HAR-SHALOM

Book Club 2023-2024

12pm on Zoom until further notice

People Love Dead Jews by Dara Horn

The Collector by Daniel Silva

More than I Love My Life by David Grossman

The Mossad Dennis Eisenberg, Uri Dan & Eli Landau 

Journey from the Land of No by Roya Hakakian

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict

by Oren Kessler

The New Rabbi by Stephen Fried

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Book Club 2022-2023
Portrait of an Unknown Woman by Daniel Silva

Unstoppable by Joshua M. Greene, Michael Orenstein
I Kept Walking by Minou Soumekh Michlin
My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me by Jennifer Teege & Nikola Sellmair
You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin & Lacey Lamar
The Tunnel by A.B. Yehoshua

A Pigeon and a Boy by Meir Shalev
 

Book Club 2021-2022

12pm on Zoom until further notice

The Cellist by Daniel Silva

My name is asher lev by Chaim Potok

Conspiracy by Ryan Holiday

Black Box by Amos Oz

Bad Mother Ayelet Waldman

Guide for The Perplexed by Dara Horn

Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellows

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Book Club 2020-2021

Final Solution by Michael Chabon 1/16/2021 

Caste by Isabel Wilkerson 2/20/21 

Europe Against the Jews by Götz Aly 4/3/2021

Unchosen: The Hidden Lives of Hasidic Rebels by Hella Winston 5/15/21

The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon by Richard Zimler 

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The War of Return: How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to Peace by Adi Schwartz and Einat Wilf

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Book Club 2019-2020

Eternal Life by Dara Horn (excellent)
Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis (excellent)
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah (excellent)
An Egyptian Novel by Orly Castel-Bloom (not recommended)

Woman who smashed code by Jason Fagone (excellent)

Bridge ladies by Betsy Lerner (ok)

1948 Yoram Kaniuk (ok)

The Order by Daniel Silva (Fun)

All other Nights by Dara Horn (Excellent) 

Why We're Polarized by Ezra Klein (Powerful) 

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Book Club 2018-2019

August 11, 2018, 12:00pm - Rise and Kill First by Ronen Bergman

October 20, 2018, 12:00pm - The Other Woman by Daniel Silva

December 1, 2018, 12:00pm - The Plot Against America by Philip Roth

January 12, 2019, 12:00pm - Supermensch by Shep Gordon

February 23, 2019, 12:00pm - Moonglow by Michael Chabon

April 6, 2019, 12:00pm - The Holy Thief by Alan Eisenstock and Mark Borowitz

June 1, 2019, 12:00pm - The Catcher was a Spy by Nicholas Dawidoff

 

Hebrew Studies

The First Hebrew Primer (Highschool & College)

Hebrew from Scratch: Part 1 Hebrew and English ed. (Highschool & College)

Yesh Lanu Lama vol. 1 - We have a Lama (4th-6th Grade)

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Non-Fiction

The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman

Tough Jews, The Avengers by Rich Cohen

The Case for Israel by Alan Dershowitz

Alex's Wake by Martin Goldsmith

The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara by David Kertzer

Ari Shavit - My Promised Land

Don Miguel Ruiz - The Four Agreements

Deborah Anapol - The Seven Natural Laws of Love

Dr. Ron Wolfson - Relational Judaism

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Fiction

S.Y. Agnon - Shira

Anthony Doerr - All the Light We Cannot See

Susan Jane Gilman - The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street

David Grossman - See under: Love

Ayelet Gundar-Goshen - One Night, Markovitch

Etgar Keret - The Nimrod Flipout

James Michener - The Source

Amos Oz - The Black Box

Philip Roth - The Plot Against America

Meir Shalev - Esau: A Novel

Daniel Silva - The Kill Artist (Gabriel Elon Book 1)

Helene Wecker - The Golem and the Jinni

A.B. Yehoshua - Five Seasons

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Rabbi Sommer's Favorites

Born to Run (audio book) Narrated by Bruce Springsteen

Born a Crime (audio book) Narrated by Trevor Noah

Built from Scratch by Bob Andelman, Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank

Blue Ocean Strategy by Renee Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim

Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio

The Warded Man Series by Peter V. Brett

Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull

The Graveyard Book (audio book) Narrated by Neil Gaiman

Colony in a Nation by Chris Hayes

Intentional Living by John C. Maxwell

Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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Favorite Movies

Life is too serious, I like some of my films the dumber the better,

so that I can laugh more than I cry. There is just nothing better than a dark room, a big screen, perfect sound and a great story to be told. 

Step-Brothers, Blues Brothers, Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, The Incredibles, About Last Night, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Better Off Dead, The Seven Samurai, 12 Monkeys, Brazil, Time Bandits, Goonies, Hard Boiled, Hero, Finding Nemo, Ocean's 11, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy,

Star Wars (yes all of them, Raiders of the Lost Ark, When Harry Met Sally and so many others. 

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