BookFest features author and translator discussions of new and exciting books. Meet the authors and explore a wide variety of topics and issues relevant to our lives today.
Registration is located after the book descriptions at the bottom of the page.
Options for purchasing the books:
Purchases made through Amazon Smile will benefit JFOC - links appear below with each book/author description
or
Be a Literary Friend Booster, with a $72 donation, and receive a signed copy of the book!
You can also attend a book discussion to decide if you want to buy the book!
A Father's Story
Sunday, May 2nd - 12 PM
Join author Stephen Flatow to discuss his determination to bring his daughter's murderers to justice through the American court system. After he discovered the Iranian government had directly sponsored the suicide bomber that killed Alisa while travelling in Israel, by sponsoring Islamic Jihad, Flatow decided to sue the terror state. Encountering one roadblock after another Flatow persisted through a lengthy fight.
Join author Mark Werner for a discussion on what would motivate a successful corporate lawyer to trade in his comfortable life in America for three weeks every year to volunteer for manual labor on Israeli military bases? Mark Werner, son of a Holocaust survivor and a south Jersey native, is an ardent Zionist seeking a personal way to show support for Israel. The story of an enriching volunteer experience like no other.
Life and Other Shortcomings
Wednesday, May 12th 7:00pm
Join award-winning author Corie Adjmi to discuss her short story collection, Life and Other Shortcomings. The stories explore the lives of women and the choices, joys and struggles they face. Corie Adjmi's fiction and essays have appeared in Indiana Review, North American Review, South Dakota Review, HuffPost, Motherwell and others. Life and Other Shortcomings is Adjmi's first book-length publication.
Join Cheri Tannenbaum live from Efrat, Israel to discuss her book and experience with Dystonia. How would you like to be unable to speak intelligibly? How would you enjoy having an awkward gait that makes you prone to falling and causes people to stare as you shuffle by? This book heartens all those who have been tested by God through a disability that with faith, courage, and fortitude, you can live a fulfilling life full of happiness, blessings, and contentment.
Join translator Elisabeth Lauffer to discuss The Piano Student and the process in rendering this engaging novel in English. The story about pianist Vladimir Horowitz is a riveting and sensitive tale of musical perfection, love, and longing denied, with multiple historical layers and insights into artistic creativity. Elisabeth (Liz) Lauffer is a German-English literary translator based in the US. In 2014 she won the Gutekunst Prize for Emerging Translators.