I’m reading through “Cool Jew: The Ultimate Guide for Every Member of the Tribe”. Having some trouble with the humor because I have a big cultural gap when it comes to Jewish humor. It’s an interesting mix of Jewish fun facts, totally-out-there crazed content, debatable Jewish stereotypes…all told with an irreverent tone. Don’t know if I’m a “Cool Jew” but however, kitschy this book is, it’s clear that it’s a celebration of Jewish culture.
Listen to author Lisa Alcalay Klug discuss the book on QTV. It’s great to listen to her talk about her love of Jewish culture and a national revival of Jewish culture. Her points on Woody Allen are dead-on and her points on Jewish stereotypes are interesting.
Memoirs of a Jewminicana 
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I know I told you this already so I should probably leave it alone but I really couldn’t stand this book. I found it insulting and stupid. Unlike the above poster, I like people finding the humor in Judaism but most of her jokes are so played out and I wish we could have humor *and* real spiritual content at the same time but maybe that’s too much to ask. I also feel like it’s funny that’s she’s of Sephardic descent (at least partly) and yet so much of the book relies on the same old stereotypes of Ashkenazi Jews. A more amusing stereotype-based source of laughs is the book “Haikus for Jews.” That is good toilet reading, for sure. I got Cool Jew for free and I can’t wait to get it outta my house. I feel kind of guilty having it on the shelf that my seforim are on.
I like when you post about what you’re reading. Do you have any suggestions for novels? Esp frum chick lit? But really anything…
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I’m very picky about what I buy but not as picky about what I read. I’m really big on getting on kinds of books from the New York Public Library, where I scrounged up this one.
BytheBay, thanks for the idea for a future post but it might not happen until after Shavuot. I’m not getting so much reading done. You’ll hear why in an upcoming post.
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By the way, ByTheBay, if you look under the label ‘books and reading’, you’ll find some novels I’ve already read.
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