d'Ettaquette's Book Morsels

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Tap Dancing on Everest by Mimi Zieman

What compels people to deliberately place themselves in harm’s way? Or attempt dangerous feats, endure extreme psychological and physical conditions? And joyfully repeat the experience. An “unlikely candidate “, to imperil her life, Mimi Zieman, had a clear path to medical school…

Counting Lost Stars by author Kim van Alkemade

Counting Lost Stars by author Kim van Alkemade is a cautionary tale about the limits of technology research. The story begins in New York, 1960, where Barnard College senior, Rita Klein, “got into trouble”. Her parents ask Rita to do, “a mitzvah,” surrender her baby for…

The Hebrew Teacher by Maya Arad

The Hebrew Teacher by Maya Arad comprises three novellas. One, dealing with academic friction on an American campus, the second an Israeli grandmother’s USA visit to her indifferent family. Finally the battle for parental control between a mother and her teenaged daughter. Though all…

It Could Be Worse by Dera Levan

There was definitely something niggling Ally Gil. It wasn’t her loving husband Ben or her two adorable children that made her feel “verklempt.” A survivor of a miscarriage, an unplanned C-section and a cancer scare, Ally was evermore grateful just to live her life. Yet Ally endured…

Happily by Sabrina Orah Mark

A former Yeshiva girl from Brooklyn “raising two Black Jewish boys” as well as a stepdaughter from her husband’s second marriage, author, Sabrina Orah Mark, now 42, connects her “personal history with fairy tales. ” In her new book, Happily a compendium of 26 brief essays Mark…