Post­ed by Nao­mi Firestone-Teeter 

Into series? Into JPS series? If so, you have much to look for­ward to in 2009! Three-yes THREE – new books are sched­uled for pub­li­ca­tion to build on the fol­low­ing series:

JPS Guides
ewish Choic­es Jew­ish Voic­es
Cel­e­brat­ing the Jew­ish Year

COM­ING IN JAN­U­ARY 2009:

Amer­i­can Jew­ish Fic­tion: A JPS Guide (Josh Lam­bert)

This new vol­ume in the JPS Guides series is a fic­tion reader’s dream: a guide to 125 remark­able works of fic­tion. The selec­tion includes a wide range of clas­sic Amer­i­can Jew­ish nov­els and sto­ry col­lec­tions, from 1867 to the present, select­ed by the author in con­sul­ta­tion with a pan­el of lit­er­ary schol­ars and book indus­try pro­fes­sion­als.

Roth, Mail­er, Keller­man, Chabon, Ozick, Heller, and dozens of oth­er cel­e­brat­ed writ­ers are here, with their most notable works. Each entry includes a book sum­ma­ry, with his­tor­i­cal con­text and back­ground on the author.

Sug­ges­tions for fur­ther read­ing point to oth­er books that match read­ers’ inter­ests and favorite writ­ers. And the intro­duc­tion is a fas­ci­nat­ing explo­ration of the his­to­ry of and impor­tant themes in Amer­i­can Jew­ish Fic­tion, illus­trat­ing how Jew­ish writ­ing in the U.S. has been in con­stant dia­logue with pop­u­lar enter­tain­ment and intel­lec­tu­al life.

Includ­ed in this guide are lists of book award win­ners; rec­om­mend­ed antholo­gies; title, author, and sub­ject index­es; and more.

Cel­e­brat­ing the Jew­ish Year: The Spring and Sum­mer Hol­i­days– Passover, Shavuot, The Omer, Tisha B’Av (Paul Stein­berg and Janet Green­stein Pot­ter)

JPS’s new hol­i­day series is now com­plete, with pub­li­ca­tion of The Spring and Sum­mer Hol­i­days vol­ume

As we move from sea­son to sea­son, Paul Stein­berg shares with us a rich col­lec­tion of read­ings from many of the Jew­ish greats — Mai­monides, Rashi, Nehama Lei­bowitz, Irv­ing Green­berg, Shlo­mo Car­lebach, Marge Pier­cy, Elie Wiesel, Mar­tin Buber, Abra­ham Joshua Hes­chel, Arthur Green, and oth­ers — and he guides us in dis­cov­er­ing for our­selves the many trea­sures with­in each text.

Some of the read­ings teach us about the his­to­ry of each hol­i­day, as well as its the­o­log­i­cal, eth­i­cal, agri­cul­tur­al, and sea­son­al impor­tance and inter­pre­ta­tion; oth­ers give us inspi­ra­tion and much food for thought. These sto­ries, essays, poems, anec­dotes, and rit­u­als help us dis­cov­er how deeply Jew­ish tra­di­tions are root­ed in nature’s year­ly cycle, and how beau­ti­ful­ly sea­son and spir­it are woven togeth­er through­out the Jew­ish year.

AND, IN MARCH 2009:

Jew­ish Choic­es, Jew­ish Voic­es — Pow­er (Louis E. New­man and Elliot N. Dorff) 

This JPS ethics series deals with some of the most crit­i­cal moral issues of our time. 

How do we use pow­er once we’ve gained it? Is it com­plete­ly for our indi­vid­ual ben­e­fit, or do we use it to help our neigh­bor­hoods, or soci­ety at-large? What kinds of deci­sions must CEOs and busi­ness own­ers make regard­ing sup­pli­ers and cus­tomers? How should boss­es treat work­ers? Teach­ers treat stu­dents? Par­ents treat chil­dren? Gov­ern­ment treats cit­i­zens? 

Pow­er dynam­ics affect peo­ple on a polit­i­cal lev­el, a social lev­el, and a deeply per­son­al lev­el as well. The newest vol­ume in the Jew­ish Choic­es, Jew­ish Voic­es series exam­ines these dynam­ics and includes essays by such fine con­trib­u­tors as U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Hen­ry Wax­man, NBC Uni­ver­sal Tele­vi­sion-West Coast Pres­i­dent Marc Graboff, and author and schol­ar James. 

We’ll report back soon with reviews of these forth­com­ing titles!