand the Holocaust" by Lorraine Berry. 

Thank you to all our contributors.

June Jewish Book Carnival

It is my pleasure to host this month's Jewish Book Carnival, a selection of  book reviews; interviews with authors, publishers, librarians and others about Jewish books; and essays about Jewish books and literature. 

The purposes of the Jewish Book Carnival are to build community among bloggers who feature Jewish books on their blogs and to promote Jewish reading, and fields supporting this reading such as publishing and library services.


Without further ado, here are this month's selections:

At Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb, Deborah talks with author Barbara Stark-Nemon about Barbara's new book, Even in Darkness, a novel based on her great-aunt's concentration camp experiences. 

At The Best Chapter, Diana Bletter interviews Michelle Brafman on her first novel, Washing the Dead, about how participating in a tahara ritual helps the narrator turn her life around.

The Fig Tree Books blog celebrates what would have been Saul Bellow's 100th birthday (June 10th) with some notes gleaned around the Web and three writers' discussions of Bellow novels.

Erika Dreifus shifts from the page to the screen as she recommends "Above and Beyond," a documentary about the (mostly) American pilots who helped Israel win its independence. Find her review at her blog --  My Machberet.

Photojournalism and romance are the topics of interest at Lorri M. Writings and Photography, where Lorri reviews Waiting for Robert Capa by Susana Fortes.

Heidi at The Book of Life blog hosts a podcast interview with filmmaker Ian Rosenberg about his documentary "Welcome to Kutsher’s," a loving tribute to the last Catskills resort.

At the Whole Megillah, Barbara Krasner interviews Tracy Newman about her new picture book, Uncle Eli's Wedding.

Finally, I left the comfort of my reading spot and ventured into Jerusalem for Hebrew Book Week and The Festival of Light. You can "picture" it at Life Is Like a Library.


I'd like to thank all the contributors for sharing, and for making my first time hosting much less daunting than I thought it would be.  One of the benefits:  I got to see all these great blogs first!