Doris Bass Memorial Library
Doris Bass, a beloved member of Israel Congregation, was a dedicated lover of books and literature. After a long career beginning in the Brooklyn Public Library and progressing to publishing, Doris moved to Vermont in 1996. Her passion for life was contagious and her passing has left us with a large hole in our lives. We have dedicated our extensive library in her memory. Today we are fortunate to have Carmel Furtado and Elizabeth Torak stewarding the library Doris championed.
The Doris Bass Library is currently overwhelmed with books that need to be catalogued and shelved with more coming in all the time and only two part time volunteers to do the work to sort through the donations. We deeply appreciate the huge effort our volunteers, Carmel and Elizabeth, are doing to accomplish this task having found some truly beautiful and special books among the donations received. We want to be able to continue to welcome the donation of engaging and educational books, but we need your help:
- Please box books or tie book donations—pre-approved by the library volunteers—with twine before dropping them off in the office, not in the library.
- If you would like your name or the name of your family member on a book plate in the book, please give us the pertinent information.
- Please consider making a donation to the Merkado Library Fund to help us in our work of making this a more user-friendly place for our congregation.
Thank You!
Join the Doris Bass Book Club!
Start your day off right with a good book. . .
On the 3rd Wednesday of each month Carmel and Elizabeth host lively and engaging conversation about
wonderful books of Jewish interest.
The next meeting of the Doris Bass Book Club is on Wednesday evening, May 15th at 7:00 pm!
Join the club as we meet via Zoom to discuss this month's title.
April/May Reading recommendation
and Book Club title:
Oreo
Oreo is raised by her maternal grandparents in Philadelphia. Her black mother tours with a theatrical troupe, and her Jewish deadbeat dad disappeared when she was an infant, leaving behind a mysterious note that triggers her quest to find him. What ensues is a playful, modernized parody of the classical odyssey of Theseus with a feminist twist, immersed in seventies pop culture, and mixing standard English, black vernacular, and Yiddish with wisecracking aplomb. Oreo, our young hero, navigates the labyrinth of sound studios and brothels and subway tunnels in Manhattan, seeking to claim her birthright while unwittingly experiencing and triggering a mythic journey of self-discovery like no other.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Fran Ross (1935–1985) grew up in Philadelphia. She graduated from high school at 15 and studied Communications, Journalism, and Theatre at Temple University. She moved to New York in 1960 where she worked as a proofreader and journalist. Her novel Oreo was originally published in 1974 during the height of the Black Power Movement of the 60s and 70s. She then moved to Los Angeles to write comedy for Richard Pryor.
In Praise of
Oreo:
"Oreo buzzes with whip-smart comic ferocity. The book is just goddamn funny.— Marlon James, The GuardianSetting out from her black household in Philadelphia to find her deadbeat Jewish father in New York, [Oreo] proceeds through one of the funniest journeys ever, amid a whirlwind of wisecracks in a churning mix of Yiddish, black vernacular, and every sort of English." — Danielle Dutton, The Guardian
"What a rollicking little masterpiece this book is, truly one of the most delightful, hilarious, intelligent novels I’ve stumbled across in recent years, a wholly original work written in a wonderful mashed-up language that mixes high academic prose, black slang and Yiddish to great effect. I must have laughed out loud a hundred times, and it’s a short book, just over 200 pages, which averages out to one booming gut-laugh every other page." — Paul Auster, The New York Times
"Think: Thomas Pynchon meets Don Quixote, mixed with a crack joke crafter. I’m not sure I’ve ever admired a book’s inventiveness and soul more." — John Warner, Chicago Tribune
"Oreo has snap and whimsy to burn. It’s a nonstop outbound flight to a certain kind of readerly bliss. It may have been first published more than 40 years ago, but its time is now." — Dwight Garner, The New York Times
"A brilliant and biting satire, a feminist picaresque, absurd, unsettling, and hilarious … Ross’ novel, with its Joycean language games and keen social critique, is as playful as it is profound. Criminally overlooked. A knockout." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"I’m usually very slow to come around to things. It took me two years to ‘feel’ Wu Tang’s first album, even longer to appreciate Basquiat…but I couldn’t believe Fran Ross’s hilarious 1974 novel Oreo hadn’t been on my cultural radar." — Paul Beatty, The New York Times
"Oreo is one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. To convey Oreo’s humor effectively, I would have to use the comedic graphs, menus, and quizzes Ross uses in the novel. So instead, I just settle for, ‘You have to read this.’" — Mat Johnson, NPR Books
"It’s time for the culture to catch up to Oreo. It’s about a young woman, half-Black, half-Jewish, on a quest to find her absent father, and the sexy humor flies freely from the first pages. Ross’s book is also among the great, joyful American food novels." — Dwight Garner, The New York Times
"Oreo is a wonderfully irreverent story that plays fast and loose with the hero’s journey. Tragically, it’s the only novel Fran Ross ever published." — Ilana Masad,
The Atlantic
Paperback and e-book editions are available from the Northshire Bookstore
Paperback, e-book and audio editions are available on Amazon
Or check out your local library!