This is the Forward’s coverage of books and literature, including both non-fictional and fictional works.
Books
The Latest
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Books Randi Zuckerberg’s ‘Dot Complicated’
It’s been a good (or perhaps bad) year for normal-woman outrage. I’m still pretty irked about being told to “Lean In,” and now there is yet another book by an uber-successful (and uber-lucky) woman who thinks her life lessons apply to the rest of us. If you haven’t guessed, I’m talking about former Facebook marketing…
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Books Remembering Israeli Literature’s Only Nobel Laureate
Sitting in a lecture hall in the Talpiot section of Jerusalem, a group of 25 immigrants is discussing “A City and Its Fullness” (“Ir U’meloah” in Hebrew), a collection of 150 stories by Shai Agnon about the author’s ancestral home of Buczacz, located in present-day Ukraine. The meeting, part of a five-week course titled “Agnon’s…
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Books André Schiffrin, the Publisher Who Knew When the Party Was Over
André Schiffrin, who died on December 1 of pancreatic cancer at age 78, made a lasting impression as longtime managing director of publishing at Pantheon Books, followed by his co-founding The New Press, a not-for-profit. Yet as Schiffrin, born in France of Russian Jewish origin, recounted in his memoir, “A Political Education: Coming of Age…
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Books In Joshua Safran’s Memoir, Jack Kerouac Meets Edgar Allan Poe
Free Spirit: Growing Up On the Road and Off the Grid By Joshua Safran Hyperion, 288 pages, $24.99 Among the American contributions to world literature, perhaps least appreciated is the genre of automotive horror. To be sure, we are acknowledged to have invented the road trip, which was prophesied by Huck Finn and Lewis and…
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Books Scholastic Puts Israel Back on ‘Stilton’ Map
Scholastic had already apologized for publishing a children’s book in its popular Geronimo Stilton series that included a map of the Middle East leaving out Israel. Stung by the fierce reaction, the publishing giant has gone one step further. It reworked the animated map to include Israel. It also told parents it would replace copies…
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Books Anxieties of the Modern Old Age
Half the Kingdom By Lore Segal Melville House, 176 pages, $23.95 Since 2001, the already-abundant anxieties of living in New York City have been ratcheted up by an exponential factor. Abandoned bags have become potential tools of terror; mysterious smells could be toxic; the sounds of sirens or of helicopters overhead might signify an emergency…
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Forward 50 2013 Philip Roth
The Forward 50 is our annual look at the American Jews who made a difference in the past year. Each day, we will spotlight one of our Top 5 picks, leading up to Sunday night when the entire package — along with some very special surprises — will go live. There was no Philip Roth…
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Books Dealing With the Side Effects of Fiction
Happy Mutant Baby Pills By Jerry Stahl Harper Perennial, 272 pages, $14.99 The narrator of Jerry Stahl’s new novel “Happy Mutant Baby Pills,” has a serious case of unrest. Lloyd earns his living writing pharmaceutical copy — specifically, disclaimers for the side effects of various drugs. He’s also got a fairly severe heroin habit, and…
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Opinion In Bruce Springsteen’s new anti-ICE protest song, a nod to Minnesota’s own Bob Dylan
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News What We Know About Jeffrey Epstein’s Childhood
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Opinion A death knell for the American Jewish dream of a melting pot — in the 1920s, and today
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News Antisemitism group keeps board member who emailed Epstein on the legality of transporting minors for sex
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Fast Forward Mamdani appoints Phylisa Wisdom, progressive Jewish leader, to run Office to Combat Antisemitism
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