Photo by Sean Stratton on Unsplash I was thinking about private and public spaces today. I wrote not long ago that we need to be careful about processing our raw emotions in public, where we can trigger others and contribute to the escalation of general public mayhem. And this new collections adventure felt like blurring the boundaries between the private and the public. Am I adding any value, or just creating more noise? What I realised is that it's not a binary. There's

Image by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash Today I'm thinking, not for the first time, that secular modern science gave up too easily on spirituality. We consigned it to the religious institutions far to early. It is a blaspheme for a serious scientist to suggest things like researching spirituality, and as a consequence, all research of spirituality is done in disciplines and institutions that are not known for their rigorous scientific enquiry. Why does this matter? Because human

Image b y Tim Cooper on Unsplash I've been thinking about marketing lately. I want people to read my book. I want people to read my newsletter, and mostly, I want them to reply to the newsletter and tell me what they think. I'm a lousy marketer--I think--because I much prefer listening over talking. The social media state of people shouting to get attention exhausts me. But I also live in the real world, and I understand that there are people out there who would love my book

Image from Wix Media The internet is full of people’s best books of 2025. I’ve been thinking about what I can contribute to the conversation rather than just a list of my favourites. I’ve become less interested in the kinds of stats  that are meant to prove to the world that I’m worthy (look at me, I’m smart, I read lots). Maybe I’m growing. And so, I bring you the books I think are worth your time if you haven’t read them yet. I take ages to read a book, and I’m very careful

The new cover of In the Blink of an Eye. Translation to English: Galia Vurgan In the circles I run, Yoav Blum needs no introduction. My friends have read all five of his novels. Getting the new Yoav Blum is a no-brainer. He writes a certain brand of sci-fi thriller-mysteries that are grounded in a Tel-Avivian reality that is familiar—almost cosy—to anyone who has lived in urban, secular Israel. His books usually explore a philosophical question through action-packed plots an

Shuck cover. The opening scene of Shuck , a modern gothic horror tale perfect for the Spooky Season, finds Gordon, a retired miner, discovering a tear in the jumper that his wife, Jean, knitted for him before she died in a hit-and-run. Flailing, Gordon runs back, performing clumsy surgery on the jumper in an attempt to preserve Jean’s presence in his life, hanging on to the threads of yarn as if they can keep him from drowning in his grief. As if the jumper can maintain a co

Image from Wix Media September is a convergence of several things for me. I’ve always loved the new school year: there’s nothing like a...

Image from Wix Media Israel was established as a “melting pot”. After the 1948 war, Jews from all over the world arrived in the newly...

Image by Shai Pal on Unsplash When I had the initial idea for Until the Walls Come Down , about a Jewish Israeli woman who discovers...

Cover Design: Matthew Fielder My family story wasn’t something I discovered when I started writing Until the Walls Come Down.  I first...

Not the cake I made for the party, but maybe next year? My love, My, how you’ve grown this year. I was talking about you the other day,...

Red and white dust in the Grand Canyon. Photo: Guy Podjarny When we visited the Grand Canyon, we hiked a little below the rim (a little...

Cross section of a sequoia healing process. Each tiny ring represents a year The trail through Mariposa Grove is no El Capitan. Still, we...

The Grand Canyon, a little below the rim. Photo by Guy Podjarny The Vastness of the Landscape One of the strongest experiences I had...

Spring art at the Bellagio. Photo by Guy Podjarny What surprised me the most about Las Vegas was the abundance of art. I had all kinds of...

American Badlands. Photo credit: Guy Podjarny Driving through the Badlands of the West US, the teenagers listening to music on their...

Photo by Kai Oberhäuser on Unsplash It’s almost a cliché, the starving, struggling artist whose ideas are so outside the mainstream that...

Image by chrismetcalfTV on Flickr I’ve been working with The Artist’s Way for a few years now and recently completed a fourth round (I...

Image from Wix Media Podcasts are now considered a mainstream medium, and it is definitely the way many young people consume media. I’ve...

TL;DR: It’s okay, you don’t have to. In his book, How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read , the French literature professor and...