Our blog features essays, book reviews, coverage of FTB titles, and noteworthy news of American Jewish experience by our publisher.
The Rant
Posted on May 27, 2021
The following Guest Blog Post is from a person who has held positions in the industry on the publishing and editing side, and is also an author of both books and essays. You will understand after you read this, why this blog post was written under his pseudonym ‘Anonymous Rex’: As an author, I’ve been […]
Publication of Jacobo’s Rainbow
Posted on May 4, 2021
Fig Tree Books LLC Publishes JACOBO’S RAINBOW The Second Novel From Award-Winning Author David Hirshberg Advance Praise for JACOBO’S RAINBOW: “A beautiful novel set in the past but perfectly, scarily, relevant to our current moment.”—Gary Shteyngart, author of Lake Success “Blending together historical events and wonderfully imaginative settings, David Hirshberg explores the American […]
‘Liking’ and ‘Commenting’ on books on Facebook
Posted on April 22, 2021
This is an excerpt from an email I received from a fellow author. What follows it are some comments from me. “There are seven actions someone can do on Facebook when s/he sees a post about a book: 1. Not read the post. 2. Read it and do nothing. 3. ‘Like’ it. 4. ‘Comment’ on […]
Blog Tour Information for Jacobo’s Rainbow
Posted on April 12, 2021
We’re pleased to announce a Blog Tour for Jacobo’s Rainbow, the new novel from the multiple-award winning author of My Mother’s Son. Reviews, comments, discussions and the like (on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook) will be featured on the following dates in May with the organizations listed in the banner below. Find out why Gary Shteyngart (author […]
Meeting Mozart – Mini Book Review
Posted on April 3, 2021
I can’t get over Meeting Mozart (amzn.to/3llZBrb). This astonishingly wonderful multi-generation novel of Mozart’s librettist, the Jewish born, fallen away Catholic priest, Lorenzo Da Ponte, and his modern-day descendants is an extraordinary thrill ride through the centuries that seamlessly blends fact and fiction, opera and espionage, wars and romance, family and the cruel twists of […]
What should be the Jewish response to ‘Cancel Culture’?
Posted on March 6, 2021
It seems as if we read something new each day about cancel culture — the phenomenon that is about one group or another attempting to take down living or dead people for real or supposed sins committed against individuals or groups. Oftentimes, it’s not just cultural, it’s political. Should we remove statutes of Abraham Lincoln […]
We’re soliciting short stories and essays for Fig Tree Lit, our monthly literary newsletter
Posted on February 15, 2021
We started Fig Tree Books LLC in 2013 with the idea to publish only fiction, but expanded the list to include memoirs — Angela Himsel’s A River Could Be A Tree); and Abigail Pogrebin’s My Jewish Year: 18 Holidays, One Wondering Jew—as well as a non-fiction book: Thane Rosenbaum’s Saving Free Speech … from Itself. […]
Biotech and literary fiction
Posted on January 31, 2021
I’ve reconnected with friends from the past during the pandemic, mostly over Zoom, sometimes over the phone. It’s been a wonderful experience, but I have to confess to one significant regret. I wished I’d kept up with these people years ago, as they are a remarkably talented group of individuals, not simply measured in terms […]
Predictions
Posted on January 18, 2021
We asked a group of our readers what their predictions were about what life would be like for Americans in general and American Jews in particular in 2021. What follows is an amalgamation of their responses, which are, in a word, pessimistic. Question – What is your set of predictions for Americans in general and […]
Anno Horribilis
Posted on December 31, 2020
Well-known cultural anthropologist Wade Davis wrote a provocative article for Rolling Stone in August, titled ‘The Unraveling of America’. You can read it here: http://bit.ly/2Mftf3z. Among other pull-out quotes, this one stands out as the basic set-up of his message: “The COVID pandemic will be remembered as such a moment in history, a seminal event […]