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Fifty Shades of Talmud #1

It took me about ten days, but I finally finished sending out over 4500 e-blasts announcing my new nonfiction book, FIFTY SHADES OF TALMUD: WHAT THE FIRST RABBIS HAD TO SAY ABOUT YOU-KNOW-WHAT. Since Gmail had a limit of 500 a day, I started getting replies to the first batch as I was sending out the second. Not unexpectedly, I got rejections that certain email addresses were no longer valid, and it appears a sad sign of instability in the Jewish non-profit world that quite a few were for folks who worked in these organizations.

On a good note, I received dozens of speaking invitations, including one for the WRJ Atlantic district’s convention in early November. It now looks like I’ll be heading back to NJ/NY for Jewish Book Month. So if you’re in a Jewish group from that area who’d like me to speak to your members, I’d love to hear from you. Although at the rate it’s taking me to reply to all these emails, you may not hear back right away.

I also got lots of congratulations and “I can’t wait to read it” emails. Amazingly, enough people put their money where their mouths were that Amazon ranked FIFTY SHADES OF TALMUD #1 in Books>Religion & Spirituality>Judaism>Sacred Writings>Talmud. Whohoo! I’m an Amazon best-selling author. Here’s proof.

Now announcing Fifty Shades of Talmud

It's official. My new nonfiction book, FIFTY SHADES OF TALMUD: WHAT THE FIRST RABBIS HAD TO SAY ABOUT YOU-KNOW-WHAT,
is coming out March 24 - just in time for Purim. The award-winning historical novelist's first foray into nonfiction
is likely to leave her fans going OMG, WTF, and even LOL. Please share this post with others.
Want to know more? Here's the website

Prof David Biale of UC Davis, author of Eros and the Jews, praises FIFTY SHADES,
saying: "The only thing more surprising and amusing than Maggie Anton’s book on sex in the Talmud is the Talmud itself.
Anton shows us how the ancient rabbis—no prudes among them!—explored every angle of human sexuality
with humor and insight that feel entirely modern."

Great learning at Limmud NY

Shavua Tov. This week has gone by so quickly that it was Shabbat before I got a chance to blog about the previous Presidents Weekend I spent at Limmud NY [actually it was in Stamford CT]. I have attended many Jewish study retreats over the last 30 years, but I have never learned from such an outstanding group of scholars. It was a pleasure and honor to study from the likes of Avi Weiss, Peter Geffen, and Jeffrey Rubinstein.

But my favorite was Rabba Yaffa Epstein of Pardes, who taught about love in the Talmud as exemplified by several texts about Rabbi Akiva. I was familiar with all of them, so initially I doubted I would hear anything new in Yaffa’s class. But she, answering questions from several other students, including an eighth-grade girl in an Orthodox middle school, pointed out things that shown an entirely new light on the Talmudic discussion. I left in awe of her knowledge and teaching skills.

Shabbat services were also excellent. I particularly appreciated the Renewal Kabbalat Shabbat that had half the room singing and dancing. And Havdalah had the high energy of a rock concert. Even the food was of high quality, especially the eggplant moussaka on Friday night and eggplant rollatini on Saturday. I could go on but I suggest reading this review in the NJ Jewish Standard.

review of Wolf and Lamb

The Wolf and the Lamb by Frederick Ramsay

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Set in 1st-century Jerusalem in the week leading up to Jesus' death, our sleuth Rabban Gamaliel is ordered by Pontius Pilate to solve a murder that implicates the Roman overlord. I enjoyed the earlier two historical mysteries in the series. However, there was too much focus on what was happening with Jesus and not enough on the mystery. I'm sorry but I cannot recommend it, particularly for my Jewish fan base.



View all my reviews

Review of Armadillos

Today I am spending my 66th birthday in transit from Los Angeles to Brooklyn, heading from temperatures in the 80’s to those in the 20’s. Tonight I am having dinner and staying with an old friend and his wife. Old friend indeed, as not only is he several years older than me, but I have known him for over 60 years. His father and mine were business partners, and our families used to vacation together. I was going through my childhood photos recently and found several of us and our siblings together at the beach in dates from 1955-1962. Thanks to modern technology I took pictures of them on my iPhone and emailed them to him, and my sister.

Right now I’m on a JetBlue airplane, 28 minutes from landing at JFK. Thankfully I slept over half the flight, considering that I’ve been on it since 6 am. I spent the rest of the time reading a new English translation of Jacob Dinezon’s 1928 Yiddish novel, Hershele: A Jewish Love Story. As I’ve pointed out before, one perk of being somewhat of a well-known author is that publishers occasionally send me galleys of their new books in hopes that I will like them enough to give them a blurb praising them. I intend to do so for "Hershele," but I need to compose it carefully first.

However, I can provide a review I wrote for Helen Shankman’s "In the Land of Armadillos," which I gladly gave a blurb recommending it highly. Since its pub date was last week, I can now share it and you can now obtain your own copy.

“Populated with monsters and heroes [human and perhaps not], but mostly with ordinary people caught up in horrific events they neither understood nor controlled - this series of intersecting stories drew me in completely, making read them again to find all the connections I missed the first time ["Armadillos" reminded me of "Cloud Atlas" in that way]. Weaving a tapestry of history and fantasy, Helen Shankman has brought us face to face with both the daily humiliations and terrors, and the occasional close calls and acts of goodness, the Jewish population experienced in this Polish village. The writing is literally fantastic, with flashbacks and flash-forwards mixed in so well I marvel at Shankman's literary skills. For those, like me, weary of Holocaust fiction focused on the death camps, this book is something different, focused primarily on the survivors who, coincidently or magically, were painted by a Jewish artist as cafe patrons in a child's room mural in the opening story.”

Latest Talmud book update

As the March 24 pub date for my upcoming nonfiction book [title to be revealed soon] approaches, I am trying to post more updates. So what is new?
1. New websites are up and running. Amazon description is finalized.
2. I received 130 page proofs from the interior designer. In other words, this is a semi-final look inside the book with all the text, quotations, and cartoons laid out as in the actual book. Though printed on 8.5 x 11 inch paper, the printed area is what will appear in the final 5 x 7 inch book.
3. My job is to go over this with a fine-tooth comb to make corrections or any other changes. As long as I don’t alter things too much, especially if what I alter doesn’t require additional pages or a lot of retyping, the schedule won’t be delayed. When I am absolutely, positively, certain of the final version, then I scan the whole thing to a pdf and return it to my editor – BY MONDAY. She and her staff are also going over this for errors and typos as well. That means the final, really final, version should be ready when I return from speaking at Limmud NY over President’s Weekend.
4. That final version will go to the 8 blurbers who have volunteered to read it and hopefully provide some praise I can quote.
5. An e-blast to announce the book is ready. I plan to start emailing them when I return on Feb 15. Since G-mail only permits me to send 500 a day and I have over 4000 contacts, that will take me at least a week. So you should get yours sometime between Feb 16-24.