Arts Life

Jewish Book Fair

HOUSE OF BOOKS from page 69

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Serendipitous timing offers three speCial events,
two to open and one to close this year's Book Fair:
They include author appearances by Scott TuroW
(Oct. 31), Ambassador Dennis Ross (Nov. 4) and
Richard Cohen (Nov. 14).
"This year we are fortunate to have Scott Turow as
a pre-Book Fair speaker," says Fisher.
Turow will discuss Ultimate Punishment, which
traces the author's personal odyssey from being a
death penalty "agnostic" to his service on the Illinois
commission investigating the administration of the
death penalty.
Ambassador. Dennis Ross, President Clinton's
emissary in the Middle East, will officially kick off
Book Fair as opening-night speaker. His book, The
Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle

East Peace, has been lauded as giving the most can-
did inside account of the Middle East peace process
ever published.
"He is an incredible speaker," says Hammer, "and
we are quite excited to have him here in Detroit."
The fair's closing speaker is Richard Cohen, a for-
mer senior producer for CBS News and CNN and
author of Blindsided, Lifting a Life Above Illness: A
Reluctant Memoir.
Cohen, who is married to Meredith Viera of -
ABC's The View, writes, "Illness [MS] came calling
when I was 25 years of age. ...My 30-year effort to
salvage that life ... has been a search for control and
the perspective to adjust."
"This is not a downer book," Hammer is quick to
insist. "I found it very inspirational. Cohen is a
dynamo. He doesn't let anything get in his way."
All three of these events offer patron ticket holders

FICTION TITLES

The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob
Green, by Joshua Braff
Jacob Green, Braff's adolescent narra-
tor, had enough on his plate juggling
Hebrew school, a sex pot of a baby sitter
and a mercurial father. Throw in a New
Jersey suburb in the throes of 1970s
upheaval and you've got the makings of
a great read.

Much Ado About Jessie Kaplan, by Paula
Marantz Cohen
Jessie Kaplan, mother of Carla, has
just "remembered" that she was
Shakespeare's girlfriend in a past life —
as if Carla weren't stressed out enough
by her hyperactive son, her pre-bat mitz-
vah jittery daughter and a husband
whose medical practice is driving her
close to the edge. Another home run
from the author of Jane Austin in Boca.

My Life Uncovered, by Lynn Isenberg
Former Detroiter Isenberg's Laura
Taylor leaves Michigan for L.A. in pur-
suit of a variation of the American
Dream: to make it as a Hollywood
screenwriter. Life gets juicy when Laura
turns to writing scripts for porn movies
to make ends meet.

An Almost Perfect Moment, by Binnie
Kirshenbaum
Who wouldn't be charmed by a pro-
tagonist named Valentine Kessler who
is a dead ringer for the Virgin Mary as
she appeared to Bernadette at
Lourdes? "Be careful what you wish
for" is the unifying thread of this
darkly comic novel.

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2004

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an opportunity to attend a reception and speak with
the author before his public address.
Health Awareness Day features two well-known
names. "Every year," says Hammer, "I try to hit a
different subject matter that has broad appeal and
significance. This year's speakers are Harriet Lerner
and Florine Mark. Lerner's Fear and Other Uninvited
Guests is a meaty book. Mark, who will speak about
her new book, Talk to the Mirror, is a gutsy lady. It's
a book on self esteem."
Holding to the "something for everyone" credo,
Hammer and Fisher are excited about the debut of
Book Fair's "Young Writers Hour," featuring Amy
Sohn (My Old Man) and Adam Langer (Crossing
California).
Sohn, who pens the "Naked City" column for
New York magazine, has written a novel about a
young female rabbinical student questioning her

By a Spider's Thread by Laura Lippman
This is another thriller by award-win-
ning novelist Laura Lippman, who
brings back Baltimore P.I. Tess
Monaghan to find out why Mark
Rubin's wife has run away with her three
children.

A Spectacle of Corruption, by David Liss
Readers of Liss' spectacular A
Conspiracy of Paper won't be disappoint-
ed by the return of Benjamin Weaver.
Imprisoned and awaiting execution,
Weaver is sprung from jail by an
unknown party. Disguised as a wealthy .
West Indian landowner, Weaver must
find out who wants him dead, who
wants him alive and why.

The Outside World, by Tovah Mirvis
Mirvis turns to the dynamics of par-
ents and the children they nurture on
the way to maturity. Throughout the
novel, Mirvis comments on what she
sees as the sexism that often masquer-
ades as religiosity.

The Covenant, by Naomi Ragen
Elise Marguiles fears daily for the lives
of her daughter and husband. Then
dawns the day her fears come true. Over
the course of five terror- and hope-filled
days during which ordinary people join
the front lines against terrorism, the ties
that bind two generations form a power-
ful alliance against contemporary evil.

Look for Me, by Edeet Ravel
An eloquently told novel that evokes
the political fervor of the Palestinian-
Israeli conflict, this is the second volume

in a spellbinding trilogy about war and
its effects on people who fall in love in
its midst. The saga, which began with
Ten Thousand Lovers, takes Ravel's pro-
tagonist on a quest to find her husband
who has disappeared while serving in
the Israeli army.
•
Dancing with Einstein, by Kate Wenner
How did the fears of nuclear annihila-
tion affect the children of the 1950s,
and how do similar fears affect a new
generation of American's children? These
questions are at the heart of Kate
Wenner's deeply moving novel about
growing up in the nuclear age.

Songbird, by Walter Zacharius
A publisher by profession, this first-
time novelist switches to the other side
of the key board, telling the story of
Mia, a young Jewish woman from
Poland who dreams of becoming a con-
cert pianist. When Mia is 17, Hitler's
army invades her homeland, and her life
takes a direction she never could have
imagined.

MEMOIR/SELF-HELP

Back From Betrayal' Saving a
Marriage, a Family, a Life, by Suzy
Farbman
Farbman confronted infidelity and
went on to save her marriage. Back From
Betrayal will inspire couples who want
to repair a broken marriage and also will
guide those in a healthy partnership to a
deeper level of commitment and self-
awareness.