Jewish Life in Harbin, China: A Conversation with Jean Hoffmann Lewanda by Susan Blumberg-Kason Interviews [email protected] Tue, 01/07/2025 - 07:08 Shalama and Paul, Shanghai, 1950. Photo courtesy of Jean Hoffmann LewandaI met the author Jean Hoffmann Lewanda for lunch this past November in New Jersey, not too far from her home in suburban Philadelphia. Jean is the author of a new book, Shalama: My 96 Seasons in China (Earnshaw, 2024), the story of her mother’s childhood in Harbin, China, and young adult years in Shanghai. Jean’s first book, Witness to History: From Vienna to Shanghai: A Memoir of Escape, Survival and Resilience, is an edited edition of her father’s memoir tracing his escape from Nazi-controlled Vienna to the safe shores of Shanghai in the late 1930s. Jean and I originally met online thanks to mutual friends who are historians and the authority on everything Old Shanghai. When we met in person in November, we spoke for hours about publishing Jewish Chinese stories. We expanded this conversation over email. Susan Blumberg-Kason: Thank you, Jean, for continuing our lovely conversation back in November. I don’t remember coming across other authors who have personal connections to both the old Shanghai and Harbin Jewish communities, each of which numbered in the thousands. Your mother was the daughter of Russian Jewish refugees, and your father was an Austrian Jewish refugee. Was it unusual for people in these... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2025-01-07 13:08:24 UTC ]
I first read Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir Aftershocks in June, as the United States—led by the white nationalist backed Republican administration—was several months into a still ongoing unchecked global pandemic which was disproportionately killing Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous Americans.... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-01-11 12:00:00 UTC ]
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In this Read Harder Challenge post, we're recommending books for the task asking you to read a historical fiction with a POC or LGBTQ+ protagonist. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-01-11 11:31:00 UTC ]
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Comey’s “Saving Justice” is a revealing memoir that describes his feelings about Trump and his worries about the nation. Continue reading at The New York Times
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“Gone to the Woods” is a memoir so rife with childhood trauma he wrote it in the third person. Continue reading at The New York Times
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IN THE DAYS FOLLOWING the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Archive of American Folk Song dispatched its field workers in 10 different regions across the United States to solicit average Americans’ opinions about the bombing and FDR’s ensuing proposal for a declaration of war. A second round... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2021-01-08 18:00:08 UTC ]
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It’s a truism that historical fiction reveals more about its own age it than the one it portrays. We can’t escape or even perceive our own biases, the reasoning goes, so we end up helplessly projecting them onto a past where they don’t belong. But the past is not a museum, and contemporary... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-01-08 12:00:00 UTC ]
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In our series “Can Writing Be Taught?” we partner with Catapult to ask their course instructors all our burning questions about the process of teaching writing. This time we’re talking to Abeer Hoque, author of the memoir Olive Witch, who’s teaching a two-week seminar on one of the most... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-01-08 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Scribe is publishing a new B-format paperback edition of US president-elect Joe Biden’s 2007 memoir, Promises to Keep. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-08 03:07:33 UTC ]
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Bette Howland’s 1974 memoir, recently reissued, recounts her time in a psychiatric ward and the people she met there. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-01-06 20:50:30 UTC ]
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THE FOLLOWING EXCERPT is the opening section from chapter three of my book in progress, Unpacking My Father’s Bookstore, a memoir and critical study about growing up in my father’s Jewish bookstore. As Harelick and Roth Books and then J. Roth / Bookseller of Fine & Scholarly Judaica, the... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2021-01-06 16:00:43 UTC ]
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“W-3,” Bette Howland’s account of her institutionalization, in 1968, proceeds according to a simple binary: those who suffer are patients; those who don’t are not. Continue reading at New Yorker
[ New Yorker | 2021-01-05 20:23:25 UTC ]
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Looking for a memoir by a Latinx author for the Read Harder challenge? This is a list of recommendations to get you started! Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-01-05 11:31:00 UTC ]
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'Maybe there are lessons to be learned from rule-breaking,' writes Richard Charkin, with a new memoir as his case in point. The post Richard Charkin: ‘Thank Goodness for the Rule-Breakers’ appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-01-04 13:04:57 UTC ]
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In a year dominated by a global pandemic and American politics, some might find it fitting that the library book most likely to be checked out across Ontario was a hopeful memoir written by the former first lady of the United States. Continue reading at CBC
[ CBC | 2020-12-31 09:00:00 UTC ]
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If you've ever stopped browsing your B&N to wonder about life as a bookseller, here's a firsthand account of working at a Barnes & Noble. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-12-23 11:37:00 UTC ]
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Want to feel hungry? Read Bryan Washington on his year in takeout orders. | The New Yorker “In the end, Chang’s trauma, and the trauma he inflicted on other people, becomes part of his public persona, while we simply carry ours.” Hannah Selinger on what—and who—David Chang’s memoir leaves out. |... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-12-23 11:30:13 UTC ]
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New fiction by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Barack Obama’s accent game, a Wilco frontman’s memoir and romance by Vonnegut. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-12-22 23:58:19 UTC ]
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The Thursday Murder Club sees off titles by Barack Obama and David Walliams in chaotic week for Britain’s book tradeRichard Osman’s cosy mystery about a group of elderly sleuths, The Thursday Murder Club, has become the first debut novel ever to become the Christmas No 1, selling a remarkable... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-12-22 15:00:18 UTC ]
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Greystone Books will publish Édith Blais’ memoir of being kidnapped and held hostage for 450 days in Burkina Faso at the hands of a militant group. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-22 06:56:14 UTC ]
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Continuing on the Barack Obama’s Favorite Media end-of-year march, the former President has released a 20-song playlist to accompany his memoir A Promised Land, composed of songs that recall memories of his time on the campaign trail and in the White House. There’s some Beyonce, some John... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-12-21 17:24:57 UTC ]
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