Best jewish literature & fiction books according to redditors
We found 44 Reddit comments discussing the best jewish literature & fiction books. We ranked the 19 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 44 Reddit comments discussing the best jewish literature & fiction books. We ranked the 19 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
Von der amazon page (und nicht vergessen inkognito draufzugehen, sonst kriegt man so Mist in seinen Vorschlägen):
> After one beer with him in Tel Aviv, Nilly can’t stop thinking about Sebastian, even though she wishes she could. A relationship with this blonde, blue-eyed hunk would be impossible. He’s German, maybe the grandson of Nazis; she’s the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors whose mother boycotts German products. He’s in Israel on a musical peace mission; she was born in Ariel, an Israeli city in the West Bank that he considers an obstacle to peace.
> Nilly fights her attraction to the "German," but this Dresden-native is just too nice—and hot—to boycott. A few dates at Tel Aviv hot spots lead to a cross-cultural, steamy romance that eventually forces them both to break taboos, challenge prejudices, and uncover family secrets.
> Spanning the vibrant nightlife and cultural scenes of Berlin and Tel Aviv in the shadow of rising terror in Europe, UNDERSKIN is a rare breed of literary erotica exploring the intricacies of romantic relationships amidst religious, cultural, and political differences.
edit: Das wird alles noch viel besser, wenn man sich mal die Infos zu der Autorin durchliest:
The following are some of my favorite books that I could think of off the top of my head. Hopefully you dig the list.
Phillip Roth has you covered
Memoirs of a False Messiah https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1799019551/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_r0zWCbMYN39H6
Per the article, he ended up self-publishing. The book is available on Amazon here. I'm about to grab a copy myself.
Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safron Foer.
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Constance Garrett translation)
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Particularly the scenes describing [Spoiler](/s "Gately's and Joelle's recovery during their time in AA and his description of what living in the present is like, the NOW, what addiction do substances/TV/love/etc can be like, hitting rock bottom, just floored me")
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Also Slaughterhouse Five. The description of the reverse war was so beautiful I nearly cried... link. video addendum
It's always been suspected/assumed that Lindbergh was a Nazi sympathizer. You can read through his wiki page for quotes from him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lindbergh
There is a great book by Philip Roth called The Plot Against America which is a "what if" scenario if Lindbergh had defeated FDR in the 1940 election.
If anyone is interested in serious critiques of anti-racism work, Rev. Thandeka's essay from 1999 is eerily prophetic and has been relegated away from discussion. It remains eerily prescient.
She is an extremely accomplished theologian.
http://revthandeka.org/about-thandeka
Here is her essay:
https://www.meadville.edu/files/resources/thandeka-why-anti-racism-will-fail-447.pdf
It appears we have been having this conversation for 20 years and gotten nowhere. It seems we want to center the voices of POC, just not ones that disagree with the dominant narrative.
"So why have white UU's accepted a doctrine of race theory that is economically
naïve, sociologically counterfactual, and racially damning? The answer is that by
and large we haven't.
In so far as we have, it's because the talk of privilege
inflates some egos.
As we know, Unitarian Universalists are, collectively, the second wealthiest
religious group in this country. Our members are also the most highly educated.
This means that 49.9 per cent of us are college graduates and that our median
annual household income is $34,800.
In other words, members of our association tend to have a big brain and a small
purse. UU's also tend to be politically active, environmentally conscious, natureoriented,
and live in the suburbs. This is not the profile of the power elite. It's the
profile of civil servants, school teachers, small business persons, and middle
managers. In effect, middle America - the group of professionals who keep
America running by training its children, maintaining government, and paying
taxes.
..
Today, most Unitarian Universalists are not
affluent. Yet we seem fond of describing ourselves in this manner.
...
The simple truth is that most middle-class white persons, including UU's, are not
part of the economic ruling elite in this country. They have not amassed structural
power and control. Our UU anti-racist rhetoric, however, claims that they have.
Such a claim seems to produce three kinds or categories of ego responses in
white UU's.
First category. For some, it is an ego boost. Bereft of real power and prestige in
the eyes of America's ruling elite, what a tweak of the ego to have a so-called
person of color tell you that you are all-powerful. Who could resist? Loads.
Thus the second category. Some egos are deflated. The egos of whites who are
not racists, but have sometimes acted in racists ways in order to retain
membership in their own social groups [out of survival].
...
The third category affected by anti-racist rhetoric I will call the silent majority.
These Unitarian Universalists know that the anti-racist rhetoric that pervades our
religious association runs counter to the economic realities of this country and
their own lives. I believe that these persons simply dismiss the rhetoric as
insulting to their intelligence and walk away. This doesn't help us build a strong,
vibrant religious community. Quite the contrary. This is the way in which our
community is broken. One withdrawal at a time.
"
The third is happening more and more and more and will continue to happen. It also turns countless people away who come as visitors and leave because they see this and nope out. This is how our tradition dies and is reborn as a secular, yet orthodox, activist organization.
Edit: there is also a book I haven't read that was apparently published 9 years ago by a former editor of the UU World as a thinly-veiled allegory of the current state of things. I plan to give it a read, but from the gist of it, seemed to predict the events of 2 years ago.
https://www.amazon.com/Antiracism-Trainings-David-Reich/dp/193540279X
In that same line, I'm adding another suggestion. This one is by one of my favorite French-language authors and I'm happy to see it was translated into English. It's quite a beautiful and poignant story.
A more recent libertarian fiction book is Publicani
http://www.amazon.com/Publicani-Zak-Maymin/dp/1438221231
lots of reviews, averaging about 5 stars
it is excellent
A terrific fictional account of this era is Phillip Roth's Plot Against America.
"Enfold me" by Steven Greenberg. Very haunting, worth a read. It imagines ( a modern day) nightmare war against Hezbollah/ Arabs and an occupation scenario where Israel completely loses.
https://www.amazon.com/Enfold-Me-Steven-Greenberg-ebook/dp/B01GB4C0ME/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505057374&sr=8-1&keywords=enfold+me
I've been keeping a list of YA fantasy with queer female protagonists, if that helps at all:
--The Tiger’s Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera
--Of Fire and Stars and Of Ice and Shadows by Audrey Coulthurst
--Inkmistress by Audrey Coulthurst
--Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova
--The Defiant Heir by Melissa Caruso
-- Daughter of Fire: Conspiracy of the Dark by Karen Frost
--Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust
--Ash and Huntress by Malinda Lo
--Breaking Legacies by Zoe Reed
--Reign of the Fallen and Song of the Dead by Sarah Glenn Marsh
--Castle on the River Vistula by Michelle Tea
--The Afterward, by E.K. Johnston
--Crier's War by Nina Varela
--The Seafarer's Kiss by Julia Ember
--The books in Shira Glassman's Mangoverse
--Ship of Smoke and Steel by Django Wexler
--The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher
--The Cursed Queen by Sarah Fine
--Robbergirl by S.T. Gibson
--Sam Farren's Dragonoak series
--Starless by Jacqueline Carey
--The Nobles of Sperath by Siera Maley
--Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan
ok I'm here again!
I've read retellings:
Dark Wife
- about persephone and hades
- if you wish me to tell you the warnings i can, i wish books put warnings in it so people can skip it
Seafarer's Kiss
- its a siren story(like little mermaid) in viking version, if i'm not wrong
- i love how the writer portrayed loki in this XD
Promises, Promises
- i linked the review
- its funny XD
Some other fairytales, not exactly retellings
Santa Olivia
- not a retelling, its about a boxer girl, it has a sequel too
- its a nice story and funny
When Women Were Warriors
- this is set in kinda medieval times
Dragonoak
- first of a trilogy, fantasy medieval
- the world building is nice as well as the characters
Second Mango
- its a story about a princess turned queen that searches for love of a girl
- its a sweet and cute story and hehehe its funny
Villains Don't Date Heroes
- there is a lot of monologuing here, because she's a villain, all that monologuing lol XP
- its funny
Iron & Velvet
- supernatural
- dissing twilight here and there lol XP
- monologuing too, coz she's a detective, after i realized that i got over the monologuing lol XP
lol i just basically listed all i've read for the past half year or so lol XP \>.\< i'm so sorry \>.\< and its not even historical
Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:
amazon.com
amazon.co.uk
amazon.ca
amazon.com.au
amazon.in
amazon.com.mx
amazon.de
amazon.it
amazon.es
amazon.com.br
amazon.nl
amazon.co.jp
amazon.fr
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you might benefit from reading this novel. It's really not the best in terms of storytelling (dialogue flat, no major story arc) but the characters come together in a situation that is reminiscent (but not exactly) what you're describing.
This book might interest you. I read it and found it interesting, although sometimes a bit dry. The author is German, but I have only ever seen the book in Portuguese: História dos judeus portugueses
Also there is this book, which is a fictional account of Portuguese conversos and later one of their descendants in modern Brazil: Marrana!
Another thing you might find interesting is the story of the Jews in Belmonte who kept much of their tradition alive for centuries in hiding in Portugal; many of them have completely returned to Judaism and have created a community in their city. There’s even a museum in the old synagogue there about their history.
A large community of Portuguese Jews ended up in Recife when the Dutch ruled it. When the Portuguese reconquered the area, many went into hiding, etc. while many ended up in Curaçao, which is probably why the language spoken there, Papiamento, is very heavily based on Portuguese. Some descendants of Jews fleeing Recife ended up in New England and opened the oldest still-standing synagogue in the United States. And others were also some of the founders of the oldest synagogue in Canada (in Montreal— my city!).
Não sou especialista da questão dos conversos ou dos cripto-judeus, mas tenho alguns conhecimentos, se tiver outras perguntas... Boa sorte!
Here's a fiction book with a pharmacy theme:
http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Pharmacy-Sleuth-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B0047T7D2S/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1410799363&amp;sr=8-14&amp;keywords=pharmacy+mystery
Publicani:
http://www.amazon.com/Publicani-Zak-Maymin/dp/1438221231/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t
I'd only give it 3 stars but I'm a tough reviewer. I haven't read much libertarian fiction you asked so there you go.
For Rand's other novels, Anthem is good and a very quick read. The Fountainhead is good but not nearly as good as Atlas Shrugged and takes much longer to get off the ground. We the Living didn't really grab my attention and I stopped reading, but I'm open to giving it another try
The Plot Against America is an interesting book that imagines Charles Lindbergh defeating FDR and keeping America out of WWII. Henry Ford is in his Cabinet, but this aspect of his life (anti-semetism) is on full display.
Backing up my argument, I refer to Pat Buchanan's The Unnecessary War for the case for, and Philip Roth's The Plot Against America for the case against, but with Freudian slips exposing its real agenda, this view of pre-war anti-fascism.
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. Roosevelt loses the presidential election to Charles Lindbergh who negotiates an understanding with Hitler.
I just finished The Book of Esther, which is an alternate reality historical fiction novel with some fantasy elements (golemim, werewolves, mechahorses, etc.) taking place in 1942 Khazaria. I didn't agree with some decisions the author made toward the end but found it enjoyable overall.
Oh or the Jungle It's about the meat packing industry. It had a huge impact on the US government. Food regulations started partly because of Sinclair.
Bread Givers It's about Jewish Immigrants, more around the turn of the century. However it's fiction. But it was really really good read with interesting things about what immigrants went through.
Don't Stop the Carnival by Herman Wouk may be along the lines of what you are looking for....
Based around the character of Norman Paperman, a press agent from NYC who in the midst of a mid-life crisis drops everything and moves to the fictional Caribbean island of Amerigo to run a hotel.
Woah I'm surprised noone mentioned Everything is illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer.
It's so damn well written, truthful, funny and heartbreaking.