Occasional Books

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My name is Avi Green. I’ve been a blogger mainly about comics and politics since 2005, and thought I could also try to develop a blog about simpler books and literature too. So, here’s my first try. My email is avigreen2002@yahoo.com and I think comment fields are available here, though this is all new to me. Here’s also a link-in-bio, https://link.me/avigreen for more of my websites.

  • Article about Letters for Life

    Israel National News has a report about a Chabad author who’s published a book titled Letters for Life, about the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s inspirations for Argentina’s president Javier Milei:

    Yenny/El Ateneo, Argentina’s oldest and largest bookstore chain, publishes weekly charts of the top 10 bestselling books in their retail stores across the country. The Spanish edition of Letters for Life, a new book on the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Torah-based advice for emotional wellbeing, surprised the country’s publishing wizards and emerged as #5 on the list. As a result, the book is now being sold in airports and malls across Argentina.

    The book’s popularity follows the increased interest in the Lubavitcher Rebbe caused by Argentina’s philo-Semite president Javier Milei. Milei has visited the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Ohel several times on his trips to New York and speaks of the impact the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s teachings have had on his life.

    More to read at the article link.

  • New entries in Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses series coming later this year

    The BBC recently announced romantasy author Sarah J. Maas, said to have jumpstarted the whole combo-genre, is launching 2 new entries in her fantasy series of A Court of Thorns and Roses:

    Best-selling romantasy author Sarah J Maas, who has sold more than 75 million books worldwide, has announced two new novels in her A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) series.

    The 40-year-old American author announced the publishing of her two new books on Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast on Wednesday evening, telling fans “the story that was finally ready to come out of me was big – really, really big”.

    Her books, which have been published in 40 languages, blend the romance and fantasy genres, and her two latest works will be released in October this year and January 2027.

    Here’s more from Us Magazine:

    Maas explained that it’s going to be “three physical volumes” overall.

    “It’s meant to be read ideally as one massive story as opposed to a trilogy. It’s not a trilogy. Like, arcs aren’t wrapped up,” she added. “There’s gonna be a lot of ACOTAR in a very short time. Eventually, the conclusion will be written … I don’t want anyone to wait any longer.”

    Well I wish her good luck with this. She’s one author in modern times who does seem to remain apolitical, and that’s an important advantage.

  • New book by former hostage of October 7, 2023, Aviva Siegel

    Aviva Siegel, who was kidnapped and held hostage by Hamas during October 7, 2023, has written a new book about the recent history:

    Former hostage Aviva Siegel announces via social media that her book, “The Main Thing is To Wake Up to a New Morning,” written following her November 2023 release from captivity, will hit bookstores on April 8, first in Hebrew, then in English translation.

    Siegel and her husband, Keith Siegel, were taken hostage together from their home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7, 2023, by Hamas terrorists. Aviva Siegel was released in the first Israel-Hamas ceasefire in November 2023, and then joined the struggle for her husband’s release, which came during the next ceasefire, in February 2025.

    “The book is what happened day after day and what I felt and what I did with my feelings and how everyone helped me and how I helped others,” Siegel tells The Times of Israel. “It’s very deep.”

    More at the article.

  • Dan Simmons of Hyperion fame passes away at 77 years

    The sci-fi and history author Dan Simmons, who’d first begun his career over 4 decades ago, passed away at 77 years old:

    Dan Simmons, the author of more than three dozen books, including the famed Hyperion Cantos, has died from a stroke. He was 77.

    Simmons, who worked in elementary education before becoming an author in the 1980s, produced a broad portfolio of writing that spanned several genres, including horror fiction, historical fiction, and science fiction. Often, his books included elements of all of these. This obituary will focus on what is generally considered his greatest work, and what I believe is possibly the greatest science fiction novel of all time, Hyperion.

    Published in 1989, Hyperion is set in a far-flung future in which human settlement spans hundreds of planets. The novel feels both familiar, in that its structure follows Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and utterly unfamiliar in its strange, far-flung setting.

    Simmons clearly has a lot to admire in his resume, but there’s also certain leftist sources who despise him because of a story he wrote 15 years ago:

    His 2011 political thriller ‘Flashback’, however, drew significant criticism. The novel presents a dystopian vision of America’s future, portraying mass immigration, climate change activism, social welfare programmes and foreign policy decisions during Barack Obama’s presidency as forces that lead to national collapse and the emergence of a global Islamic caliphate.

    Responding to the criticism, Simmons noted that the idea behind ‘Flashback’ was not new. He explained that he had already written a short story version in 1991 that imagined a post-Reagan United States. Addressing the backlash, he told an interviewer, “I’ve been called a Nazi. I’ve been called a racist. People who have no idea of my life, what I’ve done, how I’ve worked for civil rights throughout my life, or what my politics have been, and what Democratic candidates I’ve written speeches for … They think I was just going after Obama in the book; well, it used to be Reagan, and if I had waited a few years it would be whoever else would be president.”

    The UK Guardian was noticeably more hostile:

    His 2011 political thriller Flashback, however, was widely criticised as an anti-left rant, imagining a dystopian future where mass immigration, the climate change “hoax”, “socialist entitlement programs” and foreign policy failures under Barack Obama have led to the ruin of America, a “Second Holocaust” and the rise of an Islamic “New Global Caliphate”.

    In response to the criticism, Simmons pointed out he’d written a short story version in 1991 that imagined a post-Reagan US, telling an interviewer: “I’ve been called a Nazi. I’ve been called a racist. People who have no idea of my life, what I’ve done, how I’ve worked for civil rights throughout my life, or what my politics have been, and what Democratic candidates I’ve written speeches for … They think I was just going after Obama in the book; well, it used to be Reagan, and if I had waited a few years it would be whoever else would be president.”

    Well if that’s how they feel, then it’s a good thing Simmons wrote it, considering how bad the situation’s become ever since. This is practically why Israel and the USA have had to go to war against Iran’s tyrants and get rid of all the nuclear weapons they manufactured, a dire issue that’s not going to be resolved overnight.

    Simmons is a writer to admire, and it’s sad he’s gone. I’ll try in time to see if I can buy Hyperion, when it comes to reading sci-fi novels, and also Flashback.

  • Industry’s romance segment has a problem with anti-Israelists

    According to this Forward article, the book industry’s romance division has a serious problem of having been overrun with anti-Israel vermin:

    A bestselling romance novelist is facing backlash from her Jewish readers after hiring an audiobook narrator who previously posted on social media telling Zionists to kill themselves.

    Abby Jimenez’s novel The Night We Met, set to be published next month, features voice actor Zachary Webber as the narrator of the audiobook.

    “If you’re a Zionist and you exist, you should not do that anymore,” Webber posted on his Instagram story in September 2024. “No one likes you and you suck, and go f—ing kill yourself.”

    Webber later apologized on Instagram, writing that his comment was “a poorly-worded joke aimed at a violent settler-colonialist enterprise. I regret any language that suggested otherwise. Fortunately, my anti-Zionist Jewish friends understood it was a joke, and moved on with their beautiful lives.” He did not respond to the Forward’s request for comment.

    Webber, who has a low, gravelly voice and sums up his job as “I READ SEX,” has narrated more than 250 steamy audiobooks, including eight of Jimenez’s. But amid backlash over Webber’s social media comments, Jimenez originally said she would go in a different direction for the audio narration of The Night We Met, a novel about forbidden love between two best friends.

    But earlier this month, Jimenez changed her mind.

    “I know I mentioned that I was going with a male voice actor that I’ve never used before, but I’m going to be really honest with you — the fit wasn’t right,” Jimenez posted in her private readers Facebook group. “We did a day of recording and he just wasn’t Chris. All I could think the whole time was how perfectly Zachary would have captured the tone and personality of this character and at the end of recording Day One, I made the choice to change narrators.”

    Read more at the link, but this is definitely a very sad situation when people like this are littering the industry and caving to using rotten apples for producing their work. Though it does say there’s Jewish writers who’re creating their own stories too, and that’s a good thing.

  • Nora Bussigny’s new book about antisemitism among French leftists/Islamists

    In this Times of Israel article, an investigator named Nora Bussigny tells how she went undercover among anti-Israel movements in France, what she discovered, and it’s now the subject of a new book, Les Nouveaux Antisémites:

    If antisemitism has long plagued France, dating back to the Middle Ages, it’s now metastasizing in new, alarming ways, according to a recently published book by French journalist Nora Bussigny.

    Titled “Les Nouveaux Antisémites” (“The New Antisemites”), it exposes virulent Jew-hatred endemic to many far-left organizations in France, infiltrated by Bussigny as part of a lengthy undercover investigation. Using a false identity, Bussigny uncovered pervasive antisemitism and anti-Zionism, now a common denominator among diverse groups that often disagree on other matters.

    “I saw with my own eyes to what degree Islamists, far-left so-called ‘progressive’ militants and feminist, LGBT and ecological activists are closely linked in their shared hatred of Jews and Israel,” Bussigny told The Times of Israel during a recent interview on Zoom.

    “It’s ironic because historically, the extreme left was fragmented. Many radical groups never got along despite dreaming of a convergence of their struggles. Before October 7, [2023,] I was convinced they could only unify around a common hatred of the police and what it symbolizes for them. But I’ve now seen how their hate for Jews, or rather Zionists, to use their term, is more effective in bringing them together in common cause.”

    […] “During an entire year, I participated, with full discretion, in demonstrations, meetings, online discussions,” she writes. “I investigated university campuses. I applauded next to hysterical crowds glorifying terrorism. I took part in feminist protests and dialogued in municipal facilities with members of an organization [Samidoun] outlawed in many countries for its close, proven links to terrorism. I chanted against ‘genocide’ and for ‘Palestinian resistance’ — obviously armed ‘resistance’ — during demonstrations supposedly defending the rights of women and LGBT people, with no mention of homosexuals being tortured or murdered in the name of Sharia law in the Gaza Strip, governed by Hamas.”

    […] In the book, Bussigny shows how radical anti-Israel groups, including Urgence Palestine, Palestine Vaincra and Samidoun (designated a terrorist organization by several countries), receive political support in France, sometimes public funding and access to municipal facilities where they hold meetings and workshops seeking to radicalize young people.

    It’s definitely telling when local government sources of any kind almost literally allow this, and must we assume Emmanuel Macron’s government is okay with all that too?

    Making “Les Nouveaux Antisémites” more noteworthy is that its author is not only not Jewish, but half Arab-Muslim, adding to the enmity she faces.

    “Since the book came out [in late September], I’ve been the target of death threats, horrible insults and an enormous amount of hate, especially on social media,” said Bussigny, who requires special police protection when appearing at public events. “Part of this hostility is because I’m Franco-Moroccan, and some people treat me as a traitor to the Palestinian cause and an accomplice of Zionists. Those attacking me denounce me as complicit in ‘genocide,’ and some also make baseless accusations that I’m receiving money from Israel.”

    The malice doesn’t stop there.

    “Many bookstores in France have boycotted my book,” she added. “Some have even told customers who tried to order it that they don’t want to order this type of book.”

    Despite this animus, much to the consolation of Bussigny, “Les Nouveaux Antisémites” has been widely acclaimed in the media, is on bestseller lists in France and received the 2025 Prix Edgar Faure award for best political book of the year.

    “For all the negativity, there’s been lots of positive feedback,” said Bussigny, who writes regularly for French publications Le Point, Marianne and Franc-Tireur. “Given how well the book is selling, obviously, many non-Jews are reading it, which is important. I’ve received lots of support.”

    That’s definitely good. But she also warns of what the French communist Jean Luc Melenchon’s party’s up to:

    Citing many individuals by name in the book for their extreme antisemitism and anti-Zionism and their affiliation with nefarious groups, Bussigny devotes an entire chapter to one person in particular, Rima Hassan, a Palestinian, Syrian-born senior member of the left-wing antisemitic La France Insoumise party.

    “Rima Hassan has the potential of becoming France’s [Zohran] Mamdani,” said Bussigny, referring to New York City’s anti-Israel mayor. “She’s succeeded in radicalizing much of [left-wing political party] La France Insoumise. As she’s the most-followed political figure in France on social media, along with Jordan Bardella [of the far-right Rassemblement National], she has tremendous influence. Hassan is obsessed with Jews and is the most dangerous politician connected to antisemitism and Islamism. Today in La France Insoumise, she’s more prominently featured by [party leader] Jean-Luc Mélanchon, who understands her ultra-radical discourse appeals to the young generation.”

    This could have electoral consequences.

    “I worry about what’s happening with Gen Z, those born after 1995, many of whom will be voting for the first time next year in the municipal elections, and then in 2027 in the presidential elections,” Bussigny said. “We could have several Mamdanis in France. He’s called the TikTok mayor for a reason. He was elected in large part thanks to Gen Z voters, and he used his anti-Zionism as a motor for his campaign. What does this mean for our upcoming elections?”

    No doubt, that they’d field candidates of this sort is no accident any more than it was that the Democrats in the USA would put Mamdani into the role he regrettably has now, or even the leftists now running Britain would put Sadiq Khan into his role as mayor of London. This book is an important publication, and congratulations to Bussigny for exposing all these repulsive criminals running amok in France. All concerned must remain vigilant.

  • Danny Burmawi’s book on why Islam is not an Abrahamic religion

    A writer for Israel National News has reviewed a book by Danny Burmawi, a former Muslim from Jordan who converted to Christianity and has since worked with Christian relief movements. His new book is titled “Islam, Israel and the West: A Former Muslim’s Analysis”:

    Danny Burmawi, who grew up Moslem in Jordan, converted to Christianity as a young man and moved to Lebanon where he worked for many years for Christian relief organizations and who also earned a graduate degree in theology, has just the set of skills necessary for analyzing Islam and how it currently impacts Israel and the West. Because of that background he has both an insider’s understanding of Islam, is familiar with its foundational texts in the original Arabic and the culture that Islam has created and is also able to step back and view Islam dispassionately. […]

    But, he posits, Islam’s real innovation was that although ‘Allah remained ultimate in theory …Muhammed became the necessary mediator, interpreter and access point through whom divine will was revealed and enforced.’ Muhammed’s life story and his sayings therefore eclipse the Qu’ran as the sources of religious authority and unlike the Hebrew prophets who are merely messengers, Muhammed’s life itself became the message. As Burmawi explains ‘In Judaism and Christianity the man serves the text. In Islam the text serves the man.’

    Muhammed is uncritically considered the ultimate example of all values. That is why blasphemy laws are so common in the Moslem world, not to protect Allah’s honor, but to protect Muhammed’s. It is also why Moslems often react violently (as in the famous Charlie Hebdo case in France, or by trying to murder the author Salman Rushdie) to criticism of Muhammed. As the example of religious perfection Muhammed is considered beyond criticism. In the Moslem world Jews and Christians are not considered infidels because they deny G-d but because they deny Muhammed. […]

    Islam is not an ‘Abrahamic faith’ like Christianity and Judaism, Burmawi argues, because Islam fundamentally misunderstands core concepts of Christianity and Judaism. Islam ‘invokes the Gxd of the Bible as if he were the same deity but completely misrepresents His character, His covenant and His purposes. Islam borrows the names of figures from Jewish and Christian tradition but empties them of their true identities. It infuses them with a foreign vision that has no organic connection to Israel’s story.’

    That’s definitely eyebrow raising. Read the whole article.

  • Top 10 e-books of 2025 were written by women

    According to People, the top ten e-books – and possibly the top borrowed from libraries – were written mainly by women:

    As we all look back at our reading habits this year, some trends begin to emerge. Fantasy, romance and, of course, romantasy led the pack as the hottest genres readers are picking up, with historical fiction, mystery and thrillers also ranking high on the list. Authors like Rebecca Yarros and Sarah J. Maas are once again heavily featured on best-of lists. According to data from Libby, the leading library reading app, the top 10 most-borrowed e-books of 2025 were all written by female authors.

    “This year’s top-borrowed ebooks and audiobooks highlight the impact of women authors on readers everywhere,” said Jen Leitman, Chief Marketing Officer at OverDrive.

    More on the list of leading books at the link.

  • National Book Awards unsurprisingly makes some very bad choices

    According to this sugary USA Today report, the National Book Awards chose some anti-Israeli and anti-American writings as something to celebrate, sadly enough:

    ‘The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)’ by Rabih Alameddine wins the National Book Award for fiction
    Alameddine’s family saga of a 63-year-old man who lives with his mother in a tiny Beirut apartment took home the coveted fiction prize. Though Alameddine started the speech off on a sobering note reflecting on ICE Agents forcibly detaining immigrants and Palestinian refugee camps (“Sometimes as writers we have to say ‘enough,’”), he ended it with humor, thanking his gastroenterologist for keeping things “moving,” his publishers for conquering the dreaded social media algorithms, and his literary agent, whose bullish nature he compared to a dominatrix.

    And then:

    ‘One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This’ by Omar El Akkad wins the National Book Award for nonfiction
    Journalist Omar El Akkad’s speech after accepting the award for nonfiction garnered some of the loudest applause of the night. “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This” reckons with the West’s role in the war in Gaza.

    “If we are to do this work of language, we have an obligation to stand in opposition to any force, including those enacted by our own governments, that if left unchecked would happily decimate every principle of free expression and connection that we’ve come here to celebrate,” El Akkad said.

    One could say this is the result of book award ceremonies being politicized, and it’s very disappointing regardless that they chose anti-Israeli and anti-American book publications. This is shameful, because it unshockingly ignores what the Islamofascists did wrong, and what illegal immigrants in the USA have done wrong too. Yet it’s no surprise either. So, what good are these award ceremonies when they’ve long become more like platforms for shoddy politics and ideologies? It’d be better if they went out of business altogether based on where they’re going now.

  • Some information about the sexual abuse scandal of “children’s author” Chaim Walder

    Here’s a case of another author, this one from Israel and from the ultra-Orthodox community, Chaim Walder, who was accused of serial sexual abuse of both girls and boys over about a quarter century. He was author of books like “Kids Speak”, and at least 4 years ago, in 2021, the scandal went public, though he committed suicide rather than take responsibility. Here’s one of the articles from the time, which says about the case:

    A Jewish charity working with victims of sexual abuse in the UK has reported a tenfold increase in the number of serious cases it is handling since the crimes of paedophile author Chaim Walder came to light.

    Migdal Emunah, the charity for abuse survivors run by Yehudis Goldsobel, has had up to 100 inquiries since the crimes of Walder (pictured left) were revealed, while 20 past victims came forward requiring advanced assessment and support over the December holiday period alone. The charity said it would typically have seen only one or two during this period.

    Walder was an acclaimed Israeli children’s author, rabbi, therapist, educator and media personality whose 80 books include the Kids Speak series, which has been translated into English and Yiddish.

    Since late December, however, Orthodox Jewish households and schools in the UK have been throwing Walder’s books in the bin, while Jewish bookstores such as Divrei Kodesh in Edgware say its stock of his titles has been cancelled and recalled by Lehmanns, the UK’s biggest distributor of Jewish books, based near the Orthodox community in Gateshead.

    A talk show host and columnist, Walder was one of the Charedi world’s most prominent voices on children’s issues who managed the Center for the Child and Family in the largely Orthodox city of Bnei Brak. He killed himself on 27 December.

    Six weeks earlier, Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz published allegations by several young women that Walder had sexually abused them from as young as 12, one in a hotel in Ramat Gan where he took her to celebrate her having her first period.

    The allegations grew to include sexual assault against both boys and girls, including molestation and rape. Some said he assaulted them while they were under his care as a therapist, often sent to him in a state of mental and financial distress.

    In December, the Safed Beth Din in Israel heard from 22 victims either directly or through their counsellors. Walder refused to appear.

    The rabbis heard a recording of him threatening a victim before she gave testimony and,on 26 December, they found him guilty of molestation and rape.

    And this man, largely due to the culture of silence in many Haredi enclaves, was able to get away with his crimes for many years, with the worst part being that he exploited a family center as a mask for his atrocities. Speaking of which, one of his books was titled “Behind the Mask”. Which he, in a way, was wearing himself.

    As noted, he committed suicide shortly after the special court found him guilty:

    Chaim Walder, an Israeli haredi Orthodox children’s book author who was accused last month of sexual abuse by several teenage girls, was found dead Monday in an apparent suicide.

    His body was found in a cemetery in Petah Tikva, in central Israel, after a passerby heard a gunshot and called police, according to Israeli news reports.

    Walder’s death came a day after the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that a rabbinical court in Safed had heard testimony from 22 young women about alleged abuse at Walder’s hands. The abuse dated as far back as 25 years ago and as recently as six months ago, reported Haaretz, which shook up the Orthodox world last month when it first revealed a smaller set of allegations against Walder.

    Walder, who was 53, had a wildly successful career as a columnist, radio host, teacher, public speaker and most notably, author of the successful children’s book series “Kids Speak.” In addition to his writing, Walder also worked as a therapist and was honored in 2003 with the Israeli prime minister’s “protector of the child” award. Several women accused him of initiating sexual relationships with them when they approached him for counseling, according to Haaretz.

    The accounts of alleged abuse led to an unusually strong reaction within the haredi Orthodox community, which has tended to sweep accusations of bad behavior under the rug rather than publicly oust abusers. After a New York Jewish bookstore, Eichler’s, announced it would no longer sell Walder’s books, which had been required reading in many Orthodox homes, a flood of consequences followed.

    Walder’s longtime publisher, Feldheim Publishers of Nanuet, New York, tweeted that it would remove Walder’s books from shelves while the allegations against him were being investigated. Yated Neeman and Radio Kol Hai, two Israeli news organizations, suspended Walder from his positions at the companies in the wake of the allegations, according to Israeli news site Arutz Sheva. Several prominent rabbinic leaders urged parents to remove his books from their homes.

    One of the articles written about this scandal shortly after the creep committed suicide said it’s suspected that some of the material he wrote in books like Kids Speak may have been taken from his victims. It’s a terrible shame that the book industry had to suffer scandals like this, and a terrible shame how the insular nature of Haredi societies enabled such abuse too. It’s to be hoped both they and the book industry will learn from this abominable case, and for now, it’s good that much of the Haredi community got rid of whatever books they had that he wrote, which are bound to be worthless even years before the scandal came to light.

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