April 30, 2008
Jewish bestsellers: the April roundup
It’s been a while since we checked out the Jewish bestsellers on Amazon so I thought we’d take a gander at what’s selling.
As usual, the books that make it into Amazon’s ‘Jewish’ categories can leave you scratching your head (Hamlet as the number one Jewish book?) Nevertheless, it’s a worthwhile exercise just to see which books come on and off the lists.
So, without further ado, here are the results of the Amazon category listings sorted according to ‘bestselling’:
Top Ten under Literature and Fiction > World Literature > United States > Jewish American
1. Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum (Hardcover – April 5, 2004)
2. Away: A Novel by Amy Bloom (Hardcover – Aug 21, 2007)
3. Rashi’s Daughters, Book II: Miriam by Maggie Anton (Paperback – Jul 31, 2007)
4. The Book of Dahlia: A Novel by Elisa Albert (Hardcover – Mar 11, 2008)
5. Dawn by Elie Wiesel and Frances Frenaye (Paperback – Mar 21, 2006)
6. Beware of God: Stories by Shalom Auslander (Paperback – Mar 28, 2006)
7. The German Bride: A Novel by Joanna Hershon (Hardcover – Mar 25, 2008)
8. Women’s Minyan by Naomi Ragen (Paperback – Mar 2006)
9. Kabbalah: A Love Story by Lawrence Rabbi Kushner (Paperback – Oct 9, 2007)
10. Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska and Alice Kessler-Harris (Paperback – May 1999)
Top Ten under Literature and Fiction > World Literature > Jewish
1. Hamlet (Shakespeare in Production) by William Shakespeare and Robert Hapgood (Hardcover – May 28, 1999)
2. A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz and Nicholas de Lange (Paperback – Nov 1, 2005)
3. Wiesel’s Night (Cliffs Notes) by Maryam Riess (Paperback – Sep 5, 1996)
4. A Walker in the City by Alfred Kazin (Paperback – Mar 19, 1969)
5. All Rivers Run to the Sea: Memoirs by Elie WIESEL (Hardcover – 1995)
6. The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492 by Peter Cole (Paperback – Jan 2, 2007)
7. Literary Murder by Batya Gur and Dalya Bilu (Hardcover – Nov 1993)
8. Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology by Jules Chametzky, John Felstiner, Hilene Flanzbaum, and Kathryn Hellerstein (Hardcover – Oct 2, 2000)
9. Arabesques by Anton Shammas and Vivian Eden (Hardcover – April 1988)
10. Disguised As Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, And the Creation of the Superhero by Danny Fingeroth and Stan Lee (Hardcover – Oct 22, 2007)
Top Ten under Literature and Fiction > World Literature > Yiddish
1. Tevye the Dairyman and The Railroad Stories (Library of Yiddish Classics) by Sholem Aleichem (Paperback – Oct 1, 1996)
2. Ineffable Name Of God: Poems by Abraham Joshua Heschel and Morton M. Leifman (Hardcover – Dec 2004)
3. The Family Mashber: A Novel by “Der Nister”/”the Hidden One” by Nister and Leonard Wolf (Hardcover – Jun 1987)
4. Yiddish Wisdom: Yiddishe Chochma by Kristina Swarner (Hardcover – Jun 1, 1996)
5. The I. L. Peretz Reader by I. L. Peretz and Ruth Wisse (Paperback – Jun 1, 2002)
6. A Treasury of Yiddish Stories: Revised and Updated Edition by Irving Howe (Hardcover – Dec 20, 1989)
7. The Shtetl: A Creative Anthology of Jewish Life in Eastern Europe by Joachim Neugroschel (Paperback – Jul 29, 2008)
8. A Dybbuk and Other Tales of the Supernatural by Tony Kushner and Joachim Neugrochel (Paperback – Dec 1, 1997)
9. Found Treasures: Stories by Yiddish Women Writers by Frieda Forman, Ethel Raicus, and Sarah Silberstein Swartz (Paperback – Oct 31, 1994)
10. The Last Lullaby: Poetry from the Holocaust (Religion, Theology and the Holocaust) by Aaron Kramer and Saul Lishinsky (Hardcover – April 1998)
Top Ten under Religion and Spirituality > Judaism
1. Passover by Design: Picture-perfect Kosher by Design recipes for the holiday (Kosher by Design) (Kosher By Design) by Susie Fishbein and John Uher (Hardcover – Feb 28, 2008)
2. When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold S. Kushner (Audio Cassette – Sep 4, 2001) – Abridged
3. Arthur Schwartz’s Jewish Home Cooking: Yiddish Recipes Revisited by Arthur Schwartz and Ben Fink (Hardcover – April 2008)
4. The Blessing of a Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children by Wendy Mogel (Paperback – Oct 30, 2001)
5. Thou Shall Prosper: Ten Commandments for Making Money by Rabbi Daniel Lapin (Paperback – Feb 22, 2005)
6. My People’s Passover Haggadah: Traditional Texts, Modern Commentaries Volume 1 by Lawrence A., Rabbi, Ph.D. Hoffman and David, Ph.D. Arnow (Hardcover – Jan 2008)
7. Family Haggadah: A Seder for All Generations by Elie M. Gindi, Lee T. Bycel, Pamela B., M.D. Schaff, and Pamela B. Schaff (Paperback)
8. My People’s Passover Haggadah: Traditional Texts, Modern Commentaries Volume 2 by Lawrence A. Hoffman and David Arnow (Hardcover – Jan 2008)
9. We Plan, God Laughs: Ten Steps to Finding Your Divine Path When Life is Not Turning Out Like You Wanted by Sherre Hirsch (Hardcover – April 1, 2008)
10. A Reader’s Hebrew Bible by A. Philip Brown II and Bryan W. Smith (Leather Bound – Mar 2008)
Biographies & Memoirs › Ethnic & National › Jewish
1. Night (Oprah’s Book Club) by Elie Wiesel (Paperback – Jan 16, 2006)
2. The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition by Anne Frank, Otto M. Frank, Mirjam Pressler, and Susan Massotty (Mass Market Paperback – Feb 3, 1997)
3. The Complete Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman (Hardcover – Nov 19, 1996)
4. The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family’s Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World by Lucette Lagnado (Hardcover – Jun 26, 2007)
5. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl (Hardcover – Mar 30, 2000)
6. Shut Up, I’m Talking: And Other Diplomacy Lessons I Learned in the Israeli Government–A Memoir by Gregory Levey (Hardcover – April 22, 2008)
7. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl (Paperback – Jun 15, 2006)
8. Things We Couldn’t Say by Diet Eman and James Schaap (Paperback – Nov 8, 1999)
9. My Grandfather’s Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging by Rachel Naomi Remen (Hardcover – April 10, 2000)
10. Foreskin’s Lament: A Memoir by Shalom Auslander (Hardcover – Oct 4, 2007)
As always, I welcome your comments.
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