100 Essential Books for Jewish Readers

Compiled from thousands of survey entries, this comprehensive reference contains accessible fiction and nonfiction works on every subject of Jewish interest, including the holocaust, kosher recipes, and deep theological texts.

No Bellow? Herzog? Scholem Aleichem? Maimonides? Every reader of Jewish literature will miss some of his or her own "essential" books and authors here: How can 3000 years of rich cultural history be reduced to 100 books? Syme, who is a rabbi, and writer Kanter have nobly managed a nearly impossible task in producing this discursively annotated guide, which includes sections on religion, Jewish observance and values, philosophy and theology, history, the Holocaust, Israel, and fiction and general works on Jewish themes. But no index? No bibliographies? No list of related works? Librarians?along with students, scholars, and other serious readers?will shudder at these omissions. Still, while the Schocken Guide to Jewish Books (Pantheon, 1992) remains an uncontested reference tool in this area, this new book has sufficient browsing interest to warrant some public library consideration.?Marcia Welsh, Guilford Free Lib., Ct.
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