Lebanon.
Revealing, astonishing,
charming — Dirty Wars and
Polished Silver takes read-
ers into a remarkable world
of politics, intrigue and one
woman’s self-discovery.

11 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 7
Daphne Merkin: This Close
to Happy: A Reckoning with
Depression
Hospitalization, therapists,
one treatment after another:
What does it really mean
to struggle with despair, an
emotion that Daphne Merkin
describes as bringing “a light
all its own, a lunar glow, the
color of mottled silver”?
Merkin has suffered with
clinical depression since
childhood. With no cure, she
instead seeks for a place of
“relative all-right-ness.”

2:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 7
Peter Gethers: My Mother’s
Kitchen
Judy Gethers loved cooking,
worked with Chef Wolfgang
Puck and was friends with
Julia Child.
Her son, Peter, knew noth-
ing about the kitchen.
Yet when Judy became ill
with cancer and suffered two
strokes, Peter decided it was
time to recreate her favorite
foods and prepare the meal of

her dreams.
So Gethers learns and he
cooks and he sits with his
mother in this thoughtful and
memorable memoir about
what it means to be family.

2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 8
Alexandra Zapruder:
Twenty-Six Seconds
Abraham Zapruder was on
his way to watch the presiden-
tial motorcade carrying John
F. Kennedy and his wife in
Dallas’ Dealey Plaza when his
assistant suggested, at the last
minute, that he take his new
film camera.
Such are the modest begin-
nings of what became the
most famous 26-second film in
the world.
Abraham’s granddaugh-
ter, Alexandra, reveals the
complete story of her grand-
father’s film: its inauspicious
beginnings (initially no one
was even interested), what it
meant for the Zapruder family
and how one man’s unexpect-
ed moment of fame changed
the way in which history is
understood.

7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 9
April Peveteaux: Bake
Sales Are My B*tch: Win the
Food Allergy Wars with 50+
Recipes to Keep Kids Safe
and Parents Sane

Kosher event. $12 per
person. To register:
jewishdetroit.org/bakesale.
It’s the kind of challenge
that would terrify even the
most skilled chef on Chopped.
Prepare a meal with no nuts,
no gluten, no whole wheat,
nothing dairy and no soy.
Also, it needs to be kosher and
vegan.
Meet April Peveteaux.
With more than 50 recipes
that can meet all those regula-
tions, Peveteaux’s Bake Sales
Are My B*tch can help anyone
fix delicious school lunches,
food for parties and more.

1:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 12
Leslie Bennetts: Last Girl
Before Freeway: The Life,
Loves, Losses and Liberation
of Joan Rivers
“I told my mother-in-law
that my house was her house.
She told me to get the hell off
her property.”
Joan Rivers was irreverent,
daring, smart and most of all
extremely funny.
She was also incredibly hon-
est, whether it meant making
fun of her plastic surgery or
addressing her challenges,
from her husband’s suicide to
her estrangement from her
daughter.
A revealing look at a compli-
cated woman driven by ambi-

tion and insecurity.
Noon Sunday, Nov. 12
Barry Holtz: Rabbi Akiva
Rabbi Akiva knew virtually
nothing about religion until he
was middle aged.
Yet he became one of the
most important figures in
Jewish life.
This new biography tells
the story of a man who grew
up poor, was outspoken and
determined, a mystic and
theologian — and one of the
most fascinating men in the
history of Judaism.

LUNCH WITH THE
AUTHORS
Noon, Wednesday, Nov. 8
Jean Hanff Korelitz: The
Devil and Webster
Tova Mirvis: The Book of
Separation
$30 ($25 for JCC members)
includes lunch.

3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 12
Berl Falbaum: Justice Failed
Alton Logan was an inno-
cent man. Two attorneys knew
it — and did nothing about it.
In 1983, Alton Logan was
falsely convicted of murdering
an off-duty corrections officer
outside Chicago. He spent 25
years in prison for the crime.
The real killer was Andrew
Wilson, who admitted the
truth to his lawyers. But
bound by client-attorney privi-
lege, the men were obligated
to remain silent until Wilson’s
death.
Written in collaboration
with Detroit journalist Berl
Falbaum, Justice Failed is Alton
Logan’s story from childhood
to prison to freedom. •

The Devil and Webster
Naomi Roth is about to
face the challenge of her life.
The first female president
of Webster College, Roth is
smart and confident. She’s
also a former activist, so
when a popular professor is
denied tenure and students
(including her own daugh-
ter) begin to protest, Naomi
is sympathetic.
And then a single, char-
ismatic student emerges
as the protestors’ leader: a
Palestinian named Omar
Khyal.

The Book of Separation
Raised in an Orthodox
home and married at 24,
Tova Mirvis was about to
turn 40 when her life took a
dramatic turn.
Doubts about her Jewish
life, always quietly in the
background, suddenly came
to the forefront. Mirvis
decided to leave her hus-
band, her community and
her religion.

jn

October 26 • 2017

39

