I have a BRILLIANT idea!

Home Forums Seforim, Books, & Reading I have a BRILLIANT idea!

Viewing 19 posts - 51 through 69 (of 69 total)
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  • #669501
    balanced
    Participant

    does anyone know how to speak directly to a moderator my posts never seem to go thro

    #669502
    charliehall
    Participant

    I would recommend the frum novelist Herman Wouk’s three works of historical fiction set in and around World War II: *The Caine Mutiny*, *The Winds of War*, and *War and Remembrance. (The first is not Jewish-themed.) Wouk also wrote two great non-fiction books about Judaism, *This Is My God*, and *The Will to Live on: Reclaiming the Jewish Heritage*.

    #669504
    ronrsr
    Member

    Hi Balanced, what did your mother consider to be Jewish books by Jewish authors? I suppose I was lucky, and my mother had a very wide definition of what was a Jewish book.

    As a teenager, I read the epic novels of I.J. Singer (Israel Joseph Singer, elder brother of Isaac Bashevis Singer), with his sweeping histories of generations of Jewish families in Europe, and eventually America. The engrossing stories had extraordinarily vivid characters linked with their historical and socioeconomic settings. I recall “The Brothers Ashkenazi” and “The Family Carnovsky,” in particular. At the time of their writing, they were serialized in the Jewish Daily Forward and were extremely popular. When you finished one of these large novels, you felt like you had known and been part of the family, and I was always sorry to have to leave the characters at “The End.”

    Not sure that most here would consider these Jewish books, and they may not be modest enough for general consumption, but they brought history alive, were never predictable, had wonderfully bad and delightfully bad characters, and were written by a first-rate talent. They start out in the shtetls or cities of Europe, and end up in America: you feel as if you made the trip with them.

    It’s been over 35 years since I read these books, and they made a lasting impression on me. I also enjoyed them immensely during the weeks or months they took to read.

    Some other favorites, that I would consider great Jewish literature:

    1. Exodus, by Leon Uris.

    2. City Boy, by Herman Wouk

    3. Hope and Glory (two books) by Herman Wouk

    #669505
    willi
    Member

    I’m a big fan of Yair Weinstock. Although I generally stopped reading novels, I find his books a work of art, & the plots fascinating – you always end up with surprises, and there’s a lot of extra knowledge thrown in so I always learn something new.

    It takes talent to write what ‘just anybody’ can’t.

    #669506
    tzippi
    Member

    Willi, I remember reading The Gordian Knot. That first third was amazing… and then it turned typical thriller on you. His full length fiction novels are fine escapism, and his story collections are a wonderful contribution, but it’s not what I think people here are hoping to cultivate.

    #669507
    balanced
    Participant

    charliehall- thanks for the recommendations

    ronrsr – my mother wanted me to read books by frum authors. but she didnt stop me from going to the library (i guess she realized kids need an outlet and better one you know about than one you dont)and by the time she tried convincing me i was already reading books far more advanced than the avg. jewish book so it was a lost cause.

    the truth is its dangerous bec most books arent so clean and it was hard to part w reading, which i did for the most part in my first years of bais medrash

    #669508

    Has anyone read Susie Garber’s book, “Denver Dreams”? She is a frum woman, with degrees from Columbia University in writing (she has also authored books on teaching writing skills). Which is to say that there are frum people who can write. In English, not Yeshivshe.

    #669509
    willi
    Member

    As somebody mentioned, “Sun Inside Rain” is also an amazing book, but IMO it’s a jewishized typical romance novel.

    #669510
    tzippi
    Member

    Awomanoutsidebrooklyn, I had issues with that book. I don’t want to say much. There was one anachronism, a character having a cell phone in the eighties. I don’t remember the eighties that way.

    #669511
    tzippi
    Member

    I only mention that so that if there are future printings, they can rewrite that bit.

    #669512
    haifagirl
    Participant

    Actually, there were cell phones in the 80s. I remember them. They were big and bulky.

    #669513
    tzippi
    Member

    I sit corrected. I remember car phones but not cell phones. Did they fit easily into pockets?

    #669514
    Chacham
    Participant

    i know everyone is saying there is no decent orthodox books. but i thinks avner gold is amazing.

    #669515
    haifagirl
    Participant

    Did they fit easily into pockets?

    Not even close! They were huge! I remember one guy who had one of the first ones. It was about the size of a briefcase.

    #669516
    ronrsr
    Member

    Cell phones (and more importantly) cellular networks were available in the US from the early ’80s.

    Here’s a photo of a very popular cell phone from 1983, the Motorola Dynatac:

    It’s pretty big. you probably remember it.

    It was used mostly as a car phone, since the FCC limited its power outside of the car. If memory serves, the transmitter could be up to three watts in a car, but about 1/5 of that outside of a car.

    They didn’t really become very popularly priced until the 90’s though.

    #669517
    bombmaniac
    Participant

    i have a GREAT idea for a jewish novel…how about, a kolel guy who somehow gets involved in a plot with the FBI…CIA…NSA…DOD…KGB…MI6…MI5…GSS…MOSSAD…COS…DCPJ…ASIS…FSB…INTERPOL…BND…CSIS and a few others…and he holds a piece of kugel in which is a piece of pepper that is really a microfil containing the identity of the man who really shot kennedy…and somehow his rosh yeshiva comes in at the last minute on a private jet, and figures it all out based on a goral hagra…sounds good?:D:D:D

    #669518
    tzippi
    Member

    Bombmaniac, I feel like I read that one already.

    #669519
    bombmaniac
    Participant

    lol yair weinstock much…?

    #669520
    bein_hasdorim
    Participant

    oomis1105; You know him TOO?!!!

    haifagirl; Thanks, I tried to make a valid point though! 🙂

    ronrsr; Neither! His cousin once removed originally from the U.S. he made an aliyah

    to be more adventurous, for the book of course!

Viewing 19 posts - 51 through 69 (of 69 total)
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