Jewish Non-fiction

"Apatow has gathered up journal entries, photographs, and essays for a close-up look at the artist who turned his gaze back onto the world of show business to create a new language of comedy writing. Beyond his success, though, Shandling struggled with fame, the industry of art, and the childhood loss of his brother ... His diaries show Shandling to be very self-aware and insightful, revealing a lesser known philosophical and spiritual side. Contributions...

"In late-1940s Long Branch, a historic but run-down Jersey Shore resort town, in a neighborhood of Italian, Black, and Jewish families, Robert Pinsky began his unlikely journey to becoming a poet. Descended from a bootlegger grandfather, an athletic father, and a rebellious tomboy mother, Pinsky was an unruly but articulate high-school C-student whose obsession with the rhythms and melodies of speech inspired him to write. Pinsky traces the roots...

Describes the rituals connected with the Jewish holidays throughout the year and gives instructions for making a variety of related objects from easily available materials.

Chronicles the Jewish rebellion against Rome between 66 and 70 A.D., as seen from the point of view of Josephus, originally a rebel leader who later changed sides. Outlines the history of Jews under Roman rule and highlights many of the major conflicts during this rebellion.

"Investigative journalist Judy Rakowsky and her elderly cousin Sam, a Holocaust survivor, never knew what happened to their family during the Holocaust. All they knew was that their relatives were hidden away from the Nazis by neighbors, and then they were never heard from again. Over the course of two decades, the two traveled back to Sam's hometown in Poland in search of clues to what became of their lost family-but when they asked questions, doors...

"In May 1940, Jan Zwartendijk, the director of the Lithuanian branch of the Philips electrical-goods company, stepped into history when he accepted the honorary role of Dutch consul. In Kaunas, the capital of Lithuania, desperate Jewish refugees faced annihilation in the Holocaust. That was when Zwartendijk, with the help of Chiune Sugihara, the consul for Japan, and the Dutch ambassador in Riga, Latvia -- chose to break his country's diplomatic rules....

2 stars

"A rising comedian describes with humor the absurdity of his troubled youth in Oakland, California, where his mother walked him on a leash until he chewed through it and ran away and started taking drugs at age twelve"--

"Twitty considers the marriage of two of the most distinctive culinary cultures in the world today: the foods and traditions of the African Atlantic and the global Jewish diaspora. To [him], the creation of African-Jewish cooking is a conversation of migrations and a dialogue of diasporas offering a rich background for inventive recipes and the people who create them. The question that most intrigues him is not just who makes the food, but how the...

4 stars

"An epic, multigenerational story of two rival dynasties who flourished in Shanghai and Hong Kong as twentieth-century China surged into the modern era, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Shanghai, 1936. The Cathay Hotel, located on the city's famous waterfront, is one of the most glamorous in the world. Built by Victor Sassoon--billionaire playboy and scion of the Sassoon dynasty--the hotel hosts a who's who of global celebrities: Noel Coward...