Expectations and planning ahead!

Ten events and 11 authors completed; six events and seven authors to go

By Gayle Dorio, 2021-22 Jewish Book Festival chair

It’s February and, thus far, we have enjoyed 10 events and 11 authors. I hope you’ve been listening, reading and enjoying. We have offered a bit of something for everyone.

This month, we feature our People of the Book event with author Joshua Greene talking about his book, “Unstoppable.” What a way to start February!

We continue with Leah Garrett and her book, “X Troop,” then a double author event, with Jonathan Santlofer, author of “The Last Mona Lisa” appearing with Tracy Walder, who wrote “The Unexpected Spy” (make sure to read Carole Greene’s excellent review of this book on page 3A). We finish February with Jan Cherubin and “The Orphan’s Daughter.”

Our book festival is almost over. One more month and March will see us wrapping it up with two events — Mark Sullivan’s “The Last Green Valley” and Eddie Shapiro’s “A Wonderful Guy.”

Dec. 31 was the deadline to have an article in this issue of the paper — so I am writing this article on Dec. 23. Yes, planning and thinking ahead is necessary and I’m thinking about the adage, “Man plans and G-d laughs!”

The Jewish Book Festival requires constant planning and thinking ahead. Back in June 2021, our committee read many books, debated pros and cons, and maneuvered right and left to select and organize an interesting assortment of books and authors. Several changes had to be made, some at the last minute, testing resiliency and adaptability! So, too, it seems must we change and adapt as the COVID virus appears to change and persist.

We are at the mercy of technology as well. Sometimes the internet is our friend, and sometimes it goes in and out, freezes or just behaves inexplicably. Livestreaming should be easy, we think, until it gives us grief. Getting together shouldn’t be cause for concern, but with so much at stake, we must exercise care. Each person’s comfort level is different and is respected.

I have enjoyed each author and book thus far. One book had an unexpected profound influence on me. I devoured Joshua Jay’s book, “How Magicians Think and Why Magic Matters.” More a book about philosophy and excellence, wonder and astonishment, I learned a great deal. Every chapter starts with a thought-provoking quote. I particularly like this quote by Kurt Vonnegut, “Science is magic that works.”

Near the end of the book, Jay writes, “We live in the age of answers. I grew up in a time when too many conversations ended with unanswered questions. (‘How old is the current president?’ ‘What’s the capital of Paraguay?’) Nobody knew, and the nearest encyclopedia was in the basement. But, thanks to our phones, answers to questions like these are at our fingertips, and videos of unknowable acts are now searchable in seconds on You- Tube. But magic is one of the few things that invokes a question, not an answer…. We hit the button on the microwave and 30 seconds later, abracadabra, our food is hot. But most of us never pause to consider the microwave.”

As I write this, the expectation is that each book event has gone well, that technology has been kind and that you have been staying well and attending these events that we have tried so hard to plan and present for your enjoyment and edification.

I have tried my best to call upon my alter ego, Gloriana the Great – the Greatest Fortune Teller in all the land, to predict the future and make sure all goes well. I hope you are like me, anxious to hear the next author and learn more. I know G-d has a great sense of humor and I hope He hasn’t been laughing too much at the Jewish Book Festival!

Postscript

As you may have heard, due to the COVID omicron variant, our February events are going virtual. This includes the book festival events on Feb. 2, 10, 16 and 25. Maybe G-d was laughing as I wrote after all!