Beth Tikvah Book Club News

• The book for the May 7th meeting at the temple at 7pm is "Bashert" by Lior Simson. "It's 1963. A gifted and inquisitive student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology stumbles on a storage room filled with unusual supplies. What begins as a student stunt soon explodes into a life-changing misadventure. Decades later, an unexpected encounter with a college classmate shakes a world-weary computer consultant out of his routine and brings him face-to-face with a distant past that he must quickly decipher-or die. Bashert, meaning fate, is an intricate and intense political thriller, a tale of intrigue and innocence, devotion and destiny. Inspired by real events, Bashert is a page turner that caroms between continents and across timeframes as it narrates a story of betrayal and self-sacrifice set against the backdrop of Israel's emergence as a nuclear power"

• The book for the June 4th meeting is "Hedy's Folly" by Richard Rhodes. Hedy's Folly is one of the Huffington Post's Best Film Books of 2011.  "As intelligent and independent as she was beautiful, Jewish Austrian Lamarr quit school to become an actor, then disastrously married a munitions manufacturer who got cozy with the Nazis. Lamarr coolly gathered weapons information, then fled the country for Hollywood. As she triumphed on the silver screen, she also worked diligently on a secret form of radio communication that she hoped would boost the U.S. war effort, but which ultimately became the basis for cell phones, Wi-Fi, GPS, and bar-code readers. Lamarr’s technical partner was George Antheil, a brilliant and intrepid pianist and avant-garde composer whose adventures are so fascinating, he nearly steals the show. In symphonic control of a great wealth of fresh and stimulating material, and profoundly attuned to the complex ramifications of Lamarr’s and Antheil’s struggles and achievements (Lamarr finally received recognition as an electronic pioneer late in life), Rhodes incisively, wittily, and dramatically brings to light a singular convergence of two beyond-category artists who overtly and covertly changed the world."—Donna Seaman, Booklist.  Hardcover $15.48 or less used, Kindle $13.99, Audiobook $17.95 

• No meeting in July because it is summer and the next book is really big.

• The book for the August 6th meeting is the "Invisible Bridge" by Julie Orringer. " It received glowing reviews and recognition such as Amazon Best Books of the Month, May 2010: "Even if this weren't her first novel, Julie Orringer's Invisible Bridge would be a marvelous achievement. Orringer possesses a rare talent that makes a 600-page story--which, we know, must descend into war and genocide--feel rivetingly readable, even at its grimmest. Building vivid worlds in effortless phrases, she immerses us in 1930s Budapest just as a young Hungarian Jew, Andras Lévi, departs for the École Spéciale d'Architecture in Paris. He hones his talent for design, works backstage in a theater, and allies with other Jewish students in defiance of rising Nazi influence. And then he meets Klara, a captivating Hungarian ballet instructor nine years his senior with a painful past and a willful teenage daughter. Against Klara's better judgment, love engulfs them, drowning out the rumblings of war for a time. But inevitably, Nazi aggression drives them back to Hungary, where life for the Jews goes from hardship to horror. As in Dr. Zhivago, these lovers can't escape history's merciless machinery, but love gives them the courage to endure."  -Mari Malcolm . The paperback version is 784 pages long and $10.85, the Kindle version is $9.99 in onereally long page.

Anyone in the temple can participate in any or all meetings. You can buy the books on your own or check them out from your local library. Want in on the awesome buying power of the Book Club? Contact Steven.Kleinman@pobox.com