April 3, 2009
Amazon bestsellers: A springtime roundup
We have not done this in a long while so let’s take a look at what’s popular in the Jewish categories on Amazon.
As I’ve stated before, please keep in mind that Amazon chooses which books to place in which categories. That said, there are some that probably don’t belong in the Judaism category. For
example, there appear to be Jewish-themed books aimed at Christian audiences in the ‘Judaism’ category. So, Amazon’s not perfect. Who is?
Nonetheless, I like to keep tabs on what people are reading. If you’re interested also, check out the lists below.
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 (Paperback – Jun 24, 2008)
3. Everything Is Illuminated: A Novel by Jonathan Safran Foer (Paperback – Sep 30, 2008)
4. Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska and Alice Kessler-Harris (Paperback – May 1999)
5. The Book of Dahlia: A Novel by Elisa Albert (Hardcover – Mar 11, 2008)
6. The Saturday Wife by Naomi Ragen (Paperback – Oct 14, 2008)
7. Rashi’s Daughters, Book II: Miriam: A Novel of Love and the Talmud in Medieval France by Maggie Anton (Paperback – Jul 31, 2007)
8. Beware of God: Stories by Shalom Auslander (Paperback – Mar 28, 2006)
9. Kabbalah: A Love Story by Lawrence Rabbi Kushner (Paperback – Oct 9, 2007)
10. Dawn by Elie Wiesel and Frances Frenaye (Paperback – Mar 21, 2006)
Top Ten under Literature and Fiction > World Literature > Jewish
1. A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz and Nicholas de Lange (Paperback – Nov 1, 2005)
2. Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number (The Americas) by Jacobo Timerman, Arthur Miller, Ilan Stavans, and Toby Talbot (Paperback – Aug 30, 2002)
3. A Journey to the End of the Millennium – A Novel of the Middle Ages by A. B. Yehoshua (Paperback – Jun 15, 2000)
4. All Rivers Run to the Sea: Memoirs by Elie WIESEL (Hardcover – 1995) – Import
5. The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature (The Biblical Resource Series) by John Joseph Collins (Paperback – April 1998)
6. Writing in the Dark: Essays on Literature and Politics by David Grossman and Jessica Cohen (Hardcover – Sep 30, 2008)
7. Mr. Mani by Abraham B. Yehoshua (Hardcover – Feb 9, 1992)
8. Yehuda Amichai: The Making of Israel’s National Poet (Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry Series) by Nili Scharf Gold (Hardcover – Sep 30, 2008)
9. Lilith’s Cave: Jewish Tales of the Supernatural by Howard Schwartz (Paperback – Dec 12, 1991)
10. Jewish Literature Between The Bible And The Mishnah, with CD-ROM, Second Edition by George W. E. Nickelsburg (Paperback – Oct 2005)
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. Great Works of Jewish Fantasy by Joachim Neugroschel (Hardcover – Feb 8, 1986)
3. The Family Mashber: A Novel by “Der Nister”/”the Hidden One” by Nister and Leonard Wolf (Hardcover – Jun 1987)
4. The Shtetl: A Creative Anthology of Jewish Life in Eastern Europe by Joachim Neugroschel (Paperback – April 28, 2009)
5. Rabbi Nachman’s Stories by Aryeh Kaplan (Hardcover – April 1985)
6. The I. L. Peretz Reader by I. L. Peretz and Ruth Wisse (Paperback – Jun 1, 2002)
7. The Dybbuk and Other Writings by S. Ansky by S. Ansky, David G. Roskies, and Golda Werman (Paperback – Sep 1, 2002)
8. A Dybbuk and Other Tales of the Supernatural by Tony Kushner and Joachim Neugrochel (Paperback – Dec 1, 1997)
9. A Treasury of Yiddish Stories: Revised and Updated Edition by Irving Howe (Hardcover – Dec 20, 1989)
10. Ineffable Name Of God: Poems by Abraham Joshua Heschel and Morton M. Leifman (Hardcover – Dec 2004)
To
p Ten under Religion and Spirituality > Judaism
1. The Kosher Sutra: Eight Sacred Secrets for Reigniting Desire and Restoring Passion for Life by Shmuley Boteach (Hardcover – Jan 6, 2009)
2. Thou Shall Prosper: Ten Commandments for Making Money by Rabbi Daniel Lapin (Paperback – Feb 8, 2005)
3. A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Armstrong, Karen) by Karen Armstrong (Hardcover – Mar 2, 2004)
4. When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold S. Kushner (Audio Cassette – Sep 4, 2001) – Abridged
5. The Blessing of a Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children by Wendy Mogel (Paperback – Oct 30, 2001)
6. The Battle for God by Karen Armstrong (Hardcover – Mar 7, 2000)
7. Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith by Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg (Hardcover – Mar 1, 2009)
8. Survival In Auschwitz by Primo Levi (Hardcover – Aug 20, 2007)
9. Solomon’s Key: The CODIS Project A Conspiracy Thriller (Solomon’s Key) by R. Doulgas Weber and James S. Rollins (Kindle Edition – Sep 3, 2008) – Kindle Book
10. A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 by W. Phillip Keller (Paperback – May 1, 2007) – Large Print
Biographies & Memoirs › Ethnic & National › Jewish
1. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl (Hardcover – Mar 30, 2000)
2. Night (Oprah’s Book Club) by Elie Wiesel (Paperback – Jan 16, 2006)
3. Anne Frank Lb by Anne Frank (Hardcover – Oct 3, 1967)
4. Hunting Eichmann: How a Band of Survivors and a Young Spy Agency Chased Down the World’s Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb (Hardcover – Mar 11, 2009)
5. 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)
6. Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman (Paperback – Aug 12, 1986)
7. My Father’s Paradise: A Son’s Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq by Ariel Sabar (Hardcover – Aug 21, 2008)
8. Maus II: A Survivor’s Tale: And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman (Paperback – Sep 1, 1992)
9. The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father’s Nazi Boyhood by Mark Kurzem (Paperback – Aug 26, 2008)
10. The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers by Harry Bernstein (Paperback – Feb 12, 2008)
As always, I welcome your comments.
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