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THE PASSOVER STORY HAGGADAH

A NEW NARRATIVE FOR A MODERN SEDER

A beautiful, accessible Haggadah for modern Passover celebrants.

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Leven offers an alternative, updated Passover Haggadah.

“I love the traditional Haggadah,” writes the author, but “I’ve actually never understood it.” Despite being known as the “Telling of the Passover Story,” he notes, “it doesn’t tell the Passover story very well.” Rather than centering the historical narrative from Exodus, the traditional Haggadah assumes that listeners already know the details of the story and instead focuses on ancient commentary. Moreover, per Leven, it leaves out important details: Miriam, the elder sister of Moses and Aaron, is identified in both the Torah and Talmud as a prophet and leader of the children of Israel, yet she is noticeably absent from traditional Haggadah texts. Seeking to fill these gaps in the traditional Haggadah, the author gives readers this “new narrative for a modern seder.” Written in a self-described “straightforward, easy to follow…chronological” style, the book eschews arcane, ancient commentary for a back-to-the-basics storyline that outlines the major narrative arcs of the Book of Exodus, from the Israelites’ arrival in Egypt and subsequent enslavement to Moses’ multiple and miraculous confrontations with Pharaoh. The text includes the traditional elements of the Haggadah (“what is to be done and said, and when”) along with useful guides that use pop-culture references for pronunciation (The “ah” sound represented by the Hebrew niqqud Kamatz, for instance, is pronounced like the letter A in Jabba the Hutt). At just over 100 pages, the book’s efficient prose and frequent use of tables and diagrams are ideal for lay readers who find themselves overwhelmed by traditional seder readings. However, the book does not sacrifice brevity for quality, featuring full-page Hebrew texts and beautiful visual images, from historic artifacts, seder plates, and other ephemera to reprinted pages from historic manuscripts and Haggadahs replete with classical Jewish art.

A beautiful, accessible Haggadah for modern Passover celebrants.

Pub Date: Dec. 29, 2022

ISBN: 9798986752402

Page Count: 128

Publisher: Leven's Finer Foods Publishing

Review Posted Online: June 15, 2023

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THINK YOU'LL BE HAPPY

MOVING THROUGH GRIEF WITH GRIT, GRACE, AND GRATITUDE

Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.

Memories and life lessons inspired by the author’s mother, who was murdered in 2021.

“Neither my mother nor I knew that her last text to me would be the words ‘Think you’ll be happy,’ ” Avant writes, "but it is fitting that she left me with a mantra for resiliency.” The author, a filmmaker and former U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas, begins her first book on the night she learned her mother, Jacqueline Avant, had been fatally shot during a home invasion. “One of my first thoughts,” she writes, “was, ‘Oh God, please don’t let me hate this man. Give me the strength not to hate him.’ ” Daughter of Clarence Avant, known as the “Black Godfather” due to his work as a pioneering music executive, the author describes growing up “in a house that had a revolving door of famous people,” from Ella Fitzgerald to Muhammad Ali. “I don’t take for granted anything I have achieved in my life as a Black American woman,” writes Avant. “And I recognize my unique upbringing…..I was taught to honor our past and pay forward our fruits.” The book, which is occasionally repetitive, includes tributes to her mother from figures like Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton, but the narrative core is the author’s direct, faith-based, unwaveringly positive messages to readers—e.g., “I don’t want to carry the sadness and anger I have toward the man who did this to my mother…so I’m worshiping God amid the worst storm imaginable”; "Success and feeling good are contagious. I’m all about positive contagious vibrations!” Avant frequently quotes Bible verses, and the bulk of the text reflects the spirit of her daily prayer “that everything is in divine order.” Imploring readers to practice proactive behavior, she writes, “We have to always find the blessing, to be the blessing.”

Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.

Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023

ISBN: 9780063304413

Page Count: 288

Publisher: HarperOne

Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023

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THE BACKYARD BIRD CHRONICLES

An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.

A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.

In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”

An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.

Pub Date: April 23, 2024

ISBN: 9780593536131

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024

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