Literatour

Thursday, March 5, 7:00 PM
Location: Yiddish Book Center

To paraphrase an old cliché, put any two Jews together and you’ll have three opinions about Jewish food. Ask them to name the most Jewish food and the list turns highly debatable. Tablet‘s list of the 100 most Jewish foods is not about the most popular Jewish foods, or the tastiest, or even the most enduring. It’s a list of the most significant foods culturally and historically to the Jewish people, explored deeply with essays, recipes, stories, and context. Informative, unexpected, passionate, quirky, and rich with layers of tradition and history, this book celebrates the one unwavering constant of Jewish life: food. Stephanie Butnick is deputy editor of Tablet Magazine, a daily online magazine of Jewish news, ideas, and culture, and a host of Unorthodox, the leading Jewish podcast on iTunes.

“[A] love letter – to food, family, faith, and identity, and the deliciously tangled way they come together.” – NPR’s The Salt

Admission: Free for JCC and Yiddish Book Center members, $7 general public

Co-sponsored by the Yiddish Book Center

Thursday, April 30, 7:00 PM
Location: Springfield JCC

Rafael Zhettah, a bachelor who’s content with having few personal or material attachments that ground him, relishes the simplicity and freedom of his life. Then, lightning strikes. He falls in love with Tieresse, a billionaire, philanthropist, sophisticate bombshell. When she’s brutally murdered in their home, he is convicted of the crime and sentenced to death. But for Rafael, death row is not the end; it is only the beginning. Now with his recaptured freedom, he’ll stop at nothing to deliver justice to those who stole everything from him. David R. Dow is the Cullen Professor at the University of Houston Law Center and the Rorschach Visiting Professor of History at Rice University. He is also the founder and director of the Texas Innocent Network.

“A debut novel that’s a page-turner with a message…[Dow’s] criminal work is a clear influence on this novel, and his passion bleeds through on every page. The claustrophobic nature of prisons, the routine cruelty, the anonymous suffering, the decrepit conditions – they all come through in straight-forward, well-written prose…A solidly suspenseful novel.” – Kirkus Reviews

Admission: Free for JCC members, $7 general public

Thursday, May 21, 2:00 PM
Location: Glenmeadow Retirement Community

Everyone in Belgium believes Paulien Mertens stole millions in a sophisticated con game perpetrated by her then-fiancé. To protect herself from the law, she creates a new identity – a Frenchwoman named Vivienne Gregsby – and sets out to recover her father’s art collection to prove her innocence. When the eccentric American art collector Edwin Bradley offers Vivienne the perfect job, she’s soon caught up in the Parisian world of post-Impressionists and expatriates. As she gets more involved, her life becomes even more complicated: her ex-fiancé returns with unclear motives and Vivienne is arrested for Edwin’s murder. B. A. Shapiro is the author of eight novels, including the award-winning New York Times bestseller The Art Forger and the bestseller The Muralist.

“B. A. Shapiro is back with a platinum potion of art, love, and scandal, set against the big backdrop of Paris between the wars. If you can put The Collector’s Apprentice down, you’re made of stronger stuff than I am. I read it in one sumptuous sitting. This is a big story, from a big talent.” – Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean

Admission: Free

Co-sponsored by Glenmeadow Retirement Community