The Twin Cities Jewish Book Fair is kicking off on November 7th, and hosting a smorgasbord of Jewish authors on everything from racial politics, to cooking, to child-rearing and Jewish history. [Update: Free Tickets No Longer Available.]
This isn’t just a book fair for Bubbes – some of the books are controversial, and several are written by women closer to our age bracket than that of our mothers. This is the 28th year of the Twin Cities Jewish Book Fair and these 9 authors (6 in November, 3 this spring) join the ranks of more than 250 nationally known Jewish authors who have come to the Twin Cities to speak about their books at this event over the last several decades. The Book Fair is presented by the Saint Paul JCC in partnership with The Friends of the St. Paul Public Library and the Sabes JCC.
Most of the events are free/cheap, but the Book Fair is giving us two “People of the Book” passes to raffle off to TC Jewfolk readers- present your pass and you get into each Book Fair event for free. Read on to learn how to win!
Win a FREE “People of the Book” Pass to the Twin Cities Jewish Book Fair!
The Twin Cities Jewish Book Fair has given TC Jewfolk two “People of the Book” passes to raffle off to two of our lucky readers. To win, between now and 12noon on Thursday, October 29th, go to the comments section of this blog post and answer this question. What is your favorite book by a Jewish author and why? We’ll enter your name in our raffle (drawn randomly with the help of The Hat). One submission per person.
Twin Cities Jewish Book Fair Highlights
To see the complete list of the authors and their books at the Twin Cities Jewish Book Fair, click here. To register to attend the Book Fair events, click here, or stop by the Saint Paul JCC. Here are the authors (and books) that we don’t think you can miss.
Ernest Adams and From Ghetto to Ghetto: An African American Journey to Judaism
Saturday, November 7th: 7:00pm: Book Fair opening reception. 8:00pm: Author presentation and book signing. Ernest Adams’ talk is co-sponsored by the UJFC of St. Paul, the St. Paul Chapter of Hadassah, and Jewish Community Action (tix are $10 for JCC members, $15 for non-members). Here’s the Book’s Fair’s blurb:
Growing up in Harlem during the Jim Crowe era and coming of age during the Black Power movement, Ernest Adams has experienced his share of racial bias, but only began to relinquish his own admittedly anti-white and anti-Semitic ideas after meeting Meyer Goldstein in law school and becoming “like brothers.” Meyer’s father, Rabbi Goldstein “adopted” him and became Adams’ inspiration to become a Jew. Adams offers a fresh perspective in the current dialogue about race relations and identity among African Americans and Jews.
Roz Marks and Andrea Marks Carneiro and Jewish Cooking Boot Camp: The Modern Girl’s Guide to Cooking Like a Jewish Grandmother
Sunday, November 8, 11:30AM at the Sabes JCC (Minneapolis) and 3PM at the St. Paul JCC. The talks are co-sponsored by BOND – Branching Out in New Directions (tix are $6 JCC Member, $9 non-members). Here’s the Book Fair’s blurb:
This mother-daughter team mother leads a new generation through traditional Jewish favorites guiding even the most kitchen-challenged confidently through the Jewish holidays and other important occasions. You’ll hear tips, anecdotes, as well as ideas for creating meaningful family traditions.
Kate Ledger and Remedies
Tuesday, November 10, 7:00pm at St. Paul JCC and Thursday, November 19, 7:00pm, at Sabes JCC. This talk is co-sponsored by: Mt. Zion Temple, Beth Jacob Congregation, Temple of Aaron (tix are $6 for JCC members, $9 for non-members). Here’s the Book Fair’s blurb:
The Twin Cities Jewish Book Fair celebrates the debut novel of St. Paul JCC member Kate Ledger. Her book, this year’s Community Read is a thoughtful, evocative portrait of a family’s struggle to cope (or avoid coping) with a painful past. Ledger’s impeccable craftsmanship has already been noted in prominent book reviews. An excellent conversation piece. Read this!
Buy the books you want at the event, and some of the money goes to support our local Jewish Community Centers. See you in the stacks.
(Update: TC Jewfolk now has an Amazon.com Associates account which gives us 4-10% of a sale if you purchase any of the above-mentioned books by clicking on the links in this article. We appreciate your support.)
What is my favourite book by a Jewish Author and why?
My head will explode if I try to pinpoint such. One, of many, that come to mind would be Martin Buber. Now to again narrow down his life work to a favourite single volume??? That choice will depend of what part of my life is in reference. The first, from my early teens, was I and Thou. And from there, a world opened, in my mind, allowing me to continue to grow with many other works and from varied authors.
But then again, it’s late in the morning, I have not yet had breakfast and I’m hungry. I might have to default to 1000 Jewish Recipes by Faye Levy.
Does the Torah count? j/k
My favorite is Portnoy’s Complaint by Phillip Roth. It’s one of the funniest books I’ve ever read, Jewish or not.
What is my favorite book by a JEWISH AUTHOR??? It would have to be
“Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak—a nice jewish boy. To me, he is the jewish peoples’ answer to Dr Seuss (another fine author who we love but in NOT jewish).
Where the Wild Things Are is only 338 words, yet it captures what other books take volumes to describe. Who among us has never read it?? No one that I know. It is a classic and you should READ the book BEFORE you ever see the movie!!!! Nuff said.
So many great books out there!
My favorite ever author is Barbara Kingsolver – but she’s not Jewish.
I love The World to Come, by Dara Horn (and I like the new one a lot too, set during the Civil War) . . .
That is a really tough question, and I’d say the answer changes from month to month. One of my very favorite “Jewish books” with a Jewish author to boot is: “As a Driven Leaf” by Milton Steinberg. It’s an amazing work of historical fiction, and I learned so much about the Talmudic period by reading it. Best of all, there’s a fantastic (highly dramatized) story about Bruria in there, one of my favorite female, Jewish historical figures.
Thanks to everybody who entered! We’ll be picking the winner (with the help of “The Hat”) later this morning!
Our winners of a free People of the Book pass to the TC Jewish Book Fair are Steve Kaplan and Kevin Wall! Congrats!
My favorite book is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (nee Alisa Rosenbaum). The protagonist sees society collapse around her as the government increasingly asserts control over all industry, while society’s most productive citizens progressively disappear. The book advocates the core tenets of Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism and expresses her concept of human achievement. In doing so it expresses many facets of Rand’s philosophy, such as the advocacy of reason, individualism, the market economy and the failure of government coercion.
Not exactly a best-seller among jewish liberals who dominate our institutions but is certainly a favorite among libertarians like myself.