Best of 2008? Please Don't Bother -- Jack Engelhard

So here we go again. News organizations and what-not trot out the best of the year – also the worst. The worst is easy for anyone who makes these lists.

But I hate these lists. Please don’t tell me what books I should have read, movies I should have seen, or music I should have listened to; I only listened to Beethoven anyway.

So far as world events all I remember is war, right up to this minute. Pick the spot, and there was war or some kind of disturbance. People just don’t get along.

On the domestic front, there was politics, that, and nothing else. I remember something about an election. Right, Barack Obama beat good old what’s his name. I understand, by the way, that Tina Fey, who impersonated Sarah Palin, has been awarded a six million dollar contract to write some kind of book. If you’re not Tina Fey, good luck getting published in that same publishing house. The money’s all gone.

In sports, the Phillies won the World Series for the first time in a thousand years. I forget the team they beat. I only know it was some team from the American League. But I nominate that as THE BEST IN SPORTS, and I do that under duress since my wife, son and daughter are all from Philly.

The Cincinnati Reds are still number one, well, at least in my book. Let’s not forget Michael Phelps at the summer Olympics that were held in China, I think. Great kid, Phelps! A quick word on Jason Lezak, yes, Jason Lezak. Without him, this 32-year-old OLD-TIMER, who so courageously swam the final lap in the 4x100 freestyle relay, Phelps would have been denied his eighth gold medal. No million dollar endorsements for Lezak. That’s life.

My list of the 10 Best Movies of 2008? THE GODFATHER and LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. That’s all I watched.

Now we come to what really annoys me – THE 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2008. Can’t open a newspaper or a website without tripping over some such list, and a few of them even list the ONE HUNDRED BEST BOOKS of 2008. Really? There were a hundred good books written and published this year?

I resent being told what I should have read, what I should have liked. So much of this depends on what the literati deem as the genius of the month, or the year. Usually, in fact, when someone says MUST SEE or MUST READ – those I avoid. Once in a while I get sucked into a MUST READ and am always disappointed.

First of all, every list is different, names different books and different writers. Is reading a subjective activity or what? Actually, everything is subjective. You like vanilla. I like chocolate. Nobody is right about this and nobody is wrong, and sometimes I prefer vanilla; depends on the mood I’m in. As we all know – something these list-makers don’t know – there is no accounting for taste. Also, reading is the most private business we do, along with sex, and I don’t see any respectable newspaper listing THE BEST SEX OF 2008. (If you come across anything like this, let me know.)

But since you asked, my favorite books of 2008 are: John W. Cassell’s CROSSROADS, 1969; Franz Kafka’s THE TRIAL; Richard Matheson’s I AM LEGEND; Lee Server’s AVA GARDNER, LOVE IS NOTHING; Ernest Hemingway’s A MOVEABLE FEAST; Judah Halevi’s THE KUZARI; James M. Cain’s THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE; any short story by Linda Shelnutt about Coal Country – but topping it all is, of course, King David’s Psalms and Ecclesiastes, written by David son, King Solomon. The best of all, naturally, is the Bible. That’s number one. After that, every kind of writing is commentary. Yes, the Bible is the best book written this year, as it was the best book written more than 3,000 years ago.

Isn’t this ridiculous? This list? All lists? Who am I to tell you what’s good and who are you to tell me? There are no experts! In anything!

Remember those “experts” who ran our Economy and were supposed to keep our money safe? They were experts all right.

Okay, I forgot the Economy as perhaps the top event of 2008, meaning, of course, the collapse of our Economy by our TOP 10 ECONOMISTS.

I resent making this list. I resent your making me do this. I resent 2008.

About the author: Jack Engelhard’s latest novel, THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE, now in paperback, places journalism at the center of our war on terror. Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel INDECENT PROPOSAL that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. His can be reached at his website www.jackengelhard.com.

Robert Spencer on THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE (and World War3)

Robert Spencer is a leading authority on Islam. His website http://www.jihadwatch.com/ tells all on a daily basis. His latest book is titled STEALTH JIHAD. His breakthrough book and constant best-seller is titled THE POLITICALLY INCORRECT GUIDE TO ISLAM. Here are his comments on Jack Engelhard’s factual-novel THE BATHSHEBA DREADLINE – perhaps more timely today than ever, keeping in mind what happened in India and what keeps happening all over:

“A rousing thriller about clashing ideals, clashing moral standards, and clashing civilizations, THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE is a page-turner with much more than just entertainment value (although it delivers that in abundance); it is an insightful, courageous look inside the headlines to reveal what we’re facing in our war on terror. Readers will learn more about the global conflict with Radical Islam from THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE than they will from legions of supposedly expert media news analysts. Bravo!” – Robert Spencer.

Ditto remarks from such top rank authors/reviewers as John W. Cassell (“timely-timeless”), Linda Shelnutt (“crisply, brilliantly depicts our deadly world”), Cinnamon Stillwell (“fiction straight out of the headlines”) and Letha Hadady (“a towering literary achievement”) appear on Amazon.com for THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE; likewise Barnes and Noble and other book sellers.

A “Search Inside This Book” option is available from Amazon and Google. The Bathsheba Deadline: An Original Novel

This is World War 3, ladies and gentlemen, only this time we are all on the front lines, from Jerusalem to New York to Mumbai to all points between and beyond. It’s time to quit toying with political correctness. There is no safety in hiding from the truth. It’s time to wake up. Since the jihadist massacre of Americans at the Twin Towers in Lower Manhattan, September, 11, 2001, there have been more than 11,000 terrorist bloodbaths around the world committed by these savages. We can run, but we cannot hide. We can begin to fight back by first knowing the enemy. (Jack Engelhard’s website – http://www.jackengelhard.com/.)

THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE - Gift Idea

The Bathsheba Deadline: An Original Novel Review of Jack Engelhard's THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE (Paperback)
By Cinnamon Stillwell - online columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle

On one hand, a scintillating love triangle based on the biblical story of King David, Uriah and the beautiful and desirable Bathsheba, The Bathsheba Deadline is also a clever and wonderfully perceptive look at contemporary journalism and the post-9/11 political backdrop.

Indeed, political junkies looking for fiction straight out of the headlines need look no further. Engelhard captures a country, and a world, caught up in conflict and haunted by the specter of the unknown. It is a time in which the modern and the ancient all too often collide.

The novel touches on such pertinent political and social issues as the Middle East conflict, the treatment of women under Islam, mixed Jewish and Christian heritage, America and the war on terrorism, and the role of journalism amongst it all. Indeed, the main setting for the novel is a fictional daily newspaper called The Manhattan Independent and its main characters are its managing editor, book editor and a reporter.

Author Jack Engelhard gives much credit to the growing influence of online journalism and the blogosphere, or what he labels in the novel, "Bypass Journalism." Online journalism is in fact starting to supersede print and television and Engelhard knows it.

Seeing as he himself is an accomplished online columnist, as well as the author of previous novels, one of which, "Indecent Proposal," was adapted (after having Arab/Jewish themes erased by Hollywood's political correctness censors) for a film of the same name, his observations are right on the money.

But the book has much more to offer than journalism or politics. Filled with romance, sex, witty banter, philosophical reminiscences, heart stopping thrills, a no-nonsense (and, I might add, sexy) lead man and an ever-alluring femme fatale, The Bathsheba Deadline is an entertaining ride.

It's the kind of novel I found myself nodding in knowing agreement and smiling or sighing in shared sentiment throughout. Beyond the great characters, the elegant writing, and the charming slices of life, it touched on so many issues that I found personally and politically relevant that I couldn't help but be drawn in.

(For more reviews of this book and other Jack Engelhard titles, please visit www.jackengelhard.com. See Works.

Beat Your Wife, Sell Books (V.S.Naipaul) Jack Engelhard

There’s a new book out on the life, loves, sexuality and brutality of V. S. Naipaul, a man who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001.

Is there a Nobel Prize for Wife Beating? If so, Naipaul would have won that, too, easily.

The facts are all in a biography of Naipaul written by Patrick French in which (practically) nothing is hidden and in fact Naipaul wanted it all put down on paper, warts and all – and talk about warts! The man had a wife whom he pushed aside for a mistress and here’s my mistake. He did not beat his wife (not very much) but oh brother, he sure beat his mistress.

The review in the New York Times talks about his hands being sore from all the beatings he gave – never mind the woman from all the beatings she TOOK.

Here’s the clincher. This mistress did not mind getting beaten up because it was all for the sake of LITERATURE.

Naipaul, apparently, needed that sexual violence for his writing.

Why can’t I find a woman like that, huh?

(What's wrong with jogging when you've got all that excess energy to burn? Works for me, mister.)

Times reviewer George Packer tabs Naipaul as “the greatest living English novelist of the past half century.”

Really? I read Naipaul once and didn’t like him much as a writer and now, of course, don’t much care for him as a man. (What’s to like?)

But hey, it works. Mistress-beating turns out great literature; Nobel Prizes for sure.

So that’s why I’m still struggling! I have yet to lay a hand on any of my wives or mistresses.

Frankly, I have not gone shopping for a mistress and I am terrified of my wife. She won’t even let me leave the house before first going through wardrobe inspection – you know, like, “You expect to go out wearing those jeans?” Never mind my pleas – “But honey, I saw Matt Damon on TV wearing jeans with even more holes in them.”

“Those are DESIGNER jeans. They cost twelve thousand dollars.”

“But I earned every one of these holes – and I’m only going up to the 7-11 to buy a paper for crying out loud.”

“Go back and change.”

“Yes, dear.”

See what I mean?

Imagine this guy Naipaul in the same situation. He knows how to handle women, say what?

Listen, there are a million stories about GREAT WRITERS who were nuts and abusive. Yes, we’ve had wife beaters, bigots and anti-Semites.

(Hitler loved dogs and he was a writer, too, you know. How come he never won a Nobel Prize? Fair is fair.)

Did I mention that, according to the review, Naipaul was also a bigot? I skimmed over that part, so taken by his violence for the sake of LITERATURE.

I mean, when you read this review you will be amazed how evil this guy is; what a rotten guy. Yet he is honored and celebrated around the world.

What a world!

Tell you this: I am not tempted to learn anything from him, not on writing, and not on women.

Strangely, (in this strange world) I have never felt the urge to hit a woman, neither wife, mistress, or even the lady behind the counter at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Guys? Oh yes, I’ve had that urge plenty.

My Nobel Prize will have to wait for that day when wife beating and mistress beating are frowned upon.

Meanwhile I’m saving all my violence, sexual and otherwise, strictly for the keyboard, just like this.

About the author: Jack Engelhard’s latest novel, THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE, now in paperback, places journalism at the center of our culture, politics and war on terror. Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel INDECENT PROPOSAL that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. He can be reached at his website http://www.jackengelhard.com/.

Jack Engelhard Bio/Profile

Page to Screen to CANNES-Jack Engelhard's "Escape From Mount Moriah"

(The latest news, as of April 17, 2011)


"My Father, Joe," adapted from my memoir "Escape From Mount Moriah," has been selected for screening at CANNES, Europe's most prestigious Film Festival, equal to the Academy Awards. The date -- May 18. This is quite a coup for the Canadian film-maker, whose "little film that could" has already won numerous other film festival awards worldwide.

The book "Escape From Mount Moriah" has been awarded top prize on EXCELLENCE from the Independent Publishers Association.

What's the book about, as reflected in "My Father, Joe?" It's about a kid who survives Europe's genocide to discover a new continent -- America!

Yes, America, the land of second acts and second chances.

Novelist Jack Engelhard is the author of eight or more books, including the international bestseller "Indecent Proposal," which was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. Engehard's Works can be found on Amazon and on his website www.jackengelhard.com

http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Mount-Moriah-Memoirs-Refugee/dp/0967407486/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1303061925&sr=1-1


Jack Engelhard is an American novelist, born in Toulouse, France. He is best known for his moral dilemma concepts as expressed in such novels as THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE and INDECENT PROPSAL. THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE is an up to date newsroom thriller that takes its cue from the temptation of King David. The critic Letha Hadady has termed this novel "a towering literary achievement."

INDECENT PROPOSAL, originally published in 1988, was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. The novel – “what would you do for a million dollars?” – has earned a place as a cultural phenomenon for its theme of temptation owing to the fame of the book and the subsequent movie. New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin referred to INDECENT PROPOSAL as “powerfully seductive.”

Critics were generally kind, even effusive, about the novel (“Is this book fun to read? You betcha.” – New York Times), but the movie, a box office smash domestically and internationally, was scorned by some critics for alleged political incorrectness. Feminists were especially critical. The work underwent changes from page to screen. As noted in Wikipedia, the movie “shares thematic elements with the novel that inspired it [but] the underlying plot is entirely different.” The novel [as opposed to the movie] is not “merely a game of money but rather an extension of the Arab-Israeli conflict.”

Engelhard’s writings have been praised for their “moral intensity” (author Michael Foster) and his writing style has been acclaimed as “vivid, cool and muscular.” (Philadelphia Inquirer.)

His latest published novel, THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE, is a sexual/political thriller “ripped from the headlines and the Bible.” The novel first appeared as a 12 part serial on Amazon.com – Amazon’s first serialization of a novel. THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE, a newsroom drama that features conflicts within the newsroom as pertains to politics, war and culture, has since been released in paperback. (Engelhard’s personal experiences in the newsroom date back to his newspaper years and to his stint as editor at KYW ALL NEWS RADIO, Philadelphia, the forerunner, and some say the inspiration, for Ted Turner’s round-the clock CNN.)

Engelhard’s other works include THE HORSEMEN, a nonfiction account of thoroughbred racing behind the scenes, ESCAPE FROM MOUNT MORIAH, a memoir of growing up in Montreal as a refugee from Hitler’s France, DEADLY DECEPTION, a novel about a mystical craps shooter, and THE DAYS OF THE BITTER END, which takes place before, during and after November 22, 1963 and, through the art of fact and fiction, tracks the generation that rose and fell with JFK. Much of this novel is focused on a comedian who won fame as JFK’s most right-on impersonator, so that “two Kennedys died that day in Dallas.”

Engelhard recently completed SLOT ATTENDANT, a novel about a bestselling author who falls from grace and finds himself enduring hard times. Jay Leonard, the hero, works as a lowly slot attendant in an Atlantic City casino as he mounts his comeback, which may or may not come. He continues to write, to dream and to fight through a whirlwind of rejections. The first two chapters of this novel appear as an introduction on Engelhard’s website http://www.jackengelhard.com/.

Engelhard, who lives in New Jersey, began his writing career as a journalist. He wrote for a series of newspapers in South Jersey, which led to a 10-year stint as an op-ed columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He has been published in The New York Times, most famously his op-ed humor classic “The Company Man,” published Feb. 6, 1982.

Today, his journalism is syndicated internationally. Alongside the blogs at his own site (http://www.jackengelhard.com/) and at Amazon, his commentaries are carried by israelnationalnews.com and gather.com; he writes a weekly column on politics and culture for the Jewish Times of South Jersey. He often writes about his personal triumphs and failings and of the absurdities that afflict our daily lives. Much of his journalism is picked up by various sources on the Web.

Engelhard, then an infant, escaped the place of his birth, Toulouse, when the Nazis invaded France. The Engelhard family, father, Noah, mother, Ida, sister, Sarah, escaped over the Pyrenees to Spain with the United States a hoped-for destination. However, the doors to America were shut. The family managed to gain entry to Canada, where they lived for some 10 years before finally gaining permanent residence and citizenship in the United States.

Back in France, Engelhard’s father saw the Holocaust coming. At that time in Toulouse, the Engelhards were a wealthy and prominent family. Industrialists, educators, politicians, rabbis, ministers and priests were among their friends. At the invasion, Noah took steps to save his own family through contacts with the French Resistance. He is also credited with saving the lives of many other families whose lives were at risk. All that cost money and when the family came West, they arrived broke.

Jack Engelhard’s ESCAPE FROM MOUNT MORIAH tells the story of a young man, himself, trying to find a place in a New World. Much of it is told with humor. Jack Engelhard, firmly established as an American author, served as an American volunteer in the IDF. He holds a ranking belt in Israeli martial arts, Krav Maga.

Tributes:

For THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE: “A towering literary achievement – we love it, every tense, fascinating minute.” Author Letha Hadady.

For INDECENT PROPOSAL: “Precise, almost clinical language.” The New York Times, Sunday Review.

THE DAYS OF THE BITTER END: “The writing style is out of this world. I know that I’m in the presence of literary genius.” John W. Cassell.

ESCAPE FROM MOUNT MORIAH: “Engelhard’s literary gifts shine.” Literature professor Eugene Narrett.

THE HORSEMEN: “May be the best, sharpest, most vivid portrait of life around the racetrack ever written.” New York Post’s Ray Kerrison writing for National Star.

New Member

Hi -- I'm Jack Engelhard, novelist and journalist. I've just joined the Google blog team so this is just a brief intro. More later -- and feel free, meanwhile, to ck me out at www.jackengelhard.com/

Thanks -- and thank you Google for this opportunity; plus gratitude to all those listening in. Join in any time with your comments.