Thanks. I Needed That.

The Tonight Show, the forests of Vermont, and a tiny Polish village are among the settings for these 32 true stories by Rabbi Bob Alper. This is his latest collection, following an earlier book of stories that a Detroit Free Press reviewer called "a volume of spiritual gems." In his new "Thanks. I Needed That," Bob guides the reader to places as diverse as synagogues in Kentucky and London, a small plane flying over Oklahoma, a refusenik's Moscow apartment, comedy clubs, Vermont towns and forests, and even a convention of rabbis. Readers meet a stained-glass artist whose granddaughter is Drew Barrymore, an elderly lady who attends services with her dog, a 5-year-old grief counselor, and an elderly Holocaust survivor who discovers that he can talk about his lost sisters for the first time. Bob's unique experiences, from leading large congregations to performing stand-up at Toronto's "Muslimfest," make for a wealth of engaging stories that touch people of all backgrounds with warmth, humor, and wisdom.