Yearly Archives: 2009

The premise of Orson Scott Card‘s Empire is that a Second Civil Warbreaks uot in the US in the near future. Sometimes it is described as an urban vs. rural war, but mostly it is a left vs right. The … Continue reading →

Rabbi Lawrence Kushner‘s Kabbalah: A Love Story is the best Kabbalah book I read for a long time. It just is a great combination of teachings embedded in a simple, yet attractive story line. OK, the story line is not … Continue reading →

There were two areas I most appreciated in Harry Turtledove‘s Fort Pillow: A Novel of the Civil War. Looking back I realize that I liked these aspects the most, because I learned something from them. The first is that I … Continue reading →

I am deeply saddened, angered and touched. I just finished by Alan Paton‘s “Cry, the Beloved Country“. Saddened, because in this book, written in 1958 about South Africa there is barely a character who comes out as a winner after … Continue reading →

I admit I still didn’t read, “God is a verb.” It is on my shelf. I hope I will get to it and not just because this is Rabbi David A. Cooper‘s most famous work, but also because it promises … Continue reading →

Don’t let the title you see on the cover of my copy Rephael Yedidya‘s book fool you. The book is not really titled “Kabbala: the comprehensive dictionary of basic terms of the Kabbala.” The real title is inside “Kabbala: a … Continue reading →

I have been receiving Yitzhak Buxbaum‘s almost daily email dispatches of hasidic anecdotes and stories but up till now I haven’t actually read any of his books. I started with the one I thought I would have most fun with: … Continue reading →

Philippa Gregory‘s “The other queen” has everything I would want from a historical fiction: a tragic hero, who is an important historical figure, love and action and most importantly it describes an era in an infotaining way. “Infotaining” refers to … Continue reading →

Diana Gabaldon‘s book titled “Lord John and the Hand of Devils”contains three novellas of increasing lengths. I listened to the 9 CD unabridged audio version, where the first was on 2 discs, the second on three and the last on … Continue reading →