My latest review appears in the Jewish Press book supplement, Of the Book. You can find it here. It’s of Henye Meyer’s re-issue of A Stranger to My Brothers under a new title and with new material.
reviews
My completely unsolicited review of “Megillas Lester”
After all my recent ranting and raving about Esther in pop culture, I watched a video this afternoon with the husband and kids that made me feel better. I’d first heard about it on Tablet, then on the OU’s website.
Megillas Lester–a hilarious film in the Purim Spiel tradition.
Kolrom media, who has produced a lot of music videos and shorts for the Orthodox audience (like the video for the song “Ana Avda” and a hilarious bit on Aish.com called “Sicko” about how NOT to do the mitzvah of visiting the sick), has just released a video about Purim that refers to all the midrashim and commentaries I talked about in my rant. And it’s funny. Although Esther doesn’t make an appearance. Even Mordechai barely shows up.
That’s because “Megillas Lester” is about a boy, Lester, who dreams he has messed up the Purim story so much that Esther doesn’t have a chance to become queen. And Mordechai doesn’t get a chance to save the king. So who will save the Jewish people from Haman’s evil plot? Continue reading
Put some funny in your Adar
Purim is still almost six weeks away due to our extra Hebrew month of Adar this year, but it’s not too early to get silly. Writer Libi Astaire posted a hilarious “app” to repair your worst reviews. It’s pretty funny. She invites authors to go to her comment section and apply the app to their own negative reviews. I participated. Head over to her post to check it out.
How to optimize your Goodreads “To-Read” list
A few weeks back, I posted about how we select the books we want to read now, next and never.
On a related theme, I just spent an hour culling unwanted books from my Goodreads “To-Read” list. 
Because what good is a “To-Read” list if you don’t really want to read the books on it?
After my very well-intentioned husband took the aforementioned list to the library and returned with many of the books it contained, I discovered few were readable in the land of Mrs. Rebecca Klempner. Three offended my (admittedly rather sensitive) sensibilities so much that I immediately took them out to our van and left them there to be returned to the library. Ugh.
How do such books get on my “To-Read” list in the first place? Continue reading
Prejudices, or how we pick what we want to read now, next or never
My sister attended Conservative rabbinical school here in L.A. back when I was a California greenhorn, still getting confused because the ocean was to the west instead of east, that people called flip-flops slippers and jimmies, sprinkles. At the time, I was exploring Orthodoxy, but shared many of my sister’s friends from the UJ (now American Jewish University) and her Conservative synagogue. Despite my move to Orthodoxy, I remain friendly with many of her friends and colleagues.
Recently, one of my sister’s classmates came out with a book. Naturally, I was excited, so I checked read the synopsis on Amazon.
Within 30 seconds, I decided that I couldn’t and wouldn’t read the book. Continue reading
Different strokes for different folks: How one book can inspire so many others
A while back, someone my husband respects very much encouraged him to read this book:
Rabbi Shafier’s book, based largely on Mesillas Yesharim
The first time I read Rabbi Shafier’s book, Stop Surviving, Start Living, I just didn’t get it. Not the content of the book — the content was clear as day, written lucidly by Rabbi Shafier, with nice anecdotes and everything. What I didn’t get was that it was based on a book my husband had already read. This one: Mesillas Yesharim, known in English as The Path of the Just, one of the most foundational texts in the Mussar world.
The original. So inspirational…and a bit scary for the uninitiated.
Why, I asked my husband, write a book based on another one, a book that you actually want people to read (because you’re such a fan yourself)? Continue reading
Rebecca Klempner 