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WARP islet
Bookstock
Best Finds
Happy hunting at Bookstock
for great buys on best sellers,
thrillers and mysteries, bedtime
favorites, Jewish books, cookbooks, art
books — thousands of books to treasure
or pass along.
Oh, the memories and
treasures we keep.
Vivian Henoch
Special to the Jewish News
W
hat are the books that keep you
glued to the page?
Remember the first book
that started your love of reading?
What is your most memorable find at
Bookstock?
The answers are as varied as the
books you'll find as you browse through
Bookstock 2015, Metro Detroit's biggest
and best used book and media sale April
26-May 3 at Laurel Park Place in Livonia.
Join the conversation: We're calling all
Bookstock friends and lovers to share their
stories on Facebook. For starters, here are
some of our favorites:
From A Longtime Bookstock
Devotee And Volunteer •••
"I have been privileged to know 'the best of
Bookstock' and so many of our browsers'
finds. Here are my own personal best fmds:
"I love the Daniel Silva Gabriel Allon
series. I was thrilled to unearth a bag of
every one of the books in his series in per-
fect condition. I will treasure them always.
As a little girl, my family gave me a book
series from Sydney Taylor called All-of-a-
Kind Family. Some years ago, I found the
entire series sitting on the children's table
in pristine condition!" — Sheri Schiff, avid
Bookstock leader and reader
Memories Of Childhood,
'Burroughing" Into Books
"One of my favorite books as a boy was The
Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
This book was actually the first in a series
of swashbuckling Mars adventure books
that Burroughs wrote featuring Jack Carter
and Dejah Thoris. Though better known
for his Tarzan novels, I always preferred
Burroughs' Mars books. I was introduced
to the series by my Uncle Dick Pales who
had the original cloth-bound books that
were published in the 1910-1930s:' — Jeff
Lasday, still burrowing into books, direc-
tor of Federation's Alliance for Jewish
Education
Packing Up Old Favorites
"Actually, I had my hands on some of my
childhood books just the other day while
22
April 23 • 2015
cleaning out shelves. One was Green Eyes
and the other was Pink Ballet Slippers. Both
looked tattered, and I even defaced the
Green Eyes book when I played 'school: I
wrote in it like it was a library book. I think
my daughter, Amanda, wrote in the book as
well when she was a little child. The book
doesn't look so good, but it's been loved:'
— Ruthann Pearlman, graphic artist,
Federation
Good Times!
"I found a complete set of Craig Claiborne
books at Bookstock! Best cookbooks!
My childhood favorite of all time was A
Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine I:Engle, and
my favorite teacher, Mrs. Goldstein, gave
it to me in the fourth grade at Stevenson
Elementary as a going-away gift:' — Kari
Alterman, Detroit Director, AJC
Great Finds!
• Unpacking the box-loads of cookbooks
to fill the tables for the sale, Debbie Levin
was chatting with another Bookstock volun-
teer, Vera Gell, when she picked up a copy
of the National Council of Jewish Women's
Cookbook and noticed the fringed edge
of a loose-leaf paper inside. Pulling out
the page, she immediately recognized her
mother's handwriting. It wasn't her mother's
cookbook, but the recipe was the real deal
for the chocolate chip apple cake the late
Doris Levin used to make every year for
Rosh Hashanah.
• Two years ago, Jodi Goodman,
Bookstock leader and volunteer, found her
grandfather's business card while sorting
through books in the fiction section at
the sale. "It was his way of tapping me on
the shoulder and telling me I was doing a
good job:' says Jodi, "because Sam Quen,
my grandfather of blessed memory, passed
away nearly 30 years ago:'
• Roz Blanck, big Bookstock booster and
advisory chair, gets hundreds of requests for
long-lost books, childhood favorites or eso-
teric titles at the sale. She recalls a request
one year from a woman whose son-in-law's
father was a former Israeli spy — the sub-
ject of The Champagne Spy, published in
1972. Unpacking books the very next day,
low and behold, she found the book.
• Janet Schenk, Bookstock colossal col-
lection sorter and shlepper and an Oakland
County advanced master gardener, said
A rare find at Bookstock: Could this
Ashkenazi Haggadah be yours?
I, tclOCW
ArLa •
she was thrilled to find two pocket-sized
guides, one copyrighted in 1907, the other
1914, both published in 1926, one titled
Tree Guide: Trees East of the Rockies, the
other Flower Guide: Flowers East of the
Rockies.
Best Find Ever!
As Michelle Resnick describes, "My best
find was the second book in a trilogy. I'd
found the first and third books previously,
but had had no luck with the second.
I came to Bookstock a year after those
finds seeking the elusive second book. I
got a map and went straight for the sci-fi/
fantasy section. I started at one end and
went through, row by row, back and forth.
(Those who've been to Bookstock know
that there's no particular order within
genres. You're lucky to fmd works by the
same author anywhere near each other,
simply due to how the books come in:
jumbled up, given either piecemeal or in
huge swaths from collectors.) I saw books
I knew, books I wanted, books I'd never
heard of by authors I'd read. Finally, on the
second to last row, I found it: Julian May's
The Golden Torc. There were even two cop-
ies, alongside the first and third books in
the series - and there was a fourth one, too!
At long last, my set was complete:'
A 'Hair Raising' Tale
Janet Berman, another longtime
Bookstock volunteer and co-chair since
2007, shared the following: "Many years
ago I had an interview at Channel 7 studio
on the morning of the sale's opening day.
-
Our contact asked that I bring a few inter-
esting articles which would be available at
the sale. When I arrived, I assembled the
books on a coffee table in view of the place
I would be seated. The most interesting
item was an album of the original London
Cast recording of Hair in perfect condi-
tion. I mentioned, on the air, that I was
going straight to Bookstock and these items
would be on the table within the hour. I did
as I said and dispersed the items to their
tables. I checked at the record table an hour
later. That copy of Hair was gone!"
More Childhood Favorites
• "Anything by Judy Blume. When I was in
the sixth grade, I remember wanting to take
Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret out of
the Canterbury Elementary School Library
(in Cleveland). The librarian wouldn't let
me, due to the book's content, even though
it was in the library, on the shelf — and
sixth grade was the oldest class in the
school. I had to get written permission from
my parents!" — Lisa Soble-Seigmann,
JFamily, Federation's Alliance for Jewish
Education
• "My favorite book was one that I read
in fifth grade, The Last of the Just by Andre
Schwarz-Bart. I was very interested in
learning about the Holocaust and this book
made a deep impression on me:' — Linda
Blumberg, director of planning and agency
relations, Federation
• "My favorite book as a kid was Boxcar
Children. The original story, not the mys-
teries. I would read it over and over again:'
— Judy Loebl, Adult Education, Federation's
Bookstock Best Finds on page 26