Books for your holiday reading

CYNTHIA RAMSAY SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

If you're like me, you've already got a stack of books that you are planning to read once the Chanukah rush is over and you have some free time for yourself. And, if you're like me, that pile can never be too high – so here are some more titles that you may want to consider adding to your list. They were all published this year. Most are hardcover.

Forays into fiction

• Journalist and essayist Germaine W. Shames's first novel, Between Two Deserts (MacAdam/Cage), follows protagonist Eve Cavell to Jerusalem. It was her grandfather's dying wish to see the holy city and Eve hopes to find her roots there. Among the people who distract her from this mission are a Palestinian suitor, an elderly Hungarian author and an Israeli mother whose soldier son refuses to serve in the West Bank. Within a fictional framework, the book attempts to be a window on the current turmoil in Middle East, covering the points of view of Muslims, Christians and Jews.

• Clara Mondschein's Melancholia (MacAdam/Cage) is writer and entrepreneur Anne Raeff's first novel. It takes place in the mid-1990s with the characters facing another of Clara's recurring depressions. Clara's life is revealed through the stories and experiences of her mother, daughter and husband, all of whom vacillate between feelings of guilt and anger toward her condition. Through the struggles of mother, daughter and granddaughter to come to terms with the Holocaust, Raeff examines the question of why some people are strengthened by adversity while others are defeated by it.

• Storyteller, teacher and author Yitzhak Buxbaum has compiled and translated stories from the Jewish tradition into two new books – Jewish Tales of Mystic Joy and Jewish Tales of Holy Women, both published by Jossey-Bass, a Wiley company. Mystic Joy comprises stories about the happiness that awaits those who strive for holiness, whether they are pious rabbis or humble tailors. Holy Women is a collection of tales about generous and self-confident grandmothers, mothers, daughters and wives who are business people, teachers and leaders. In each book, many of the stories are preceded by a brief explanatory note that sets the scene and includes translations of Hebrew or Yiddish words used in the text. Many of the stories are followed by a fleshing out of their moral by Buxbaum.

• Visit www.podprint.de to find out more about two new audio books: Afn Weg, Yiddish stories, recited by actor, director and professor Rafael Goldwaser, and Mentshn, Yiddish stories by Sholem Aleichem, also recited by Goldwaser. Each tape is 60 minutes long and contains several tales from Yiddish writers such as Aleichem, Aaron Lutzky, Kadya Molodowsky, Moysche Valdmann, Daniel Galay and others. Each cassette comes with an English-German booklet.

Learn a thing or two

• The Creation According to the Midrash Rabbah by Rabbi Wilfred Shuchat (Devora Publishing) is an English translation of the Midrash Rabbah (Great), which is the largest of all Jewish commentaries and was compiled more than 1,000 years ago. The Midrash explains the symbolism and hidden meanings of Genesis. Shuchat's 463-page work includes the original Hebrew texts of the parashot, the traditional commentaries on them and the author's comments on the biblical passage and the sages' interpretations.

• Sharon: Israel's Warrior-Politician, by Anita Miller, Jordan Miller and Sigalit Zetouni (Academy Chicago Publishers), is as much a history of the state of Israel as it is about the country's current prime minister. While Ariel Sharon is the "star" of the book, Sharon provides insight into the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict and into the personalities involved in that history, from Moshe Dayan to Yasser Arafat. The book takes readers all the way from Sharon's birth in February 1928 to recent memory, May 2002.

Of interest to youth

• For younger readers – ages 12 and up – there is When the War is Over by Martha Attema (Orca Book Publishers). Set in occupied Holland during the Second World War, When the War is Over tells the story of 16-year-old Janke Visser who joins her father and brother in the resistance movement, much to her mother's fear. Harboring a great hatred of the Nazis, Janke meets Helmut, a young German soldier. At first, her main problem is dealing with these confusing new emotions. Then she is captured on a mission and she faces almost certain death, unless....

When the War is Over is Attema's third teen novel set in the Netherlands. The first, A Time to Choose (Orca, 1995), won the Blue Heron Award and the second, A Light in the Dunes (Orca, 1997), was an American Library Association Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers.

• Families can learn about the Jewish holy days in Jewish Holidays All Year Round by Ilene Cooper, with drawings by Elivia Savadier and artwork and photographs from the Jewish Museum. Published by Abrams Books for Young Readers, Jewish Holidays explores in detail the Sabbath, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Simchat Torah, Chanukah, Tu B'Shevat, Purim, Passover, Yom Hashoah, Yom Ha'atzma'ut, Shavuot and Tisha B'Av. The traditions and history of each holiday are explained, along with the ways in which they are observed, both in synagogue and at home. And there are crafts and recipes to help make the learning fun.

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