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October Virtual Book Tour for NEVER MEANT TO MEET YOU by Alli Frank and Asha Youmans

“As these neighboring families blend, the authors do a good job exploring the common ground between African American and Jewish experiences: the characters feel like real people with racial and religious identities that inform their world views, but don’t define them…It’s an impressive feat sure to move romance fans and women’s fiction readers alike.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

“A sparkling story of unlikely friendship. Marjette is Black and Noa is Jewish, but they find commonalities between their two cultures while also learning about their differences. Marjette’s light and funny voice carries the book in this complex yet sunny read…a must-buy.” – Booklist

From the authors of Tiny Imperfections comes a riotously funny, emotionally real look at race and religion, love and heartache, and the realities of parenting through it all.

Self-appointed fixer of other people’s woes Marjette Lewis is uncharacteristically determined to keep to her side of the driveway when it comes to her flawless neighbor Noa Abrams. Professionally, Marjette has her hands full as she prepares for a new class of kindergarteners and her first year of teaching without her best friend, Judy, as campus “Black-up.” And at home, her son’s budding manhood challenges her expectations, and her vexing ex-husband continues to be a thorn in her side.

But when tragedy strikes Marjette’s street, and an unexpected child shows up on the first day of school with an uncle who has all the class moms aflutter, Marjette is forced to contend with both her neighbor and her own heartache over losing the life she once thought was guaranteed. Through laughter, tears, and the gift of found family, Marjette and Noa navigate the rituals of loss together and discover the strength to remake their lives—whether they meant to or not.

NEVER MEANT TO MEET YOU is a lively, perceptive read that explores race, religion, privilege, education, love and parenting with humor, joy and grace. Best of all, it will remind you of how healing an unexpected magical friendship can be.

We have a marvelous schedule of bloggers who will share features, post reviews and offer giveaways throughout the month October. Follow along to learn more about the book and perhaps to win a free copy!

Saturday, October 1 – SUZY APPROVED BOOK REVIEWS

Monday, October 3 – THE BOOKISH MOM

Tuesday, October 4 – STACY 40 PAGES

Wednesday, October 5 – DANISH MUSTARD READS

Thursday, October 6 – ANDREA C. LOWRY READS

Friday, October 7 – MRS. BOOM READS

Saturday, October 8 – PURRFECT PAGES

Monday, October 10 – NOVEL GOSSIP

Monday, October 10 – THE READING BLACK GIRLS

Tuesday, October 11 – BRIANA’S BEST READS

Wednesday, October 12 – BOOKAPOTAMUS

Thursday, October 13 – SUE THE BOOKIE

Friday, October 14 – MOMMA LEIGH ELLEN’S BOOK NOOK

Saturday, October 15 – TEE’S BOOK JOURNEY

Monday, October 17 – AIMEE DARS READS

Tuesday, October 18 – LEX WITH THE TEXT

Wednesday, October 19 – OH THE BOOKS SHE WILL READ

Thursday, October 20 – TINA MAY READS

Friday, October 21 – THE BOOK LOVER BOOK CLUB

Monday, October 24 – THE BOOK CLUB MOM

Tuesday, October 25 – EXTROVERTED FOR BOOKS

Tuesday, October 25 – READING FOR THE SEASONS

Wednesday, October 26 – SARAH’S BOOKSTACK

Thursday, October 27 – ANGIE OVER BOOKED

Thursday, October 27 – JESS N BOOKS

Friday, October 28 – BOOKIN IT WITH AHTIYA

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September Virtual Tour for BIG RED: A Novel Starring Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles by Jerome Charyn

“Cinematic and bittersweet…[Charyn] subtly evokes F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ in telling his saga of star-crossed charismatics through the eyes of an all-seeing peripheral figure, an outsider-insider named Rusty Redburn…His novel, with its multiple layers of fiction and fact, resurrects the vanished world it celebrates and explicates it in all its grand illusion.” – Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal

“If you love stories about Hollywood’s golden age, you’ll be swept up by this dazzling fictionalized account of a doomed Tinseltown marriage…Charyn’s obvious affection for his subjects lends humanity and depth to the depictions of personal drama…BIG RED is an unforgettable portrait of American film royalty” ―Apple Book Review, Best Books of August

“Charyn (The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King) plausibly recreates another chapter in American history in this affecting and searing portrait of Silver Screen superstars Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles…Charyn offers rapid-fire dialogue and slapstick action…along with affecting character development. It’s a rewarding paean to some of cinema’s greats.” ―Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“Thanks to Charyn’s lifelong obsession with Welles’ Citizen Kane and fascination with Hayworth’s fragility, readers benefit from a probing analysis of their seminal films while being treated to an intimate, fly-on-the-wall look at a legendary, tumultuous romance.” ―Booklist

“The veteran author’s charm and easy sense of irony further lift this surprisingly affecting book. A novel that transcends concept with its human touches.”  ―Kirkus Review

“Jerome Charyn is an American original.  His prose is scintillant, seemingly without effort or strain, yet unfailingly brilliant & audacious.  In BIG RED the characteristic virtuosity is present – but beneath, a tender, bruised heart.” ―Joyce Carol Oates, author of Blonde: A Novel

“BIG RED is the most entertaining book I’ve read all year. It’s as if Herman Wouk and James Ellroy had a love child, and that love child was given a typewriter at birth. This is a wise, hilarious and very deep look into Hollywood’s ambitions, dreams, and indulgences. I hope Jerome Charyn is already at work on its sequel” ―Brian Koppelman, co-creator and showrunner of Billions

“Jerome Charyn’s movie-love dances like a flame over every page of BIG RED. Like its gloriously outspoken narrator—who never existed but should have—the book is bewitched by cinema and also hard-headed about the crass, exploitative reality of the dream factory. It’s a dazzling romp through old Hollywood, and a fiercely loving effort to set the record straight.” —Sara Imogen Smith, film critic and author of In Lonely Places

It’s 1943. The Germans rule Europe, and the moguls rule Hollywood. Attendance is better than ever. Not even radio can compete with the Saturday matinee. The heart of America has become Hollywood Boulevard. And Rusty Redburn, a feisty lesbian visionary who works as a lowly servant to Harry Cohn at Columbia’s publicity department, lives right on the boulevard at the Hollywood Hotel.

Harry is worried about his biggest star, Rita Hayworth, who has moved in with the “Boy Genius” Orson Welles. He’s never had a star before Rita arrived. He schemes to have Rusty pretend to work as Rita’s private secretary while spying on her. Rusty is far more clever than Harry Cohn. She worships Orson and Citizen Kane. And thus the story begins.

Nothing will last, neither the war, nor Harry Cohn, nor the marriage of Rita and Orson. And it’s Rusty who tells their tale.

BIG RED: A Novel Starring Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles (Liveright/W.W. Norton; 8/23/22) is Jerome Charyn at his very best and promises to consume both Hollywood cinephiles and neophytes alike.

We have a fantastic schedule of bloggers who will share features, post reviews and offer giveaways throughout the month September. Follow along to learn more about the book and perhaps to win a free copy!

September 2 – Reading with Nicole, AND The Book Decoder

September 4 – The Caffeinated Reader

September 6 – Hot Cocoa Reads

September 7 – Rozie Reads and Wine AND Secret Reading Life

September 8 – Sara’s Book Stack

September 9 – The Bookish World of Yrralh

September 10 – The Real Momma Leighellen

September 12 – We Love Big Books and We Cannot Lie

September 13 – Momfluenster AND Bookalong

September 14 – Tina May Reads AND Celtic Lady’s Reviews

September 15 – Nurse Bookie

September 16 – What’s Better Than Books AND Well Read Traveler

September 17 – We Break for Books

September 18 – Books and Coffee Please

September 19 – It’s Bibliotherapy

September 20 – Sue the Bookie

September 21 – Suzy Approved Book Reviews AND The Book Review Crew

September 22 – Lilacs and Literature AND Beth’s Book-Nook

September 23 – Bookphile Belle AND The Book Connection

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Spring Virtual Tour for PILLAR OF SALT:

Spring Virtual Tour for PILLAR OF SALT: A Daughter’s Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust

by Anna Salton Eisen with Aaron Eisen

Anna Salton Eisen is the child of Holocaust survivors and author of an important new book, PILLAR OF SALT: A Daughter’s Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust (Mandel Villar Press Trade Paperback Original; April 26, 2022; $19.95; ISBN: 978-1942134824). Part memoir, part travelogue, PILLAR OF SALT beautifully tells the important story of the second generation, which grows more vital with the aging of the remaining Holocaust survivors. It shares a new understanding of how a child of Holocaust survivors’ identity is shaped. It will be released in time for Yom Hashoah/Holocaust Remembrance Day, which this year falls on April 28, 2022.

Join us April 24th – May 12th for the virtual book tour on behalf of PILLAR OF SALT as we share features, book giveaways, spotlights and reviews.

“Anna Salton Eisen inspires me. Antisemitism and Holocaust denial are real. Quality Holocaust education is necessary. By sharing her family stories and personal journey with honesty and clarity, she illuminates our past and helps us recognize the truth and challenge of the Holocaust.

–Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, Rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas and held hostage in January during an antisemitic attack on his congregation

“Anna Salton Eisen’s important exploration of her Holocaust heritage is about building community, building connection, through history, through your family, through your story.”

–Deb Liu, CEO Ancestry.com

“A true and beautiful story of a daughter’s quest to understand her parents’ haunted past, and to discover … the indissoluble nature of love and family. A powerful and poignant read.”

—Jennifer Rosner,author ofThe Yellow Bird Sings,a National Jewish Book Award Finalist

Sunday, April 24 – Plains Reading

Monday, April 25 – We Break For Books

Tuesday, April 26 – Nurse Bookie

Wednesday, April 27 – Blunt Scissors Book Review

Thursday, April 28 – Rozie Reads and Wine      

Friday, April 29 – The Caffeinated Reader

Saturday, April 30 – Subakka Bookstuff

Monday, May 2 – The Unwined Book Club

Tuesday, May 3 – Sue the Bookie

Wednesday, May 4 – It’s Bibliotherapy 

Thursday, May 5 – Suzy Approved Book Reviews

Friday, May 6 – Vee’s Reading List and Well Read Traveler

Sunday, May 8 – Books and Coffee Mx                                                                                         

Monday, May 9 – Women Writers Women’s Books

Tuesday, May 10 – Reading Through Nap Time

Wednesday, May 11 – Mel Reads All The Things and Mere Words in Arizona

Thursday, May 12 – Girl Who Reads

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Coming May 17, 2022

From the Award-Winning Author of Rashi’s Daughters and 50 Shades of Talmud

Comes a Powerful Romance with a Purpose

The Choice: A Novel of Love, Faith, and the Talmud
by Maggie Anton, author of Rashi’s Daughters, Banot Press, ISBN: 978-0-9763050-3-3, $16.99

It’s Brooklyn, New York, and the year is 1955. Dr. Robert Salk discovers a vaccine for polio. The Dodgers play the Yankees in the World Series. The McCarthy hearings deport communists while the new state of Israel takes shape in the Middle East. Young Rabbi Nathan Mandel hears a knock at the door.

Expecting journalist H. M. Covey, he is shocked to find attractive Hannah Eisin on the other side. Hannah reveals that Covey was her birth name before her father died and her mother married Samuel Eisin. She uses an ambiguous byline because she’s writing for a Yiddish newspaper where female columnists are rare.

After the interview, Hannah convinces Rabbi Mandel to teach her Talmud, something forbidden by Jewish law that could cost him his job if discovered. Things start innocently enough, but soon the gloves come off as “Annie” and “Nate” discover they are passionate about much more than Talmud.

Maggie Anton has written a powerful love story with a purpose: to expose the many ways the Torah and Talmud have been interpreted unfavorably toward women. Anton is fearless in the subjects her characters tackle during their weekly sessions:

  • Niddah & Mikveh. Rules regarding sex and menstruation.
  • The Minyan & The Drash. Why Jewish women are excluded from services.
  • The Shanda of Mesirah. A rabbi refuses to turn a pedophile over to police.

Anyone interested in the role of women in Judaism will find Maggie Anton’s The Choice an unforgettable story that sets the record straight!

ABOUT MAGGIE ANTON:

Maggie Anton is an award-winning author of both fiction and nonfiction and a Talmud scholar with a deep understanding of Jewish women’s history. Her research into the great Jewish scholar Rashi, who had no sons, led to the award-winning trilogy Rashi’s Daughters, followed by a two-book series, Rav Hisda’s Daughter, a National Jewish Book Award finalist and a Library Journal pick for Best Historical Fiction. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

ADAVANCE PRAISE FOR THE CHOICE:

“Maggie Anton gives evocative voice to the generation of our mothers, whose questions and bold solutions, especially about the most intimate of subjects, laid the foundation for the contemporary transformation of women’s status in Jewish learning and law.” —Rabbi Susan Grossman, DHL, Senior Rabbi, Beth Shalom Congregation, Columbia, Maryland, and coeditor of Daughters of the King

“The Choice takes us into the Jewish world of love and learning and the love of learning. One can only be grateful for such an intriguing and engaging work. Maggie Anton’s combination of history, imagination, and feminist reading of classical Jewish texts is impressive.” —Rabbi Laura Geller, Rabbi Emerita, Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills, and coauthor of Getting Good at Getting Older

“Maggie Anton utilizes her characters’ authentic voices to address social justice while still entertaining the reader with an engaging romance.” —Jackie Ben-Efraim, Special Collections Librarian, American Jewish University

“Maggie Anton’s new novel embeds issues concerning the intersection of modernity, belief, and ritual practices within a lively, intellectually engaging romance. . . . Best of all, the romantic relationship of Hannah and Nathan evolves in sync with their scintillating discussions of various Talmudic passages, from both traditional and critical perspectives, leaving us wondering just how much more enriched Jewish life would be today had women been participants in the Talmudic dialectic all along.” —Stuart S. Miller, Professor of Hebrew History and Judaic Studies, University of Connecticut at Storrs, and author of At the Intersection of Texts and Material Finds

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING ABOUT MAGGIE ANTON’S NOVELS:

“True to her mission as a historical novelist, Maggie Anton offers a woman’s take on what has been a mostly male enterprise.” —Jonathan Kirsch, Los Angeles Jewish Journal

“Maggie Anton demonstrates just how sex-positive Judaism is.” —Rabbi Elliot Dorff, Rector and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, American Jewish University

“Anton delivers a tour de force . . . [Readers] will fly through the pages and come away wishing for more.” —Library Journal (starred review)

“A compelling combination of drama, suspense, and romance.”—Lilith magazine

For further information, review copy requests, or to schedule an interview with Maggie Anton, please contact Rachel Tarlow Gul at Over the River Public Relations: rachel@otrpr.com.


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Coming April 26, 2022

PILLAR OF SALT

A Daughter’s Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust

by Anna Salton Eisen with Aaron Eisen

“Anna Salton Eisen’s PILLAR OF SALT is a profoundly moving tale of generational trauma and healing between father and daughter. Through her travels with him to Poland, and her relentless search through personal keepsakes and Nazi archives, she discovers her own history and in doing so grapples with questions in the hearts of all of us. Her writing is straightforward and present, effortlessly whisking the reader along for the journey, into the beast of the past, to emerge into a new light. I am grateful to be working with such wonderful source material as PILLAR OF SALT for a feature length documentary film.” –Jacob Wise, filmmaker of In My Father’s Words (fall 2022, JWise Productions)  

“Anna Salton Eisen’s important exploration of her Holocaust heritage is about building community, building connection, through history, through your family, through your story.”
–Deb Liu, CEO Ancestry.com

As the daughter of Holocaust survivors, Anna Salton Eisen breaks the silence that was intended as a protective shield against the unspeakable past in her new memoir, PILLAR OF SALT: A Daughter’s Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust (Mandel Vilar Press Trade Paperback Original; April 26, 2022; $19.95). A new voice in Holocaust literature, Anna begins this heart-wrenching memoir as she looks back to her own youth when she discovers two hidden watercolor paintings depicting the horrors of the Holocaust and sets out to uncover the truth of her father’s past. Her quest leads her on a journey to unlock a history sealed in silence and buried by time. With her father as her guide, she travels through the picturesque Polish countryside pockmarked by the remnants of former concentration camps and sites of desolate Holocaust memorials. Together with her family, they return to the ghetto where her father’s imprisonment in ten concentration camps over three years began. They also find their way back to his boyhood town and into his childhood home where painful memories exist, but strangers now live. Through her keen observations and open heart, Anna combines the meticulous work of an archaeologist with the compassionate perspective of a daughter.

“Writing PILLAR OF SALT has allowed me to tell the story of looking back and sharing how I was changed and made incredible connections when I took on the legacy of the second generation. I found my father when I tried to help him carry the pain and memories of the Holocaust.” -Anna Salton Eisen

PILLAR OF SALT is a second book for Anna Salton Eisen, who co-wrote The 23rd Psalm: A Holocaust Memoir with her father, George Salton, which will be released in a new expanded edition in Fall 2022 (Mandel Vilar Press).

ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Anna Salton Eisen was a founding member and the first president of Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas. She has conducted extensive research into the Holocaust and spoken on that topic to school and community groups. She served as a docent for the Dallas Memorial Center for Holocaust Studies (now the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum) and conducted Holocaust survivor interviews for the USC Shoah Foundation. Anna is an Ambassador to #everynamecounts, a digital initiative of the Arolsen Archives, the world’s most comprehensive archive on the victims and survivors of Nazi persecution. A licensed social worker, Salton Eisen formerly practiced as a therapist, specializing in mental health and trauma. She lives in Westlake, Texas.

Aaron Eisen is a third-generation Jewish writer. Along with co-authoring PILLAR OF SALT, he is an important part of the upcoming documentary film project, In My Father’s Words. A graduate of the University of Virginia, Aaron is working on a non-fiction book about the impact of the Holocaust on the humanities in contemporary America.

On sale in time for Holocaust Remembrance Day on April 28, 2022.

More praise for PILLAR OF SALT:

“A vividly colored, elegant study of family dynamics as two generations eventually came to terms with a tragic Holocaust past.”

—Richard Breitman, author of The Berlin Mission: The American Who Resisted Nazi Germany from Within

“Navigating her way through the ruins of memory, Anna bears eloquent witness to the scope of the Holocaust that continues to cast its shadow over generations…. Anna found the courage to pen these powerful words [and] we must find the courage to read them and be transformed into witnesses.”

—David Patterson, Hillel A. Feinberg Distinguished Chair in Holocaust Studies, University of Texas at Dallas

“A true and beautiful story of a daughter’s quest to understand her parents’ haunted past, and to discover … the indissoluble nature of love and family. A powerful and poignant read.”

—Jennifer Rosner,author ofThe Yellow Bird Sings,a National Jewish Book Award Finalist

For further information, review copy requests, or to schedule an interview with Anna Salton Eisen, please contact Rachel Tarlow Gul at Over the River Public Relations: rachel@otrpr.com, 201-503-1321.

ISBN 9781942134824, 190 text pages plus 8 pages of photos, artwork, and map, 6 x 9, $19.95

E-ISBN 9781942134831, 190 text pages plus 8 pages of photos, artwork, and map, 6 x 9, $9.99

For more information, visit https://www.mvpublishers.org/.

Individuals can order on Amazon.com, Independent Booksellers at Bookshop.com or at www.mvpublishers.org.

Trade Distribution: Consortium Book Sales and Distribution | 800.283.3572 | Sales.Orders@cbsd.com

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