Sometimes the way you feel about a book depends not only on your mood, but what else you’ve read recently. Before reading the novels in this review, I’d been actively engaged in two different, very exciting fantasy series. The second in one series ended with a cliff hanger and I so wante…
“Thou shalt not murder” is one of the Ten Commandments. Yet, twice a year – during Rosh Hashanah and Shabbat Vayera – Jews read the Akedah, the binding of Isaac, which could also be called “the attempted murder of Isaac.” God tests Abraham by commanding him to sacrifice his son. …
The title of the article was not meant to be ironic. At the time the magazine was written (usually six months before it appears), it was still possible to imagine we could have “(the) Best Summer Yet.” The article asked readers to list answers to the following: “it wouldn’t be summer…
Tales of intergenerational conflict fuel novels and memoirs. The majority of these works focus on bad parenting and/or the inability to accept a child’s differences. Both are true of two recent works: Ilana Masad’s novel “All My Mother’s Lovers” (Dutton) and David Adjmi’s memoir …
When a natural disaster occurs in the United States and I receive a request for help, I don’t ask for specifics about whose lives are in danger. It doesn’t matter their age, skin color, ethnicity, religion or political viewpoints. Americans reach out and give each other a helping hand. I…
