Arts & Entertainment

JCC JEWISH BOOK FAIR

Chapter One: Fiction

When you need to escape, there is nothing
like a great novel to take you to another world.

Elizabeth Applebaum
Special to the Jewish News

LAUREN
GRODSTEIN, A
Friend of the Family
1 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6
— WB
Pete Dizinoff is a
successful physician
with a lovely home
life in the suburbs.
But there is tragedy
behind, and ahead, of him.
Laura is the daughter of Pete's best
friend Joe. When her baby died, many sus-
pected that Laura was responsible. She left
town but has returned after enjoying the
good life: an easy job and a lot of travel.
Now she has her eye on Pete's son, Alec,
who hopes to become an artist.
Pete has little interest in seeing Laura
and Alec together, and he lets Alec know.
That's when everything begins to fall
apart.
Grodstein's other novels include
Reproduction Is the Flaw of Love and The

Best of Animals.

MARGOT BERWIN, Hothouse Flower
and the Nine Plants of Desire: A Novel
10 a.m. Friday, Nov. 6 — WB
When the newly divorced Lila Nova is
introduced to the nine plants of desire,
she finds herself on a wild, unforgettable
adventure.

RACHEL DEWOSKIN, Repeat After Me:
A Novel
11:30 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 5 — WB
Ann Arbor native Rachel DeWoskin tells
a love story between a young teacher and
a Chinese student that spans decades and
two very different worlds.

JOSHUA
HALBERSTAM, A
Seat at the Table: A
A SEAT AT
THE TABLE
Novel of Forbidden
Choices (with Aliza
Shevrin)
7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov.
10 — OP
11:30 a.m.
Wednesday, Nov. 11
— WB
A Seat at the Table is the story of Elisha,
who grows up in post-war Brooklyn as
part of a leading Chasidic rabbinical
dynasty. But Elisha is a modern man, and
he brings a gentile girl to meet his father.

JOSEPH KERTES,
Gratitude
1 p.m. Wednesday,
Nov. 4 — WB
Gratitude, which
won Canada's National
Jewish Book Award,
is the story of a group
thrown together
in March 1944 in
Hungary and a chance meeting with the
man who may change the Jews' fate.

DAVID LISS, The
Devil's Company
8:15 p.m. Wednesday,
Nov. 11 — WB
A novel of corpo-
rate espionage set in
the 1700s — from an
Edgar-winning novel-
ist and the author of
A Conspiracy of Paper

and Coffee Trader.

S.J. ROZAN, The Shanghai Moon
9:30 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 5 — WB
Investigators Lydia Chin and Bill Smith
search for stolen jewelry, while Jews flee-
ing Nazi Germany search for a home in
Shanghai.

DANNY SCHEINMANN, Random Acts
of Heroic Love
10 a.m., Wednesday Nov. 4 — WB
A tender, historical novel about Leo,
who must cope with the death of his girl-
friend, and Moritz, who left his love when
he went to fight in WWI.

ALIZA SHEVRIN, Tevye the Dairyman
and Motl the Cantor's Son (with Joshua
Halberstam)
7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10 — OP
11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 11 — WB
These new translations focus on
Tevye, the father who inspired the lead
character in Fiddler on the Roof, and
Motl, the 9-year-old who immigrates to
New York.

JONATHAN
TROPPER, This Is
Where I Leave You
3 p.m. Sunday, Nov.
15 — WB
Mort Foxman,
atheist, has just
dropped dead, leav-
ing one request:
Would his family
sit shivah for him?
This very funny novel takes the reader
through seven days of shivah with the
wildly dysfunctional Foxman clan.

JONATIt N
TROP R
THIS IS
WH R
L AV 40U

More Fiction: See the "Special Events" list-
ings on the top of page 46.

DARA HORN, All Other Nights
11:30 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 12 — WB

SALLY KOSLOW, The Late, Lamented
Molly Marx
11:30 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 12 —WB

NORMAN LEBRECHT, The Game of
Opposites
8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5 — WB

DANIEL LEVIN, The Last Ember
1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15 — WB
4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15 — OP

KAREN TINTORI and JILL GREGORY,
The Illumination: A Novel
Noon Wednesday, Nov. 11 — OP

Chapter Two: Hollywood

Can't afford a trip to California? Book Fair brings celebrities right to your door.

Elizabeth Applebaum
Special to the Jewish News

BILL SCHEFT,
Everything Hurts
7:30 p.m. Saturday,
Nov. 7 — WB
The head writer for
the Late Show with
David Letterman
(for which he has
been nominated 15
times for an Emmy),
Bill Scheft began his

48

October 29 2009

career as a standup comedian and found
fame with his weekly column "The Show,"
which ran in Sports Illustrated.
He also is an author whose novels
include The Ringer and Time Won't Let
Me, a finalist for the Thurber Prize for
American Humor.
In Everything Hurts, Scheft consid-
ers the life of self-proclaimed "self-help
fraud" Phil Camp and the real self-help
guru to whom he turns for assistance with
an unexplained ache.

CAROL LEIFER, When You Lie About
Your Age, the Terrorists Win: Reflections

on Looking in the
Mirror
8:15 p.m. Thursday,
W H
Nov. 12 — WB
A B ©U YOUR AGE,/
Writer, producer
TH
RISTS WI le
and comedian Carol
Leifer presents a
onsamomm.
very
funny look at
C A -11. - 0 L
life,
love
and fam-
L E 1 Flatt,
ily. There's a little
something here for
everyone: aging, ado ption, animal rights,
feminism, faith and love.

ALICIA SILVERSTONE, The Kind
Diet: A Simple Guide to Losing Weight,
Looking Great, Saving Yourself, the
Animals and the Planet!
12:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 13 — WB
An easy and delicious guide to eating
vegan and helping the planet.

MICHAEL TUCKER & JILL
EIKENBERRY, Family Meals: Coming
Together To Care for an Aging Parent
1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 8 — WB
When Jill Eikenberry's mother fell into
a pronounced dementia, the family united
in an extraordinary way. II