Summer Reading

Apologies if my posts have been few and weak lately. Only 2 more weeks until the semester ends; bear with me. I can see that Eric and Charlie are taking good care of you visitors.

1. I'm currently reading Beautiful as the Moon, Radiant as the Stars: Jewish Women in Yiddish Stories, An Anthology, ed. Sandra Bark. It's a revelation! I was drawn in by the pretty cover and the title, taken from a Yiddish folk song. I've never thought much about Jewish women in Yiddish stories; to be honest (though it's rather embarrassing) I thought Yiddish was only a spoken language. The stories are enchanting windows into the lives of Jewish girls, young women, women, and elder women, set around the globe, but mostly in Russia and Poland. You'll recognize some, such as Isaac Bashevis Singer's "Yentl the Yeshiva Boy" and "Hodel" by Sholom Alecheim, whuch were adapted into the musicals Yentl and Fiddler on the Roof, respectively. Many of these little jewels will be more obscure to an American audience, translated into English for the first time for this collection. This book is a treat. Guaranteed you will weep, laugh, and crave pierogies.

2. I'm going to do it. I'm going to buckle down and read some Jane Austen. She's been recommended too many times. I'll let you know how it goes.

3. New phrase: wine cooler liberal, a new twist on the classic white wine liberal. I'm not sure what it means yet, but it slipped out of my mouth in reference to Anna Quindlen as I read her last Newsweek column. Use it...liberally...and let me know who you think of.

[Disclaimer: I have the utmost respect for Anna Quindlen and I think she's a fantastic columnist, but sometimes her rhetoric is a bit much, as though she had one too many wine coolers before deadline.]