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Friday November 3, 2006

JCCSF celebrates the written word with book fest

by joe eskenazi

Is your book collection good for more than hurling at household pests? Do newspapers have a more relevant task in your life than lining the bottom of your parakeet’s cage? Simply put, can you read the words on this page?

If you answered yes to all or most of the above questions, the organizers of the San Francisco Jewish BookFest feel you could do worse than spend the day with 30-plus authors at the JCC of San Francisco on Sunday, Nov. 5.

You could do worse budget-wise as well: With the exception of the 11 a.m. keynote speech by E.L. Doctorow (author of “Ragtime” and “World’s Fair”), the event is free.

“There’s a richness and breadth and diversity of subject matter; there really is something for everyone here,” said Barbara Lane, the JCCSF’s director of lectures and literature.

Lane, along with fellow organizer Stephanie Singer — “The Doyenne of Jewish book festivals” as Lane put it — are excited to have a Doctorow in the house, but it doesn’t stop there. Also appearing will be Gary Shteyngart, author of “The Russian Debutante’s Handbook” and “Absurdistan.”

“Talk about hot!” kvells Lane. “He could fill Kanbar Hall on his own.”

Among the other featured authors are Rebecca Goldstein, who penned a book on Spinoza, humorists Jonny Geller and Kevin Smokler in conversation (about Jewish humor, surprisingly enough) and Ranya Idilby, Suzanne Oliver and Priscilla Warner — Muslim, Christian and Jewish mothers who wrote a children’s book together.

Lane herself will be moderating the panel with the authors of “The Faith Club”; the interfaith trio earlier appeared on “The Today Show.”

The festival’s programming “is very broad but at the same time, it’s very deep. And that’s unusual,” adds Lane.

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