New Releases by Howard Schwartz

A little girl grows up to be an accomplished artist in this sumptuously illustrated book about the small things that lead to a rich and fulfilling life. All You need Is a planet to live on, A sun to give you light, And warmth. . . In All You Need, poet Howard Schwartz’s graceful, deceptively simple text describes a handful of things anyone needs to live a rich and fulfilling life, made all the more potent by the illustrations of debut picture book artist Jasu Hu, who uses her talents to create a rich and powerful narrative describing her own journey, creative and otherwise, from a childhood in China to her arrival to study art in New York. Ultimately, she creates her own book, this book, a gift to her distant parents.

Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav (1772-1810) is widely considered to be one of the foremost visionary storytellers of the Hasidic movement. The great-grandson of the Ba''al Shem Tov, founder of the movement, Rabbi Nachman came to be regarded as a great figure and leader in his own right, guiding his followers on a spiritual path inspired by Kabbalah. In the last four years of his life he turned to storytelling, crafting highly imaginative, allegorical tales for his Hasidim. Three-time National Jewish Book Award winner Howard Schwartz has masterfully compiled the most extensive collection of Nachman''s stories available in English. In addition to the well-known Thirteen Tales, including "The Lost Princess" and "The Seven Beggars," Schwartz has included over one hundred narratives in the various genres of fairy tales, fables, parables, dreams, and folktales, many of them previously unknown or believed lost. One such story is the carefully guarded "Tale of the Bread," which was never intended to be written down and was only to be shared with those Bratslavers who could be trusted not to reveal it. Eventually recorded by Rabbi Nachman''s scribe, the tale has maintained its mythical status as a "hidden story." With utmost reverence and unfettered delight, Schwartz has carefully curated A Palace of Pearls alongside masterful commentary that guides the reader through the Rabbi''s spiritual mysticism and uniquely Kabbalistic approach, ultimately revealing Rabbi Nachman to be a literary heavyweight in the vein of Gogol and Kafka. Vibrant, wise, and provocative, this book is a must-read for any lover of fairy tales and fables.

A grandfather introduces his grandson to the Jewish tradition of tikkun olam, a centuries-old concept which proposes that everyone must do their part in order to improve the world.

In Leaves from the Garden of Eden, Howard Schwartz, a three-time winner of the National Jewish Book Award, has gathered together one hundred of the most astonishing and luminous stories from Jewish folk tradition. Just as Schwartz''s award-winning book Tree of Souls collected the essential myths of Jewish tradition, Leaves from the Garden of Eden collects one hundred essential Jewish tales. As imaginative as the Arabian Nights, these stories invoke enchanted worlds, demonic realms, and mystical experiences. The four most popular types of Jewish tales are gathered here--fairy tales, folktales, supernatural tales, and mystical tales--taking readers on heavenly journeys, lifelong quests, and descents to the underworld. There is a dybbuk lurking in a well, a book that comes to life, and a world where Lilith, the Queen of Demons, seduces the unsuspecting. Here too are Jewish versions of many of the best-known tales, including "Cinderella," "Snow White," and "Rapunzel." Schwartz''s retelling of one of these stories, "The Finger," inspired Tim Burton''s film Corpse Bride.

Drawing from the Bible, the Pseudepigrapha, the Talmud and Midrash, the kabbalistic literature, medieval folklore, Hasidic texts, and oral lore collected in the modern era, Schwartz has gathered together nearly 700 of the key Jewish myths. For each myth, he includes extensive commentary, revealing the source of the myth and explaining how it relates to other Jewish myths as well as to world literature --from publisher description

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A collection of essays from Schwartz''s previously published work exploring how each successive phase of Jewish literature has drawn upon and reimagined previous ones and arguing that there is a continuity in Jewish Literature which extends from the biblical era to our own times.

Efforts to reconstruct the reality of a social scene have evolved numerous theoretical and methodological strategies. Qualitative sociology fills the gap in existing literature by providing a comprehensive and detailed treatment of the broad range of non-quantitative methods currently being used in sociological research, with the conceptual rationales for each method. Recognizing the need for a clear, concise discussion of both the theoretical and practical aspects of "reality reconstruction" and "formal sociology," Drs. Schwartz and Jacobs draw on the theories and strategies of Weber, Mead, Blumer, Glaser, Straus, Simmel, Goffman, Schutz, Garfinkel, and Cicourel, among others, to justify, explain, and illustrate: field studies participant observation (ethnography) interviewing life histories and personal accounts the analysis of unobtrusive measures audio-visual techniques methods of studying and subjectivity phenomenology and more Thus, the authors not only describe the various theories and methods, but they add to the reader''s understanding by providing insight into who has used the methods and why, and by evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of each method. They also supplement the text throughout with a collection of case studies which illustrate the kind of substantive work qualitative research can produce. No other available text covers as many methods as are described in Qualitative Sociology. All the methods are examined in an informal, conversational style, making the discussion accessible to the student with no previous knowledge of qualitative theories and practices.

Howard Schwartz, the author of this extraordinary collection of Jewish tales and parables, is one of the most creative, inventive, and inspiring Jewish writers of our generation. When one reads his work, the question arises: what is taken from a primary text and what is invented by the imagination of the author? The answer is a complex one, for as Cynthia Ozick has observed about the writing of Howard Schwartz, ''Each tale is original, yet grow(s) out of the old traditions and tellings.'' Ozick adds that Schwartz is ''under the spell of Jewish dream and legend,'' pointing to the fact that he is a creative vessel: he has poured the tradition into his soul and then, combining the tradition with his own experience and imagination creates new tales of great depth and profundity. Describing his first encounters with the midrashic literature of the Jewish sages as ''a major turning point'' in his life and writing career, Schwartz immersed himself in traditional Jewish literature, including the Bible, the Talmud, and the midrashic collections, as well as kabbalistic and hasidic texts. Schwartz also identifies the writings of Franz Kafka, Jorge Luis Borges, as well as Sufi and Zen parables, as sources of inspiration. As he writes, ''The ancient models served as a living tradition for me,'' and he points to the fact that his tales ''emerged out of the impulse to fuse my own imagination with that of traditional Jewish lore.'' Adam''s Soul: The Collected Tales of Howard Schwartz brings together three collections of the author''s writings. The book begins with a remarkable gathering of individual tales described by Schwartz as using the ''midrashic method,'' as well as being in the tradition of medieval Jewish folktales, hasidic tales, and the writings of I. L. Peretz, S. Y. Agnon, and I. B. Singer. The second part of the book consists of Schwartz''s highly acclaimed collection of stories titled Captive Soul of the Messiah. Based on the life and teachings of the hasidic master Rabbi Nach