Summer Reads for Sun—and Shade
Spies in the Warsaw Ghetto! Ob/Gyns on Everest! Handmaids of Ancient Canaan!
Book Review | Noah Feldman Explains Us To Ourselves
Noah Feldman’s “To Be A Jew” Today offers readers from many branches of the Jewish family tree a glimpse of other boughs and limbs and what their close and distant cousins in Jewishness make of life in the family.
Book Review | An Ancient Book Illuminates Our Troubled Times
The first time I found myself in synagogue for the chanting of the Book of Kohelet, or Ecclesiastes—typically read by Ashkenazi Jews during the Shabbat of Sukkot, the fall harvest festival—my first astonished thought was that I’d wandered into the wrong room, or at least picked up the wrong book.
Book Review | Ukraine’s Zelensky, Warts and All
The rise of Volodymyr Zelensky from comic improv-artist-turned-movie-star, to wealthy producer, to wartime leader of a besieged Ukraine is improbable enough to invite hyperbole.
A Vision of Decency and Hope: Why James McBride Is Today’s Charles Dickens
Both writers weave intricate yet leisurely plots and present an array of colorful, characters. Above all, they portray a fundamental decency and a hopeful vision.
Book Review | She Came, She Sang, She Conquered
Barbra Streisand remains the single most powerful and enduring female Jewish cultural figure of my lifetime, writes Glenn Frankel.
Book Review | When an Adored Villain Gets His Day in Court
What becomes of the national leader deemed guilty, but whose popularity is such that punishing him would risk political upheaval or a “lost cause” movement ? Two books, focused on a historic trial, seek to answer the question.
The Great Arab Revolt and Its Echoes Today
Why do so few of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict’s historical roots and possible solutions, once actively discussed by both Jews and Arabs, make it into the conversation today?
Four Novels of 2023 That Are More Jewish Than You Thought
2023 was one of those years when we really, really needed our books.
Top 10 Jewish Books of 2023
This year has been an absolute feast for readers. But with so many great books out there, it can be hard to know where to...
Book Review | Henry Kissinger on Successful Leadership
Henry Kissinger, now 99 years old, has added to his prodigious scholarship a valuable and enjoyable book on the qualities of great leadership.
Book Review | Hollywood Gets the Mamet Treatment
Through all the multiple David Mamets, one personality remains constant: a bold, aggressive, exceedingly confident, superbly well-read, arguably narcissistic provocateur.