The Book of Life

Two new books of interest from Other Press : THE DEBBA (Other Press; July 13, 2010; $14.95) by award winning author Avner Mandelman THE DEBBA is the page-turning story of an Israeli ex-assassin's quest to uncover his dead father's secret - and the truth about the birth of Israel. Mandelman was born in Israel and served in the Israeli Air Force during the Six-Day War. His story collection Talking to the Enemy was chosen by Kirkus Reviews as one of the twenty-five best books of 2005, and by the American Library Association as the first recipient of the Sophie Brody Medal for outstanding achievement in Jewish literature. This is his first novel. A recent **starred** review in Kirkus proclaimed that "The author deftly blends a murder mystery with a nuanced examination of the intransigent Israeli-Arab conflict" and a **starred** Booklist declared that he "has written a first rate debut novel that tackles current issues in the Arab-Israeli conflict while revealing

The Book of Life just received a Beautiful Blogger Award from the lovely folks at the Jewish Publication Society. Thanks, JPS! To claim the award, I have to share seven little-known facts about The Book of Life and pass the award on to seven other blogs. Seven Little-Known Facts. (Actually, if you've been paying dorkily close attention you might already know some of these.) 1. The Book of Life was once used as a vehicle for two 3rd grade girls to get credit for a book report on Marc Chagall! Rather than present to the class, they presented their book report on the podcast . 2. Coolest audio project I've participated in: being one of the five voices in the librarian episode of the QN Podcast . 3. Favorite gig I got as a result of being a podcaster: getting to introduce Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief , when he spoke at our local indie, Books & Books in Coral Gables, Florida. (You can hear his talk in the episode Meet Markus .) 4. Episode that was the mos

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     🕮    At the Association of Jewish Libraries 2010 Convention in Seattle, WA, I organized a panel presentation on book reviewing with Ellen Cole, Kathe Pinchuck, Lisa Silverman, and Rita Soltan. This post is our online handout, and a record of our presentation. AJL Reviewing Panel FOR FUN The Top 20 Most Annoying Book Reviewer Phrases and How to Use Them All in One Meaningless Review Book Review BINGO MORE SERIOUS RESOURCES Suggested Resources for Jewish Children's Book Reviewers , a bibliography/webliography by Kathe Pinchuck Excellence in Jewish Children's Literature : A Guide for Book Selectors, Reviewers, and Award Judges (AJL Publication) From Cover to Cover: Evaluating and Reviewing Children's Books by K.T. Horning (HarperCollins, 2010 revised edition) Faint Praise: The Plight of Book Reviewing in America by Gail Pool (University of Missouri Press, 2007) Critical Mass, the blog of the National Book Critics Cir

At the Association of Jewish Libraries 2010 Convention, I co-presented a session on AJL & Social Media with Diane Romm. You can read our paper HERE . This post is our online handout, and a record of our presentation. Also relevant is the four-part series "Why Be Social?" that appeared on The Book of Life podcast in 2009. You can listen to all four parts here: http://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2009/08/why-be-social-whole-megillah.html . LINKS mentioned in Part 1: Association of Jewish Libraries: http://www.jewishlibraries.org AJL Wiki: http://nesiya.wikispaces.com/?responseToken=0a642c679fa9b8b4beaa52dd7d68d713b Past AJL Conventions: http://jewishlibraries.org/Conference_Proceedings Sydney Taylor Book Award: http://jewishlibraries.org/content.php?page=Sydney_Taylor_Book_Award Convention Stipends: http://jewishlibraries.org/Member_Awards AJL Newsletter: http://jewishlibraries.org/AJL_News___AJL_Reviews Bibliography Bank: http://jewishlibraries.org/B