Important Note for Book Group members:
We will be choosing books for 2020-21
The deadline for proposing books to be considered is 5 pm June 22
Write Babette for the spreadsheet so you can enter your suggestion
The July 1 book selection meeting will be held via ZOOM
Please watch your email for an invitation and for a spreadsheet of books to consider
(In keeping with the new normative behavior, you will supply your own pot luck dinner!)
If you can't attend the zoom meeting, email Gretta for a ballot
Ballots must be returned by July 5
_____________________________________________
The ORT Book Group is open to all women who are members of ORT America.
The group generally meets at the JCC at 7:30, but is convening via zoom at this time. Members are asked to
pay a $25 fee to belong, a portion of which supports the chapter. Checks for book group
membership should be sent to Hanna Goodstein, 635 Ridgewood Ct., Ann Arbor 48103.
For more information, write Gretta Spier at a2gretta@mac.com.
The group generally meets at the JCC at 7:30, but is convening via zoom at this time. Members are asked to
pay a $25 fee to belong, a portion of which supports the chapter. Checks for book group
membership should be sent to Hanna Goodstein, 635 Ridgewood Ct., Ann Arbor 48103.
For more information, write Gretta Spier at a2gretta@mac.com.
2019-20 Books
September 18
Odyssey: A Father, a Son and an Epic
Daniel Mendelsohn (322 pages)
October 16
Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity and Love
Dani Shapiro (272 pages)
November 20
Gateway to the Moon: A Novel
Mary Morris (352 pages)
December 18
Memento Park
Mark Sarvas (288 pages)
January 8 (changed from January 15)
Letters to My Palestinian Neighbors
Yossi Klein Halevi (288 pages)
February 19
The Only Woman in the Room: A Novel
Marie Benedict (256 pages)
March 18 - First Zoom meeting called a success!
Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom
Ariel Burger (288 pages)
April 22 - ZOOM meeting
Mrs. Everything
Jennifer Weiner
May 20 - ZOOM Watch for email link to participate
Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir
Ruth Reichl (266 pages)
June 17 - ZOOM Watch for email link to participate
Hard Cider
Barbara Stark-Nemon
July 1 - ZOOM Watch for email link to participate
Potluck/Book Selection
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2018-19 Books
The Weight of Ink
Rachel Kadish
Shores Beyond Shores (mem) 290 pages
Irene Butter
This Is How It Always Is (F) 336 pages
Laurie Frankel
Quiet (NF) 333 pages
Susan Cain
Paris In the Present Tense (F) 400 pages
Mark Helprin
All the Single Ladies (NF) 368 pages
Rebecca Traister
American Pastoral (F) 422 pages
Phillip Roth
All Who Go Do Not Return (mem) 310
Shalom Deen
Call It Sleep (F) 462 pages
Henry Roth
Reporter: A Memoir (mem) 368 pages
Seymour Hersh
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2017-18
Safekeeping (371) fiction
Jessamyn Hope
Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World (442) Biography
Linda Hirschman
The Lover (368) non-fiction
A.B. Yehoshua
Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide (432) non-fiction/memoir
Michael B. Oren
A Replacement Life (352) fiction
Boris Fishman
Faithful (258) fiction
Alice Hoffman
The Bridge Ladies (320) memoir
Betsy Lerner
My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me (240) memoir
Jennifer Teege
Norwegian by Night (290) fiction
Derek Miller
2016-17
The Golem and The Jinni (512 pages) fiction
Helene Wecker
Paper Love (400 pages) memoir
Sarah Wildman
The Muralist (352 pages) fiction
B.A. Shapiro
A Judgement in Stone (188 pages) fiction
Ruth Rendell
Marriage of Opposites (371 pages) fiction
Alice Hoffman
No meeting
See Eastern Michigan Jewish Studies Speaker Series
Like Dreamers:
The Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem in the Six Day War (320 pages) non-fiction
Yossi Klein Halevi
Between Friends (208 pages) fiction
Amos Oz
Alligator Candy (243 pages) memoir
David Kushner
Traveling Heavy: A Memoir In Between Journeys (248) memoir
Ruth Behar
The Bridge Ladies (320) memoir
Betsy Lerner
Looking Back Over More Than a Decade of Good Reads
2015-16
A Guide for the Perplexed (368 pages)
Dara Horn
Even In Darkness (217 pages)
Barbara Stark-Nemon (including a conversation with the author)
Frank (400 pages)
Barney Frank
Jewish Luck: A True Story of Friendship, Deception and Risky Business (386 pages)
Leslie Levine Adler and Meryll Levine Page
Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror,
Betrayal, Politically Unthinkable Choices (265 pages)
Mosab Hassan Yousef and Ron Brackin
All I Love and Know (422 pages)
Judith Frank
On the Move (397 pages)
Oliver Sacks
Henna House (320 pages)
Nomi Eve
Lincoln and the Jews: A History (288 pages)
Jonathan Sarna
2014-15
Telegraph Avenue - Michael Chabon
One More River - Mary Glickman
My Son’s Story - Nadine Gordimer
Generation Roe: Inside the Future of the Pro-Choice Movement - Sarah Erdreich
*The Family - David Laskin
The Marrying of Chani Kaufman - Eve Harris
A Pigeon and a Boy - Meir Shalev
My Promised Land - Ari Shavit
The Baroness - Hannah Rothschild
Summer
A Guide for the Perplexed - Dara Horn
September 18
Odyssey: A Father, a Son and an Epic
Daniel Mendelsohn (322 pages)
October 16
Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity and Love
Dani Shapiro (272 pages)
November 20
Gateway to the Moon: A Novel
Mary Morris (352 pages)
December 18
Memento Park
Mark Sarvas (288 pages)
January 8 (changed from January 15)
Letters to My Palestinian Neighbors
Yossi Klein Halevi (288 pages)
February 19
The Only Woman in the Room: A Novel
Marie Benedict (256 pages)
March 18 - First Zoom meeting called a success!
Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom
Ariel Burger (288 pages)
April 22 - ZOOM meeting
Mrs. Everything
Jennifer Weiner
May 20 - ZOOM Watch for email link to participate
Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir
Ruth Reichl (266 pages)
June 17 - ZOOM Watch for email link to participate
Hard Cider
Barbara Stark-Nemon
July 1 - ZOOM Watch for email link to participate
Potluck/Book Selection
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2018-19 Books
The Weight of Ink
Rachel Kadish
Shores Beyond Shores (mem) 290 pages
Irene Butter
This Is How It Always Is (F) 336 pages
Laurie Frankel
Quiet (NF) 333 pages
Susan Cain
Paris In the Present Tense (F) 400 pages
Mark Helprin
All the Single Ladies (NF) 368 pages
Rebecca Traister
American Pastoral (F) 422 pages
Phillip Roth
All Who Go Do Not Return (mem) 310
Shalom Deen
Call It Sleep (F) 462 pages
Henry Roth
Reporter: A Memoir (mem) 368 pages
Seymour Hersh
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2017-18
Safekeeping (371) fiction
Jessamyn Hope
Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World (442) Biography
Linda Hirschman
The Lover (368) non-fiction
A.B. Yehoshua
Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide (432) non-fiction/memoir
Michael B. Oren
A Replacement Life (352) fiction
Boris Fishman
Faithful (258) fiction
Alice Hoffman
The Bridge Ladies (320) memoir
Betsy Lerner
My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me (240) memoir
Jennifer Teege
Norwegian by Night (290) fiction
Derek Miller
2016-17
The Golem and The Jinni (512 pages) fiction
Helene Wecker
Paper Love (400 pages) memoir
Sarah Wildman
The Muralist (352 pages) fiction
B.A. Shapiro
A Judgement in Stone (188 pages) fiction
Ruth Rendell
Marriage of Opposites (371 pages) fiction
Alice Hoffman
No meeting
See Eastern Michigan Jewish Studies Speaker Series
Like Dreamers:
The Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem in the Six Day War (320 pages) non-fiction
Yossi Klein Halevi
Between Friends (208 pages) fiction
Amos Oz
Alligator Candy (243 pages) memoir
David Kushner
Traveling Heavy: A Memoir In Between Journeys (248) memoir
Ruth Behar
The Bridge Ladies (320) memoir
Betsy Lerner
Looking Back Over More Than a Decade of Good Reads
2015-16
A Guide for the Perplexed (368 pages)
Dara Horn
Even In Darkness (217 pages)
Barbara Stark-Nemon (including a conversation with the author)
Frank (400 pages)
Barney Frank
Jewish Luck: A True Story of Friendship, Deception and Risky Business (386 pages)
Leslie Levine Adler and Meryll Levine Page
Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror,
Betrayal, Politically Unthinkable Choices (265 pages)
Mosab Hassan Yousef and Ron Brackin
All I Love and Know (422 pages)
Judith Frank
On the Move (397 pages)
Oliver Sacks
Henna House (320 pages)
Nomi Eve
Lincoln and the Jews: A History (288 pages)
Jonathan Sarna
2014-15
Telegraph Avenue - Michael Chabon
One More River - Mary Glickman
My Son’s Story - Nadine Gordimer
Generation Roe: Inside the Future of the Pro-Choice Movement - Sarah Erdreich
*The Family - David Laskin
The Marrying of Chani Kaufman - Eve Harris
A Pigeon and a Boy - Meir Shalev
My Promised Land - Ari Shavit
The Baroness - Hannah Rothschild
Summer
A Guide for the Perplexed - Dara Horn
2013-14
How This Night Is Different: Stories - Elisa Albert
An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba - Ruth Behar
Grand River and Joy - Susan Messner
Wendy and the Lost Boys: The Uncommon Life of Wendy Wasserstein - Julie Salamon
The Art Forger - Barbara Shapiro
The Aleppo Codex:
In Pursuit of One of the World’s Most Coveted, Sacred and Mysterious Books - Matti Friedman
City of Thieves - David Benioff
The Lady in Gold:
The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt’s Masterpiece Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer - Anne Marie O’Connor
The Fortune Teller’s Kiss - Brenda Serotte
2012-13
*The Invisible Bridge - Julie Orringer
The Lost Wife - Alyson Richman
*The Flying Camel: Essays on Identity by Women of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Heritage - Loolwa Khazzoom
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin - Erik Larson
Day after Night - Anita Diamant
July’s People - Nadine Gordimer
Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War - Madeline Albright
*Second Person Singular - Sayed Sashua
2011-12
Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter – Peter Manseau
Emancipation: How Liberating Europe’s Jews from the Ghetto Led to Revolution and Renaissance - Michael Goldfarb
The History of Love - Nicole Kraus
The Rembrandt Affair – Daniel Silva
The Geography of Bliss – Eric Weiner
The Last Ember – Daniel Levin
The Glass Room – Simon Mawer
The Submission – Amy Waldman
The Legacy of False Promise – Margaret Fuchs Singer
2010-2011
The Girls from Ames - Jeffrey Zaslow
The Clothes on Their Backs - Linda Grant
Annie’s Ghosts - Steven Luxenberg
If You Awaken Love - Emuna Elon
Skeletons at the Feast - Chris Bohjalian
Paradise New York - Eileen Pollack
Ester and Ruzya - Masha Gessen
Sarah’s Key - Tatiana de Rosnay
The ZooKeeper’s Wife - Diane Ackerman
My Jesus Year - Benjamin Cohen
2009-2010
People of the Book – Geraldine Brooks
Away – Amy Bloom
My Father’s Paradise – Ariel Sabar
The Avengers – Rich Cohen
Hypocrite in a Pooffy White Dress – Susan Jane Gilman
Queen of the Road – Doreen Orion
The Girl from Foreign – Sadia Shepard
The Woman Who Can’t Forget – Jill Price
All Other Nights – Dara Horn
2008-2009
Asking for a Convertible – Danit Brown
Yiddish Policemen’s Union - Michael Chabon
*When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa - Peter Godwin
*All But My Life - Gerda Weissmann Klein
The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East - Sandy Tolin
Shanghai Diary: A Young Girl's Journey from Hitler's Hate to War-Torn China - Ursula Bacon
Sotah - Naomi Ragen
The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World - Lucette Lagnado
The Genizah at the House of Shepher - Tamar Yellin
The Dream: A Memoir - Harry Bernstein
The Septembers of Shiraz - Dalia Sofer
2007-2008
*Rashi’s Daughter: Book I: Jocheved - Maggie Anton
*Thread Of Grace - Mary Doria Russell
Yiddish Policemen’s Union - Michael Chabon
Kabbalah: A Love Story - Lawrence Kushner
*GI Jews: How World War II Changed a Generation - Deborah Dash Moore
The Autobiography of God: A Novel - Julius Lester
*The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers - Harry Bernstein
Disobedience: A Novel - Naomi Alderman
Mystery Midrash – edited Lev Raphael
*The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
2006-2007
Love and Other Pursuits – Ayelet Waldman
Joy Comes in the Morning – Jonathan Rosen
Looking for Lost Bird: A Jewish Woman Discovers her Navajo Roots – Yvette D. Melanson
Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America – Stephen G. Bloom
Miriam’s Kitchen – Elizabeth Erlich
Martyr’s Crossing – Amy Wilentz
*Naked in the Promised Land – Lillian Faderman
Number Our Days:
A Triumph of Continuity and Culture Among Jewish Old People in an Urban Ghetto – Barbara Meyerhoff
A Tale of Love and Darkness – Amos Oz
2005-2006
Wedding Song: Memoirs of an Iranian Jewish Woman – Farideh Goldin
Murder on a Kibbutz – Batya Gur
Jubana: The Awkwardly True and Dazzllng Adventures of a Jewish Cubana Goddess – Gigi Anders
Devil in the Details – Jennifer Traig
Much Ado About Jesse Kaplan – Paula Marantz Kaplan
How to Breathe Underwater – Julie Orringer
Love Song: Becoming a Jew – Julius Lester
*The Escape Artist – Judith Katz
The World is Flat – Thomas Friedman
Omaha Blues – Joseph Lelyveld
2004-2005
The Nazi Officer’s Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust – Edith Hahn Beer
The View from Stalin’s Head – Aaron Hamburger
Out of Egypt – Andre Aciman
Human Parts – Orly Castel-Bloom
*In My Brother’s Image: Twin Brothers Separated by Faith After the Holocaust – Eugene Pogany
Dakota Diaspora: Memoirs of a Jewish Homesteader – Sophie Trupin
*The Inextinguishable Symphony: A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi German – Martin Goldsmith
Jane Austen in Boca: A Novel – Paula Marantz Cohen
There are Jews in My House – Lara Vapnyar
2003-2004
Three Daughters – Letty Cottin Pogrebin
Nine Parts of Desire – Geraldine Brooks
Displaced Persons – Joseph Berger
The Same Sea – Amos Oz
The New Rabbi – Stephen Fried
*Beyond Hitler’s Grasp: The Heroic Rescue of Bulgaria’s Jews – Michael Bar-Zohar
In the Image – Dara Horn
Lost in America: A Journey With My Father – Sherwin B. Nuland
*Rochelle Krich mysteries – read one, read them all!
2002-2003
Gone to Soldiers – Marge Piercy
Boychicks in the Hood: Travels in the Hasidic Underground – Robert Eisenberg
*The Color of Water – James Mc Bride
*Rachel Calof’s Story: Jewish Homesteader on the Northern Plans – Rachel Calof
*The Reader – Bernhard Schlink
Tessie and Pearlie: A Granddaughter’s Story – Joy Horowitz
The Mezzuzah in the Madonna’s Foot: Marranos and Other Secret Jews: A Woman Discovers Her Spiritual Heritage – Trudi Alexy
Turbulent Souls: A Catholic Son’s Return to His Jewish Family - Stephen Dubner
Fugitive Pieces – Anne Michaels
Good Harbor – Anita Diamant
Around Sarah’s Table: Ten Hasidic Women Share Their Stories of Life, Faith, and Tradition – Ruth Zakutinsky
2001-2002
*Bread Givers – Anzia Yezierska
All Rivers Run to the Sea: Memoirs - Elie Wiesel
*The Jew Store – Stella Suberman
*From Beirut to Jerusalem – Thomas Friedman
Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith – Gina Barkhordar Nahai
In the Memory of the Forest – Charles Powers
Bee Season – Myla Goldberg
Coming Home to Jerusalem – Wendy Orange
When I Lived in Modern Times – Linda Grant
Asking for a Convertible – Danit Brown
Yiddish Policemen’s Union - Michael Chabon
*When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa - Peter Godwin
*All But My Life - Gerda Weissmann Klein
The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East - Sandy Tolin
Shanghai Diary: A Young Girl's Journey from Hitler's Hate to War-Torn China - Ursula Bacon
Sotah - Naomi Ragen
The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World - Lucette Lagnado
The Genizah at the House of Shepher - Tamar Yellin
The Dream: A Memoir - Harry Bernstein
The Septembers of Shiraz - Dalia Sofer
2007-2008
*Rashi’s Daughter: Book I: Jocheved - Maggie Anton
*Thread Of Grace - Mary Doria Russell
Yiddish Policemen’s Union - Michael Chabon
Kabbalah: A Love Story - Lawrence Kushner
*GI Jews: How World War II Changed a Generation - Deborah Dash Moore
The Autobiography of God: A Novel - Julius Lester
*The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers - Harry Bernstein
Disobedience: A Novel - Naomi Alderman
Mystery Midrash – edited Lev Raphael
*The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
2006-2007
Love and Other Pursuits – Ayelet Waldman
Joy Comes in the Morning – Jonathan Rosen
Looking for Lost Bird: A Jewish Woman Discovers her Navajo Roots – Yvette D. Melanson
Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America – Stephen G. Bloom
Miriam’s Kitchen – Elizabeth Erlich
Martyr’s Crossing – Amy Wilentz
*Naked in the Promised Land – Lillian Faderman
Number Our Days:
A Triumph of Continuity and Culture Among Jewish Old People in an Urban Ghetto – Barbara Meyerhoff
A Tale of Love and Darkness – Amos Oz
2005-2006
Wedding Song: Memoirs of an Iranian Jewish Woman – Farideh Goldin
Murder on a Kibbutz – Batya Gur
Jubana: The Awkwardly True and Dazzllng Adventures of a Jewish Cubana Goddess – Gigi Anders
Devil in the Details – Jennifer Traig
Much Ado About Jesse Kaplan – Paula Marantz Kaplan
How to Breathe Underwater – Julie Orringer
Love Song: Becoming a Jew – Julius Lester
*The Escape Artist – Judith Katz
The World is Flat – Thomas Friedman
Omaha Blues – Joseph Lelyveld
2004-2005
The Nazi Officer’s Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust – Edith Hahn Beer
The View from Stalin’s Head – Aaron Hamburger
Out of Egypt – Andre Aciman
Human Parts – Orly Castel-Bloom
*In My Brother’s Image: Twin Brothers Separated by Faith After the Holocaust – Eugene Pogany
Dakota Diaspora: Memoirs of a Jewish Homesteader – Sophie Trupin
*The Inextinguishable Symphony: A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi German – Martin Goldsmith
Jane Austen in Boca: A Novel – Paula Marantz Cohen
There are Jews in My House – Lara Vapnyar
2003-2004
Three Daughters – Letty Cottin Pogrebin
Nine Parts of Desire – Geraldine Brooks
Displaced Persons – Joseph Berger
The Same Sea – Amos Oz
The New Rabbi – Stephen Fried
*Beyond Hitler’s Grasp: The Heroic Rescue of Bulgaria’s Jews – Michael Bar-Zohar
In the Image – Dara Horn
Lost in America: A Journey With My Father – Sherwin B. Nuland
*Rochelle Krich mysteries – read one, read them all!
2002-2003
Gone to Soldiers – Marge Piercy
Boychicks in the Hood: Travels in the Hasidic Underground – Robert Eisenberg
*The Color of Water – James Mc Bride
*Rachel Calof’s Story: Jewish Homesteader on the Northern Plans – Rachel Calof
*The Reader – Bernhard Schlink
Tessie and Pearlie: A Granddaughter’s Story – Joy Horowitz
The Mezzuzah in the Madonna’s Foot: Marranos and Other Secret Jews: A Woman Discovers Her Spiritual Heritage – Trudi Alexy
Turbulent Souls: A Catholic Son’s Return to His Jewish Family - Stephen Dubner
Fugitive Pieces – Anne Michaels
Good Harbor – Anita Diamant
Around Sarah’s Table: Ten Hasidic Women Share Their Stories of Life, Faith, and Tradition – Ruth Zakutinsky
2001-2002
*Bread Givers – Anzia Yezierska
All Rivers Run to the Sea: Memoirs - Elie Wiesel
*The Jew Store – Stella Suberman
*From Beirut to Jerusalem – Thomas Friedman
Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith – Gina Barkhordar Nahai
In the Memory of the Forest – Charles Powers
Bee Season – Myla Goldberg
Coming Home to Jerusalem – Wendy Orange
When I Lived in Modern Times – Linda Grant
