WAP (Whitefish and Pickles) and August JewliciousReads

I was surprised that in August, everyone of all income levels were chatting about W.A.P. which to my understanding stands for Whitefish And Pickles. This is what I was listening to as I read some August books (below)….

Chores in this house
So many chores in this house
So many chores in this house
There’s so many chores in this house?(Hol’ up)
I say every week, seven?days a week
Whitefish and pickles, make that chillout game weak

[Chorus:]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, you dreamin’ bout whitefish and pickles
Bring a jar and some dill for this whitefish n pickles
Give me everything you got for this smoked whitefish n/ pickles

[Verse 1: Ovitz Sliv and Shevitz Man’o]
Mash it up, honey, get recharged
Extra large and extra charred
Put sour pickles right in your face
Dont be schmoes with credit cards
Plotz on top, like a bride
I make a kugel, noodles extra wide
Shvitz like the South, cook some fries
These pickles are fermenting, gotta wait for the prize
Tighten the jar, no matter how it’s sized
Is it Purim, I’ll wear a disguise
You paid to park like a big schmuck? It could be free like arbitrage
Is it a dream, make me beam
Out in public, my pickles make a scene
Yes I cook, It’s not a scheme
My whitefish and pickles got me this ring

Florence Adler Swims Forever
A Novel
by Rachel Beanland
Date: July 7, 2020
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Over the course of one summer that begins with a shocking tragedy, three generations of the Adler family grapple with heartbreak, romance, and the weight of family secrets in this stunning debut novel that’s perfect for fans of Manhattan Beach and The Dollhouse.

Atlantic City, 1934. Every summer, Esther and Joseph Adler rent their house out to vacationers escaping to “America’s Playground” and move into the small apartment above their bakery. Despite the cramped quarters, this is the apartment where they raised their two daughters, Fannie and Florence, and it always feels like home.

Now Florence has returned from college, determined to spend the summer training to swim the English Channel, and Fannie, pregnant again after recently losing a baby, is on bedrest for the duration of her pregnancy. After Joseph insists they take in a mysterious young woman whom he recently helped emigrate from Nazi Germany, the apartment is bursting at the seams.

Esther only wants to keep her daughters close and safe but some matters are beyond her control: there’s Fannie’s risky pregnancy—not to mention her always-scheming husband, Isaac—and the fact that the handsome heir of a hotel notorious for its anti-Semitic policies, seems to be in love with Florence.

When tragedy strikes, Esther makes the shocking decision to hide the truth—at least until Fannie’s baby is born—and pulls the family into an elaborate web of secret-keeping and lies, bringing long-buried tensions to the surface that reveal how quickly the act of protecting those we love can turn into betrayal.

Based on a true story and told in the vein of J. Courtney Sullivan’s Saints for All Occasions and Anita Diamant’s The Boston Girl, Beanland’s family saga is a breathtaking portrait of just how far we will go to in order to protect our loved ones and an uplifting portrayal of how the human spirit can endure—and even thrive—after tragedy.

Three
A Noirish Thriller Mystery
by D.A. Mishani
Translated from Hebrew into English by Jessica Cohen
Date: August 18, 2020
Publisher: Europa Editions

Three women cross paths with Gil, an Israeli psycho or sociopath, who appears harmless… a divorced attorney in Holon. The abandoned woman searching for love; the deeply religious Christian immigrant from Latvia who cares for the man’s elderly father; a disillusioned researcher trapped in her marriage. Orna Azran, a teacher, meets Gil on an online dating site, their lackluster affair seems like nothing more than a way to stave off the pain of her recent divorce from Ronen, her lonliness, and her life and feirce devotion to her 9 year old son, Eran, who has issues with social integration. Gil lies, as does Orna, setting a first trap. Mishani – in his sex filled thriller – explores Israel’s margins, layers of lives, conflicts, and prejudices.

The Queen of Tuesday:
A Lucille Ball Story
by Darin Strauss
Date: August 18, 2020
Published by: Random House


From the award-winning, bestselling author of Chang & Eng and Half a Life, a new novel about Lucille Ball, a thrilling love story starring Hollywood’s first true media mogul. This romance begins because the author’s grandfather may have had an affair with Lucille Ball. Strauss offers a fresh view of a celebrity America loved more than any other.

Lucille Ball—the most powerful woman in the history of Hollywood—was part of America’s first high-profile interracial marriage (Desi was from Cuba). She owned more movie sets than did any movie studio. She more or less single-handedly created the modern TV business. And yet Lucille’s off-camera life was in disarray. While acting out a happy marriage for millions, she suffered in private. Desi, a musician, couldn’t stay faithful. She struggled to balance her fame with the demands of being a mother, a creative genius, an entrepreneur, and, most of all, a red-haired symbol for America. The Queen of Tuesday mixes fact and fiction, memoir and novel, to imagine the provocative story of a woman we thought we knew. His grandfather was ISIDORE STRAUSS, a real estate developer in Coney Island, Brooklyn, who meets Ball at a party hosted by……. FRED TRUMP (father of U.S. President Donald J. Trump). STRAUSS embarks on a guilt ridden affair with Ball, while Desi…

Yes, I Can Say That:
When They Come for the Comedians,
We Are All in Trouble
by Judy Gold
Date: July 28, 2020
Published by: Dey Street Books (Dey Street,,, sounds WASPy)

The fallout after Michelle Wolf’s roast at the 2018 White House Correspondent’s Dinner, Samantha Bee’s forced apology after calling Ivanka Trump a “feckless c*nt,” Kathy Griffin’s being “blacklisted” from Hollywood after posting a photo with what looked like the president’s severed head, all represent a dangerous and growing trend—to censor comedians.

In Yes I Can Say That, comedy veteran Judy Gold argues that “no one has the right to tell comics what they can or cannot joke about…. Laughter is a unifier. It’s the best medicine. It’s also the most palatable way to bring up seditious, subversive topics.” For Gold, nothing is more insidious than enforcing silence and repressing jokes—the job of a comedian is to expose society’s demons, and confront them head-on, no prisoners allowed. In ten impassioned polemics, she frames comedy as a tool of empowerment, a way to reclaim hateful rhetoric and battle the democracy-crushing plight of censorship.

Uninhibited and bold, Gold is as skilled at making readers laugh as she is at exposing uncomfortable truths about our culture and society. In this era of partisan politics and gaping inequalities, Yes I Can Say That is the refreshingly candid, wickedly funny and deliciously blunt manifesto we need.