Foodies, Females and Funnies at the 21st Annual Mandell JCC Jewish Book Festival; Opening Event Thursday, November 7, 2013

Three food-loving authors open the 21st Annual Mandell JCC Jewish Book Festival with “Food & Foodies” on Thursday, November 7, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. The year-long festival includes three more signature author events, children’s events, and book club programs, as well as a new component, Jewish Book Week.

“Food & Foodies” will feature Mark Russ Federman, Allen Salkin, and Louisa Shafia, and will be moderated by Martha Kalen. Federman is the author of Russ & Daughters, Reflections and Recipes from the House That Herring Built  which tells the story of the beloved store on Manhattan’s Lower east Side. Salkin’s book, From Scratch: Inside The Food Network introduces readers to the behind-the-scenes big personalities and drama of the Food Network and its stars. Shafia’s latest cookbook, The New Persian Kitchen brings a healthy perspective to classic Persian recipes while weaving in facts and stories about Persia’s culture and history. Moderator Martha Kalen is a professionally trained chef, businesswoman, and local foodie blogger.

 

Tickets for the November 7, 2013 event are on sale at the Mandell JCC for $20 per person. For tickets, contact the Box Office at 860-231-6316, or visit www.mandelljcc.org.

 

The Mandell JCC Jewish Book Festival continues on Saturday, January 25, 2014 at 8:00 p.m., with Marion Grodin (daughter of actor Charles Grodin), as she discusses her hilarious autobiography and memoir, Standing Up. On Wednesday, March 12, 2014 at 7:00 p.m., join fiction authors Randy Susan Meyers, B.A. Shapiro, and Jessica Soffer at “Can’t Put It Down,” an event moderated by Julia Pistell. The Festival will wrap up with “Fascinating Females” on Thursday, May 8, 2014 at 7:30 p.m., featuring the unique memoirs of authors Mindy Budgor, Tania Grossinger, Lynn Povich, and Lori Rotskoff.

 

 

Extra Chapters

 

The Mandell JCC will host free literary fun for the family at the 4th Annual Great Children’s Read on Sunday, November 10, 2013 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Local personalities will read children’s classics and PJ Library favorites, and the Mandell JCC Youth Theater will perform scenes from Peter Pan. There will also be a family sing-along, arts and crafts, and a children’s book sale in the Chase Family Gallery.

 

The literary world meets the big screen at “Book Meets Film” on Monday, November 11, 2013 at 11:30 a.m., with Jane Weitzman, author of Art & Sole – A Spectacular Selection of More Than 150 Fantasy Art Shoes from the Stuart Weitzman Collection, and the film Dressing America: Tales from the Garment Center.

 

On Wednesday, November 13, 2013 at 7:00 p.m., Roxanne Coady, President and Founder of R.J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, CT., returns to the Mandell JCC to give the inside scoop on her favorite new books at “Hot Buzz About Books and Book Clubs.” This event will feature the hosts of “Books on the Nightstand” literary podcast, Ann Kingman and Michael Kindness. Tickets are $5 per person in advance or $10 at the door.

 

Extra Chapters come to a close with “One Book One Jewish Hartford” on Tuesday, April 8, 2014 at 7:30 p.m., featuring An American Bride in Kabul, by Phyllis Chesler. Tickets for this event is $10.

 

All Jewish Book Festival events take place at the Mandell JCC, Zachs Campus, 335 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford, CT 06117.

 

Signature Events

 

Standing Up featuring Marion Grodin, Saturday, January 25, 2014, 8:00 p.m.

 

The Mandell JCC Jewish Book Festival continues on Saturday, January 25, 2014 with standup comedian Marion Grodin. Grodin’s hilarious autobiography/memoir, Standing Up, shares the details of her Hollywood childhood, teenage years of drugs and sex, and sober adult life on the stand-up circuit. Grodin has written for Twentieth Century Fox, has sold six screenplays, and while working on her seventh screenplay, she decided it was time to start saying all these funny things she was writing for other people to say. For the last fifteen years, Grodin has been one of the hottest standup comics in the country and is a favorite at New York City’s top clubs, including Standup NY and Gotham Comedy Club. Grodin has toured with Linda Ronstadt, and opened for Lewis Black, Judy Gold, and Robert Klein, as has shared the stage with Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Chappelle, Roseanne Barr, and Robin Williams.

 

Grodin has also been seen on NBC’s Late Night with Conan O’Brien, ABC’s The View, and CNN’s The Joy Behar Show. In addition, she worked as The Charles Grodin Show’s comedy producer, and has hosted her own radio show for CBS over a two-year period. In addition to her standup, for the last three years Grodin has been working in the field of philanthropy, raising money for poor and homeless children and their families to receive shelter, and high quality medical care.

 

Can’t Put It Down featuring Randy Susan Meyers, B.A. Shapiro, and Jessica Soffer, Wednesday, March 12, 2014, 7:00 p.m.

 

On Wednesday, March 12, 2014, join Julia Pistell, the Director of Writing Programs at the Mark Twain House and Museum and host of the nationally popular podcast Literary Disco, as she moderates a panel of three authors. Randy Susan Meyers’ highly anticipated second novel, The Comfort of Lies, explores the complications of love and collateral damage of infidelity, as well as universal themes of motherhood, identity, trust, and forgiveness.

 

Randy Susan Meyers, author of the highly anticipated second novel The Comfort of Lies, is a founding member of Beyond The Margins, a multi-writer site dedicated to writing and publishing. She is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post and recently co-authored the guide What To Do Before Your Book Launch with bestselling writer MJ Rose. She teaches writing at the Grub Street Writers Center in Boston.

 

B.A. Shapiro, author of bestselling novel The Art Forger, began her writing career after quitting her high-pressure job after the birth of her second child. In addition to writing six novels, she has taught creative writing at Northeastern University and sociology at Tufts University. She lives in Boston.

 

Jessica Soffer, a Hertog Fellow and recipient of the Bernard Cohen Prize, was a founding editor of The Tottenville Review and her work has appeared in the New York Times, Vogue, and Granta, among other publications. She teaches fiction at Connecticut College and lives in New York City. Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots is Soffer’s debut novel.

 

Mindy Budgor, Tania Grossinger, Lynn Povich, and Lori Rotskoff, Thursday, May 8, 2014, 7:30 p.m.

 

Mindy Budgor, author of Warrior Princess, is a 2012 graduate of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. While working towards her undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin, she started her first business, and now lives and works in New York City. Budgor hopes her novel will empower her readers to take control in their lives and go after what they want.

 

Tania Grossinger, author of Memoir of an Independent Women; An Unconventional Life Well Lived and Jackie and Me; A Very Special Friendship, is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, a freelance writer, and public relations consultant. Her travel articles can be found in newspapers and magazines throughout the country, and she has appeared on The Today show, Good Morning America, 20/20, NPR, and over 150 national, syndicated and local TV and radio shows. She was also travel/lifestyle contributor to Sally Jessy Raphael's TalkNet and is listed in Who's Who of America.

 

Award-winning journalist Lynn Povich began her career at Newsweek as a secretary, where, in 1975 she became the first woman senior editor in the magazine’s history. Since leaving Newsweek in 1991, Povich has been editor-in-chief of Working Woman, managing editor and senior executive producer for MSNBC.com, and a consultant to The New York Times Foundation.

 

Lori Rotskoff obtained her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and went to graduate school in American Studies at Yale, where she earned her Ph.D. in 1999. She has taught undergraduates at Yale and Sarah Lawrence College, and currently offers seminar classes for adults at the Barnard Center for Research on Women. Rotskoff is co-editor, with Laura L. Lovett, of the anthology When We Were Free to Be:  Looking Back at a Children’s Classic and the Difference It Made, and her previous book, Love on the Rocks: Men, Women, and Alcohol in Post-World War II America was named an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice magazine and the American Library Association. Rotskoff’s book reviews have appeared in the Women’s Review of Books, the Chicago Tribune, Brain, Child:  The Magazine for Thinking Mothers, Reviews in American History,  and the Journal of American History.

 

The 2013-2014 Mandell JCC Book Festival is funded by the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford and the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Hartford, and sponsored by Mandell JCC Partners: Saint Francis Care, LAZ Parking, Webster Bank, Brown Brothers Harriman, Fidelity Investments, Max Restaurant Group, Kimberly Boutique, Farmington Bank, Group Insurance Associates, Premier Limo, and Waterford Hotel Group, with the support of The Jewish Book Council, RJ Julia Independent Book Sellers, The Greater Hartford Arts Council, The Jewish Ledger, Mandell JCC Pillars Society and Pacesetters (as of 8/30/13).

 

Tickets and Box Office

 

Tickets to Jewish Book Festival Signature Series events are $20 per person. Series subscription packages include: Series Subscriber PLUS is $100 per person, and includes one ticket to all signature events plus “Book Meets Film,” “Hot Buzz About Books,” and “One Book One Jewish Hartford”; and Series Subscriber for $75 per person, which includes one ticket to all signature events. Tickets are on sale via mail, in person, fax, or online at the Mandell JCC Box Office, 860-231-6316, 860-233-0802 (fax), tickets@mandelljcc.org and at www.mandelljcc.org. Patron and sponsorship opportunities available. The Mandell JCC is located on Zachs Campus, 335 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford, CT 06117. For more information, Jill Ziplow, 860-231-6339, jziplow@mandelljcc.org. For updates, follow the Mandell JCC on Facebook and Twitter.