Monday I finally finished marching through Irwing Howe's "World of Our Fathers: The Journey of Eastern European Jews to America and the Life They Found and Made." A long title but then, at 784 pages, it's a hefty book. Reading it took a while. But I was inspired to persevere, drawn through the volume, about the immigrant Jewish experience in the United States over the past century and a half, because of the wealth of detail, Howe's deft writing and relevancy, to me. It was filled with interest and poignancy, then again, it told the story of my family, more or less. And nothing spices up a work than when it reflects your own precious self.
Not your cup of tea? That's okay, and the beauty of reading. You get to curate it for your own passions and taste. You have a different personal story, and different interests, which is why I would direct your attention to the new advertisement running along the left side of everygoddamnday.com's home page that appeared Sunday and will run for the foreseeable future.
It is from Back When Books, an online bookstore that specializes in laser-focused titles about everything from Chicago communities — Park Ridge, Maywood, Lake Bluff, and more — to specific celebrities: Dinah Shore, Robert Young, Jack Benny. There is much old time radio, much that I would call nostalgia. And nowadays who isn't looking back to the past with fondness, if not desperate yearning? Even if that past is the Great Depression and World War II. At least then, the enemy was across the ocean. Not in the house. Not in the seat of power, destroying us from within.
In welcoming their patronage, I'd invite you to click on their ad and take a look around. I don't charge a subscription fee, or rattle the Go Fund Me cup. But just as, at the holidays, I encourage you to patronize Eli's Cheesecake as a way to make their advertising a viable business decision as opposed to mere charity, if you are looking for some diverting reading, I'd ask that you at least give the Back When Books web site two minutes of your time and attention, and see if you can't find a volume that catches your interest. Thank you.
I've read a few of the books that Back With Books have put out. I've found them in other places and kept my reading of them to the south side in particular and Chicago in general as I grew up in Washington Heights and lived in the Beverly area until I retired and moved to the south suburbs. Now knowing the source, I'll look at other communities and topics. Thanks for the heads up!
ReplyDeleteOooo, thank you
ReplyDeleteI happily clicked the link, hoping to find something that would interest me far enough to land in my lap, and not just on my bed side table.
ReplyDeletemy god there are a lot of interesting titles!
Thanks. A nice alternative to Amazon. Many of these neighborhood and suburban histories are available at the glorious Chicago-Main Street Newsstand in Evanston.
ReplyDelete'The Pied Piper of the South Shore' called my name. Thanks for the link.
ReplyDeleteLove the close-up of your dog, Mister S...and the "Kitty" dog tag is a nice touch. Reminds me a lot of the Maltese I had in the 70s. Came from a barn, so his name was Barny.
ReplyDelete"World of Our Fathers" is on my shelf of books about Jews, Judaism, Jewish customs and traditions, the Yiddish language, and Jewish life in Europe and America. Includes my father's old copy of "How We Lived: Immigrant Jews in America, 1880-1930"...also by Irving Howe. Shamefully, I have to admit to never having read either one. They've just grown dusty for twenty-plus years.
My Jewish bookshelf has been my "go-to" place for answers to questions that I have, and has enabled me to answer queries from non-Jewish friends...including wives. Most often, I consult "The Jewish Book of Why", by Alfred Kolatch. Which is exactly what it sounds like. Hundreds of questions and answers. Why is Yom Kippur a fast day? Why are stones left on tombstones? Why is blue a Jewish color? It's all there. And more. Much more.
Your heads-up is much-appreciated. Back When Books is exactly my cup of tea. Which is probably Constant Comment, since I'm on EGD almost every goddamn day. Nyuk nyuk.
We have a dozen crammed bookcases in our small bungalow, counting the built-ins. We are awash in nostalgia for bygone days. Multiple shelves of WWII books. Streetcars and "L" trains. Baseball. Chicago and Cleveland and U.S. history books. Historic years and decades, especially the Twenties through the Sixties. Beatniks. Hippies. Truman. Sinatra. And those are just mine. My wife collects children's books. One shelf has all 38 of the original Nancy Drew titles. And the Boxcar Children series. And books from her kid days, and mine. We've reacquired them, in our second childhoods.
So this website is right up our alley, Mister S, and we will be heading down it.
You can find some real treasures in alleys.
At first, I thought the doggy photograph was one of those forced perspective things.
ReplyDeleteWhich reminds me, what were those drawings that you were supposed to stare at and see another figure in the picture? (I never did)
I examined the bookshelves in the photos, trying to make out titles. Mr S has lots of Thurber and HL Mencken, which is not surprising, but I'll guess the book 'Sox and the city' is an outlier. Also, I'm guessing the bookshelves behind Kitty hold books from the boys' middle school days. There are some valuable books there! And Grizz - it sounds like your collection is valuable, too. I hope those Nancy Drew books are on one of your over-the-doorway shelves, out of casual reach.
ReplyDeleteI found a book on the history of my husband's hometown on the Backwhen website, and will order it as a birthday gift. Thanks for sharing this interesting site, Mr S.
"Sox and the City" is by Richard Roeper. Friends buy friends' books. Kitty is photographed in The Book Bin.
DeleteBingo. That's exactly where they are, Jill. I think it was the first shelf my wife built. Only a couple have dust jackets, so they aren't super-valuable. Some of them are originals from the Thirties, and brown with age, and the pages are like the Dead Sea scrolls.
DeleteThen there are the Forties titles that were printed on "war paper"...the ragstock that was used for civilian printing during WWII. They are brittle and yellowed and fragile.
The rest are Fifties and early Sixties reissues of Thirties and Forties titles, and some original volumes from that same period. Their covers are various shades of blue...hence their name... "The Blue Nancys"...which sounds like a girl band. Some of them might even be worth a buck or two.
What a treasure! thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete