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.

April 28, 2009

Please join us on April 28, 2009 for a discussion of Irene Nemirovsky's novel, Suite Française.

From the Washington Post: "This extraordinary work of fiction about the German occupation of France is embedded in a real story as gripping and complex as the invented one. Composed in 1941-42 by an accomplished writer who had published several well-received novels, Suite Française, her last work, was written under the tremendous pressure of a constant danger that was to catch up with her and kill her before she had finished."

From Alan Cheuse, NPR: “Beautifully restrained . . . [Némirovsky’s] talent was quite considerable and her personal story rather moving and tragic . . . I don’t know of a more striking recent case where biography and artistic accomplishment are so intertwined . . . Némirovsky left behind [a note] about how to compose the projected later volumes of this novel project: ‘The most important and most interesting thing here is the following: the historical, revolutionary facts etc. must be only lightly touched upon, while daily life, the emotional life . . . must be described in detail.’ This she did rather splendidly in the first two books.”

The Museum of Jewish Heritage currently has an exhibition on Irene Nemirovsky. Visit http://www.mjhnyc.org/irene/index.html and learn about Irene, listen to podcasts, and view the manuscript and artifacts.

Come discuss the novel and learn about the controversy surrounding Irene Nemirovsky. We will meet in the Lainer Library from 7:00 - 9:00 pm. This group is open to faculty and staff, parents, alumni, or friends of Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School.

March 31, 2009

Please join us on Tuesday, March 31, for a disucssion of A Pigeon and a Boy by Meir Shalev.

"Shalev creates a world that has the richness of invention and obsessiveness of dreams. He delivers both startling imagery and passionate, original characters whose destinies we follow through love, loss, laughter, and death." The New York Times Book Review

Meir Shalev, one of Israel's most celebrated novelists, tells the captivating and moving story of a boy and his home, a nest and a girl, and a pigeon and a baby.

Listen to an interview with Meir Shalev. The interview contains information about the novel that you might not want to hear until you have finished reading.

We will meet in Lainer Library 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.

February 17, 2009

In February, we will be discussing Wallace Stegner's beautiful novel, Crossing to Safety. This is the story of two young couples who meet during the Depression and form an instant and lifelong friendship. This deceptively simple novel examines loyalty, survival, marriage, and the need to create bonds.



Doris Grumback from The New York Times says, "A superb book....Mr. Stegner's success with this story lies precisely in the absence of all these currently popular subject matters and the presence of quiet reexamination of what, close to the end, seems to have made life not only worth living but happy and almost fulfilled. Mr. Stegner has built a convincing narrative, has made survival a grace rather than a grim necessity, and enduring, tried love the test and proof of a good life. Nothing in these lives is lost or wasted, suffereing becomes an enriching benediction, and life itself a luminous experience."

Please join us February 17th in the Lainer Library at 7:00. This group is open to faculty and staff, parents, alumni, and friends of Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School.