Articles Books

Easily the best biography of Glen Gold I have ever read. And I have read plenty.

Chaim Grade is one of the great modern Jewish writers. His knowledge of the religious world is second to none. His works give a picture of the Vilna from which he came, the Jewish world destroyed in the 'Shoah'. Originally a poet he came to write novels when he was in his forties. After escaping during the war to Russia he lived also in Paris before coming to the United States where he lived for the remaining years of his life.
Grade was highly respected by other Yiddish writers.

Halkin is one of the finest of all translators from English to Hebrew. He is the major translator of A.B. Yehoshua. He also is a writer of distinction on a wide range of subjects. His major work is defense of his decision to make his life in Israel. He has also written a book on the search for the 'lost ten tribes' on the crypto- Jews of East Asia. He is a journalist and major political commentator, whose line is strongly realistic and pro- Israel. He is also a major expert on Hebrew and Jewish literature.

After reading EVAN HANDLERS book---TIME ON FIRE---I had to also run out and pick up my copy of his new book just out. A MUST HAVE BY THE WAY :)
IT'S ONLY TEMPORARY, THE GOOD NEWS AND THE BAD NEWS OF BEING ALIVE........

ONE OF THE MOST TRULY BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN BOOKS, I Have ever had the pleasure of reading. He has moved to the very top of my list.
This is my first review to ever have written. I felt it was called for with this book as well as .....TIME ON FIRE........BOTH absolutely beautiful.
Being in remission myself, from a battle with lung cancer I can say. This is A true and honest account. BUT he does it, with humor, hilariously funny at times. At the same time showing the very emotional side as well.
I laughed, I cried. I grew up with three brothers, and could see and remember so much about them even in this book :) BUT THEY WOULD NEVER BE SO HONEST :) The human side, the medical side, the F up side...........It's all in here...............Guess what all my family and friends are getting as there next gift :)
DON'T WALK, RUN OUT AND AND GET YOUR COPY NOW..BETTER YET ORDER IT RIGHT HERE ON "AMAZON' WILL BE ONE OF THE BEST READS YOU WILL OF HAD IN A VERY LONG TIME..................Shirley RhodesIt's Only Temporary: The Good News and the Bad News of Being Alive

Thie raw and very real story, should be required reading for ALL entertainers in America. Actors, diractors, producers, writers,singers,dancers, athletes, etc, etc, rtc. She was [ slack-salled after 17 years on the TV show "One Life to Live" She was the first Black American to break the color barrier in TV and was fired after 17 years, Because she is Black. Better yrt you should simply read the book/ It will over whelm you senses. It is an Awesome achievement in it's truth and detail. A Must Read. John Abbey

Kay Redfield Jamison is one of the world's leading experts on bipolar disorder. She has also written one of the finest personal accounts "An Unquiet Mind" of this particular way of being. Along with understanding and having known personally the devastating aspects of manic depression she too has understood the extraordinary powers which can come to those who suffer from such illness.
She has in this regard written on Creativity and Depression, and on Exuberance (i.e. on that extraordinary upfeeling which seems to give some people a capacity for doing remarkable things in life).
She is the rare example of one who has studied and to a degree mastered her own illness, and therefore has the capacity when she speaks to patients of hers to understand what they are saying in a way most cannot.
She is an especially fine writer.

Kishon was the premier Israeli humorist for many years. His short sketches of everyday life in Israel were filled with sympathy and insight for the little man and woman- while at the same time having a sure sense for the special ridiculousness of certain aspects of Israeli life. Kishon was a key dramatist , and also a writer of some of the finest Israeli comic movies. A brilliant, finicky member of the that little section of the Israeli media called the Hungarian mafia ( Dosh, Tommy Lapid) he never won the recognition at home that he did abroad except perhaps in his very last years.
He was a patriotic Israeli who as a survivor of the Shoah had a deep appreciation of the Jewish state and the opportunity it had given him. He may have laughed at it but he truly loved it, and gave it very much in return.

who is michael kranish...why should we buy his opinion... a bio would be a good start

The biography is excellent in what it covers but is dated, stoppping in 1984. It fails to mention or quote from reivews of Shirley Lauro's acclaimed play, A PIECE OF MY HEART.

Bernard Lewis is one of the world's great scholars. He is the dean of all those who study the diverse worlds of the Middle East. His first work was done on Syrian society but because of problems entering the Arab world he later transferred the bulk of his research to work on the Ottoman Empire. His archival studies there pioneered in transforming scholarly understanding not only of the Ottoman world, but of the Arab world also.
Lewis has written a large number of books on many different aspects of Islamic civilization. Perhaps more than any other scholar he has helped in understanding why the Islamic world did not meet the challenge of Modernity, and how from being one of the leading Civilizations of Mankind it declined significantly. Lewis who coined the phrase 'Clash of Civilizations' has also written much about the Christian West's conflict with Islam historically. Lewis has been involved in controversies not only of scholarly but of political significance. In the major scholarly controversy in which the late Professor Edward Said labeled Lewis as one of those 'orientalists' who essentially supported the exploitation of the Arab world Lewis, whose expertise and knowledge of the whole area of study were far greater than Said's , responded with convincing arguments in defense of the whole line of study and scholarship to which he has given his life. In the political world he is considered one of the West's major thinkers in regard to the whole struggle against Islamic terrorism.
Lewis' books are written with a special elegance and grace. His view is often panoramic, and his scope trans- civilizational. His breadth and depth of learning combined with narrative sweep and power make reading his work most instructive and inspiring.