Book picks similar to
A Life Worth Living: A novel about looking for love and happiness in Israel by Pnina Baim
fiction-middle-east
jewish
judaism
reviews
A Daughter of Two Mothers
Miriam Cohen - 2007
Open this book and you will step into the world of a generation gone, of pre- and post-war Hungarian Jewry, as young Leichu moves between two communities and their divergent lifestyles. This is a gripping story of separation and reunion, of pure faith and acceptance of G-d's will, and of triumph over despair.
Skinny: She was starving to fit in...
Laura L. Smith - 2008
The one thing Melissa doesn't have is a perfect body. But there are ways to fix that. Strict dieting and throwing up can't be all bad, can they? Melissa soon finds the consequences are devastating, but turning back isn't so easy. Will she hear God's voice before it's too late?
Damaged: A Contemporary Romance Box Set
R.R. Banks - 2018
These hot alpha males will have you begging for more.
Book 1 - DamagedI was alone on my mountain.Till Charlotte came...I saved her, but she can't remember her past.And I can't forget mine.Trapped together by the winter storm.But I'll keep her safe and warm.Someone wants to harm her...He doesn't know who he's f*cking with.I'll protect her, no matter the cost. Book 2 - His PropertyThe mafia made me what I am.Men bow down to me. Women submit to me.Harper was supposed to be collateral. Now she's mine.A strawberry blonde virgin with curves that could kill.They want to sell her, but I already own her.They said they're coming for me.I can lose my life. But I won't lose her... Book 3 - ForbiddenOne kiss sealed her submission.I marked her. Possessed her. Taught her.Now that she is carrying my baby...Can I protect the two of them... or will I lose it all?Book 4 - The Wedding ProposalShe's my best friend's little sister.I wanted to protect her in the past, but I f*cked up.Years passed. She's my new secretary.I gave her a proposal. We made a contract.She thinks our marriage has an expiration date...Will the past ruin my future with her and my child? Book 5 - Holiday HeatCristina showed me what I was missing.Now, the holidays will never be the same. Warning: This box-set contains 5 steamy full-length standalone romance novels. Be prepared to be hooked til the very end.
Wage Slave Rebellion
Stephen W. Gee - 2014
It's a world of danger and excitement, and Mazik Kil'Raeus is . . . a door-to-door salesman. Though a skilled spellcaster, Mazik couldn't get a good job out of college, and now he's stuck in a dead-end one he hates. Along with his friends, Gavi Ven'Kalil (waiter at a local bar) and Raedren Ian'Moro (apprentice healer . . . it's not as glamorous as it sounds), Mazik is not happy with the way his life is going. Frustrated with boring work, selfish bosses, and wasting their lives for meager pay, the three friends decide to do something crazy—they're going to become monster-slaying adventurers. Not that it will be easy. With a consortium of powerful guilds determined to keep people like them out, they'll have to wow everyone to make it. That's when they set their eyes on a difficult quest: stopping a group of kidnappers who have been terrorizing their city for months. But when the kidnappers turn out to be acolytes of a power-hungry god, the quest transforms into an explosive battle that rampages across the city. The three friends are in over their heads, and nobody expects them to come out on top. That's an adventure they relish. After all, it's better to risk uncertainty and death now, than to accept mediocrity and die without ever having lived. WAGE SLAVE REBELLION combines the fantasy adventure of The Hobbit with the pulse-pounding combat of a Marvel action movie. It's medieval sword & sorcery meets urban high fantasy, in a tale about refusing to accept limits and living life to its fullest, no matter what anyone else has to say. WHO SHOULDN'T READ THIS BOOK: Anyone who doesn't like stories with drinking, cussing, fighting, or killing likely won't enjoy this book. The main characters are adults, and they live in a dangerous world; they act accordingly. Anyone who prefers their books serious or grimdark may be disappointed. This book has adult themes and situations, but above all else it's intended to be fun. If that doesn't sound like something you would enjoy, this book may not be for you. WHO SHOULD READ WITH BOOK: Anyone looking for an action-packed, fun-filled fantasy adventure. If you enjoy friendly banter, thrilling heroics, and tons of explosions, this book is for you. If you like stories with a certain lightness of tone which eschew angst in favor of punching problems in the face, this book is definitely for you. And if you've ever loathed your job or dreamed about going on adventures with your best friends, this book was written with you in mind. Want behind-the-scenes info, sneak peeks, and to be the first to learn about sequel announcements? Sign up for the author’s email list at www.stephenwgee.com. You’ll get a free prequel short story when you sign up. NOW AVAILABLE: The exciting sequel to WAGE SLAVE REBELLION and the second book in the FIRESIGN series. Join Mazik, Gavi, and Raedren as they continue their adventures in FREELANCE HEROICS.
The Concealed
Sarah Kleck - 2014
Now grown up, she enrolls at Oxford University, where she begins to create a new, stable life.But when she encounters Jared Calmburry, who she later discovers is an orphan with his own tragic history, the equilibrium she was striving for is thrown off. Instantly drawn to this mysterious stranger with the incredible blue eyes, and confounded by the unusual events that occur whenever they meet, Evelyn resolves to investigate further. What she finds will startle her beyond measure: an ancient legacy of magic, a centuries-old secret society, and a foreboding legend with her and Jared at its center. As she follows a cryptic trail, Evelyn will discover clues to her own painful past, answers she hadn’t even been looking for—and a passionate love she cannot resist despite the dangers it brings.
Greyhound
Steffan Piper - 2010
He doesn't exactly understand why, but he accepts it. His mother often seems too emotionally detached to care for him. Her latest boyfriend Dick takes cruel pleasure in mimicking the boy’s stuttering, and wants to live his life without "somebody else's kid" getting in the way. So it's no surprise when they pack his bags to send him away. It is a surprise when they send him alone.Ushered from his Stockton, California home, Sebastien must fend for himself and travel two thousand miles across the country to live with his grandmother and sister in Pennsylvania. Along the way, he learns that sometimes caring, guidance and understanding can come from some unlikely people.Marcus is a man who has been neglected more by society than his family. As a young black ex-con, he is not the epitome of the person most would pick as a chaperone for their child's cross country trip. Yet rather than be held apart by their differences, Marcus and Sebastien are drawn together by the things that make us all alike. As both guide and protector, Marcus imparts his own style of wisdom while showing Sebastien that, despite the darker side of the human condition, people can and do care for one another.Greyhound is the story of the journey taken by a young boy into manhood, and by the reader into his world. Like every trip, there are many stops along the way. But this journey differs in the way young Sebastien arrives at his destination.
Just One Night
Gayle Forman - 2014
Just One Day followed Allyson’s quest to reunite with Willem; Just One Year chronicled the pair’s year apart from Willem’s perspective. Now, back together at last, this delectable e-novella reveals the couple’s final chapter.
West with Giraffes
Lynda Rutledge - 2021
But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he finds himself recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave.It’s 1938. The Great Depression lingers. Hitler is threatening Europe, and world-weary Americans long for wonder. They find it in two giraffes who miraculously survive a hurricane while crossing the Atlantic. What follows is a twelve-day road trip in a custom truck to deliver Southern California’s first giraffes to the San Diego Zoo. Behind the wheel is the young Dust Bowl rowdy Woodrow. Inspired by true events, the tale weaves real-life figures with fictional ones, including the world’s first female zoo director, a crusty old man with a past, a young female photographer with a secret, and assorted reprobates as spotty as the giraffes.Part adventure, part historical saga, and part coming-of-age love story, West with Giraffes explores what it means to be changed by the grace of animals, the kindness of strangers, the passing of time, and a story told before it’s too late.
4th of July, Asbury Park: A History of the Promised Land
Daniel Wolff - 2005
But behind this archetypal small-town landscape lies a complicated past.Starting with the town's founding as a religious promised land, music journalist and poet Daniel Wolff plots a course through 130 years of entwined social and musical history, touching on John Philip Sousa, Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, and Frankie Lymon on the way to the town Bruce was born to run from. Out of the details of local history-the boardwalk in the Gilded Age; the celebrities who passed through, from Stephen Crane to Martin Luther King; sensational murder trials; the birth of Mob control; and a devastating mid-century "race riot"-emerges a universal story of one small town's fortunes. Told with grace and full of fascinating detail, Daniel Wolff's tour across thirteen decades of the Fourth of July in Asbury Park captures all the allure and heartbreak of the American dream reduced to blight and decay, with gentrification as the one hope for a return to its glory days.
Pretty Face
Mary Hogan - 2008
A funny girl. A friend. Nobody's girlfriend. The girl with the pretty face. Hayley wishes she could love living in Santa Monica, blocks from the beach, where every day and everybody is beautiful and sunny. But she just doesn't fit in with all the blond, superskinny Southern California girls who have their plastic surgeons on speed dial. Hayley is smart and witty and has such a pretty . . . face. Translation: Don't even think about putting on a bikini, much less dating superhot Drew Wyler. A bikini will never be flattering, and Drew will never think of her as more than a friend. Just when Hayley feels doomed to live her life in the fat lane, her parents decide to send her to Italy for the summer not for school, not for fat camp, just for fun. It's there, under the Italian sun, that Hayley's vision of herself starts to change. She's curvy, not fat. Pizza isn't evil. And life is so much more than one-size-fits-all. Who knows? Once Hayley sees herself in a new light, maybe the girl with the pretty face will finally find true amore.
Dancing in the Dark
Robyn Bavati - 2010
Ditty Cohen is passionate about ballet--she loves how it feels to stand en pointe, to rise and spin across the room. But her Orthodox Jewish parents want Ditty to focus on the teachings of the Torah and to marry at a young age according to their religious tradition. Although her parents forbid her to take dance lessons, Ditty secretly signs up for ballet and becomes entangled in a web of deceit. As one lie leads to another and another, Ditty knows she must stop dancing, but she can't abandon the one thing that gives her freedom. She begins to question her faith and everything her parents have taught her, realizing just how much is at stake as her two worlds collide.
Mystery at Shadow Lake
B.L. Hoffman - 2011
Spencer and his friends unknowingly cause the events to intensify and become more violent, bringing even more danger to those who haven't yet fled the lake in terror.
Parakeet Princess
Jandy Branch - 2012
She's always been happy to be a Mormon but now, at age sixteen, she's moved to a small town where Mormons are mainstream instead of a minority. It's a shock to her system -- and her love life. Though she doesn't feel like she fits in at her new school, Heather finds friends at the restaurant where she works part-time. Her new friends aren't Mormons. But that doesn't keep some of them from being interested in more than friendship. The most tempting of them is her best friend's twin brother. His name is Wayne and he's got a natural charisma that makes Heather wonder if she'd like to follow him -- no matter where he leads. Guiding her through her growing pains is Heather's older brother's new best friend, Ben. He's an awkward, thoughtful boy who calls Heather "Parakeet" after his family's pet bird. Can Heather overcome her prejudices and Ben's reserve and find romance with him? Or will she take a giant step away from the way of life she's always known and follow Wayne? Set in the early 1990s, the story offers something for young adult readers and for older readers looking to revisit their own high school days.
Worldwalker
Jamie Dalton - 2022
Adalyn’s life as a cook in the king's kitchen, will soon end, when the spirits of the past reach out to her, warning that things are not all as they seem, in the Kingdom of Peiruin. Having long since rid itself of magic, the world has not seen a human with magical power, in five hundred years. Overwhelmed that her life may be forfeit, if her newfound abilities are discovered, Adalyn must find the strength to rise to the challenge of being the only worldwalker. On her quest to hone her magic, Adalyn enlists the help of the secret race of dwarves and elves and discovers she may be the key to saving them all -- or bringing the kingdom a war that’s long overdue.Write toAa