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Wednesday, March 29, 2023

At The Hour Between Dog and Wolf, A Book Review

 

At The Hour Between Dog and Wolf, A Novel, by Tara Ison is a most amazing book. It's of the Holocaust genre and also Coming of Age, but at least in my reading experience, it's like no other. 

Ison writes about a wealthy preteen Jewish girl from Paris who is brought to live with a poor rural Catholic family. Danielle must do her best to hide her true identity and live as Marie-Jeanne, orphaned niece of Berthe on a small farm and even milk the cow every morning. Danielle's red hair definitely helps mask her Jewish identity. With them are Berthe's husband Claude and their son Luc, who makes Danielle feel rather uncomfortable.

We follow two parallel transitions, one the growth of Nazi dominance in a quiet farming town near Limoges in Vichy France and second, Danielle's growing comfort and identification in her new identity as Catholic Marie-Jeanne. She's into her teens by the time the story ends.

The various characters are amazingly well-drawn/developed, and it's nothing is very predictable. The more I think about it, the harder it is to decided on the hero of the story. It's very complex and has some surprising twists.

I highly recommend At The Hour Between Dog and Wolf. The characters find themselves in situations in which it's hard to distinguish between a dog and a wolf, as the title states. It's an excellent book for discussion in a Book Club or even in a classroom of older adolescents. 

Product details 
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ig Publishing (February 21, 2023) 
Language ‏ : ‎ English 
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 286 pages 
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1632461455 
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1632461452 
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.4 ounces 
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.75 x 8 inches

Saturday, March 25, 2023

Book Club Update, Monthly Genres, Successful

Last night was the monthly meeting of our Book Club, which we also turned into a Surprise Belated Birthday Party for the member who started this wonderful group.

I'm not quite sure how long we've been following this program. After a very rocky start, we added a potluck dinner to the evening, which seems to be the magic ingredient, at least for us. In the beginning we got together around 8:30pm, which meant that some members hadn't quite had dinner and were hungry, while others were tired and ready for bed.  As a creative solution we decided to meet earlier and eat dinner together before getting to the business of books. Potluck dinner in different homes made everyone happy, except for the hostess's husband, but later on we found a solution to that, too.

Another problem was the logistics of getting enough copies of the chosen book...

After the forced COVID break, which we unsuccessfully tried to compensate for via zoom, we changed the program even further. Instead of everyone reading the same book, we choose a genre/author and give each other the freedom for what we'll call individuality. One of the members told me that she had been a member of conventional book clubs and found it boring, listening to repetitive opinions from members at each meeting.

Last week the genre was "animals," which, when suggested, elicited a groan from me. I don't like animals; reading about animal lovers/stories isn't my thing. The only "animal book" I've ever enjoyed was Seabiscuit, because it's more about the people, but I couldn't find my copy.  Instead I saw the movie on DVD, but then I realized that the title of the book I had just read is At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf which does mention two animals. The title is a metaphor, and the book is fantastic. It belongs in the genre of Holocaust (which we have done) and coming of age. So, I decided to present it and recommend it highly. I still have to review it, but I'll say right here that it's definitely a book that can be the subject for a conventional book club that chooses one book to discuss. It's a novel by Tara Ison, and if you're looking for a great book, it has my vote. I hope to get the review done before Passover, if not...

Monday, March 13, 2023

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #37 Jerusalem's City Hall's Loo Renovated

Don't Steal This Idea!
Pishers' Guide to Ariel #1, Good Deal in "Supersol Deal"
Pishers' Guide to Ariel #2 Conveniently Close to University & Bus Stops
...
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #34 Binyan Clal Public Toilets Renovated

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #33, New Public Toilets Downtown

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #32, Har Chotzvim, Not The Gas Station

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #31, Good Deal in "Supersol Deal," Givat Shaul

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #30, Speedily Out of Order at New Train Station


Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #29, Kotel WC, Prayer Come True

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #28, Machane Yehuda WC, Fright at First Sight

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #27, CBS Revisited, Worth The Shekel

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #26, New Kraft Stadium, Complaining May have Helped

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #25, New Park, New Loo

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #24 Horse Park WC Staff Horsing Around

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #23 For One Shekel in the CBS

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #22 "High Tech" Loo, Not for Use

Pishers Guide to Jerusalem #21, Perfect "Pit Stop" on Emek Refaim

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #20, Gan Hasus, Horse Park, Like Russian Roulette

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #19, Center 1 Has Gone Downhill

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #18, Shuq Loo for You Ladies

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #17, At Least It was Clean

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #16, Iconic Location-- Nauseating WC

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #15, New Guy in Town

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #14, Mega Yuck!

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #13, Hadar Mall: What Public Toilets Should Be

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem # 12, Center 1, Usually OK

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #11, Never Fear The Rami Levy WC

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #10, At Least There were Toilet-paper and Soap

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #9, Watch Out for Peep Holes!

A Pisher's Guide to Jerusalem #2 
Bus Changes, Again, Finding a New "Pit Stop"

A few months ago, I found that the elevators didn't open on 0, where the public toilets are, so I kept avoiding them, but a couple of weeks ago before going on a tour of the Old City and Ir David I decided to try my luck. Not only did the elevator let me off on 0,l but I found that the public toilets had been fixed up.

That was a pleasant surprise. Not only was it clean and well supplied, but there's also a nice niche counter, which can be used for changing baby diapers. Just have some padding.

Years ago, the Municipality public toilets at Safra Square were my favorites, but then they went seriously downhill, smelly and no supplies. That was during Nir Barkat's time as Mayor of Jerusalem. I guess that's how he saved money, halving the hours of the cleaning staff, or did he knock off even more? But Mayor Moshe Lion has improved things a lot. First I noticed that the toilets were cleaner than in years, then hand soap and toilet paper. Now, I finally know why the floor had been locked. The municipality renovated the public toilets, thank Gd.

What's your big loo (WC) news?