A Kosher Dating Odyssey tracks the progress of the author’s jolting changes in belief as he enters the world of dating pre- and post-Internet. Van Wallach is the product of a small-town Texas upbringing, a Princeton education and years of New York City and posh Connecticut living. The stories of his pursuit of romance--from Brooklyn to Brazil and beyond--provide a wry, revealing, and distinctly male perspective on Jewish online dating.

Raised a Southern Baptist, Wallach found himself drawn to his parents’ Jewish heritage and the women who embodied it. To meet the special challenges of online dating, he took a marketer’s approach to packaging his unique background into a memorable screen name and profile. His book explores the highs and heartbreaks of dating the “smart, vulnerable and shtetl-lovely” Jewish women he met and adored after he left Texas. As he follows his muse far afield, he analyzes Jewish body image (his and hers), calculates ROEI (Return on Emotional Investment), identifies the sexiest Jewish movies (hint: his three favorites all have subtitles), engages in edgy encounters with “the competition” in the quest for a fair maidele’s hand, and contemplates the role of Jewish faith in times of difficulties. Part memoir, part how-to, and partly just off-the-wall, A Kosher Dating Odyssey will appeal to anyone who is interested in journeys of both the spirit and the flesh.

Says Wallach, “My oddball background—from Texas to Princeton to New York, Baptist to Jewish—gives me an original perspective on both the dating scene and spirituality. I’m from both the Southwest and the Northeast. As a journalist/essayist, I’ve already written several articles and posts about my journeys and experiences, so I thought, why not pull existing and fresh material into a book? You don’t have to be Jewish or even single to appreciate my stories, which aim to amuse, but also to tap into something universal about the search for faith and love.”

Van Wallach is a writer in Connecticut. A native of Mission, Texas, he holds an economics degree from Princeton University. His work as a journalist has appeared in Advertising Age, the New York Post, The Journal of Commerce, Newsday, Video Store, The Hollywood Reporter, and the Forward. Van has been a regular contributor to the Princeton Alumni Weekly since 1993. He contributed a chapter on home-video economics to the second edition of The Movie Business Book. A language buff, Van has studied Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Yiddish and Hebrew, although he can’t speak any of them. His travels have included Australia, New Zealand, the USSR, Northern Ireland, Mexico, Cuba, El Salvador, Brazil, Israel and the usual parts of Europe. You can find Van online at: wallach.coffeetownpress.com.

A Kosher Dating Odyssey is available in 5x8 trade paperback and Kindle on Amazon.com, the European Amazons, and Amazon Japan. Bookstores, contact info@coffeetownpress.com and Ingram. Libraries may also contact Follett Library Resources or Midwest Library Service.

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