February 23 - Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

On Tuesday, February 23 from 7:00 - 9:00 PM, the Heschel Book Group will discuss Jonathan Safran Foer's controversial novel, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. The novel centers on 9-year-old whiz kid Oskar Schell, whose father, Thomas Schell, dies on Sept. 11, 2001.

Visit http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/booksellers/press_release/extremelyloud/ for background information on the author and the novel.

The Heschel Book Group is open to faculty and staff, parents, grandparents, alumni, and friends of the Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School. Come and share your insights or just listen to the discussion. It is an informal group, and we encourage you to come. You do not need to make each meeting, nor do you even have to finish the book in time for the group.

If you plan to attend, please email debra_schaffer@ajhds.com

The following dates have been reserved for future book groups:
Tuesday, April, 13 and Tuesday, June, 1. We will meet in Lainer Library at Heschel from 7:00 - 9:00 pm.

The Help - Tuesday, January 19

Last month's discussion of Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge was delightful and insightful. Please join us on Tuesday, January 19, as we discuss Kathryn Stockett's first novel, The Help. A certain best-seller, The Help examines the relationships between white women and their black maids in Jackson, Mississippi, 1962.

This group is open to faculty and staff, parents, grandparents, alumni, and friends of the Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School. Come and share your insights or just listen to the discussion. It is an informal group, and we encourage you to come. You do not need to make each meeting, nor do you even have to finish the book in time for the group.


The following dates are reserved for the book group: Tuesday, January 19; Tuesday, February 23; Tuesday, April, 13; and Tuesday, June, 1. We will meet in Lainer Library at Heschel from 7:00 - 9:00 pm.

December 8, 2009

On Tuesday, December 8th, we will meet to discuss Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge. This “novel in stories” brings to life a community in Maine. The presence of Olive Kitteridge, a seventh-grade math teacher and the wife of a pharmacist, links 13 stories. "A big woman, she’s like a planetary body, exerting a strong gravitational pull."

The New York Times states that Olive Kitteridge "manages to combine the sustained, messy investigation of the novel with the flashing insight of the short story. By its very structure, sliding in and out of different tales and different perspectives, it illuminates both what people understand about others and what they understand about themselves."

This group is open to faculty and staff, parents, grandparents, alumni, and friends of the Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School. Come and share your insights or just listen to the discussion. It is an informal group, and we encourage you to come. You do not need to make each meeting, nor do you even have to finish the book in time for the group.


The following dates are reserved for the book group: Tuesday, December 8; Tuesday, January 19; Tuesday, February 23; Tuesday, April, 13; and Tuesday, June, 1. We will meet in Lainer Library at Heschel from 7:00 - 9:00 pm.

November Meeting

Because so few of you were able to make it to the October meeting but expressed an interest in discussing our October selection, The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander, we will meet on Wednesday, November 11 at 7:00 in the Lainer Library to discuss that novel.  You are all invited, but please let me know if you plan on attending.



"From its unforgettable opening scene in the darkness of a forgotten cemetery in Buenos Aires, The Ministry of Special Cases casts a powerful spell. In the heart of Argentina’s Dirty War, Kaddish Poznan struggles with a son who won’t accept him; strives for a wife who forever saves him; and spends his nights protecting the good name of a community that denies his existence--and denies a checkered history that only Kaddish holds dear. When the nightmare of the disappeared children brings the Poznan family to its knees, they are thrust into the unyielding corridors of the Ministry of Special Cases, the refuge of last resort." Random House

Welcome - The 2009/2010 School Year Begins

Welcome to the second year of the Heschel Book Group Blog. Here you will be able to find information about upcoming books or post questions or comments.

This group is open to faculty and staff, parents, grandparents, alumni, and friends of the Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School. Come and share your insights or just listen to the discussion. It is an informal group, and we encourage you to come. You do not need to make each meeting, nor do you even have to finish the book in time for the group.

The following dates are reserved for the book group: Wednesday, October 14; Wednesday, November 11; and Tuesday, December 8. We will meet in Lainer Library at Heschel from 7:00 - 9:00 pm.

Our first selection of the academic year with be The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander.

"From its unforgettable opening scene in the darkness of a forgotten cemetery in Buenos Aires, The Ministry of Special Cases casts a powerful spell. In the heart of Argentina’s Dirty War, Kaddish Poznan struggles with a son who won’t accept him; strives for a wife who forever saves him; and spends his nights protecting the good name of a community that denies his existence--and denies a checkered history that only Kaddish holds dear. When the nightmare of the disappeared children brings the Poznan family to its knees, they are thrust into the unyielding corridors of the Ministry of Special Cases, the refuge of last resort." Random House

We look forward to another stimulating year, and we hope that you can join us.

Summer 2009

During the summer, the Heschel Book Group met to discuss short stories and the classic American novel, Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. Several graduates from Heschel joined the discussion on Catcher in the Rye, and it was a pleasure to have such bright and opinionated young adults share their insights with us.

May 26, 2009 - Short Stories

At our last book group, we discussed Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky. The group decided that at the next book group on May 26th, we would read several short stories.

What follows is a list of the stories and online, full-text links to them. "Livvie" by Eudora Welty is not available online, but if you contact me at debra_schaffer@ajhds.com, I will make sure you get a copy.

"The Chrysanthemums" by John Steinbeck
This short story concerns a married couple and examines the psychology of the unhappiness their marriage causes.
http://amb.cult.bg/american/4/steinbeck/chrysanthemums.htm

"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
This is regarded as an important early work of American feminist literature, illustrating attitudes in the 19th century toward women's physical and mental health. The story is written in the first person as a series of journal entries. The narrator is a woman whose husband — a physician — has confined her to the upstairs bedroom of a house he has rented for the summer.
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/YelWal.shtml

"Livvie" by Eudora Welty
"Livvie" is the story of a young black woman who marries an old man, who in a sense, imprisons her.

"The Cask of the Amontillado" by Poe
The story is set in a nameless Italian city in an unspecified year and concerns the deadly revenge taken by the narrator on a friend who he claims has insulted him.
http://www.literature.org/authors/poe-edgar-allan/amontillado.html

Join us in the Lainer Library on May 26th from 7:00 - 9:00 pm. Come and share your insights or just listen to the discussion. This group is open to faculty and staff, parents, alumni, or friends of Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School.