The TAS Book Club meets in the Library/Chapel on the second Thursday of the month from September thru June. While there is no membership requirement, there is a $5 contribution per person per meeting. Books are selected on the basis of their Jewish content and/or author, and represent a broad cross-section of fiction and non-fiction appealing to men and women alike. Refreshments and socializing begin at 7:00 pm. The discussion starts promptly at 7:30.
Contacts:
Phyllis and Hal Bass
818-360-0154
phyllis.bass@yahoo.com
The following is the 2011-12 reading list, with meeting dates and facilitators:
September 8, 2011 - The Eichmann Trial, by Deborah Lipstadt
(Hal Bass & Gloria Katcher, facilitators).
With 50 years of hindsight, the award-winning author vividly recreates the capture of Adolf Eichmann in Argentina and his subsequent trial in Israel. Key players included Mossad, David Ben-Gurion, the prosecutor Gideon Hausner, the "man in the glass booth" himself, and controversial reporter and political philosopher Hannah Arendt.
October 13, 2011 - Caleb's Crossing, by Geraldine Brooks
(Tyree Wieder, facilitator)
Due to Sukkot, the meeting will take place at the home of Sharon & Mel Janis in Chatsworth. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March and the bestseller, People of the Book, places her novel in colonial Massachusetts. The story depicts a relationship between a young woman and a Native American, the first of his tribe to attend Harvard.
November 10, 2011 - The Invisible Wall, by Harry Bernstein
(Howard Schnee, facilitator)
The 90-something author has written a penetrating account of growing up in a traditional Jewish family in England amidst a greater world of anti-Semitism.
December 8, 2011 -
Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle, by Daniel Senor & Saul Singer (Phyllis & Hal Bass, facilitators).
This book presents the Israel we don't see as tourists. The authors convey the remarkable versatility and improvisational skills which have transformed Israel into one of the world's most productive and innovative high-tech societies.
January 12, 2012 - Blooms of Darkness, by Aharon Appelfeld
(Barbara Vosen, facilitator)
One of Israel's most esteemed novelists takes us into a brothel where an adolescent boy is hidden by a prostitute in order to save him from the Hitler's ovens.
February 9, 2012 - Making Prayer Real, by Mike Comins
(Rabbi Shawna Brynjegard-Bialik, facilitator)
Rabbi Mike Comins brings together commentary by various rabbis, cantors and others in demonstrating how prayer can become more relevant as we embrace it and let it embrace us.
March 15, 2012 - A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters and American Songs, by David Lehman (discussion and songs led by Cantor Jen Roher at the piano).
This is a wonderfully anecdotal book about many of the composers and lyricists who virtually invented the idiom of American popular music and musical theater.
April 12, 2012 - City of Thieves, by David Benioff
(Allan Katcher, facilitator)
The screenwriter and novelist who adapted The Kite Runner for the silver screen has written a powerful work of fiction about the siege of Leningrad during World War II.
May 10, 2012 - The Distance Between Us, by Masha Hamilton
(Cathy Meyers, facilitator)
In this novel, a female foreign correspondent in the Middle East is forced to confront the conflict between vengeance and emotional survival after her lover is killed.
June 14, 2012 - The Rebbe: The Life and Afterlife of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, by Samuel Heilman & Menachem Friedman (Rabbi Barry Lutz, facilitator)
A fascinating account of the life and evolution of the last Lubavitcher Rebbe, who some in his sect believe to be the Messiah. Readers may be surprised to learn that Schneerson was highly educated and once lived very much in the real world.
For further information, please contact Phyllis Bass at phyllis.bass@yahoo.com.
