West Bloomfield, MI -- (ReleaseWire) -- 10/22/2014 --In a year in which Andy Cohen looked for a boyfriend at synagogue, offended Barbara Walters on live TV, appeared in a Lady Gaga music video, and fell head over heels in love with a beagle-foxhound mix rescue dog, Bravo Network TV producer and talk-show host Andy Cohen will be among the more than 30 authors at the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit’s 63rd Annual Jewish Book Fair.

The Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit’s 63rd Annual Jewish Book Fair will be held November 5-16, 2014 and will feature leading figures from the arts, entertainment, politics, business, journalism and much more, including an appearance by cartoon editor and a cartoonist at the New Yorker, Bob Mankoff; best-selling author of Jeiwsh literacy, Joseph Telushkin; Journalist, Eddie Shapiro; American-Israeli peace activist who made it his mission to liberate Gilad Schalit, Gershon Baskin; the man behind the story of Leonard Cohen, Liel Leibovitz; Geralyn Lucas follows up her best seller Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy, and TV Producer and host of the smash hit late night show “Watch What Happens Live,” Andy Cohen. The oldest and largest Jewish Book Fair in the country has something for everyone and all ages. Unique to this Jewish book fair is the large selection of Michigan authors who will speak and present their great works on Sunday, November 9th.

Highlights during this year’s Book Fair include:

THE ARTS
Eddie Shapiro: Nothing Like a Dame: Conversations with the Great Women of Music Theater
Tony Award-winner and Troy native Sutton Foster is one of Broadway’s greatest stars. Audra McDonald won five Tony Awards before she was 41. Chita Rivera, born in 1933, still kicks up her heels and sings better than most women one-quarter her age. In Nothing Like a Dame, Eddie Shapiro speaks with 20 leading women from the theatre including Foster, McDonald and Rivera, and tells the remarkable stories of their lives, challenges and greatest shows.

Julie Pincus: Canvas Detroit
Detroit is like a canvas that some find empty and others see filled with color and life and vibrancy. In Canvas Detroit, Julie Pincus and Nichole Christian present exquisite photos and thoughtful narrative from the city’s art scene, ranging from huge murals to sculpture, from paintings in museums to graffiti in alleyways and on doors.

James A. Grymes: Violins of Hope: Violins of the Holocaust – Instruments of Hope and Liberation in Mankind’s Darkest Hour
Deep in a basement in central Tel Aviv there is an extraordinary workshop. The owner is Amnon Weinstein, and his shop is filled with violins that all come with a story. For the past 20 years, Weinstein has been restoring violins of the Holocaust as a tribute to those who died – including 400 of his own relatives. Violins of Hope is the story of one man who remembers and thousands who were lost.

Liel Leibovitz: A Broken Hallelujah: Rock and Roll, Redemption, and the Life of Leonard Cohen
Singers, songwriters, music stars come and go. Not Leonard Cohen. From “Sisters of Mercy” to “Suzanne” to “Hallelujah,” his songs continue to be favorites of the world’s greatest performers and to top the charts. Cohen himself is a man of mystery who has had many loves and identities. Here is the true story of this rock icon.

Ken LaZebnik: Hollywood Digs: Archaeology of Shadows
Jock Mohoney was a native of Iowa, a soldier during WWII and one of Hollywood’s greatest stuntmen, doubling for Gregory Peck and Errol Flynn. He also starred as Tarzan. And then he met a tragic end. Remember film butler Edward Everett Horton? You won’t believe which famous author lived in a cottage behind his house. Paul Newman, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Stewart, Judy Garland, the famous, the infamous and the forgotten – they all had stories. In Hollywood Digs, Ken LaZebnik unearths hidden histories and tells them with wit and compassion, revealing the tragedies, extraordinary moments and surprising facts about life in Hollywood.

AUTOBIOGRAPHIES and BIOGRAPHIES

Bob Mankoff: How About Never – Is Never Good For You? My Life in Cartoons
The first door is marked “2B” and the one next to it is “Not 2B.” The name of the place? “Hamlet’s Duplex.”
Welcome to the humor of Bob Mankoff. The New Yorker cartoonist/cartoon editor has, what he will tell you, is the greatest job in the world. So how did he get it? It starts with a little bit of psychology (his major in college) mixed in with some life with Mom, followed by many memorable adventures. In his book, Mankoff tells how he came to his position, what it was like working with editors William Shawn, Tina Brown and David Remnick, and how to win the New Yorker’s famous Cartoon Caption Contest.

Joseph Telushkin: Rebbe: The Life and Teachings of Menachem M. Schneerson, the Most Influential Rabbi in Modern History
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson described himself as an introvert, yet he was a very public figure who transformed a small group of Lubavitch Chasidim into one of Judaism’s most influential movements. He established schools, homes for the disabled, drug rehabilitation centers and synagogues throughout the world. He also was a polarizing leader who some claim was the messiah. Rebbe offers a fascinating picture of an intriguing man whose influence continues to be great years after his death.

Oliver Horovitz: An American Caddie in St. Andres: Grow Up, Girls, and Looping on the Old Course
Golf’s greatest, from Jack Nicklaus to Tiger Woods, have all played the Old Course. Located in the small Scottish town of St. Andrews, the Old Course is one of the oldest and most famous 18 holes. Right after high school, Oliver Horovitz - a caddie since he was 12 and a golfer sporting a 1.8 handicap – headed off to Scotland and enrolled in the St. Andrews Links Trust caddie trainee program. It was quite a year. From waking up at 4:30 every morning to working with the club’s most famous curmudgeons (aka the veteran caddies), Horowitz doesn’t have it easy at first. But then…the game starts to turn around.

David Greene: Midnight in Siberia: A Train Journey into the Heart of Russia
When NPR host David Greene traveled along the Trans-Siberian Railroad he met up with a group of Russian grandmothers who turn out to be … singers. In fact, garbed in their matching red dresses, scarves and thick white shoes, the women had won second place with “Party for Everybody” at the 2012 Eurovision contest. Greene also spoke with a young entrepreneur fighting bureaucracy, the owner of a carpet company who questions the government, and an orphan with many dreams. Midnight in Siberia is filled with Greene’s interviews with ordinary citizens – men and women who offer a real look at Russia that is far from the typical images of a controlling Vladimir Putin, massive monuments to fallen leaders and dark, dreary apartments.

Andy Cohen: The Andy Cohen Diaries: A Deep Look at a Shallow Year
The tears. The money. The fights. The affairs. The prison sentences. While most homemakers are dealing with the laundry and surviving their teen children, “The Real Housewives” live a life of endless drama, all wrapped in plenty of Botox, hair product and jewelry. One person knows it all too well. Andy Cohen is producer of “The Real Housewives” and host of “Watch What Happens Live,” which means he has seen everything – and so much more. His “Diaries” allow readers to step into his curious, crazy world and experience it all right along with him. From the truth about the most trouble-making “Housewives” to celebrity dish that’s downright weird, Andy Cohen has written a no-secrets barred book about pop culture in the 21st century.

FAMILIES

Deborah Aronson: Where’s My Tushy?
It’s not easy being a tush. And in this cute book for little children, it turns out that all the tushies in one town have finally had enough. Oh, no! Now no one can sit down. Let’s get right to the bottom of this – it’s going to mean trouble! Unless…maybe the tushies will come back?

Dr. Jeffrey London (author) and Howard Fridson (illustrator): The Animals’ Great Football Game
What happens when a bunch of very diverse animals get together to play football? Written by local child psychiatrist Jeff London, with illustrations by Howard Fridson, The Animals’ Great Football Game is for elementary-age children and tells all about the importance of being good sports.

HEALTH and WELLNESS

Dr. Joel Kahn: The Whole Heart Solution: Halt Heart Disease Now with the Best Alternative and Traditional Medicine
Did you know that 75 percent of heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular diseases are preventable, and that the road to good health isn’t paved with just strenuous exercise and a diet of nothing more substantial than celery? In The Whole Heart Solution, America’s Holistic Heart, Dr. Joel K. Kahn offers easy, affordable ideas for combating America’s number one killer: heart disease. (Who could have imagined that simply walking barefoot, for example, could make such a difference?)

Dr. Joel Young: When Your Adult Child Breaks Your Heart: Coping with Mental Illness, Substance Abuse, and the Problems that Tear Families Apart
Parents of young children with mental issues face a world of challenges, but they are not without possibilities. But what happens when older children with serious mental problems refuse to seek help? As adults, they can no longer be forced into care. So what can parents do with a son who is a drug addict or a daughter who is schizophrenic and refuses to take her medicine?
Dr. Joel Young of the Rochester Center for Behavioral Medicine offers guidance, ideas and hope for any family dealing with one of the most painful situations imaginable.

Geralyn Lucas: Then Came Life: Living with Courage, Spirit and Gratitude After Breast Cancer
She survived breast cancer and made it through two C-sections. Now it’s time to face ordinary life, like being the mom of two tweens. Geralyn Lucas was 27 years old and working on the TV show “20/20” when she discovered a lump that was eventually diagnosed as breast cancer, a challenge she outlined in her book Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy. In her latest funny and touching memoir, Lucas discusses how she’s moving past that traumatic time and dealing with the ordinary challenges of the life she never imagined she would have.

Non-Fiction
Gershon Baskin: The Negotiator: Freeing Gilad Schalit from Hamas
In June 2006, Hamas terrorists captured an Israeli soldier named Gilad Schalit. The abduction garnered headlines around the world, and campaigns calling for Schalit’s release continued for five steady years. Why was Schalit allowed to live, and why was he finally freed? Meet Gershon Baskin. An American-Israeli peace activist, Baskin was determined to liberate Schalit. He acted on his own initiative, working behind the scenes, engaged in private meetings and sending secret messages, helping to make it possible for the IDF soldier to finally return home.

Joanne D. Gilbert: Women of Valor: Polish Resisters to the Third Reich
This memorable collection tells the stories of the Jewish and gentile women who risked everything to defy Hitler.

Zieva Dauber Konvisser: Living Beyond Terrorism: Israeli Stories of Hope and Healing
The physical tolls on the victims of a terrorist attack are obvious. But what happens emotionally to those who have survived a horrific suicide bombing? Living Beyond Terrorism contains stories from 48 survivors, and relatives of survivors and victims, all considering how they managed to move from pain and despair to hope.

Ayelet Waldman: Love & Treasure
A group of American soldiers stationed outside Salzburg in 1945 capture a train filled with contraband, from gold watches to fur coats to Shabbat candlesticks. One of the men - Jack Wiseman – is charged with guarding the treasure. Along the way, he meets the beautiful Ilona, who has lost everything in the Holocaust.
Seventy years later, Jack hands a necklace to his granddaughter and asks her to go in search of an unknown woman. Historical fiction at its finest, Love & Treasure is compelling and unforgettable, with a cast of characters including a questionable art historian, a family of singing circus dwarfs and desperate lovers facing choices that will tear them apart.

Barbara Winton: If It’s Not Impossible…The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton
When Nicholas Winton’s wife went into a little-used attic in their home, she never could have imagined what she might find. There, in an old box, she discovered papers that told an incredible story about her husband, Nicholas Winton. Working with only a handful of friends, Nicholas Winton had been able to save the lives of more than 600 Jewish children during the Holocaust. If It’s Not Impossible recounts the extraordinary story of this quiet, modest man.

Daniel Gordis: Menachem Begin: The Battle for Israel’s Soul
He was the Israeli prime minister who signed the Camp David Accords in 1979, establishing peace (however shaky) with Egypt. Menachem Begin also was a fervent Zionist and an outspoken leader dedicated to bringing all Jews to their homeland (he put full efforts into saving Soviet Jews and ordered the evacuation of Ethiopian Jews to Israel). He called for Israel’s bombing of a nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981. And he liked formality, rarely leaving his home without being garbed in a suit. Daniel Gordis has written a compelling biography of a complex man who passionately loved Israel.

Annabelle Gurwitch: I See You Made an Effort: Compliments, Indignities, and Survival Stories from the Edge of 50
There he is – Mr. Dreamboat. Working at the Genius Bar. Of course he’ll be interested in a middle-woman, right? Or how about your trip to the department store, where the cosmetics consultant presents you with a huge collection of creams for those pesky, but prevalent, wrinkles. I See Your Made an Effort is comedian Annabelle Gurwitch’s wonderfully amusing collection of essays about life after 50. Witty and honest, these are enough to make middle age look fun – almost.

For a complete list of authors, dates and times please visit http://www.jccdet.org/bookfair.

The 63rd Annual Jewish Book Fair will include presentations at both JCC campuses, 6600 W. Maple Road in West Bloomfield and 15110 W. Ten Mile Road in Oak Park. For a complete list of authors, dates, and times visit http://www.jccdet.org/bookfair. Most events are free and open to the public for those events that need tickets contact the box office at http://www.theberman.org or call the box office at (248) 661-1900.