Books coverage is supported by a generous grant from The Milton and Sophie Meyer Fund.
Two children’s books, a moving short-story collection and pointers for college students are included in this roundup of seven new(ish) books by local authors, a periodic feature in J. These books may be ordered through your local independent bookstore, including Afikomen in Berkeley.
“Tali and the Timeless Time” by Mira Z. Amiras (40 pages, Collective Book Studio)
Mira Z. Amiras has followed up her beginning-reader book “Tali and the Toucan” with a whole new book and story. Tali, a Sephardic girl, is learning from her Nona about her culture, from making huevos b’tomat to dancing with zills and Spanish fans. But Nona is getting older. What can Tali do to preserve those memories? San Francisco resident Amiras is a professor emerita of religious and Middle East studies at San Jose State University and as also the author of “Malkah’s Notebook: A Journey into the Mystical Aleph-Bet.”
“The Heart That Found You” by Anna Schocket, illustrated by Carole Chevalier (32 pages, Collective Book Studio)
This new picture book is a loving celebration of adoptive families and all families formed through love and intention. Schocket, of Oakland, is an adoptive mom herself, and in this picture book for young children she tells the story of a happy heart that has a little piece missing. That void, also shaped like a heart, is filled through meeting a tiny heart that becomes part of a larger family.
“The Courtyard” by Benjamin Parket and Alexa Morris (248 pages, Amsterdam Publishers)
Benjamin Parket of Palo Alto was a young boy living in Paris when the Germans invaded in 1940. With the help of Mountain View resident Alexa Morris (Parket’s daughter-in-law), he tells the moving story of how the compassionate neighbors of his courtyard building helped save the family by warning them the Nazis were coming and hiding them for two years in a warehouse. It was an act of generosity that ultimately saved his life.
“Shot: A Dictionary of the Lost” by Jude Berman (256 pages, She Writes Press)
This collection of short stories is tied together by one stark theme — gun violence. In one, a man finds out late in life he’s Jewish and must grapple with what that means. In another, two young people prepare for a Hindu-Jewish wedding. But each story in this immersive collection by Berkeley resident Berman is interrupted by a chilling reminder that every gun violence statistic is also a human being.
“My Father’s ALS: A Son’s Healing Journey” by Kenneth Kann (256 pages, Koehler Books)
This memoir is about more than a diagnosis. It’s also about a family, coming of age and acceptance. In the 1970s, a rebellious young Kann had decided against becoming a tax lawyer and was living in Berkeley, teaching and researching. Then his father was diagnosed with ALS, a degenerative nerve disease, and everything changed. San Francisco resident Kann is also the author of “Comrades and Chicken Ranchers, the Story of a California Jewish Community.”
“Winter Light” by Grace Feuerverger (302 pages, Amsterdam Publishers)
As the child of Holocaust survivors whose trauma seemed “beyond her grasp,” Feuerverger sought and found solace in her Francophone environment in Montreal when she was a young child. In this memoir, which follows her from the chaos of the counterculture Berkeley years to Israel to a career spent educating, she intertwines her own story and her parents in a heartfelt story about grief. Feuerverger splits her time between Berkeley and Toronto.
“10 Things Every Jew Should Know Before They Go To College” by Emily Schrader and Blake Flayton, illustrated by Kimberly Brooks (322 pages, Griffith Moon Publishing)
This book aims to give young people a set of facts and arguments “so that students can better stand up for themselves on the quad and in their community.” The authors, staunch Zionists, tackle topics such as the history of Israel and Judaism, the politics of Israel today, modern antisemitism and what’s happening on campuses. It’s illustrated by artist Kimberly Brooks, who grew up in Mill Valley.