The Book of Life

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     🕮    What's new in Jewish books for adults? Follow me around the 2008 Book Expo America conference to listen in on publishers and authors talking about their new and forthcoming titles! This series includes four episodes: In Part 1 we heard about Jewish pictures books. Part 2 was about Jewish books for older kids and teens. Part 3 featured Jewish literature for adults. This final episode in the series, Part 4, is about books (for all ages) relating to the Holocaust. Part 4 also includes a non-Holocaust-related palate cleanser: an interview with the Jewish Publication Society that was accidentally left out of Part 3 (sorry, JPS!). SURVEY: Next time we'll return to our regular format of more in-depth interviews, but I do want to know YOUR preferences. Do you prefer the regular half-hour shows that includes multiple interviews? Or would you rather have shorter, single-interview episodes? Post a comment, e-mail bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com , or take the s

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     🕮    What's new in Jewish books for adults? Follow me around the 2008 Book Expo America conference to listen in on publishers and authors talking about their new and forthcoming titles! This series includes four episodes: In Part 1 we heard about Jewish pictures books. Part 2 was about Jewish books for older kids and teens. This is Part 3, and Part 4 will be about books (for all ages) relating to the Holocaust. Part 3, Jewish Books for Adults Coffee House Press Jealous Witness, Poems by Andrei Codrescu, with CD Maelstrom: Songs of Storm & Exile by the New Orleans Klezmer AllStars Harper Perennial Just Say Nu by Michael Wex Who by Fire by Diana Spechler Princeton Architectural Press I Am My Family: Photographic Memories and Fictions by Rafael Goldchain URJ Press (Union for Reform Judaism) The Torah: A Women's Commentary edited by Tamara Cohn Eskanazi and Andrea Weiss Gayla Gabriel, author Leaving with Love: Eternal Messages from the Heart

One of the hats I wear is that of reviewer for the PJ Library , a project that provides Jewish books for families with young children. I'm privileged to be on the book selection committee that determines which titles meet the project's unique goal, to introduce disconnected families to a taste of Judaism. The PJ Library's growth is having an exciting effect on the publishing industry too, by expanding the market for Jewish children's literature. I recently got ahold of a press release explaining this phenomenon, and though you all might find it interesting.   The PJ Library Creates Renaissance for Children's Book Publishing Industry SPRINGFIELD, MA, June 19, 2008 - Why are Simon & Schuster, Random House, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Scholastic and other top publishers listening intently to the opinions of a tiny group of Jewish educators? Because their decisions have directly triggered more than $1.5 million in children's book purchases in just two a