STN Entertainment
Dreaming Of Hitler: Passions
And Provocations
By Daphne Merkin; Crown; $25.
This collection of essays, mag-
azine pieces and musings ranges
in topics from a youthful dream of
"stopping Hitler from his dire
deeds," to her feelings on losing
her favorite scarf.
The Torah
Published by Henry Holt; $30.
The cover illustration — a de-
tail from an 1834 German paint-
ed linen Torah binder from the
collection of the Skirball Museum
— is just one of the many gorgeous
illustrations which illuminate this
edition of the Five Books of Moses,
including those from a 15th-cen-
tury German Bible, a 13th-cen-
tury Spanish knot page and a
medieval Spanish Sarajevo Hag-
gadah. In his introduction, Rabbi
Rodney J. Mariner states that the
intention of this edition of the
Torah is to "serve as a stimulus
for those who are hesitantly mak-
ing their way toward an under-
standing of Judaism."
Readers' Picks
Name: Donna Klein
Residence: Birmingham
Occupation: Business writer for AT&T Capital Corporation;
mother of two
Prague In Black And Gold:
Scenes From The Life Of A
European City
By Peter Demetz; Hill and Wang;
$27.50.
Professor emeritus of German
and comparative literature at Yale,
Demetz left Prague as a young
man in 1949 and here explores the
social history of his native city —
Czech, German and Jewish.
NEW IN
PAPERBACK
Driving Off The Horizon
By Lynne Meredith Cohn; IM
Press; $7.
Cohn's poetry deals with the
"beauties and dilemmas of be-
coming an adult"; she believes it
is important to inform her read-
ers of the powerful abilities that
women, Jews and young adults
possess and to make poetry more
accessible to these readers. Citing
influences ranging from Adrienne
Rich, Myra Sklarew and Yehu-
da Amichai, its been said that "us-
ing gentle, impressionistic
associations, Lynne Cohn's poet-
ry evokes the freedom of youth
and a rich reservoir of memory."
Cohn will read her work 8 p.m.
Tuesday, Aug. 19, at Lonestar Cof-
fee in Birmingham.
—Compiled by
Lynne Konstantin
'Independent Jewish Film: A Resource Guide'
Edited by Janis Plotkin, Caroline Libresco and Josh Feiger; San Francisco
Jewish Film Festival; $24.
hen was the film Ameri-
can Shadchan first re-
leased? What city is the
focus of the British film
Jewtown? Who stars in The
W
King of Crown Heights?
These and most other ques-
tions about Jewish-themed
movies are answered in Inde-
pendent Jewish Film: A Re-
source Guide, edited and
published by the pioneering San
Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
The 172-page volume in-
cludes synopses of more than
400 films from 27 countries,
cross-indexed by theme, na-
tionality and distributor.
There are step-by-step in-
structions on how to put on a
Jewish film festival, articles
on the state of the Jewish cin-
ema in America and Israel, and
a hilarious description of the
first Jewish film festival in
Moscow.
Tom Tugend is a freelance
writer based in California.
The San Francisco Jewish
Film Festival is the oldest and
largest of its kind in the world,
producing 40 festivals in the last
15 years. The re-
source guide re-
flects its staffs
knowledge and ex-
perience.
Copies of Inde-
itcher rebbe, played himself in
The King of Crown Heights.
. NTAiN K{LM MIAKKN
1..047K.M. /0. 091.1-VC9
pendent Jewish
Film are available
from the San Fran-
cisco Jewish Film
Festival, 346 Ninth
St., San Francisco,
CA 94103; or by
calling (415) 621-
0556.
The answers to
the questions:
American Shad-
chan was made in
1940; Jewtown is
set in Cochin, In-
dia; and Rabbi
Menachem
Mendel Schneer-
son, the Lubav-
"I regretfully finished reading the just released Ernie Pyle's War
by James Tobin, the biography of famous and well-loved World
War II war correspondent. It was one of those books that I hat-
ed to see come to an end. Ernie Pyle brought the human side of
the war into people's homes in those pre-TV days, a hard time for
Tortysomethings' like me to imagine.
"I have heard my parents speak of Pyle with great admiration:
my dad as a sailor who participated in the Normandy invasion,
and my mom at home reading Pyle's columns as she waited for
his return. I enjoyed the book, then, also because it offered some
insight into my parents' experiences.
"Of local interest, incidentally: The author is a reporter for the
Detroit News. His sources offered a compelling representation of
the man behind the image."
Name: Shirlee Kuhl
Residence: Birmingham
Occupation: Pediatrician
"I've just read a book by a Jewish au-
thor who's coming to Michigan in Oc-
tober. His name is Jay Finkelstein.
He wrote See No Evil, a murder mys-
tery that takes place in Egypt.
"I also read the Martha Stewart
book [Just Desserts]. It was an in-
teresting behind-the-scenes biogra-
phy of a person I've always admired
and whom I now admire a lot less.
You get to see how ruthless she re-
ally was.
"Also, Map of the World, by Jane Hamilton. It was very dis-
turbing, life as a simple person. But her writing is so compelling,
it makes you want to read it."
Name: Eric Kingston
Residence: West Bloomfield
Tom Tugend
At7
Occupation: Filmmaker/Author
I just read a book called JFK Wants
to Know. It's the memos sent from
his office while president, from
1961-1963. They showed a different
aspect of his personality, very mat-
ter of fact and to the point. All of his
memos are confidential.
"I liked Armed But Dangerous by
Hal Crowther. It dealt with Amer-
ican issues: He attacks all these
things fundamentally wrong with
America, kind of like a Rush Lim-
baugh but with a lighter edge."
Hey, Book lovers!
Read a great book? "On The Bookshelf' would like to share
your recommendations with our readers. Send a photo of your-
self along with a daytime phone number, to Gail Zimmerman,
Bookshelf, 27676 Franklin Road, Southfield, MI 48034. If you
want your photo returned, you must include a self-addressed
stamped envelope.