Books, Poetry & Short Stories

Handwritten Anne Frank Poem Auctioned for $148,000

A poem handwritten by one of the Holocaust’s most famous victims, diarist Anne Frank, sold for 140,000 euros (roughly $148,000) on Wednesday at a Dutch auction house. The sum, which doesn’t include the auctioneer’s commission, greatly exceeded the expected sale price of 30,000 to 50,000 euros. Thijs Blankevoort, director of the Bubb Kuyper auction house […]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History

Colson Whitehead Wins National Book Award in Fiction

Colson Whitehead won the National Book Award in fiction on Wednesday for his bestselling novel and Oprah Book Club pick The Underground Railroad. His fellow winners that evening were Ibram X. Kendi in nonfiction for Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America; Daniel Borzutzky in poetry for The Performance of

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, USA

Trump supporters try to undermine Megyn Kelly’s book with an onslaught of negative reviews on Amazon

Supporters of President-elect Donald Trump are using online retailer Amazon to attack Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly through harsh reviews of her new book. More than 100 negative one-star reviews appeared on the Amazon page selling Kelly’s memoir “Settle For More,” within hours of its Tuesday release. Many of the comments came through a link

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, USA

Did the Bard crib from another book on King Lear?

  1606, Shakespeare and the Year of Lear by James Shapiro published by Faber and Faber, 2015. By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — When I picked this book up at Luton airport, as I was about to board a plane, I thought I was going to read a historical novel. I couldn’t have been more

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Uncovered letters shed light on Jewish Austrian writer Stefan Zweig

The Jewish Austrian author Stefan Zweig corresponded with an aspiring writer for years before the Nazis rose to power in Germany. These previously unknown letters have now emerged decades after his death. Tel Aviv (dpa) – The letters from one of the most important writers of the 1920s and 1930s had sat in a bank

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Middle East

The Mighty Hillary Strikes Out

(With apologies to Ernest Lawrence Thayer) By Laurie Baron The outlook was optimistic for Clinton-Kane just yesterday. The polls showed leads of three points, but narrowing each day. When Comey concluded that she was not to blame. The voters who despised her had nothing to defame. The Donald was campaigning, appealing to white males. Spouting

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Lawrence Baron, Sports & Competitions, USA

Book celebrates 28 of San Diego’s remarkable women

Remarkable Women of San Diego: Pioneers, Visionaries and Innovators by Hannah S. Cohen and Gloria G. Harris; History Press © 2016; ISBN 9781467-118262; 144 pages including index and bibliography, $21.90. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO –Divided into four time periods that begin in 1850, 1900, 1950 and 2000, this collection of biographical sketches honors

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County, USA

A Ukrainian Jew and her American multi- millionaire

Did You Ever Have the Chance to Marry an American Multimillionaire? by Dora Klinova; DK Corporation; (c) 2016: ISBN 9781533-137852; 245 pages. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — This autobiographical work was fictionalized enough to be classified as a novel, but it closely follows author Dora Klinova’s own progress in San Diego in the

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County

Paul Simon’s biography is both rich in struggle and ambition, and doesn’t shy from the lows of his career

It’s surprising that till now no one has produced a thoughtful, detailed biography of Paul Simon. His songs have been a vivid part of the cultural landscape for two generations, and in many cases have installed themselves happily in our memories. More than that, his story is rich in struggle, ambition and rivalry, features that

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

A mahzor for Sukkot

The Koren Sukkot Maḥzor; Introduction, Translation, and Commentary by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Koren Publishers, Jerusalem, © 2015, ISBN 978-965-301-659-0, p. 1465, $24.95 By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California –  When a knowledgeable Jew hears the Hebrew word maḥzor, more than likely an image appears of a sanctuary filled with Jews praying during the High Holidays,

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish Religion

Tales of a Jewish lawman in the Old West

Devil Out of Texas by Roger Raffee, 2016; Amazon Publications; 456 pages; now on Kindle.   By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Author Roger Raffee, a fellow San Diegan, has written a novel—and I’ll repeat that word “novel”—purportedly about a great-great grandfather who was a sure-shooting, fast-drawing Texas Ranger who could snuff out a

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, USA

A history of the Soviet Union’s failed Jewish republic

Where the Jews Aren’t: The Sad and Absurd Story of Birobidzhan, Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Region by Masha Gessen, Nextbooks, Schocken, New York ©2016, ISBN 978-0-8052-4246-1, p. 147, plus notes, published sources, and index, $25.00 By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California –  In 1908, about a decade after the first Zionist Congress, the British government offered territory

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History