Ann Arbor Chapter of ORT America
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Note the added August 19 discussion date in the list below.
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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 this new year now.

For more information, write Gretta Spier at a2gretta@mac.com.


Schedule and Books for 2020-21

August 19
Flight Portfolio  (576 pp)  fiction
Julie Orringer
 
September 16 (was December book: note change)
A Backpack, a Bear and Eight Crates of Vodka  (307 pp)  memoir
Lev Golinkin 
 
October 21
Sacred Trash: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza  (286 pp)  nonfiction
Adina Hoffman/Peter Cole 
 
November 18
Rabbits for Food  (384 pp) fiction
Binnie Kirshenbaum
 
December 9 (date change to accommodate Jewish Book Festival Sponsor Night)
When Time Stopped  (336 pp)  memoir
Ariana Neumann
 
January 20
Antisemitism: Here and Now  (304 pp) nonfiction
Deborah Lipstadt
 
February 17
Apeirogon  (463 pp) fiction
Colum McCann
 
March 17
The First Mrs. Rothchild   (484 pp)  historical fiction
Sara Aharoni
 
April 21
The Sun and her Stars: 
Salka Viertel and Hitler’s Exiles in the Golden Age of Hollywood 
Donna Rifkind  (560 pp)  biography
 
May 19
The Last Watchman of Old Cairo  (288 pp)  fiction
Michael D. Lukas
 
June 16
After a Long Silence   (368 pp)  memoir
Helen Fremont
 
June 30
Potluck 
 
Three books are tied for substitute, one in each category:  memoir, non-fiction, and fiction. If we have to replace a title,
we will choose whatever is in the same category, a memoir for a memoir, etc. 
 
The three are 
 
Waking Lions  (409 pp) fiction
Ayelet Gunder Goshen 
 
Kafka’s Last Trial: The Case of Literary Legacy (288 pp) non-fiction
Benjamin Balint 
 
Becoming Eve: My Journey from Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi to Transgender Woman
Abby Stein  (272 pp) memoir




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


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

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