A Mid-Summer Night’s Beach Read

Actually, I find it messy to read at a beach. It is so much easier to read at a pool, a tar or asphalt covered roof, a park, a couch, a bench or an air conditioned subway car. But wherever you end up committing this reading task, they still call it “beach reads.” And since Jewish people are the people of the book, it is not too late to discuss some recommended books for the People of the Summer book.

Please feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments area. Thanks.

Why is a Summer read different from a regular read? Summer gives you the permission to read about light subjects and indulge in guilty pleasures. My main reads so far were a Vietnamese memoir and a book on the Shapes of U.S. States. I am currently reading a son’s mesmerizing book on his father’s Kurdish Jewish childhood. But herewith are the books on my more Jewish oriented list:

CERTAIN GIRLS
A NOVEL
BY JENNIFER WEINER

When I went to the book reading, I was in heaven. I was nearly the only male and surrounded by the author and over 100, how shall I say it, zaftig women. Weiner tells the story of Candace Cannie Shapiro, as she handles a rebellious saughter, plans for a bat mitzvah, struggles with her weight and ponders whether to indulge in the fatherhood desiers of her cousin loving husband, Peter.

Moscow Rules
by Daniel Silva

July 2008, Putnam
The newest Gabriel Allon thriller, already a best seller in the USA. The death of a journalist leads Allon to Moscow, a place filled with glamour and oil wealth. Neo-Stalinists are plotting a renewed Russian empire and a way to fund al-Qaeda to destroy the USA

Golda
by Elinor Burkett

May 2008, HarperCollins
Don’t mess with Golda. Yeah, Ghandi. She beat you. Golda was the woman to head a modern Western country. Can you spell tenacious? And what about sexy? Who else, other than Mao, out-maneuvered Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger? Burkett looks at Golda’s motivations and ideals, personal victories and disappointments

Shut Up, I’m Talking
And Other Diplomacy Lessons I Learned in the Israeli Government
A Memoir
by Gregory Levey

Gregory Levey, currently a teacher at Ryerson University, was a law student in Manhattan when he applied for an internship at the Israeli Consulate. He was 25, and ended up getting much more than he expected. After an interview process that was more complex than a prostate exam, he started the internship, and was asked to fill in for a speechwriter. He started to write speeches for the Israeli delegation to the United Nations. Soon enough, he was also attended UN sessions and drafting statements. Then he was flown to Jerusalem so that he could write speeches for Ariel Sharon, the Prime Minister. The book recounts the comical and bizarre experiences he had in Israel and New York City. Is Israeli Government any place for a nice Jewish boy?

Ambivalence
Adventures in Israel and Palestine
by Jonathan Garfinkel

August 2008, Norton
A memoir by a naïve confused North American, Jonathan Garfinkel, who visits Israel and ventures into a mythic house in Jerusalem where Jews and Arabs coexist in peace