ASIAN BOOK CHALLENGE 2022 - FEBRUARY IN THE HOLY LAND

Essentially February puts us into that fought-over, loved and worshipped and geographically small plot of land that is termed Israel or Palestine depending upon your point of view or point in time, but which we shall call - THE HOLY LAND.

Basically Israeli or Palestinian writers.

Shmuel Agnon
Yoram Kaniuk
Eshkol Nevo
Etgar Keret
Amos Oz
David Grossman
Sarah Blau
A.B. Yehoshua
Yuval Noah Harari
Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
Assaf Gavron
Leigh Bardugo
Mahmood Darwish
Edward Said
Susan Abulhawa
Mourid Barghouti
Izzeldin Abuelaish
Raba'i Al-Madhoun

Are writers I have on the shelves but, of course I cannot read 'em all in February.

What do people plan to read?

I hope to read six but I am a little unsure as to what but tentatively:

Out of Place by Edward W Said
Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa
A Book That Was Lost by Shmuel Yosef Agnon
The Others by Sarah Blau
The Yellow Wind by David Grossman
A Woman in Jerusalem by AB Yehoshua

If my library still has Batya Gur's Saturday Morning Murder, that's probably the one I'll read. (The catalog says they do, but sometimes I go in and they can't find these more obscure things.) I read A Woman in Jerusalem a few years ago and really enjoyed it.

I will be reading My Russian Grandmother and Her American Vacuum Cleaner: A Family Memoir by Meir Shalev. A story of a Russian emigree who arrives via boat in Palestine in 1923.

I'm thinking of starting with By Force Alone by Lavie Tidhar.

>4 thornton37814: >5 Tess_W: & >6 amanda4242: I can see that our reading next month could be quite varied.

>2 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul _ I finished the amazing I Will never See the World Again
and want to know if Primo Levi works for February?

The three books I am starting off with for February are:

The City in Its Fullness by S.Y. Agnon
Slopes of Lebanon by Amos Oz
From Oslo to Iraq and the Road Map: Essays by Edward Said

I have several more I can add as the month progresses, but these are my starting point.

Potential February reads -

Native: Dispatches from an Israeli-Palestinian Life by Sayed Kashua
Scenes from Village Life by Amos Oz
both on hold from the library

and
My Promised Land by Ari Shavit, an Early Reviewer book that I have at home

>8 m.belljackson: I don't think that Primo Levi fits the challenge, Marianne as he was born and died in Turin, Italy.

He would of course fit the Holocaust literature group.

I have started off my year on such a slow track, I am almost hesitant to list the 3 I have earmarked for February. Probably jinxing myself but these are the 3 I have chosen, and with a bit of luck, might actually get to:

A Tale of Love and Darkness - Amos Oz
Wall of Dust - Timothy Niedermann
Peace by Chocolate Jon Tattrie

Paul, for the last book I listed, the author himself is not from Syria, but he helped write their story. I have a link to a most wonderful interview with Tareq which I plan to link to when I review this book. It was, in fact, on strength of that interview that I sought out this book (a friend actually gifted it to me for Christmas). I hope that will work for February.

>10 bell7: Oz's book was on my short list, but local availability made me opt for the Israeli mystery.

I will read Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa, which I'm also reading for my RL book group in March.

>11 PaulCranswick: Surprised that Primo Levi would return to Italy and stay there with his family
after the horrors of World War II!

>15 m.belljackson: I know but sometimes our idea of home is individualised. There is still a lot of debate as to whether Levi actually killed himself or fell accidentally from his balcony. I hope it was the latter as to have survived what he did it would be sad if - when physically safe - he gave up on life.

Browsing through the online library I happened upon this book: My Wild Garden by Meir Shalev.
I’ve already started reading. He writes about his garden, and gardening, but also about his family, background, neighbours. I think this will be interesting.

>14 Caroline_McElwee: I’ve got a hold on this one from the library too.

I hope to read
To the End of the Land by David Grossman
and something by Amos Oz either Judas, Same Sea, Black Box.

>19 Kristelh: If I have the time, I am going to try and fit To the End of the Land in before the end of February too.

>16 PaulCranswick: You would be surprised at the number of Holocaust survivors that committed suicide. Sad......

I will be happy to read Susan Abulhawa's Mornings in Jenin which has been on my shelf for eons.

Paul - after the quietly compelling I Will Never See The World Again,
I'm waiting mail delivery of A Book That Was Lost.

I'll be reading A Tale of Love and Darkness - Amos Oz and Mornings in Jenin - Susan Abulhawa.

Another book I could read for February is The Orchard by Yochi Brandes. I got this as an early reviewer.

I am impressed by the variety of reading anticipated next month, it should be a good one!

>14 Caroline_McElwee: >22 brenzi: I will be joining Caroline and Bonnie in reading Mornings in Jenin. I downloaded it years ago on my kindle. I’m surprised that I remembered it was there.

Starting with
To know a woman by Amos Oz
To the Land of the Cattails by Aharon Appelfeld
and have lots more to try including -
Spies of No Country by Matti Friedman
The Rosendorf Quartet by Nathan Shaham
And the Bride Closed the Door by Ronit Matalon
Dancing Arabs by Sayed Kashua

I've just begun my February book for this challenge - To the End of the Land by David Grossman.

Hi Paul = A Book that Was Lost happily was not. I start reading it tonight.

>29 ChrisG1: That's what I have requested from the library for this one.

planning to read I Shall Not Hate

>32 cindydavid4: I Shall Not Hate is fantastic.

I have the following on my shelves (and hope to read the *):

*A Tale of Love and Darkness and Unto death: Crusade and Late Love by Amoz Oz
*The Blue Mountain by Meir Shalev
See under--love by David Grossman
The Rosendorf Quartet by Nathan Shaham
My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel by Ari Shavit (nonfiction)

I have requested the following from the library:

Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Very Short Introduction by Martin Buntona
Jerusalem: The Story of a City and a Family by Boaz Yakin
Palestine by Joe Sacco
Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco

Surprisingly, all the books by Palestinian authors that I own, I have read. So, I'll be watching this thread for suggestions of good ones to try.

I have A Woman in Jerusalem on my shelves, but just bought the Kindle version of In the Presence of Absence by Mahmoud Darwish, translated by Sinan Antoon, as I'm inclined to read something by a Palestinian author.

>30 m.belljackson: just put that in my basket!

>21 Tess_W: actually I wouldnt. survivors guilt and the loss of everyone you knew and loved would be the recipe for it for sure.

There are so many listed books here which I’ve read, loved, and highly recommend:
A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz
The Blue Mountain by Meir Shalev
Dancing Arabs by Sayed Kashua
I Shall Not Hate by Izeldinn Abuelaish

>28 avatiakh: l’ll be sharing a read of To the Land of Cattails by Aharon Appelfeld with you, Kerry. I’ve already started it.

>37 SqueakyChu: I saw your listing in the TIOLI and thought I'd join you though have to find my copy.
Still haven't read The Blue Mountain though am always intending to. I bought my copy in Tel Aviv so it is well travelled.

>38 avatiakh: To the Land of Cattails is kind of slow reading for me, Kerry, but it's a small book so I'll work my way through it. I remember Aharon Appelfeld being known for his novels about the atmosphere in Europe prior to WWII. I read Badenheim 1939 so long ago that I don't have much of a recollection of it.

I particularly loved The Blue Mountain because the setting is the Jezreel Valley, also where my family's kibbutz (Shaar Haamakim) is located. It makes me so nostalgic for old times, when my late aunt Emma Stein, a pioneer who settled there in 1936, used to tell me about the beginnings of the kibbutz. I remember her saying..."and there was not even one tree." By the way, I have learned that Shaar Haamakim was the kibbutz on which Bernie Sanders had once been a volunteer. I am SURE that if my aunt were still alive today she would remember him because she had a very close relationship with all of the volunteers, and her English was perfect.

The two I plan to read are Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari and The Property by Rutu Modan.

>39 SqueakyChu: I've only read Appelfeld's later works. The Man Who Never Stopped Sleeping and A Table For One: Under The Light Of Jerusalem.
A table for one is about him writing at cafes in the 1950s, 60s, it is one of my top reads ever, one of those books that gets into your heart.

I'll need to finish Oz's To know a woman before I start any others and I should put The Blue Mountain on my bedside table.

For those who need a quick read to get into the groove, I suggest Duel by David Grossman, it's one of those children's books that can be read by all ages and the story is surprisingly good. I finally read it a few days ago.

>35 cindydavid4: Good to have a lot of company reading this since the 29 page Introduction
makes the author sound really challenging!

>39 SqueakyChu: I volunteered at the Kibbutz Maale Hachamisha close by Jerushalem. What an amazing experience

>41 avatiakh: I want to read Table for One, even if I don't get to it this month. It sounds fascinating

>43 cindydavid4: Cindy, I was on Sherut La'Am (a volunteer program for young professionals) and spent a year as a volunteer registered nurse in Israel in 1972-1973 in the cities of Kiryat Shemona, Be'er Sheva and Jerusalem. I agree...living in Israel was a totally amazing experience. I have family and friends throughout Israel so I still maintain a very close relationship to those I know there.

Thought I'd just drop this list here. It includes some fabulous books. Feel free to add to to this list as you like...
https://www.librarything.com/list/19/all/Best-Israeli-Reading#

A little late but since I covered Turkish cuisine last month I must put something here for the food of the Holy Land.
Several dishes suggest themselves though it is, in truth, a cuisine I am less familiar with despite the similarities to elsewhere in the Levant, Turkey and North Africa being obvious and apparent. Surely this is the one dish I think about when I conjure up the people of that land:

>46 SqueakyChu: Thanks for that, Madeline. I will add any I read in the coming month that are not already listed there.

>47 PaulCranswick: Since I first had Falafel at an Israeli stand outside UCLA that's what comes to mind when I think Israeli food. A few years back a local place had the most fabulous selection of salads, but it closed withing a year of my finding the place.

The first book I'm going to read for this month's theme is The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem.

At the end of my first Turkish class, we went out to dinner with some of the Palestinian students, and this is some of what we ate:

>49 quondame: & >50 ursula: Looking at sites about Israeli food, falafel and hummous were frequently mentioned. The reason that I didn't choose either over shakshuka is that both of the former foods are also staples of Turkish and Levantine cuisines and I wanted something that is identifiably Israeli.

There is no doubt though that falafel, hummous and shwarma are all very popular too in the Holy Land, as they are with me.

Falafel isn't a staple of Turkish cuisine.

I'm just showing you what the Palestinians ordered for us when they took us out for what they considered Palestinian food.

>52 ursula: You would know better than I what is available in Turkey but certainly internationally it has been on the menu of every Turkish restaurant I have been in in South East Asia and in Western Europe.

https://www.historytoday.com/archive/historians-cookbook/falafel

It is claimed as an "Egyptian" invention but widely considered as Levantine. Since all of these countries were under the Ottoman Empire, I guess that is where the national lines of today get blurred.

https://culinarybackstreets.com/cities-category/istanbul/2017/fry-days/

The above article proves Ursula correct that it is not a staple dish of Turkish cuisine, in Turkey.
Very interesting and we learn something every day.

Here are my possibilities for February:

Scenes of Village Life Amos Oz
Unholy Land Lavie Tidhar
One Night, Markovitch Ayelet Gunnar-Goshen

All those dishes look very appetizing! We had an Israelian restaurant in the neighborhood that served shakshuka. Very good. Unfortunately it has been replaced by a Burger King now.

>49 quondame: I was with some Canadian kibbutz volunteers for a trip around the Negev that included Masada, Eilat and Ein Gedi. At the latter we stopped in a little shop to get Falafel. It was my first taste and oh my god I thought I was in heaven. The song Band on the Run was playing on the jute box. One of my fav memories of that trip (along with being by myself on Masada as the sun was setting)

Ha! Israeli food.

When I was a visiting nurse in Jerusalem, I would stop every day (six days a week) and for lunch would spend one shekel (about 25 cents in 1973) on a plate of hummus and a Coca Cola.

In the Ulpan, Hebrew language school, I remember their broth with square yellow crunchy things floating around in it.

The meals on the kibbutz were a treat, fresh vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers, and green peppers with dairy foods for breakfast and supper. Lunch was the main meal with soup and meat.

When working as a nurse at the hospital in Be’er Sheva, we’d always take a break in the lunch room at ten in the morning and eat freshly prepared shakshuka.

My favorite food from food stands was always freshly prepared and highly spiced shawarma.

When visiting my aunt on the kibbutz, she’d be upset if I didn’t give her time to bake me a cake in something called a Wonder Pot. We’d eat it after waking from our afternoon siesta and drink it with delicious coffee (which my husband later discovered to be Maxwell House!).

My favorite drink was the Turkish coffee I shared at a gathering in a Bedouin village in which Israeli seniors from our kibbutz Shaar Haamakim were invited for a visit. I didn’t get a cup, but Shimon (my cousin’s wife’s dad) said the tradition was to share it. So he shared his coffee with me. It was dark, sweet, thick, cardomom-flavored and delicious. That was perhaps my favorite drink ever. Not only because of its taste but because of the good fellowship in which it was shared. I was but a young thing at that time tagging along on a seniors’ trip! :)

I really have too many fond food memories of Israel to share in one tiny post. All I can I can say is, “B’tayavon!” (Bon apetít!)

>56 cindydavid4: Cindy, in which year did you
live in Israel?

>57 SqueakyChu: Oh gosh, now I am really hungry and I have another 12 hours to go before food!

Last year, I watched a fabulous documentary film about Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem preparing, making and sharing food. It was such a terrific film, I watched it twice.

Here is a trailer: In Search of Israeli Cuisine ( do NOT, under any circumstances, watch this film if you are hungry. You have been warned!! ;-)

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=documentary+film+on+food+in+jerusalem&v...

"Food makes Peace"

>53 PaulCranswick: There are all sorts of surprises when tracing back the origins of food. I have a fanciful map that traces French food back to India.
India->Persia->Caliphate->Moors->Spain->Italy->France. Inspired by a throw away line in a Dorothy Dunnett novel: "The Spanish were our cooks now they're our masters." said by a Neapolitan.

>56 cindydavid4: I first became aware of Falafel at the northern California Renaissance Faire, but feeling broke and unable to convince my boyfriend to splurge, well, it had to wait.

>57 SqueakyChu: If you have any Israeli salad recipes I'd love them. I was able to do a good carrot and cumin dish, but it didn't achieve the greatness of the original. Shawarma is a favorite, though every now and then I get an absolute craving for its poor cousin gyros.

>60 jessibud2: I may have to learn how to use the new TV and sound system. Or just watch online. OK, that's a plan.

>61 quondame:. I have good recipes for baba ghanouj and shakshuka, but I am not overjoyed with my Israeli salad recipe. I think that has to do with the lack of tomatoes that taste like tomatoes at this time of year. If you want either of the two recipes, I’ll be happy to post them in the Kitchen thread (to spread the joy!) Let me know.

I am getting so hungry with all this talk of food!

I will be reading
A tale of love and darkness by Amos Oz
and
Central station by Lavie Tidhar.

If I have time I may also fit in The retreat by Ahron Appelfeld.

I’m added this book to my To Read pile for this month:
Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen

>62 SqueakyChu: Thanks. I do have recipes for those, but if you are particularly pleased with the baba ghanouj recipe, I'd like to have it. The lack of tomatoes with taste is a year round problem for those of us who kill plants just by breathing the oxygen they generate.

I just started reading my second Israeli novel for this challenge. It is Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen. I knew nothing about this book before I started to read it other than it has a youngish Israeli author. Well, it is set in Be'er Sheva...at Soroka Hospital...the very same hospital where I used to eat shakshuka at 10am on work days! LOL! Serendipity!!

>65 quondame: Susan, I posted the baba ghanouj recipe I use here.

>66 SqueakyChu: I saw it!

It feels like cheating to read Crooked Kingdom, but Leigh Bardugo is specifically mentioned, so I think I'll at least give it a try as it's so highly rated and I have it checked out.

I finished To the Land of the Cattails which was quite a powerful and yet quick read. Aharon Appelfeld is known to write about the atmosphere in Europe prior to the Holocaust. I had an idea of what this novel would be like and was correct. My suggestion for anyone who reads it is to not bail on it. The beginning of the book might seem slow, but there is a reason for the pace and all of the description in this book. I'll be interested in hearing what people say about this book and other books by this same author.

Hi PC! I will use this prompt to read two Lavie Tidhar books I've had forever: Central Station and The Escapement. I've got something to read that was written by a Palestinian writer but no amount of cudgeling will surface their name just now. I really do need my brain back, Time.

I'll just mention a few Israeli staple foods that haven't come up as yet -
borekas - very popular street food brought by Sephardi Jews
sabich - pita filled with fried eggplant, hard boiled egg, chopped salad, parsley, amba (mango pickle) and tahini sauce - from Iraqi Jews
zhug - hot chilli sauce - from Yemen, also hilbeh
memulaim - stuffed vegetables - from many regions, my husband used to take me to a small restaurant attached to a petrol station on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, they only served memulaim, every dish to die for.
Druze pita - usually you need to go north to a Druze village to eat this marvellous pita, but on my last trip to Israel I saw a kiosk in Carmel Market in Tel Aviv with a Druze woman making & selling the bread.
gazoz - Israeli soda with fruit or herbal flavours

One also mustn't forget that the Holy Land was ruled by the Ottomans for many centuries and so the local cuisine was influenced from across the region and movement of peoples. During the British Mandate period there was a large influx of Arabs from surrounding countries as work opportunities rose with the building of railways etc., all bringing their own food influences with them. There is also a small Circassian diaspora who escaped from Russian genocide in the 19th century. Over the centuries Jerusalem has always had a very diverse population due to being a city important to three religions.
From 1948 to 1951 the population of Jews in Israel doubled with a massive influx of Jewish refugees from Europe and across the Middle East and North Africa as Muslim countries expelled all their Mizrachi Jews. So Israel became a melting pot of people as well as an economic disaster, a huge number of people lived in tent cities for years while buildings went up, new towns established to house all the influx. Being in Israel in the early 1980s it was possible to eat almost any cuisine possible as there were so many ethnic restaurants.

..and as a side note we have -
Borekas films - 'a genre of comic melodramas produced in the 1960s and '70s, Bourekas films are among the most popular films ever made in Israel.' These are fun to watch, Kazablan (1974) is a favourite that I've watched many times, I love the songs.
...and I learnt from wikipedia that there is a subgenre called Gefilte Fish, 'films or "bourekas for Ashkenazim" - films that feature Ashkenazi (European) protagonists and ghetto folklore such as 'Lupo'.

>57 SqueakyChu: Madeline - when I studied at Ulpan Meir in Tel Aviv to learn Hebrew I used to have falafel in pita with chips almost daily on my walk home. I never caught the bus, but walked from King George either down Ben Yehuda or Dizengoff to get home. Every week I bought the Ivrit newspaper edition of Jerusalem Post to practise my reading. I never became a fluent reader, but I did manage to become fairly good at spoken Hebrew for a time.

>70 avatiakh: Oh, Kazablan! I totally LOVED that movie. It's probably my favorite Israeli movie...hokey as it was...because of the nostalgia...reminding me of my year in Israel from 1972-1973. I was dumbfounded when that film was shown in the USA. Thanks for reminding me of it. Now Rosa (Hebrew song) by Yoram Gaon (Israeli actor) is an earworm! :D

What year did you do the Ulpan? I used to read Hamatchil (the beginner), a newspaper for those just learning Hebrew. After I returned to the US, my aunt used to send them to me by mail for many years.

I have an Israeli friend who writes to me on Whatsapp. She writes to me in Hebrew, and I write back to her in English...and we do just fine understanding each other! :D

>57 SqueakyChu: The meals on the kibbutz were a treat, fresh vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers, and green peppers with dairy foods for breakfast and supper. Lunch was the main meal with soup and meat.

yes this! my mom would have been amazed how much veggies I was eating! We also had a 'volunteer mom' (cant remember the word for it) who used to make loaf cake for each of us at Shabbat. Soooooo good! And the food there got me hooked on me the mediterranean diet. mmmmmm

re: Ulpan. My dad arranged my trip not realizing which group would be appropriate for a just turned 17 girl who had never traveled. He set me up with something from the B'nai Brith Youth Org. He didn't realized I'd have tobe independent. Fortunately my mom's cousin met me at the airport drove me to the kibbutz center, but had no idea what to do. Fortunately I met a girl from England and ended up going to her kibbutz. Which was also fortunate because my adopted family was from Michigan and had kids my age! So i didn't become as fluent in Hebrew as I wanted but I had so much support that I learned quickly how to travel!

>58 SqueakyChu: 1974 on the tail end of the yom kippur war,and the Cyprus war . And thinking about it now, I didn't realize how much conflict was going on around me.

>71 SqueakyChu: I think it was 1981/82. I did the first six months daily course - 5 hours six days a week. I desperately wanted to do the second course but my husband wanted to leave and live in New Zealand. I remember on the first day of the course there were many nationalities studying and we didn't have a common language until after a few weeks when we could converse in Hebrew. Hearing the stories from the Iranians, they had to leave their wealth and property behind to escape through the mountains and get to Israel, where they found themselves at the bottom of the social structure. I'm sure they did well eventually.
Kazablan - I also love the dancing - so of its time.

>72 cindydavid4: After I graduated high school in 1967 I was sent to Europe by way of Boston and Montreal (to catch the ship). My sisters friends had collected from all over the USA at their apartment in Cambridge and were grousing that they had missed the 6 (or is it 7) day war.

>74 quondame: oh geez! I well remember the bombing drills every week, going down into tunnels. being really really scared.

>75 cindydavid4: I can imagine almost the feeling, though in fact I had nothing to fear, growing up on a navy base in the middle of the desert, but there were marines on guard at gates, and uniformed military were ubiquitous, so my dreams were always of war.

>70 avatiakh: - Check out the film I mentioned in >60 jessibud2: for exactly the kind of thing you are talking about re food and cultural influences in Jerusalem. I lived in Israel from 1973 to 1980 and then, for another half year in 1988/9.

>71 SqueakyChu: >72 cindydavid4: >73 avatiakh: Your memories are so much like mine because not only was I there in 1973-1973, but my last visit (fourth in all) was back in 2001 to visit family and friends. I could hardly recognize the country during my last visit. It was no longer a rural country, but a built-up nation of shopping malls and highway traffic.

At my ulpan in Kiryat Shemona (October, 1972), there were many nationalities, but the predominant one was the Russian. The Russians came from well educated, but secular families. They expected good jobs as they had all come from academic families in Russia, but they were at the bottom of the social/economic ladder in Israel as they knew no Hebrew. One of my roommates was Russian, and we had no common language so we would communicate with hand gestures and laugh about it. It was a time of great fun and joy!

I left Israel right before the Yom Kippur War broke out. We were in southern Spain at the time and could not get much news about the war. We didn't learn the details about it until we got home to the U.S. Many of our group were still in Israel helping out as best they could when the Israeli soldiers were called up to duty.

>71 SqueakyChu: Oh, 'Rosa' is on my Spotify playlist so I get to hear it often, also 'Jaffa.'
My husband talked once to a Greek Australian about how popular Greek music was in Israel when he was growing up in the 1960s, I learnt a lot from that conversation. Yoram Gaon is a great singer.
I have a lot of Israeli music on my playlist especially fond of Arik Einstein.

>77 jessibud2: I'll try to find that, I've looked for it before but hard to source from NZ.
Another favourite Israeli film is 'The Ballad for the Weeping Spring'.

>79 avatiakh: Ah, yes. Arik Einstein.

Loving all the anecdotal stuff. Thanks to all of you for sharing.

>79 avatiakh:, >80 SqueakyChu: - Arik Einstein. I was hitchhiking once and he picked me up in his car. Not very talkative and I was far too shy (or star-struck) to say much either, lol! I adored his music. He passed away a few years ago. Did you know he was a national track star (or something) before his music career?

>78 SqueakyChu: I could hardly recognize the country during my last visit. It was no longer a rural country, but a built-up nation of shopping malls and highway traffic.

and from what I hear, no more Kibbutzim. Mine had a guest house (one of my duties was to help with early morning room set ups) and its apparently the only thing from the Kibbutz thats still there. sigh

Oh speaking of which, one day when I was cleaning a room the woman was packing and handed m e a necklace 'here, Id like you to have it' I considered and realized how quickly she could turn around and say I stole it. She kept insisting and I finally had to leave, Paranoid much? No, read too much (my sis says i should have gone for it,but I still am glad I didn't)

oh at our kibbutz I met a bunch of women from norway who all spoke multiple number of languages, one knew 12! And yes we had fun talking together. So sorry i never became fluent in a second language, I tried, but my mind just didn't go there

>82 jessibud2: No, I didn’t know he was a track star. Cool story about your ride. That brings me back to the 1970s when hitchhiking, bus travel and sherut (taxi) were my only means of travel in Israel. In 2001, neither my family or friends there would allow me to travel by public transportation.

>83 cindydavid4: My family’s three kibbutzim (plural of kibbutz) still exist, but in a much changed form. Things that surprised me from my visit to to those kibbutzim in 2001: (1) No more children’s house (2) Private jobs (3) No more cooking in the chadar ochel (dining room) (4) Paying for food there like in a restaurant cafeteria (5) Sale of kibbutz land on which private homes could be built. All of the kibbutzim were still beautiful, though, and it was a joy to be there.

>82 jessibud2: Oh, I'd feel much the same.
He was also an actor, was in Sallah Shabati (1964) along with Topol and a 1970s tv sketch show Lool & film Shablool. We have lots of Israeli film and tv on dvd.

Yes, visiting Israel after a break of several years, entire towns have appeared that were never there before. Motorways have sprouted to everywhere. And in Tel Aviv most of the rundown neighbourhoods have become gentrified.

>33 labfs39: I'd love it if you found/read Minor Detail. Told in two distinct parts, the first half is horrific and haunting and the second half is odd. Would love to hear someone else's thoughts on it.

>86 ELiz_M: Wow, I read Annie's review, and the first half does sound horrific. Nevertheless I'll see if I can find a copy.

Completed The Same Sea by Amos Oz. This was a quick read, both narrative and poetic. Perhaps a bit too erotic for me. I read in the description of the book that this is the book that the author would like to be remembered fo.

Our local Deli in Chicago had the best Matzo Ball soup!

I will join this month again, probably with only one read: Judas by Amos Oz.

>19 Kristelh: and >29 ChrisG1: I've read To the End of the Land in 2012 (wow, 10 years!), and really loved it. I hope you'll enjoy your reading too.

I am now reading Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen. Shortly after I began this read, I had to learn more about the situation of Eritreans in Israel. All of this happened after my last visit to Israel (2001) so this situation is new to me. I knew of the Sudanese refugees trying to enter/entering Israel, but I did not know about the Eritreans. I like that the author is not only a clinical psychologist but that she also worked for the Israeli civil rights movement. The book so far is VERy interesting!

Wow. So many book recommendations! I read quite a few that people mentioned. Will be looking forward to reading everyone's reviews. I'm still deciding what book I'll be reading for this month's challenge. Loved reading stories about trips to the region!

I want to mention an Israeli restaurant in Philadelphia called Zahav. It won a James Beard Foundation Award in 2019. Zahav's head chef Michael Solomonov published 2 books and ran live cook-along programming about Israeli cuisine last year. I can look for the link to the recording if anyone is interested.

>93 annushka: I think after the pandemic is over we should all have an LT meetup in Zahav. I do know of Mike Solomonov and have followed some of his programs on Twitter. I also have one of his cookbooks. I think he's terrific and look forward to visiting his restaurant some day in the future.

>93 annushka: Yes to the link please. Thank you.

I started reading A tale of love and darkness last night and WOW! Is it good! I'm only about 30 pages in but I'm hooked already.

>93 annushka:, >94 SqueakyChu: I used to live a few houses down from Marigold restaurant in West Philly, when Michael was a chef there. My then husband and I got to know him pretty well as we'd go there for dinner all the time. He used to bring us samples of new dishes he was thinking of adding to the menu. It was so exciting when he opened Zahav, we got to go to the press evening before the official opening. I moved back to London not long after it opened but would LOVE to go back for an LT meetup!

>93 annushka: - See my post in >60 jessibud2:. It was Michael Solomonov's film I was referring to! I had never heard of him before seeing that doc. I would love to go to his restaurant!

I've started (and Pearl-ruled) One night, Markovitch by Ayelet Gundar- Goshen. Hated it!

pearl ruled, gracie?

>99 cindydavid4: Didn't finish it.

>96 Sakerfalcon: I hope to meet you there one day then, Claire. I really, really like Michael Solomonov and would love to meet him in person.

>98 SandDune: What did you not like about that book, Rhian? I haven't read it, but I'm reading another book by the same authornow.

>101 SqueakyChu: Here are my comments from my thread:

I started One Night, Markovitch by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen and have pearl-ruled it at page 90. Actually it was quite a struggle to get to page 90! I don't like the style of the book, which repeats everyone's name in full several times a paragraph. I don't like the characters: one of whom is apparently irresistible to women because of his impressive moustache and one of whom is so forgettable as to not be noticeable at all. I don't like the constant fetishisation of women's bodies - I don't think I'm particularly prudish but it just goes on and on and it's boring. And having just read The Island of Missing Trees, a book which deals with the repercussions of conflict in a nuanced, sensitive and above all reconciliatory way, I think the supposedly humorous references to how many Arabs someone has shot is crass and offensive.

An example of the prose:

But then something strange happened: the more he conjured up Rachel’s plump breasts, the more they looked to him like Sonya’s breasts. And even though Rachel’s breasts were more beautiful than Sonya’s—plump and sweet and very, very firm—the image of Sonya’s breasts made him so happy that he didn’t want to drive them away. So it happened that he described Rachel’s breast to the deputy commander of the Irgun while he was seeing Sonya’s breasts in his mind’s eye, until he was suddenly seized by the fear that he might get confused and begin describing Sonya’s breasts to his friend, not Rachel’s, and that was something he did not want to do.

It goes on like that for page after page ...

>99 cindydavid4: "Pearl-ruled": https://www.librarything.com/topic/337692#

>103 kac522: On that basis I gave it a lot more time than it warranted!

>104 SandDune: 🤣

>102 SandDune: I might just have to skip that book. LOL!

>102 SandDune: Thank you for the warn off.

>98 SandDune: I've only read her other two books and enjoyed both. I've owned One Night, Markovitch probably since it was published in English but don't think i ever got past the first few paragraphs.

Another writer whose books I totally loved is Shifra Horn. I read them years ago and still think fondly of them all.
The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem by Sarit Yishai-Levi was quite good, a saga about a Sephardi family living in Jerusalem and a succession of cursed marriages. I especially liked the sprinkling of Ladino phrases through the book.

I should finish To know a woman by Oz today or tomorrow, it's fairly unremarkable.

>100 Caroline_McElwee: ok thought it was a knitting reference, thx

>103 kac522: ah ok, yes I read her, and remember that rule; have followed it for a long, best I could any

>94 SqueakyChu: He is truly terrific and Zahav is awesome. I've been there a few times before Covid.

>95 quondame: The series is called Bringing Israel Home. Here is the link - https://www.jewishfoodsociety.org/bringingisraelhome

>96 Sakerfalcon: Since opening Zahav he opened a number of other restaurants in Philadelphia. One of them has the best donuts in Philadelphia!

>97 jessibud2: I'll have to check that film out!

>111 annushka: Thank you.

>111 annushka: Since opening Zahav he opened a number of other restaurants in Philadelphia.

We'll just have to eat at one of his establishments every day that we are in Philly. How long should we plan on being there?! :D

>108 avatiakh: I've only read her other two books and enjoyed both Would you say they are written in a different style? Is there so much mention of female body parts? I can see that generally Ayelet Gundar-Goshen has had good reviews.

>114 SandDune: Fairly sure that female body parts are not mentioned.

>115 avatiakh: Well that’s good!

>113 SqueakyChu: I like your plan! I'd say we'll need at least two weeks since we won't be able to sample everything at once and will need to come back ;)

>117 annushka: Philly is a fantastic restaurant town, and also well-endowed with bookstores! Two weeks is a minimum!

I've now finished Lavie Tidhar's Unholy Land which I enjoyed much more than my first attempt in this category. What at first seems to be an alternative history where the Jewish state is not Israel, but Palestina (an African territory bordering Uganda), becomes something much more complicated. I'll do a full review probably tomorrow.

I've started a novel for this month, The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem. I don't know anything about it except that the line of a blurb I read says the premise is: What if all the Palestinians simply disappeared one day?

I'm reading The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad - this was a BB from Judy that I had on my shelves already. Very good so far. Sorry. Brain fog - apparently I'm working on May's challenge. For this month I have To The End of the Land by David Grossman out from the library, but I haven't started to yet.

>122 labfs39: Thanks, Lisa, for pointing out my error.

>121 Crazymamie: Wonderful book, but it is for this challenge?

>122 labfs39: Duh. Nope.

I have a question: I read a graphic novel by a famous Israeli cartoonist and illustrator, but he was born and raised in Belgium. The book is about his relationship with his father, a Holocaust survivor. Does this count as an Israeli book?

>124 labfs39: It certainly meets the requirements of the Challenge for December Lisa (Diaspora) and since you can count them anytime go ahead!

I am not a stickler for rules as anyone can plainly see!

My review of Unholy Land is here.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/339248#7751964.

Recommended if you like alternative histories.

I finished To know a woman by Amos Oz a few days ago now. It's not a favourite, I'm in the process of reading the last few books of his that I haven't already read.

I’m about halfway through Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen-Goshen. I am finding it a particularly hard read as it deals with a deep moral issue and the relationship between the haves and the have-nots in Israel. I’m pretty sure others are struggling with this as they are doing their Holy Land reads. I’m not giving up though. I have to find out what happens!

>128 SqueakyChu: My book club read this book a few years back. Some people struggled with it and did not enjoy it while others loved it. Issues that are brought up in this book are seldomly mentioned.

just received a book that was lost, look forward to reading it

>129 annushka: Well, I started out not liking the story, but it’s growing on me. Ultimately, it will depend on which way the story goes as to whether or not I will like it. It will be one extreme or the other, but not somewhere in between. I can already tell that.

I just finished To the End of the Land by David Grossman, which I found to be excellent. More specific comments in my personal thread. I'm really glad to be participating in this challenge!

I finished and reviewed Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa and to say it is eye opening doesn't begin to cover it. It's been on my shelf since 2011 so I'm really glad to have read it. Gut wrenching.

I read Ghassan Zaqtan's Describing the Past. I wish I had something to say about it, but it made so little impression on me that twenty-four hours after reading it I can barely remember a thing about it.

>134 brenzi: I found Mornings in Jenin very powerful too. I read an advanced reader's copy back in 2006, and my one negative comment was that I felt it could have used a bit more editing to smooth out transitions, etc. I wonder if any changes were made in the final version. Or are there only minor proofreading edits done at that point?

>131 SqueakyChu: I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts about this book!

The Property by Rutu Modan is a graphic novel about a young woman who accompanies her grandmother on a trip from Israel to Warsaw. It's the grandmother's first visit since she left as as a young woman just before World War II. I enjoyed it.

I am reading The Seven Good Years by Edgar Keret.

delete

Finished I shall not hate It was a hard book for me to read, It was so sad, and maddening that such things happened to this physician and his family and knowing this has happened to so many others. With all he went through he works together with Israelis, which is amazing, and heartening. am glad I did read this, for it makes me a bit more hopeful that people can learn to live together. I wish his family well, and hope his work bears fruit for all people .

>141 cindydavid4: I read and appreciated the book a few years ago, Cindy, incidentally when flying over the Middle East on my way back to England. It does present a hopefulness where one would expect despair and bitterness.

>141 cindydavid4: Cindy, Izzeldin Abuelaish now lives in Toronto, Canada. He is currently Associate Professor of Global Health at the University of Toronto. I agree that this was an especially sad memoir. However, when we see what happens because of strife and hatred, that should make all of us want to work even harder for peace and a better world.

This is an article from last year about his appeal to the Israel Supreme Court for an apology and compensation for the deaths of his children. It was denied. :(
https://www.timesofisrael.com/supreme-court-rejects-gaza-doctor-seeking-redress-...

I just finished Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen and would recommend it. It's a hard book to read, but it is well worth taking the time to get through all of it. I'm going to have to sit down now and think what I would like to convey in my review of this well-done novel.

>143 SqueakyChu: I guess we'll never know the full truth of what actually happened that day, Madeline, and I don't honestly see with my solicitor's hat on how the court could have decided other than it did depending upon the prayers requested by the Appellant . That said, the only truth undeniable is that a good man lost his daughters and that more innocents died. The world owes an apology even if, legalistically the Israeli Supreme Court does not.

>144 SqueakyChu: I am slowly getting into this one too. I have a rather alarming 14 books on the go at present which goes some way to explaining my lack of progress.

I posted my review of Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen.

*deep sigh* for all the social problems Israel and the rest of the world face every day... :(

>145 PaulCranswick: I am SERIOUSLY trying not to read more than one book at a time. Doing so always causes me to bail on too many books I should be reading in their entirety.

>146 SqueakyChu: I agree with all your points and most personally on the last one! What on earth was I thinking?!

>145 PaulCranswick: Don't feel bad, Paul. I have somewhere around 14-15 books on the go pretty much all of the time.

>148 alcottacre: Ah but that is you, Juana, the superlative river sprite of reading!



Not a mere mortal such as I. Now if it comes to buying 'em, I can fly with the angels but you are the one to read 'em.

>149 PaulCranswick: Have you seen how many books I have "To Read" in my library? I am pretty good at buying them too - the reading of them is the issue, Juan.

According to my spreadsheet books unread in the house presently total 4,401. A mere 1,529,483 pages to clear my TBR!

I had better slope off and get reading.

The Blue Between Sky and Water is a compelling read. Incendiary and political but big hearted all the same.

>143 SqueakyChu: WTF? oh my god, what is wrong with people!

>145 PaulCranswick: I usually have 2-3 books going at once but I have 8 I need to finish this month. In order for me to stay sane, I have to pick two or three that are managable,. If I cant get them all done this month, I will eventually....

>86 ELiz_M: I read this for a translated fiction book club. Not an easy read. I seem to remember the discussion was interesting because not everyone agreed on what happened in the ending (and why!)

I picked up Wild Thorns in a charity shop recently so this gives me a good excuse to pick it up instead of finishing one of the other books I've started already.

I read Sarah Blau's The Others. It's a thriller, or maybe a mystery. Not exactly my genre, and I wasn't wowed by the plot, or the writing, but it was OK. It was interesting to read about modern Israeli culture, and the push/pull between tradition and modernity.

>146 SqueakyChu: I read your review of the Waking Lions. I had the same opinion about the book. Glad to hear you liked the book. A few people at my book club disliked the book a lot.

>155 annushka: I understand the dislike a lot! The characters were just awful! The ending of the book was not a resolution of the problem that started at the beginning of the book. What I found fascinating was the study of the relationships between the Jewish kibbutznikim, the Bedouins, and the Eritreans. I also like how it evolved into a mystery—which was something I never expected. The book also moved at a very slow pace, which is usually off-putting to me, but I was so fascinated with the characters, that I
didn’t pay it that much attention.

I started another book by an Israeli author today. It’s Accidents by Yael Hedaya. I got this book by mail from -Eva- over ten years ago. I decided it’s time to read it by now! Back in those days she was known here on LT as @bookoholic13. The book seems interesting right from the start. It’s about a widower who is a writer and his 10-year-old daughter. That’s all I know so far. Anyone else want to read it with me? :D

The Mermaid in the Bathtub by Nurit Zarchi, illustrated by Rutu Modan, translated by Tal Goldfajn

A man comes home and discovers a mermaid has taken up residence in his apartment in this off-beat retelling of The Little Mermaid. This will never be a favorite of mine, but I think it is an improvement on the original tale.

The art is kind of strange, but I think it suits this strange story.

>158 amanda4242: It sounds like my sort of quirky but no library has either the book you mention nor the one which is touchstoned.

>159 quondame: Touchstone fixed. Thanks for letting me know!

I read it on Scribd, which has a free one month trial period.

>160 amanda4242: Good to know - though I cancelled my subscription after being charged for months without remembering what Scribd was.

I'm about half way through A tale of love and darkness and am loving it. It's so well written and brings the places and people to life. Interestingly, though perhaps not surprisingly, Oz's family seems to have a very similar conflicted love for Europe as Orhan Pamuk's family. I guess it is a reflection of both Israel and Turkey's place, geographically and culturally, on the borders of the continent.

And I've also started Central station which is a mosaic of stories set in a future Tel Aviv, which now houses a space port.

I'm hoping I can pick up the Israeli book this week. The public library's unexpected closure last week thwarted my plans.

I finished "Betrothed", a novella, from Two Tales by S. Y. Agnon (1943); translated from the Hebrew by Walter Lever. Set in turn of the century pre-WWI Palestine, this is the tale of Jacob who has come from Central Europe to teach high school Latin and German in the seaside town of Jaffa. Jacob's real passion, however, is collecting species of seaweed from the sea and classifying them, for which he becomes famous. Jacob's childhood sweetheart Susan, who he has not seen in many years, comes to Jaffa on holiday with her father.

This dream-like fable is an intertwining of longing for the past with the present. I'm not sure I got all of the symbolism, besides the obvious one that Jacob is followed by two of his students, Rachel and Leah. Lovely writing, with an interesting use of narrator, but I'm sure much of its meaning went way over my head. I didn't even understand the 1966 review from Time magazine tucked into my used copy by the previous owner.

I finished My Wild Gardenby Meir Shalev. He writes with a lot of love and attention to details about his garden. I like gardening a lot, so this was interesting for that reason. But I chose a light read, as I was having a tough time. This book is light, cozy and endearing. Reading it felt like cuddling up with a warm cup of tea.
Nice illustrations as well.

>157 SqueakyChu: I would read it with you, Madeline, if only my local library had a copy!

I have now finished three books for this month's challenge (From Oslo to Iraq and the Road Map: Essays by Edward Said, Dear Zealots by Amos Oz, and Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari) and am hopeful of getting A City in Its Fullness read as well, but it is slow going for me - and almost 600 pages long.

I haven't really got going on To the land of the cattails but did finish a children's picturebook by Tami Shem-Tov & Rachella Sandbank, A Concert in the Sand, it's set in 1936 Tel Aviv and is about the first performance of what became the Israeli Philharmonic.

I read Scenes From Village Life in January, and The Saturday Morning Murder this month. I hope to fit in another "Holy Land" read, and it will probably be either Oz or Gur, as I have additional titles by each of those authors on the shelf. I read My Promised Land when it was offered through the ER program, and I highly recommend it as an eloquent discussion of the seemingly insoluble Israeli/Palestinian situation.

My Russian Grandmother and Her American Vacuum Cleaner: A Family Memoir by Meir Shalev.The writer is good with words and is witty. However, I "assume" the story is supposed to be cute and nostalgic. I found it sad. A grandmother is so consumed by cleanliness that her family has to eat on the porch instead of the dining room, so they don't dirty it. There are rooms in the house, such as the library and the bathroom, they are not permitted to enter. On the door knob of each door is a rag, in case somebody needs to enter, they need to clean the door knob when they leave the room. Her daughter can not get married in the backyard because her mother is afraid family will dirty the house. I'd say the grandmother has a mental illness, and that is not cute. I did get to see snippets of life in a kibbutz. 224 pages 3 stars

Well I can finally say someone had a even worst cleaning obsession than my mom (who cleaned the house before the lady who cleaned the house came over) Yeah I can see some humor in it but sounded more tragic actually

Just finished To the End of the Land by David Grossman. I am also reading Black Box and at times the stories felt similar but not. Grossman’s book involves a woman who’s son is in the military and she fears for his life. She goes on a walk so that she can deal with this. During the walk there is much to fill in about history of how her son came to be born etc. I do like stories that involve walking. This is also a sad story as the author shares at the end.

The Blue Between Sky and Water by Susan Abulhawa

This is a novel that has impact but I think it also wears its heart on its sleeve far too much.

In the early parts of the novel which talks about Palestine in the 1940s she creates a very vivid picture and lovingly so of a world still longed for by those displaced. Some of her characters, particularly the female ones are well drawn and the matriarch in particular is a memorable character.

A couple of things irked me though about the book which was detrimental to my enjoyment of it. Firstly everything is drawn in such black and white terms - the Israelis (she usually just refers to them as "the Jews") are uniformly bad - all murderers, rapists and pillagers - not a single shred of humanity there, not a single character there not to be abhorred. It is all so one-dimensional and frankly hurts the credibility of the tale she is trying to tell. Secondly her plotting is convoluted and loses its thread possibly because the novel - with some clear autobiographical parts - was really an attack on the state of Israel. It would be more honest to write as non-fiction, but of course, she can keep everything one-dimensional in fiction.

She is a good writer but she would be far better to observe that the world is not cast in such black and white terms because this would lead to more meaningful fiction.

The Yellow Wind by David Grossman

"...if we do not remind ourselves that a better future is possible we may never find the strength we will all need to get there."

Grossman is clearly an accomplished writer and novelist. This book is reportage painted with the brush of an author of great store but this is also a book that offers no solutions and is, as a result grimly and viscerally disheartening.

In eighteen episodic chapters the repetitive impact of the implacable hatred of the Arab for the Jew and to some extent the disdain of the Jew for the Arab is shocking in its iteration. Almost to a person the Palestinians don't wish to compromise, they wish to wrest back the whole of territory "lost" by force and by the spilling of blood. On the more conservative Israeli side it seems that most of them will not be satisfied until Amman is part of Greater Israel. I anticipated many different viewpoints but the homogeneity of feeling was absolutely chilling.

David Grossman clearly has much sympathy with the plight of the Palestinians but his frustration was writ almost as large as his understanding was partial. I have no idea how to solve the problem of Israel/Palestine but the peoples there on both sides will have to follow Grossman's example in making genuine efforts in understanding each other and compromise very regimented positions.

Recommended but not to be read for enjoyment.

Interesting, based on the quote you started with I thought the Grossman would be similar in mood to I shall not hate but i guess not.

I blame the media for much of the black and white thinking as shown by Abulhawa It feeds on conflict and so no matter what the topic it chooses to show the extreme of each side. And as time goes on people think only in terms of black and white. And the world is so divided. I agree with your solution, and wish for a day when people can see shades of gray, and possibilities for living together in peace.

>174 cindydavid4: To be fair Cindy there was no hate from Grossman himself - a lot of desire to try and understand, to empathise - but what he reported of his discussions and observations from both sides of the divide was profoundly depressing.

Some of Abulhawa's characters were actually caricatures and it did disservice to what was otherwise good writing and the germ of an engrossing story.

Understood.

>173 PaulCranswick: I contemplated reading The Yellow Wind which I have owned for a long time (and I do enjoy reading Grossman's books - some of which I love and others I less than love!), but I just didn't want to revisit this persistent conflict in a book that had been published 20 years ago. It would have been too depressing for me. I will pass this book along in my Little Free LIbrary to see if I get any takers for it.

>174 cindydavid4: I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment, Cindy. I try to follow some news sources online that often show the other (cooperative, friendly) side of the Israel/Palestinian conflict, but I almost NEVER see this represented in mainstream news media. It just doesn’t make for interesting news copy.

I started The Tunnel yesterday and enjoying it immensily. The author is such a gifted writer and the story pulls you in right from the beginning.

>178 annushka: Thanks! I have this checked out and ready to read, but reading is going...so....slowly.....this......month.

Finished Black Box by Amos Oz

And I completed another Israeli novel; A Journey to the End of the Millennium by A.B. Yehoshua. This is historical fiction, set in year 999. It seemed to have so much potential but it just never delivered.

I just bailed on Accidents by Yael Hedaya. The story was moving too slowly, and I wasn't in the mood to read about a slwly-developing romance.

I'm enjoying The blue between sky and water (and skipped over your comments >172 PaulCranswick: til I'm finished.) I am enjoying the writing as well as absorbing the story.

I finished reading Palestine by Joe Sacco. Although it is not written by a Palestinian, and I'm not counting it toward the challenge, it is a very interesting journalistic piece of graphic nonfiction nonetheless. The introduction by Edward Said was very good as well.

Today I finished my second book for the month, Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa, which tells the story of a Palestinian family's "displacement" without a nod to the Israeli side of the story, as is perfectly appropriate; this isn't their story. Further thoughts on my thread.

I finished Tunnels, and interesting GN adventure including a family of archeologists and a strange group of rivals and collaborators in a shifting dance.

I read two books for this challenge. One has been commented on several times: Mornings in Jenin. Ursula makes a good point about the appropriateness of it being written from a pure Palestinian viewpoint. However, I thought the writing was overwrought and emotionally manipulative which kind of gives me the shudders. I'm so conflicted about the book. It tells a horrendous story and is probably a fairly good composite of life in a refugee camp. It was so upsetting that it made me seek out a nonfiction book for more information.

Unfortunately, neither side comes out on top in this ongoing conflict with periods of war and uneasy peace. I thought My Promised Land by journalist Ari Shavit did a pretty fair job of presenting both sides and recommend it. Note that it was published in 2013 and much has happened since then. I went into a little more detail on my thread, but I'm certainly no expert!

>162 Sakerfalcon: I hope you're enjoying it -- Central Station -- more than I am. Frankly dreading every time I guiltily deign to open it. If I could figure out why I'd be able to put it aside for good or force myself to finish.

It's going to be next month before I get to this >14 Caroline_McElwee:, I'm also reading it for my RL book group then.

My last book for February Asian challenge is The Orchard by Yochi Brandes. I hope I can get it finished. It is the only female author of the ones I chose to read.

>188 richardderus: I think I liked Central station better than you, but it wasn't as good as I'd hoped. While I enjoyed some of the stories, others had me skimming as I just wasn't that interested. Part of me liked the focus on characters just living their lives in a future world, rather than big events and aliens, etc. but overall it didn't quite work for me. Like you, I have a hard time figuring out exactly why though.

A tale of love and darkness was, however, outstanding. I haven't been this engrossed in a work of non-fiction in quite some time. Oz's story, and that of the founding of the State of Israel, is both joyful and heartbreaking; I appreciated his intensely personal view of the historic and political events. If anyone here hasn't read it yet then I highly recommend it.

>191 Sakerfalcon: Thanks for the enthusiastic endorsement of A Tale of Love and Darkness, Claire. It's on my shelf and I had hoped to get it in this month. Time is running out, but I now firmly intend to read it very soon.

thanks for the rec; Oz usually does not disappoint, and I would like to read this

>191 Sakerfalcon: I remember reading it almost straight through when on vacation in Portugal. A wonderful read.
I haven't seen the Natalie Portman film as yet, is it worth watching as I can't think a film could do justice to the book.

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>191 Sakerfalcon: I'm still unable to articulate the source of my dissatisfaction with Central Station. I don't understand why it isn't working for me, but I'm Pearl-Ruling it at 61%, the end of Achimwene and Carmel's story.

I do not wish to continue reading, so I am not going to make myself.

Just about squeaking in with my choice which was Wild Thorns. Written by a Palestinian author in the 1970s and translated into English in the '80s. It's pretty grim, the book is framed by Usama returning from working abroad to his home town, Nablus. His mother is delighted he's returned and tries to set him up with a local girl. Instead he's trying to convince his former friends and relatives to join him and attack the buses that take Palestinian workers into Israel to work every day. Despite the desperation that drives this choice, the political powers that be have determined it needs to be stopped. Alongside his commitment to the cause, one of his cousins (Adill is trying desperately to support the rest of his family, another is just trying to keep his head down in the face of racism in an Israeli factory.

I found this a tough read, although it's relatively short (at approx 200 pages). No one is living an easy life. Everyone is angry or upset or keeping secrets from their families.
As a side note, women barely feature with any kind of agency (one of the "guerrillas" but we barely see her), their concerns are feeding their families and marriage. I'm guessing this must be part of her feminism, ie a critique of this positioning.
Wikipedia tells me that her most recent book was published in English last year, I will see if I can get hold of a copy to see how she described the situation over 40 years later.

The house lay in ruins. The men dispersed. The women came down from the roofs. Adil slipped away from the crowd, cutting through the narrow back streets and heading for the main square.
He stood on the pavement watching the people on their way home, on their way to work. They lived their everyday lives stoically, silently. Nothing had changed. The square stood where it always had; the town clock ticked slowly as it always had. Only the flowers seemed to have grown larger, taller; otherwise nothing had changed.
The smell of roasting coffee and kinafa reached him. The chimneys of the soap factory poured clouds of smoke over the ancient roofs of the houses. People were eating, shop ping, smiling.
Adil walked through the square in silence, crossing the main street in the centre of town. The street peddlers were crying out their wares: 'Fish from Gaza!' 'Oranges from Jaffa! "Bananas from Jericho!"
The liquorice and carob-drink peddler clashed his cymbals rhythmically.

I finished my third Palestinian book for this month - a book of poetry called Rifqa by Mohammed El-Kurd.

thread for march? (Ive read one and am finishing two more!)

I read Yuval Noah Harari's Homo Deus and I was not impressed. I don't agree with some of his presuppositions. His argument is predicated on the theory that humans and all living organisms are algorithms. This after cautioning that in every era scientists tend to explain human life in terms of the prevailing technology. For example, in the industrial era, the machine became the metaphor.

I finished The Orchard by Yochi Brandes. Yochi Brandes is a female author from Haifa and teaches Bible and Judaism. This is a historical novel told through the memory of Rachel. Real characters, Rabbi Akiva, the revolt of Bar Kokhba, and the birth of Christianity from Jewish Nazareens are real historical people and events.

That sounds interesting, how did you llike it?

Read your review, looks interesting, that time period has fascinated me for a long time. Will have to check it out

I did not make it around to my Israel book. Part of it was due to an unexpected library closure the week I planned to pick it up. I just never made it back to retrieve it. I'll try to read this later--on a month where I'm less busy. I know I won't get to it in March. I'm thinking I might try to pick it up in the summer.

>203 cindydavid4:, I think it was better after you get somewhere around 33 to 50% into the book. The second half is really good. I actually wish I had known that this was based on real historical events. I only looked it up after finishing the book.

A good reading month! So much choice.

>191 Sakerfalcon: This is on my TBR now, it sounds very interesting.

There is no new thread yet. I had a lot more difficulty finding a book for March, the Arab world. Am I the only one?

>207 EllaTim: I've also had trouble finding books for March. Just today I stumbled across some books published by Hamad Bin Khalifa University Press on Scribd which will cover Kuwait, Oman, Qatar. For Yemen I found From the land of Sheba: tales of the Jews of Yemen on Open Library.

I finished the month with My Michael by Amos Oz. Written in the 60s, think it is his second book.

Well, my original plan was to read two books, but it took me awhile to start one and I only ended up reading Native: Dispatches from an Israeli-Palestinian Life by Sayed Kashua. It was a good collection of articles originally published in Israel from 2006-2014, generally slice of life of a Palestinian who lived in Israel with his wife and children. Makes me want to read more nonfiction about the area, however, since my knowledge of the recent history is spotty.

>207 EllaTim: well, I have three on the docket; finished wrong end of the telescope(Lebanon), now reading celestial bodies (oman)and plan to read memories of eden journey through jewish baghdad. Two others that I have already read but highly recommend Unnecessary Woman (Lebanon)by the author of Wrong End of the telescope and Day of Honey: a memoir of food, love and war (Iraq)

>208 amanda4242: I was looking at the land of sheba written originally in 1947, republished in 1971 and 1983 a couple of times since. Id rather read the original but it appears hard to get. Ill keep looking.

>211 cindydavid4: I loved An Unnecessary Woman and have a couple of his on the shelf to read.

However, Paul's list of authors on the general thread got me looking at a few more. The Unexpected Love Objects of Dunya Noor by Rana Haddad has tempted me (Hoopoe books seem to have a lot of intriguing titles though https://hoopoefiction.com/ ) I also like the sound of The Book Smuggler though!

>211 cindydavid4: I loved An Unnecessary Woman and have a couple of his on the shelf to read.

However, Paul's list of authors on the general thread got me looking at a few more. The Unexpected Love Objects of Dunya Noor by Rana Haddad has tempted me (Hoopoe books seem to have a lot of intriguing titles though https://hoopoefiction.com/ ) I also like the sound of The Book Smuggler!

ETA also intrigued by the sound of a crime novel set in Mecca (The Doves Necklace by Alem Raja.)

Although I did not read the book that I had intended, last night I sat up and finished Tunnels by Israeli Rutu Modan. Made it just under the wire. :)

It's the third of her graphic novels that I have read, and as usual, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

An archaeologist is following clues from a time in her childhood when she helped her father, also an archaeologist, search for the Ark of the Covenant. They dig under Israel's wall into Palestininan territory and find Palestinians (also from her past) digging towards Israel.

I finished The Tunnel the other day but did not have a chance to post about it here. I enjoyed it a lot.

Better late than never..

Mornings in Jenin (Susan Abulhawa) (02/04/22) ****1/2



A rarely told Palestinian story (though perhaps more of their stories have been told since this was written). Heartbreaking on two levels especially, what these people experienced, and that they experienced it at the hands of people who one would hope and wish had kept bloodless hands. There is no denial in this novel that the Palestinians have blood on their hands too.

Abulhawa witnessed some of these events, and witnessed the denial of them by the UN and others. Knowing there would be denial of the contents of her novel, she quoted from the works of respected historians in a few areas. But this is a novel, a story of one family and their neighbours and friends.

It wrung my heart at the end when one young Palestinian is given a visa to study in the US, and writes home to say that he can't believe what life is like living somewhere there is no war. At the current time, we too should be remembering this. But then there is always war somewhere, and many of those wars go unacknowledged by those of us in safety.

it just occurred to me that the book I am reading for my fantasy book group would fit here City of Brass takes place in Cairo, with magic, charletarns and jinns . Not far into it but its a fun read

>219 cindydavid4:, I read one of his books during February.