The 29th Austin Jewish Book Fair was held October 28 through November 1 at the Dell Jewish Community Campus. It was a pleasure to sit with my “sistahs” again at the fair (Sisterhood members of Congregation Agudas Achim), but the contrast between last year and this was noticeable. Last year the fair opened with the book lover’s luncheon, and this year it closed with it, so at this year’s lunch the book shelves were relatively empty as earlier shoppers had already cleaned them out. I did, however, find enough selections in the children’s section for holiday gifts, including Jane Yolen and Mark Teague’s remake of their best-seller, How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? Their new, equally charming title: How Do Dinosaurs Say Happy Chanukah? How could I resist?   Two book fair events were cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy. Matti Friedman, author of The Aleppo Codex, and Harry Ostrer, author of Legacy: A Genetic History of the Jewish People, were unable to fly out of New York. Maggie Anton, author of the Rashi’s Daughters trilogy (somewhere between I.B. Singer’s Yentl and Anita Diamant’s The Red Tent), was the featured speaker for the book lover’s luncheon. She was able to attend as she was traveling from Los Angeles. Anton was promoting her latest release, Rav Hisda’s Daughter, described as a “novel of love, the Talmud, and sorcery in third-century Babylonia.” I’m sure it is a fine novel, but Anton was not a fine presenter. The take-away lesson from her talk was: How…

It seems fitting that the People of the Book, known for these words of wisdom—“essen epes” (eat something)—should open a book fair with a banquet. The 28th annual Austin Jewish Book Fair, held November 3-12 at the Austin Jewish Community Center (JCC), started with the Book Lovers Luncheon, featuring five-time National Book Award nominee, Melissa Fay Greene, discussing her memoir: No Biking in the House Without a Helmet (Sarah Crichton Books, 2011). What a feast it was—for the palette, the eyes, the heart and the mind! Tables set for 230 attendees, a cornucopia of books for sale, and colorful banners all around. After brunch (broiled chicken breast on salad greens, babaganoush, blueberries, and bread), Greene delighted the audience with her wit and the wisdom she and her husband gained in adopting five foreign orphans (one at a time) just as their four biological children were “aging out” of school. She was hilarious, brilliant, charming, and genuine. Dubbed Austin’s largest Jewish bookstore, the fair continued at the JCC with another seven author presentation/book signing events and 36 hours of book shopping time. I’m guessing there were 100 titles for sale, including children’s books, cookbooks, history, holidays, memoir and biography, politics, religion and spirituality, technology and fiction. Author presentations for the 10-day affair included: Martin Fletcher, The List: A Novel Rabbi Jamie Korngold, The God Upgrade: Finding Your 21st-Century Spirituality in Judaism’s 5,000-Year-Old Tradition Joe Gelman, Confidential: The Life of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon – Arnon Milchan Alick Isaacs, A Prophetic Peace: Judaism, Religion…

Author Melissa Fay Greene I had the pleasure of meeting Melissa Faye Greene at the Austin Jewish Book Fair in November. She was there to sign No Biking in the House Without a Helmet (Sarah Crichton Books, 2011) and to provide the opening address. No Biking is a memoir chronicling how she and her family of six (mom, dad, four kids) adopted five orphans from overseas—one Bulgarian-Romani and four Ethiopian—over a period of eight years. Gotta love this woman, gotta read her book. Smart, witty, warm—in person and in print. Greene is an award-winning journalist best known for her books on the civil rights movement and the African HIV/AIDS pandemic. NYU’s journalism department named Praying for Sheetrock one of the top 100 works of journalism in the 20th Century. But at the lectern, she’s a poet-performer. She belongs on the Chauttauqua lecture circuit of yore, delighting audiences with her wisdom and charm. For Greene, writing in the first person was both unfamiliar and uncomfortable. Clearly, she overcame these obstacles. But this memoir is no bildungsroman in that it’s not about her. It’s about her family—the decisions they made, the antics they performed, and the travails they passed through. Greene readily acknowledges the depression she slipped into and the seemingly insurmountable challenges presented by children whose starts in life were so tumultuous. With the clear-headedness that comes with her profession, she observes her surroundings, arms herself with information, weighs possible outcomes, and soldiers on. At the lectern, Greene is something of a…