New Books: Lost tribes and cuisines

Tablet Magazine usually has at least one article that Tracing the Tribe really likes and recommends.

The most recent "On the Bookshelf" feature by Josh Lambert offers several new books that readers may find interesting.

Now on my wish list are these three:

Far From Zion: In Search of a Global Jewish Community (William Morrow, October)

The Ten Lost Tribes: A World History (Oxford, September)

Entree to Judaism: A Culinary Exploration of the Jewish Diaspora (URJ, October)

Zion, by journalist Charles London, covers the "wide, wide world of Jews," and London visited Myanmar, Cuba, Bosnia and Iran, writing a "paean to Diaspora and the furthest-flung Jews." $25.99, 320pp.

Lost Tribes, by Zvi Ben-Dor Benite, recounts the myths and theories about where all these Jews went after their exile in 800 BCE. Benite previously wrote about the history of Islam in China. $29.95, 320pp.

Entree - by Dallas food writer Tina Wasserman - covers the range of world Jewish food, likely carried around the world by Jewish merchants and spice traders, as she shares histories and recipes of the great Diaspora communities. 274 recipes and many photographs. $39.95.

Others on Lambert's list will be of interest to researchers of specific localities:

- The Agony of Greek Jews, 1940–1945 (Stanford, October), by Steven B. Bowman - Greece

- Gratitude (St. Martin’s, October), by Joseph Kertes - Hungary

- The Jewish Husband (Europa Editions, September), by Lia Levi - Italy

- The Jade Cat (Overlook, September), by Suzanne Brøgger - Denmark

Read the complete article at Tablet at the link above. Books are great gifts for all sorts of occasions and remember that Chanukah arives early this year!