Last week, Booknik celebrated the New Year again and again, and again; he shared other people’s reminiscences, roamed a labyrinth, danced with the Hasidim, chased a rare steak with lemonade, and painted a Jerusalem landscape. In the meantime, Booknik Jr. studied reluctantly, so he was happy to know that Sir Isaac Newton was also a slow learner.
Threads and Traces
Threads and Traces: True, False, Fictive, by Carlo Ginzburg
In the new book by Carlo Ginzburg, the essays are the chapters united by the common idea. He is set to concentrate on those “damned questions” any decent historian asks when working in a post-modern situation. What are the reality, historic facts, text validity, and narrator’s intent? What are those threads and traces of truth that reveal themselves in a carefully constructed narrative? Booknik reviewer Lesya Bobrova asked the question “What is truth?” together with the author.
The Baroque Cycle, by Neal Stephenson
This is the story of fictitious ancestors of a bunch of Cryptonomicon characters, joined with the lives of Sir Isaac Newton, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Robert Hooke, and a dozen of other real persons. The genre is the mix of a picaresque novel, a cloak-and-dagger novel, a pirate epos, a historical novel about great scientists, a fantasy novel, and an alternative history book. The Booknik editor-in-chief Sergey Kuznetsov liked it.
With Talmud and a Volume by Freud
Nine Gates to the Chasidic Mysteries, by Jiří Langer
Jiří Langer watches the Hasidic world with tenderness, love, and close attention, so much that Booknik reviewer Yevgenia Ritz fell for it. This is a secret mystical land where miracles are routine, on Sabbath, where one’s special sinless soul enters everyone, where a dance is not a mundane entertainment but a sacred rapture, where a saint stomps his foot at God when he is irritated with the divine injustice, and where God comes out to His favorite spoilt child.
…and many other mystic mysteries in the Books & Reviews section.
An Interview with a Grill Cook
Any grill cook will be naturally indignant if his meat is returned to him with the words, “Why do you shove this raw meat on me?” This is what the grill cook Kirill Buzkov told Booknik culinary reporter Keren Pevzner. As a rule, such disgruntled customers are Russians who ordered “medium” without knowing that it was not the size of their steak but the degree of its preparation.
The Land of Soda and Lemon Syrup
Booknik’s far-flung columnist Elisha Zinde goes on with the story of his life in a kibbutz. Do you have to ride in a time machine often? When was the last time you traveled to the past? When he settled in his kibbutz, he rides back and forth all the time. “Back” means back to his childhood, the early 1970s in Moscow when evil developers had not yet destroyed it, and in a remote village one had to travel to for a night in a train, an hour by bus, and another hour by a four-wheeler. “Forth” means the present-day kibbutz. The years are the seventies again but the century is 58th, and the calendar is wildly different.
The Victory Salute Gave Us Problems. The Belated Diary by Larisa Mirchevskaya, Part 3
In this installment of the memoir, you will find the stories of the post-war childhood, hunger, a winning lottery ticket, young veterans, and captive Germans.
Without quite coming to their senses after the real New Year celebration excesses, on January 13, many start cooking their Russian salads again, cooling their champagne bottles, and waiting for the stroke of midnight to end it all again. We do not want to be strangers at this celebration of life, as long as nothing human is alien to Booknik. So, here are several New Year
…and many other jolly ho-ho-hos in the Columns & Columns section.
Misha, by Ruth Almog
The Israeli author Ruth Almog was born in Petah Tikva where she is still living. At 14, she lost her father to a debilitating illness. She defines her writing as Tikun Omanuti, “Invisible Mending,” or the correction of life by means of art. This is the title of her stories collection (1993) from whence this story is excerpted, translated by Zoya Kopelman. Her unusual dry style in Misha serves to emphasize the shameful inattention of Israel to holocaust survivors displayed at one time.
…and many other attentive attractions и многое другое in the Stories & Essays section.
The City of Gold 9: The Jerusalem Landscape
To be a painter in Jerusalem is a hard call. On one hand, you have to remain within the limits of the Law, and avoid copying the reality. On the other hand, you have to fill in a two-thousand-year abyss when the Jewish people did not have their own art. However, in Jerusalem every inhabitant seems to know what cityscape he or she could have painted if they could.
…and many other lanate landscapes in the Video Blog section.
There were mane remarkable people in history, and no less remarkable ideas came to them not infrequently. The author Valery Voskoboynikov tells us about their early years. His characters are the remarkable people of different times and continents, ranging from Alexander the Great to the great physicist Albert Einstein, and the Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
Bring Back Our Stick
Ba-hazarah Le-Alef-Bet: Ha-Derekh Le-Hatsalat Ha-hinukh Be-Yisrael, Le-Lo Tosefet Taktsiv AKA Back to Basics: The Road to Saving Education in Israel (at No Additional Cost), by Einat Wilf and Miri Wilf
The school in Israel is in severe crisis. They discuss it on radio, and write about in in newspapers. Everyone complains, parents, politicians, and educational administrators. Every newly appointed minister establishes a commission in order to leave no stones unturned, and to develop a new comprehensive reform program. Nevertheless, nothing changes.
A School in a Train, and a Vegetable Garden Teacher
窓ぎわのトットちゃん (Madogiwa no Totto-chan) AKA Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window, by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi
Ms. Kuroyanagi is a popular Japanese actress and TV personality, the author of this autobiographical book in which she describes her early years in the late 1930s — early 1940s in Japan.
…and many other curious cures at Booknik Jr., also known as Family Booknik, our own web site for kids and their parents.
Another good way to irritate your neighbors is to set fire to their dustbins. Booknik and Family Booknik are supported by the AVI CHAI Foundation.
