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Biography/Memoirs

• Pitching My Tent: On Marriage, Motherhood, Friendship, and Other Leaps of Faith (2003)
  Following the enormous success of her two bestselling novels, The Red Tent and Good Harbor, award-winning author Anita Diamant delivers a book of intimate reflections on the milestones, revelations, and balancing acts of life as a wife, mother, friend, and member of a religious community.
  
  Before The Red Tent, before Good Harbor, before and during six books on contemporary Jewish life, Anita Diamant was a columnist. Over the course of two decades, she wrote essays about friendship and family, work and religion, ultimately creating something of a public diary reflecting the shape and evolution of her life -- as well as the trends of her generation.
  
  Pitching My Tent collects the finest of these essays, all freshly revised, updated, and enriched with new material, forming a cohesive and compelling narrative. Organized into six parts, the shape of the book reflects the general shape of adult life, chronicling its emotional and practical milestones. There are sections on marriage and the nature of family ("Love, Marriage, Baby Carriage"); on the ties that bind mother and child ("My One and Only"); on the demands and rewards of friendship ("The Good Ship"); on the challenges of balancing Jewish and secular calendars ("Time Wise"); on midlife ("In the Middle"); and on what it means to embrace Judaism in today's culture ("Home for the Soul").

Fiction

• The Last Days of Dogtown (2005)
  Book  Audio CD  Audio Cassette
  Set on the high ground at the heart of Cape Ann, the village of Dogtown is peopled by widows, orphans, spinsters, scoundrels, whores, free Africans, and "witches." Among the inhabitants of this hamlet are Black Ruth, who dresses as a man and works as a stonemason; Mrs. Stanley, an imperious madam whose grandson, Sammy, comes of age in her brothel; Oliver Younger, who survives a miserable childhood at the hands of his aunt; and Cornelius Finson, a freed slave. At the center of it all is Judy Rhines, a fiercely independent soul, deeply lonely, who nonetheless builds a life for herself against all imaginable odds.
  
  Rendered in stunning, haunting detail, with Diamant's keen ear for language and profound compassion for her characters, The Last Days of Dogtown is an extraordinary retelling of a long-forgotten chapter of early American life.

• Good Harbor (2001)
  Book  Audio CD   Audio Cassette
  Anita Diamant's international bestseller The Red Tent brilliantly re-created the ancient world of womanhood. Diamant brings her remarkable storytelling skills to Good Harbor -- offering insight to the precarious balance of marriage and career, motherhood and friendship in the world of modern women.
  
  The seaside town of Gloucester, Massachusetts is a place where the smell of the ocean lingers in the air and the rocky coast glistens in the Atlantic sunshine. When longtime Gloucester-resident Kathleen Levine is diagnosed with breast cancer, her life is thrown into turmoil. Frightened and burdened by secrets, she meets Joyce Tabachnik -- a freelance writer with literary aspirations -- and a once-in-a-lifetime friendship is born. Joyce has just bought a small house in Gloucester, where she hopes to write as well as vacation with her family. Like Kathleen, Joyce is at a fragile place in her life.
  
  A mutual love for books, humor, and the beauty of the natural world brings the two women together. They share their personal histories, and help each other to confront scars left by old emotional wounds.
  
  With her own trademark wisdom and humor, Diamant considers the nature, strength, and necessity of adult female friendship. Good Harbor examines the tragedy of loss, the insidious nature of family secrets, as well as the redemptive power of friendship.

• The Red Tent (1997, 2007)
  Book  Audio CD  Audio Cassette
  A decade after the publication of this hugely popular international bestseller, Picador releases the tenth anniversary edition of The Red Tent.
   
  Her name is Dinah. In the Bible, her life is only hinted at in a brief and violent detour within the more familiar chapters of the Book of Genesis that tell of her father, Jacob, and his twelve sons.
   
  Told in Dinah's voice, Anita Diamant imagines the traditions and turmoils of ancient womanhood--the world of the red tent. It begins with the story of the mothers--Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah--the four wives of Jacob. They love Dinah and give her gifts that sustain her through childhood, a calling to midwifery, and a new home in a foreign land. Dinah's story reaches out from a remarkable period of early history and creates an intimate connection with the past.
   
  Deeply affecting, The Red Tent combines rich storytelling with a valuable achievement in modern fiction: a new view of biblical women's lives.

Non-fiction

• How to Raise a Jewish Child: A Practical Handbook for Family Life (2000, 2008 release) by Anita Diamant and Karen Kushner
  (Previously named How to Be a Jewish Parent: A Practical Handbook for Family Life)
  
  How can I make the holidays interesting and meaningful to my child?
  
  Should I send my child to a Jewish day school? A Jewish summer camp?
  
  What kind of synagogue is best for my family?
  
  How do I plan a family trip to Israel or add Jewish heritage sites when traveling around the country or around the world?
  
  If you are, or hope to be, a Jewish parent in more than name, you have a lot of decisions to make. So many choices! But you can have no better guide to this wealth of opportunity than Anita Diamant.
  
  The author of popular books on Jewish weddings and baby rituals, Diamant now joins with family therapist Karen Kushner to help you through the next steps. They give creative, practical answers to these and many other questions, provide guidance on how to foster Jewish decision making for children of all ages, describe how to make your home a "Jewish space," and explain the importance of synagogue membership, holiday celebrations, community service, and other family activities.
  
  Diamant and Kushner draw from many sources to describe the practices, customs, and values that go into creating a Jewish home. They combine insights from Jewish tradition with contemporary developmental thinking about how children learn and grow. They provide addresses (including Web sites) where you can find specific information and other resources. And since experience may be the best of all teachers, they share their own and other parents' stories and observations. For Diamant and Kushner, the number-one goal of How to Be a Jewish Parent is to give parents (and grandparents) guideposts to raising joyful children within the rich tradition of the Jewish faith and culture. No Jewish family should be without it.

• The New Jewish Baby Book: Names, Ceremonies, & Customs-a Guide for Today's Families (1988, 2005)
  A complete guide to the customs and rituals for welcoming a new child to the world and into the Jewish community, and for commemorating the joyous event in family life whatever your family constellation. The only book of its kind. Expanded, completely updated and revised.
  
  Includes:

  • Ceremonies to copy for handouts.

  • Special section for interfaith families helps make the celebrations inclusive and joyous for all.

  • New ceremonies for girls, as well as for boys.

• Saying Kaddish: How to Comfort the Dying, Bury the Dead, and Mourn As a Jew (1998)
  Anita Diamant's knowledge, sensitivity, and clarity have made her one of the most respected writers of guides to Jewish life. In Saying Kaddish, she shows how to make Judaism's time-honored rituals into personal, meaningful sources of comfort. Diamant guides the reader through Jewish practices that attend the end of life, from the sickroom to the funeral to the week, month, and year that follow. There are chapters describing the traditional Jewish funeral and the customs of Shiva, the first week after death when mourners are comforted and cared for by community, friends, and family. She also explains the protected status of Jewish mourners, who are exempt from responsibilities of social, business, and religious life during Shloshim, the first thirty days. And she provides detailed instructions for the rituals of Yizkor and Yahrzeit, as well as chapters about caring for grieving children, mourning the death of a child, neonatal loss, suicide, and the death of non-Jewish loved ones.

• Choosing a Jewish Life: A Handbook for People Converting to Judaism and for Their Family and Friends (1997)
  Married to a convert herself, Anita Diamant provides advice and information that can transform the act of conversion into an extraordinary journey of self-discovery and spiritual growth.
  
  Here you will learn how to choose a rabbi, a synagogue, a denomination, a Hebrew name; how to handle the difficulty of putting aside Christmas; what happens at the mikvah (ritual bath) or at a hatafat dam brit (circumcision ritual for those already circumcised); how to find your footing in a new spiritual family that is not always well prepared to receive you; and how not to lose your bonds to your family of origin. Diamant anticipates all the questions, doubts, and concerns, and provides a comprehensive explanation of the rules and rituals of conversion.

• Bible Baby Names: Spiritual Choices from Judeo-Christian Tradition (1996)
  A complete resource for parents-to-be searching for a perfect name for their baby. The Bible provides some of today s most popular names. But, as Bible Baby Names shows, there are many names beyond Adam and Eve! The book offers nearly 1,000 boys and girls names from the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible, each with a:

  • Translation from the original language

  • Citation of where the name appears in the Bible

  • Description of its meaning

For all who want their child s name to be special, spiritual, and full of meaning, Bible Baby Names offers a treasure-trove of choices. A great shower gift!

• Living a Jewish Life: Jewish Traditions, Customs, and Values for Today's Families (1996, 2007)
  Living a Jewish Life describes Judaism as not just a contemplative or abstract system of thought but as a blueprint for living fully and honorably. This new edition builds on the classic guide, which has been a favorite among Jewish educators and students for years. Enriched with additional resources, including online resources, this updated guide also references recent changes in the modern Jewish community, and has served as a resource and guide for non–Jews as well as Jews.
  
  Addressing the choices posed by the modern world, Living a Jewish Life explains the traditions and beliefs of Judaism in the context of real life. It explores the spectrum of liberal Jewish thought, from Conservative to Reconstructionist to Reform, as well as unaffiliated, new age, and secular. Celebrating the diversity of Jewish beliefs, this guide provides information in ways that readers can choose how to incorporate Judaism into their lives.
  
  Readers will learn how to choose the right synagogue, and discover the meaning and significance of lighting Sabbath candles. "Shabbat," "Torah," "kosher," "mitzvah" and other key words are all defined in all of their complex and potent meanings.
  
  On the most basic level, this book explains the essential Jewish vocabulary, but more importantly, LIVING A JEWISH LIFE is a sensitive and comprehensive introduction that reveals the timeless nature of Jewish tradition, rich with history and relevant in the modern world.

• What to Name Your Jewish Baby (1989)

• The New Jewish Wedding (1986, 2001)
  Since its original publication in 1986, The New Jewish Wedding has become required reading, assigned to engaged couples by Conservative, Reform, and Reconstruc-tionist rabbis alike. In this new revision, Anita Diamant, one of the most respected writers of guides to Jewish life, continues to offer step-by-step guidance to planning the ceremony and the party that follows -- from hiring a rabbi and wording the invitation to organizing a processional and hiring a caterer. She also includes:

  • A new chapter focusing on converts, non-Jews, and same-sex couples

  • Essential Web sites

  • All new art, with examples of ketubot, invitations, and other wedding paraphernalia

  • New poems and new translations of the seven wedding blessings

  Complete, authoritative, and indispensable, The New Jewish Wedding is a must-have resource for anyone who wants a wedding that combines spiritual meaning and joyous celebration.

See also:

• Anita Diamant's the Red Tent: A Reader's Guide (2004) by Ann Finding