Allison Gaudet Yarrow
By Allison Gaudet Yarrow
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Books Yid Lit: Jeffery Eugenides
It’s rare to find a novelist and Ivy League professor on a billboard in Times Square. Though Jeffrey Eugenides rises above Broadway in wind-blown clothes, the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Middlesex” and “The Virgin Suicides” is a soft-spoken Michigan native who describes himself as equal parts hillbilly and Greek. In his new novel, “The…
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News Yid Lit: Anna Solomon
Jewish mail-order bride. Sounds like an oxymoron, right? And for that matter, Jewish pioneer does too. But they existed. And they inspired Anna Solomon to write her debut novel, “The Little Bride” (Riverhead). She researched Jewish pioneers settling land in the American heartland and the Great Plains in the late 1800s. Enter 16-year-old Minna Losk,…
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Life Lesson from Elul: No One Should Dance Alone
Summer is hard to take seriously with nobody in the office, and everybody running around half-dressed. No wonder High Holidays fall when school resumes and the air grows brisk — when life starts taking itself seriously again. In the 29-day lead up to cracking open the book of life for the first time this year,…
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The Schmooze Bar Mitzvah Boy Serenades Tornado Victims
Thirteen-year-old Eli Clarke was so moved by the plight of Joplin, Mo. tornado victims, that he took to his string instruments. The Montclair, New Jersey native and Bnai Keshet synagogue member will be a bar mitzvah in November, and for his tikkun olam service requirement, he wrote a song to raise funds to rebuild Joplin….
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Books Yid Lit: Lev Grossman
Lev Grossman does not tire of his best-selling fantasy novels being called “Harry Potter for adults.” While “Potter” is marketed to children and happens to attract adult readers, “The Magicians” (Viking, 2009) and its new follow-up, “The Magician King,” are designed for adults. The books are filled with drinking, cursing and sex, and, things aren’t…
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News Lev Grossman Writes Fantasy Novels Even a Grown-Up Can Love
Lev Grossman does not tire of his best-selling fantasy novels being called “Harry Potter for adults.” While “Potter” is marketed to children and happens to attract adult readers, “The Magicians” (Viking, 2009) and its new follow-up, “The Magician King,” are designed for adults. The books are filled with drinking, cursing and sex, and, things aren’t…
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News Yid Lit: Carmela Ciuraru
For as long as there have been authors, there have been secret identities — pseudonyms — used by writers to unlock creativity, hide identity, or simply to become someone else. Carmela Ciuraru became interested in the literary pseudonym and recently published a book on the topic, “Nom de Plume.” In it, she profiles famous and…
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Life Not Your Average Matchmaker
Areleh Harel is not your average matchmaker. The Orthodox rabbi in Jerusalem sets up marriages between Orthodox gay men and Orthodox lesbians. The goal is to allow Orthodox Jews to fulfill their desires to marry and have children with partners who understand what it’s like to be gay, and who can keep the secret. Harel…
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