My New Book: “Oh No! Did My Family Screw Up the Middle East Peace Process? A Reunion Memoir”
Looking back, I see that my last blogpost, “Whose Memoriam, When?” is dated June 2, 2026, and that in it, I reposted a tale of learning that I’d been reported dead, back in 2016.
The reason I haven’t posted on this blog platform since then is, I’ve been writing a book that uses this very experience as a jumping off point, and now, this new book is finished. It’s entitled, Oh No! Did My Family Screw Up the Middle East Peace Process? A Reunion Memoir. It’s not a long book, only eighty-four pages; about 18,000 words. Here is a description:
CONFRONTING FAMILY HISTORY, CHALLENGING RELIGIOUS FEAR & SILENCE
A reluctant college-reunion attendee, Andrew Laties navigates overlapping pasts: personal, family, world-historical. In thirty-six hours and one-hundred-eighty years, forgotten family and rediscovered friends support his refusal to stay silent about injustice. Filled with surprising historical narratives and inspiring characters, Oh No! Did My Family Screw Up the Middle East Peace Process? attempts to empathetically untangle the roots of the Israel/Palestine conundrum. An essential read for everyone striving for justice and peace.
Today I uploaded my manuscript to Ingram Spark, which is the self-publishing platform I use. I should have proof copies in about a week. As I’ve just explained to one of the other writers in this Shut Up and Write group where I’m writing at this moment, Ingram Spark is a free platform. You just have to learn the skills, and your work will be available for sale on every retail site online. Also, brick and mortar bookstores can obtain copies at a standard retail discount.
This isn’t the fastest I’ve ever written a book – that honor belongs to my dream journal, called Which Way Up Is This? As I told people at the time, that book “wrote itself,” since it was a compilation of texts I’d created upon waking up each morning, over the course of a few years.
But this new book definitely was written very fast. I’m glad to have it finished. This is a book I want to be able to hand to certain people and, instead of having an argument, just say to them: Read this. You do not understand what I am saying. You think you know what I’m saying, but actually, you are projecting onto me. Please, read this.
Also, I guess this book is for "Jews for a Free Palestine" advocates to hand to people blindly supporting Israel, with whom they sincerely wish to communicate.
So, it’s not only for me; it’s for others to use too. That’s why I’m publishing it—making it a public text, although it is personal.
To quote my book:
“A book creates a community of readers. Every reading is different, and different readers utilize that same text to talk with each other, learn about themselves, and engage in personal transformation. Books have the power to influence a society’s worldview. As eras pass, people read the same book in light of today’s news and interpret it afresh. In the presence of a stable text: readers themselves change over time.”
Are you interested in reading this book and giving me your thoughts? Here is a link to the manuscript, stored on the bookstore’s Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V0FncLR9AV4CEt2jjG5JI4laD8at74Ev/view?usp=drive_link
You can email me at sales@bookandpuppet.com
Thanks!
