By John Irving
It's difficult to summarise this book - a lot of significant characters. Eddie - a 16 year old boy who falls in love with Marion, an older woman who lost her two boys and leaves her husband and daughter. Ruth, Marion's daughter who finds it difficult to settle down and find peace, and Ted, Ruth's dad who writes children's book but has passting attractions to little kid's mothers. Lastly, Harry, a dutch cop who is more interested in finding the witness to a murder than to find the murderer. Interesting.[592 pp.]
Book link
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Friday, August 9, 2013
Snowstrom [Hebrew]
By Michal Shalev
An interesting story about seeminly unrelated guests in a cabin guesthouse who find themselves isolated from the rest of the world due to a snowstorm in the Golan Heights. Having not much else to do, they tell their stories to each other - some about life during WWII, others about their past in religious communities. All the while, the search for the leader of a terrorist group that targets mosques is going on. Here, too, as in the previous book, there were some rough descriptions of horrible things happening to people. Again, not a book I would like to see a movie version of... I felt cheated by the photos at the end. At first they made me think that these are the actual people whose stories are told in the book (even though there was no indication beforehand that the stories are based or real occurences). Then you find out that they are for illustration purposes only. What's the point? I already had an image in my head for each character, why ruin it? [439 pp.]
Book link
An interesting story about seeminly unrelated guests in a cabin guesthouse who find themselves isolated from the rest of the world due to a snowstorm in the Golan Heights. Having not much else to do, they tell their stories to each other - some about life during WWII, others about their past in religious communities. All the while, the search for the leader of a terrorist group that targets mosques is going on. Here, too, as in the previous book, there were some rough descriptions of horrible things happening to people. Again, not a book I would like to see a movie version of... I felt cheated by the photos at the end. At first they made me think that these are the actual people whose stories are told in the book (even though there was no indication beforehand that the stories are based or real occurences). Then you find out that they are for illustration purposes only. What's the point? I already had an image in my head for each character, why ruin it? [439 pp.]
Book link
Sunday, July 21, 2013
A Mercenary And Winter Buds [Hebrew: Mazal Orev]
By Amir Gutfreund
Another very interesting book that was hard to get away from... even though it included some really rough descriptions of violence - if it were a movie, I wouldn't be able to watch it. A story about a computer genius whose girlfriend left him, and at about the same time got fired by his own company. His life are on hold until he finds some other genius idea, and in the meantime he gets involved in the search for a missing teenage girl. This search, turns out, is actually what he needs to find himself. [239 pp.]
Book link
Another very interesting book that was hard to get away from... even though it included some really rough descriptions of violence - if it were a movie, I wouldn't be able to watch it. A story about a computer genius whose girlfriend left him, and at about the same time got fired by his own company. His life are on hold until he finds some other genius idea, and in the meantime he gets involved in the search for a missing teenage girl. This search, turns out, is actually what he needs to find himself. [239 pp.]
Book link
Monday, July 8, 2013
Children of Liberty [Hebrew translation]
By Paullina Simons
(This is the only non-Hebrew original that I got while in Israel - it was interesting reading it, after reading original Hebrew books - one can sometimes tell what the original phrase was). It tells the story of a young Italian immigrant who, on her first day in the States, meets the man she falls desperately in love with. Of course, it is a forbidden love - on both sides, and the consequences are formidable. In between, there are a lot of historical references, such as to Mother Jones, Emma Goldman, Robert Gould Shaw, and the Panama canal. [355 pp.]
Book link Hebrew/English
(This is the only non-Hebrew original that I got while in Israel - it was interesting reading it, after reading original Hebrew books - one can sometimes tell what the original phrase was). It tells the story of a young Italian immigrant who, on her first day in the States, meets the man she falls desperately in love with. Of course, it is a forbidden love - on both sides, and the consequences are formidable. In between, there are a lot of historical references, such as to Mother Jones, Emma Goldman, Robert Gould Shaw, and the Panama canal. [355 pp.]
Book link Hebrew/English
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Winter Life [Hebrew]
By Orly Castel-Bloom
A collection of short stories (I didn't realize that until I started the second one...). Mostly interesting, not always clear what the point is. [174 pp.]
Book link
A collection of short stories (I didn't realize that until I started the second one...). Mostly interesting, not always clear what the point is. [174 pp.]
Book link
My Parents [Hebrew]
By Aharon Applefeld
It took some time for me to get used to the writing in this book, but all-in-all it's a pretty interesting look at a small family on their vacation among others in a 1930s style resort for jews. On one hand they are all trying to distance themselves from their ancestors' traditions, but on the other hand they cannot forget they're jews (if only because non-jews in that day's Ukraine constantly remind them of that fact). The story is told from the point of view of a 10-year old (and 7 months). [269 pp.]
Book link
It took some time for me to get used to the writing in this book, but all-in-all it's a pretty interesting look at a small family on their vacation among others in a 1930s style resort for jews. On one hand they are all trying to distance themselves from their ancestors' traditions, but on the other hand they cannot forget they're jews (if only because non-jews in that day's Ukraine constantly remind them of that fact). The story is told from the point of view of a 10-year old (and 7 months). [269 pp.]
Book link
Neuland [Hebrew]
By Eshkol Nevo
A marvelous book about two young-ish people on a search. The first is looking for his dad who has gone missing while traveling in South America, the other is looking for some insight about her life, and on the way decides to help the first one. Actually, both of them are more in search for themselves. On the way, they are also looking into what has become of Israel and Israelis. The book is very well written and is fascinating. I really liked it. [550 pp.]
Book link
A marvelous book about two young-ish people on a search. The first is looking for his dad who has gone missing while traveling in South America, the other is looking for some insight about her life, and on the way decides to help the first one. Actually, both of them are more in search for themselves. On the way, they are also looking into what has become of Israel and Israelis. The book is very well written and is fascinating. I really liked it. [550 pp.]
Book link
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