Jewish Book Network 2003
Book Fairs and Programs

The Jewish Book Council created the Jewish Book Network to heighten awareness and promote the reading of quality Jewish books. In the past few years, Jewish Book Fairs and Book Programs have become a major force in the publishing industry. They are the most effective venue to bring books of Jewish interest to a wide reading audience. Below is a preview of the “hottest” new authors to hit the literary scene for the Fall 2003 season. For more definitive information about the local author appearances, please contact the individual Jewish Community Center or synagogue in the communities listed.

Authors on Tour (A – E)

Warren Bass

SUPPORT ANY FRIEND
Kennedy's Middle East and the Making of the U.S.-Israel Alliance
320 pages. Oxford University Press. $30.

Bass illuminates David Ben-Gurion, Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser and John F. Kennedy and their diplomatic struggles at the height of the Cold War. Support Any Friend shows how Kennedy sought greater influence in the Arab world, offering more foreign aid and a new diplomatic overture to Nasser, the Arab world’s leading radical.

Local appearances: Ann Arbor, MI; Austin, TX; Cleveland, OH; Detroit, MI; Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Houston, TX; Miami, FL; Norfolk, VA; Rockville, MD; San Diego, CA; W. Hartford, CT; W. Palm Beach, FL

Adam Bellow

IN PRAISE OF NEPOTISM
384 pages. Doubleday. $30.

Adam Bellow brings fresh perspectives and vast learning and research to bear on this misunderstood and stigmatized practice. Drawing on the insights of modern evolutionary theory, he shows how nepotism is rooted in our very biological nature, as the glue that binds together not only insect and animal societies but, for most of the world and for most of history, human societies as well.

Local appearances: Ann Arbor, MI; Philadelphia, PA

Theodore Bikel

THEO
An Autobiography
452 pages. University of Wisconsin Press. $24.95.

This is a reprint of award-winning screen and stage actor, singer, and social activist Theodore Bikel’s autobiography originally published in 1994, appearing here in paperback form. In a new postscript to the paperback edition, Bikel examines and critiques recent events in the Middle East.

Local appearances: Atlanta, GA; Boston, MA; Buffalo, NY; Cherry Hill, NJ; Detroit, MI; Miami, FL

Howard Blum

THE EVE OF DESTRUCTION
The Untold Story of the Yom Kippur
352 pages. HarperCollins. $25.95.

Review

On its 30th anniversary, Blum shows just how close Israel came to collapse during The Yom Kippur War, October, 1973. Using a narrative style, the author gives an account of battles, and of soldiers; of governments, and of armies; of honor, and of betrayals. It is, no less, a love story, a tale of a young bride and groom tossed about in this swirl of history.

Local appearances: Ann Arbor, MI; Austin, TX; Detroit, MI; Memphis. TN; Reading, PA; Springfield, MA; ST. Louis, MO; St. Paul, MN

Frederic Brenner

DIASPORA
Homelands in Exile
508 pages. HarperCollins. $100.

This collection is comprised of two volumes. The first part is a selection of photographs showing the vast differences, both ethnic and cultural, of the Jewish people. The second volume gives expression to voices confronting selected photographs. Various people offering differing viewpoints (including novelists, historians, and people from the photographs) accompany these photographs.

 Local appearances: Austin, TX; Columbus, OH; Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Houston, TX; Milwaukee, WI; New Orleans, LA; W. Palm Beach, FL

Paula Marantz Cohen

JANE AUSTEN IN BOCA
288 pages. St. Martin’s Press. $23.95.

Audio

A clever update of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, this first novel is set in a Jewish retirement community in Boca Raton, FL. Carol Newman is obsessively seeking a mate for her widowed mother-in-law, May. When Carol decides that the recently bereaved and very wealthy Norman Grafstein is the ideal candidate, the resulting comedy of manners is worthy of Austen herself.

 Local appearances: Cherry Hill, NJ; Costa Mesa, CA; Deal, NJ; Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Indianapolis, IN; Kansas City, KS; Metrowest, NJ; Miami, FL; Milwaukee, WI; Norfolk, VA; Philadelphia, PA; Rochester, NY; Tenafly, NJ; W. Palm Beach, FL

Stuart Eizenstat

IMPERFECT JUSTICE
Looted Assets, Slave Labor, and the Unfinished Business of World War II
400 pages. PublicAffairs. $30.

Interview

In this comprehensive, well-written and unsparing reflection on those negotiations, the former Clinton administration official offers a behind-the-scenes look at how agreements were reached to provide Holocaust survivors with monies they or their families had lost during the war. He begins with the unusual pair of World Jewish Congress (whose president, Edgar Bronfman, was a friend of Clinton’s) and Republican Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, who teamed up to make this an issue that Europe could not ignore.

 Local appearances: Atlanta, GA; Baltimore, MD; Boston, MA; Cherry Hill, NJ; Denver, CO; Detroit, MI; Houston, TX; Memphis, TN; Rochester, NY; St. Louis, MO; Tenafly, NJ

Joseph Epstein

SNOBBERY
The American Version
288 pages. Mariner Books. $14.

Epstein’s book takes up the subject of snobbery in America after the fall of the prominence of the old Wasp culture of prep schools, Ivy League colleges, cotillions, debutante balls, the Social Register, and the rest of it. With ample humor and insight, Epstein uncovers the new outlets upon which the old snobbery has fastened: food and wine, fashion, high-achieving children, schools, politics, health, being with-it, name-dropping, and much else, including the roles of Jews and homosexuals in the development of snobbery.

 Local appearance: Los Angeles, CA; Washington, DC