The book circle will meet on Thursday, August 27, at 3:30 p.m., in Andrew Levin Park to discuss The Thread Collectors by Shauna J. Edwards and Alyson Richman, a novel about female strength, hope and friendship. This book was reviewed by The New York Times as a story “that will stay with you long after the last page is turned.” One woman embroiders in New Orleans. A Jewish woman quilts in New York City. These [...]
The Book Circle will meet on Thursday, July 23, at 3:30 p.m. in the Andrew Levin Park garden at the synagogue, weather permitting. The July selection is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. In this story, it is 1939, Nazi Germany. People disappear. Death is everywhere. Enter Liesel Meminger, a foster child living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence by stealing something she can’t resist — books. With the help of her [...]
(This is the June selection. No Book Circle meeting in May) The Book Circle will meet on Thursday, June 18, at 3:30 p.m. in the Andrew Levin Park garden at the synagogue, weather permitting. The June selection is Out of Egypt, a memoir by Andre Aciman. Here, the author introduces us to the eccentrics who shaped his life — Uncle Vili, the strutting daredevil, soldier, statesman and spy; the two grandmothers, the Princess and [...]
The Sisterhood of Ravensbrück, Lynne Olson The true story of how an intrepid band of Frenchwomen resisted the Nazis in Hitler’s all-female concentration camp. They risked death for any infraction, but that did not stop them from defying the SS at every turn. A Fool’s Kabbalah, Steve Stern In the ruins of postwar Europe, the world’s leading expert on the Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism goes on a hair-raising journey to recover sacred books stolen [...]
In the gripping historical novel, The Song of the Jade Lily, Kirsty Manning weaves together little-known threads of WWII history, family secrets, the past and the present. In 1939, two young girls meet in Shanghai and form a friendship. But the realities of war prove to be too much , and they are torn apart. In 1916, the granddaughter of Romy, one of the young girls, learns about family secrets kept hidden for half [...]
More than 2,000 years ago, remnants of one of the lost tribes of Israel appeared on the shores of India. They became known in India as the Bene Israel. A handful of the tribe’s descendants band together to live in a communal housing complex, known as the Shalom India Housing Society. Nestled amidst their Hindu and Muslim neighbors, the residents find ways to laugh and love while keeping faith with their Jewish roots. Esther David [...]
The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman is a fictional retelling of the Siege of Masada (70-73 CE) through the eyes of four resilient women — Yael, Revka, Asisa and Shirah — who find refuge there, each bearing secrets and past traumas. When the Romans besiege the fortress, only two women and five children survive the brutality and loss, leading to the tragic historical outcome. The members of the Book Circle will meet on Thursday, Feb. [...]
Of course, those of us of a certain age read it, and saw ourselves in it, and the Book Circle is entering those days once again. In Herman Wouk’s powerful coming-of-age novel, a starry-eyed, 19-year-old beauty named Marjorie Morgenstern leaves home to accept the job of her dreams — working in a summer stock company for Noel Airman, its talented and charismatic director. Released from the social constraints of her traditional Jewish family, and [...]
Inspired by history and a trove of love letters, The Rabbi’s Suitcase, by Robert Kehlmann, recounts how, in the early 1880s, a battered steamship, overcrowded with Orthodox Jewish travelers makes a treacherous journey from Lithuania to Jerusalem. On board, a 12-year-old mystic named Yosef is entranced with wild-haired Chana. Their story is told against a backdrop of Ottoman rule, the privations of WWI, and British Mandate uprisings. The Book Circle meets monthly to discuss [...]
The Book Circle has chosen to read an account of a shocking true story as its November selection. The group will meet on Wednesday, Nov. 19, at 3:30 p.m., on CTI’s Zoom to talk about Allegra Goodman’s story, Isola. In this thriller, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and privilege. Suddenly orphaned, her guardian spends her inheritance, then takes her on a trip where she is accused of betrayal, punished and abandoned [...]
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