Arts & Entertainment
JCC JEWISH BOOK FAIR
Chapter Four: Memoirs
Take a look inside the private lives of some remarkable authors.
Elizabeth Applebaum
Special to the Jewish News
NANCY BACHRACH, The Center of the
Universe
10 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 12 — WB
1 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12 — OP
"You couldn't make this up:' says a Boston
Globe review, which called The Center of
the Universe "a hilarious account of [the
author's mother's] recovery ... from 'per-
manent, irreversible' brain damage'
Nancy Bachrach was living the life. She
was 33, an advertising executive working
in Paris. Then she got a call to attend a
funeral for her parents.
The two had been on a boat that
Bachrach's father, fondly known as "Mr.
Fix It:' had tried to fix. Instead, he incor-
rectly rewired the boat, and he died from
the resulting carbon monoxide accident
on board.
Bachrach's mother — who also hap-
pened to be bi-polar — almost died, as
well, but not quite. Instead, this extrava-
gant woman, the granddaughter of a lead-
ing rabbi and a woman who readily admit-
ted she regarded herself "the center of the
universe," survives.
JOHANNA REISS, A Hidden Life: A
Memoir of August 1969
1 p.m. Monday, Nov. 9 — WB
7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 9 — OP
In 1969, Johanna Reiss returned to
Holland with her
husband, Jim, and
their two young
daughters to visit the
family who hid her
during World War
II. Reiss would soon
become known as the
author of the popular
The Upstairs Room,
a Newberry Award-winning account of
those Holocaust years.
Jim Reiss returned home to New York
early, while his wife and daughters stayed
to visit a bit longer.
Jim, Johanna's husband of 11 years, was
a bright, successful businessman who
loved to read. Soon after returning home,
he killed himself, leaving no note behind.
A Hidden Life is Johanna Reiss' search
into a painful past as she tries to make
sense of her husband's death.
DANIEL ASA ROSE, Larry's Kidney:
Being the True Story of How I Found
Myself in China with My Black-
Sheep Cousin and His Mail-Order
Bride, Skirting the Law To Get Him a
Transplant ... and Save His Life
11:30 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 8 WB
A long-lost cousin makes an extraordinary
request that involves saving a life, breaking
the law and traveling around the world.
One of only two Jewish soldiers to receive
the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam
War, Jacobs tells his extraordinary life
story.
—
AARON COHEN, Slave Hunter: One
Man's Global Quest To Free Victims of
Human Trafficking
8:15 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10 WB
A true account of Cohen's efforts to end
human slavery, from Africa to Asia, and of
his own journey that brought him to this
work.
—
LESLIE GILBERT LURIE, Bending
Towards the Sun: A Mother and
Daughter Memoir
6 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 8 — Oak Park
10 a.m. Monday, Nov. 9 - West Bloomfield
The author recalls her mother's painful
childhood in the Holocaust and its after-
math.
ROMAN KENT,
Courage Was My
Only Option: The
Autobiography of
COL RAG E
Roman Kent
WAS MY
ON LY OPTION
6:45 p.m. Monday,
!IP a
lob
,..herret
Nov. 9 — WB
The author recounts
his life under the
Nazis, as a successful
businessman and as one of the lead-
ing spokesmen for Holocaust survivors
today.
-
JACK JACOBS, If Not Now, When? Duty
and Sacrifice in America's Time of Need
6:45 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10 WB
—
CHARLES LONDON, Far from Zion: In
Search of a Global Jewish Community
5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 8
WB
An exploration of Jewish communities
in exotic areas and of the author's own
faith.
—
STEVE LUXENBERG, Annie's Ghosts:
A Journey Into a Family Secret
OP
7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 11
The author goes in search of his aunt
—
Chapter Five: Nonfiction
The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Elizabeth Applebaum
Special to the Jewish News
NEAL BASCOMB,
Hunting Eichmann:
How a Band of
Survivors and a
Young Spy Agency
Chased Down
the World's Most
Notorious Nazi
8:15 p.m. Monday,
Nov. 9 — WB
1 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10 — OP
Adolf Eichmann had simply disappeared.
One of the instrumental figures in the
murder of millions of Europe's Jews,
Eichmann was nowhere to be found when
the Allies entered Nazi Germany. It took 15
years to find him and bring him to justice.
How did Eichmann do it?
He hid in POW camps and in the moun-
50
October 29 • 2009
tains before finally settling in Argentina.
He had not been forgotten. Hunting
Eichmann presents an hour-by-hour
account of how a pretty girl, her blind
father, a prosecutor and a new group
called the Mossad worked together to cap-
ture Eichmann, sneak him out of Buenos
Aires and bring him to justice.
IRA BERKOW, The
Corporal Was a Pitcher
and
BROOKS MENDELL,
Beaverball: A
(Winning) Season with
the M.I.T. Baseball
Team
10 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 8
— WB
Lou Brissie was just a teen when he was
approached by the Philadelphia Athletics
baseball team in 1941. His father insisted
Lou finish high school before signing on,
but the boy never gave up his dream of
playing baseball. Then came World War II,
where Lou suffered a debilitating hit to his
leg, and he was left for dead.
The Corporal Was a Pitcher tells Brissie's
amazing story, including how he made
it with the support of fans like Hank
Greenberg.
Beaverball is the story of the MIT var-
sity baseball team, a brainy group — but
could they play baseball? Brooks Mendell
takes readers right into the locker room
for tips on batting — and to hear a rous-
ing version of "Adon Olam." This book
also offers a reminder of the remarkable
influence of coaches, parents and teachers.
HOWARD BLUM, American Lightning:
Terror, Mystery, and the Birth of
Hollywood
6:45 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 8
WB
—
The true story of Detective Billy Burns,
Clarence Darrow, D.W. Griffith and a series
of 1910 bombings in 100 American cities.
101101111Mal KENNETH CHELST,
BRUCE EULER Exodus and
Emancipation: Biblical
AMERICA'S and African-American
'PROPHET Slavery
7 p.m. Thursday, Nov.
hlosev And
the American Story
12 — OP
A compelling compari-
son of the Jewish Exodus
from Egypt and the plight of African-
American slaves in the United States.
kr4t
k44,
BRUCE FEILER, America's Prophet:
Moses and the American Story
5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15 — WB
7:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15 — OP
An exploration of the role of the Exodus
story as the defining theme in American