Sof Book Club News
Calendar and Reading List 2022 –
Held Sundays on Zoom
March 2, 2022
| Date | Author | Book & Info |
| 1/30/22 | Elinor Lipman | The Inn at Lake Devine | Novel: It is funny and makes a great point about Jewish restricted entry to an inn. |
| 3/13/22 | Irving Abella and Harold Troper | None is too many: Canada and the Jews of Europe, 1933-1948 | History: Canada’s refusal to offer aid or sanctuary, to Jews fleeing Nazi persecution. National Jewish Book Award Winner |
| 4/17/22 | David Grossman | Horse Walks Into a Bar | Novel: Israeli comedian reveals dark moments during his comedy act |
| 6/12/22 | S.Y. Agnon | The Bridal Canopy | Novel: Jewry of Eastern Europe and their traumatized history and decline in spirituality. |
| 7/24/22 | Laura Z. Dobson | Gentleman’s Agreement | Novel: classic reflection of USA anti-Semitism. From 30 essential works by Jewish authors |
| 8/28/22 | Lawrence Kushner | Kabbalah: A Love Story | Novel: Jewish mysticism and spiritual insight that uses rich metaphor and prose to immerse the reader in an experience |
| 10/9/22
|
Jonathan Kaufman | The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern China | Nonfiction: Two Jewish families, both originally from Baghdad, stood astride Chinese business and politics for 175+ years. |
| 11/20/22 | Chaim Potok | Old Men at Midnight | Novella: Davita (of Davita’s Harp) ties 3 short stories together. |
| 12/25/22 | Edmund de Waal | Letters to Camondo | Novel: tragic family history told in a collection of imaginary letters addressed to Sephardic banking dynasty heir Moise de Camondo, the fin-de siècle art collector French Jew whose elegant Parisian home is now a museum. |
2021: Book Club Year in Review
News from Carolann Biederman
December 28, 2021
What we read in 2021: Here is a table of what the SOF Book Club read in 2021. If you’d like to help choose what we’ll be reading in 2022, contact Carolann Biederman about joining the book club.
| 1/31/21 | If All the Seas Were Ink: A Memoir | Ilana
Kurshan |
Non-fiction. Author’s connection to Daf Yomi, the commitment to read a page of Talmud a day and complete it in 7 years. |
| 3/7/21 | Bee Season | Myla
Goldberg |
Debut novel coming of age for a female spelling bee champion. |
| 5/30/21 | Beneath a Scarlet Sky | Mark
Sullivan |
Based on true experiences of Pino Lella, an unsung Italian WWII hero, who joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps and falls for a beautiful widow. |
| 7/11/21 | Davita’s Harp | Chaim
Potok |
His only novel with a female protagonist. |
| 8/22/21 | The Golem and The Jinni | Helen
Weckier |
History and fantasy set in circa 1899 NYC |
| 10/3/21 | White Houses | Amy
Bloom |
Eleanor Roosevelt & Lorena Hickok, her real-life aide. Imagines their life after their love affair |
| 11/14/21 | My Mother’s Son | David
Hirshberg |
Debut novel with emotional punch and a vivid portrait of 1950s Jewish American life in post-WWII Boston |
| 12/19/21 | Can’t we talk about something more pleasant? | Roz
Chast |
Memoir-New Yorker cartoonist, part graphic and part text. Looks at the last years of her nonagenarian parents. |
Book Club Schedule
| Sundays | Pages | Kindle? | Title | Author | Focus |
| 1/31/21
|
320
|
yes
|
If All the Seas Were Ink: A Memoir
|
Ilana Kurshan
|
Non-fiction. Author’s connection to Daf Yomi, the commitment to read a page of Talmud a day and complete it in 7 years.
|
| 3/7/21
|
275
|
yes
|
Bee Season
|
Myla Goldberg
|
Debut novel coming of age for a female spelling bee champion.
|
| 5/30/21
|
465
|
yes
|
Beneath a Scarlet Sky
|
Mark Sullivan
|
Based on true experiences of Pino Lella, an unsung Italian WWII hero, who joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps and falls for a beautiful widow.
|
| 7/11/21
|
371
|
yes
|
Davita’s Harp
|
Chaim Potok
|
His only novel with a female protagonist.
|
| 8/22/21
|
468
|
yes
|
The Golem and The Jinni | Helen Wecker
|
History and fantasy set in circa 1899 NYC
|
Book Club Anniversary
December 12, 2019
Sof Maʻarav Book Club
The Sof Ma’arav book club is celebrating its 14th anniversary. During that time, members have met several times a year to discuss important works by Jewish authors and about Jewish life. Listed below are the books enjoyed by book club members over the past 14 years.
The Chosen by Chaim Potok
An Interrupted Life, The Diaries 1941-1943 by Etty Hillesum
Three Daughters by Letty Cottin Pogrebin
Call It Sleep by Henry Roth
Night by Elie Wiesel
Paradise Park by Allegra Goodman
Rashi’s Daughters, Book 1 – Joheved by Maggie Anton
Patrimony by Philip Roth
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frank
The World to Come by Dara Horn
The Jew in the Lotus by Rodger Kamentz
As a Driven Leaf by Milton Steinberg
A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz
The Covenant by Naomi Ragen
The Orientalist by Tom Reiss
Betraying Spinoza by Rebecca Goldstein
The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon by Richard Zimler
The Periodic Table by Primo Levi
Rashi’s Daughters, Book 2 – Mariam by Maggie Anton
Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer
The Zookkeeper’s Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman
Rembrandt’s Jews by Steven Nadler
Joy Comes in the Morning by Jonathan Rosen
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union: A Novel by Michael Chabon
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak
The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit by Lucette Lagnado
A Woman in Jerusalem by A.B. Yehoshua
Away by Amy Bloom
My Life by Golda Meir
A Pigeon and A Boy by Meir Shalev
My Father’s Paradise by Ariel Sabar
For the Relief of Unbearable Urges by Nathan Englander
In My Father’s Court by I.B. Singer
Love Song by Julius Lester
Song for the Butcher’s Daughter by Peter Manseau
All Other Nights by Dara Horn
The Fixer by Bernard Malamud
The Haunted Smile by Lawrence Epstein
Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
To the End of the Land by David Grossman
Kaaterskill Falls by Allegra Goodman
A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs
by David Lehman
Raquela by Ruth Gruber
The Hare with the Amber Eyes by Edmund De Waal
Wandering Stars by Sholem Aleichem
The Girl from Foreign by Sadia Shepard
The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal
The Free World by David Bezmozgis
The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
Sacred Trash by Adina Hoffman & Peter Cole
Pictures at an Exhibition by Sara Houghteling
Friendly Fire by A.B. Yehoshua
My Russian Grandmother and Her American Vacuum
Cleaner by Meir Shalev
The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of
America’s Banana King by Rich Cohen
A Jewish Girl and A Not-so-Jewish Boy by Sandra Armstrong
The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
Rashi by Elie Wiesel
The Bielski Brothers by Peter Duffy
The Book of Job by Harold Kushner
Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths by Bruce Feiler
Russ and Daughters by Mark Russ Federman
God Knows by Joseph Heller
Jews and Words by Amos Oz & Fania Oz-Salzberger
This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper
Peony by Pearl S. Buck
A Tranquil Star by Primo Levi
When General Grant Expelled the Jews by Jonathan Sarna
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Scenes From Village Life by Amos Oz
Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers by Harry Bernstein
My Promised Land by Ari Shavit
An Officer and A Spy by Robert Harris
Kvetch: One Bitch of a Life by Greta Beigel
Zealot-The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan
The Mezuzah in the Madonna’s Foot by Trudi Alexy
Leonard Bernstein: An American Musician by Allen Shawn
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
Dona Gracia of the House of Nasi by Cecil Roth
The Puttermesser Papers: A Novel by Cynthia Ozick
The Gershwins and Me by Michael Feinstein
Total Immersion by Allegra Goodman
An Improbable Friendship by Anthony David
The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories by Bruno Schultz
The Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik
Day of Atonement by David Liss
All Who Go Do Not Return: A Memoir by Shulem Deen
The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks
Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
Playing with Fire by Tess Gerritsen
Fever at Dawn by Peter Gardos
The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem by Sarit Yishai-Levi
Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart
Yiddish: A Nation of Words by Miriam Weinstein
Pumpkinflowers – A Solider’s Story by Matti Friedman
Moonglow by Michael Chabon
Maus I and II by Art Spiegelman
A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell
The Last Minyan in Havana by Betty Heisler
Judas by Amos Oz
The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
Lost in Translation: Life in a New Language by Eva Hoffman
The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish
Shylock is My Name by Howard Jacobson
Moses, A Human Life by Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg
My Mother’s Sabbath Days by Chaim Grade
