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For the 16th straight year, Congregation Neve Shalom invited a group of authors to discuss and read selections from their recently published works as part of the annual Book & Author Event on Sunday, Jan 24.

Featured this year were Allan Appel, author of "The Hebrew Tutor of Bel Air"; Betsy Carter, author of "The Puzzle King"; Michael Aaron Rockland, author of "Stones"; and David Sax, author of "Save the Deli: In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of Jewish Delicatessen".

Appel, whose novel chronicles the story of two young Jews in Los Angeles during the summer of 1963, read a passage about his protagonist's stubborn determination to have her plastic surgeon perform a "reverse Jewish nose job" on her and enlarge her currently petite one.

Having grown up the son of a gambler in Los Angeles, Appel said that his own personal experiences dealing with class in the Jewish community has led him to write about "people on the Jewish margins."

"We were the only family in Los Angeles who were not upwardly mobile," he said.

Carter read from her third book, which also drew upon her own story, albeit a few generations removed.

"The Puzzle King" is the fictional account of the true story of her great aunt and uncle's efforts to rescue the family they left behind in their native Germany on the eve of the Holocaust, family of which Carter herself is a descendent.

After being told her entire childhood that her great uncle had invented the board game Monopoly, Carter decided to finally investigate this family legend. Although this particular myth turned out to be false, in the course of her research she discovered that he was in fact the inventor of a line of jiggle saw puzzles and in the 1930s had been dubbed the "Puzzle King" by Time magazine.

In Carter's earlier work, a memoir entitled "Nothing to Fall Back On: The Life and Times of a Perpetual Optimist," she wrote about how her personal life deteriorated as her professional life as a reporter and editor soared.

Carter said that in researching and writing her most recent book, she gained a new perspective on her past travails.

"These people endured more than I could ever imagine," she said of her descendents.

Michael Aaron Rockland, who has taught American Studies at Rutgers University since the late 1960s, discussed his most recent novel "Stones." The novel, which takes place mostly in the course of a single day, recounts the relationship between a middle-aged man and his elderly mother as they make their annual visit to family members' graves in Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island.

"What I've tried to do and I think what many try to do, is try to write a serious and funny novel at the same time," Rockland said. He read several of what he said were the more comic passages of the book.

Speaking last was the only non-fiction author of the morning. Sax's book presents a history and personal tour of the Jewish delicatessen, taking him from deli capitals like New York, Los Angeles, and Montreal to out of the way havens of corned beef and pastrami like Paris, London, and Poland.

Sax, quoting humorist Milton Berle, recalled the famous line about the (un)healthiness of the Jewish deli: "Anytime someone goes into a Jewish delicatessen and orders a pastrami on white bread, somewhere, a Jew dies."

This was exactly what happened to Sax's inspiration for the book, his paternal grandfather Samuel Sax, who having just been diagnosed with heart disease, died after consuming a pastrami sandwich, even though his doctor advised him to stay away from fatty foods.

"I didn't just get up one day and get to this point; I think like all of you, I grew up eating deli," said Sax, 30, on his childhood days in Toronto.

Sax said his book, and its corresponding blog, savethedeli.com, is an effort to help save the institution that has played such a prominent role in the day-to-day lives of the Ashkenazic Jewish Diaspora.

A 1930s census, Sax said, listed New York City as home to 1,500 kosher delicatessens. Today, there are only 12 kosher delis in the city, and another approximately dozen non-kosher ones.

Sax said that his efforts "to save the deli" were "first of all, for the food," noting that many of the dishes served there, from kreplach to knishes, are no longer made in the home.

"And if the delis are not going to make these foods, I can guarantee that Subway, or the Cheesecake Factory, or your local diner won't," he said.

Following the 20-minute presentation per author was a Q&A session, during which the issue of engaging young readers in Jewish books and what made a writer a "Jewish writer" dominated the discussion.

Appel said that the challenge of engaging young readers was not unique to Jewish-themed books, and was one in which the book industry in general has confronted.

Rockland agreed.

"I would say one of the problems of young audiences is that they don't read," he said.

Asked by an audience member how they felt about being described as "Jewish writers," Carter replied that it was not until recently that she even considered herself belonging in this category.

"Honestly, until I wrote this book, I didn't think of myself as a Jewish writer. I didn't have Jewish characters in my books, or they were on the periphery."

Appel said that this question of what constituted a Jewish writer is largely generational, with writers such as Norman Mailer and Saul Bellow eschewing this label, having sought to write the Great American Novel, while younger writers, more comfortable in their Jewish identities, embrace this characterization.

"I don't know," Appel said of what made a writer a "Jewish" writer. "If the Jewish experience is in the material or if there's a Jewish take, it's something an academic has to deal with and not me."

Amy Artman, the program's organizer, said afterwards that she thought the event was a success.

"It was nice to see the authors interact with each other and to see questions addressed to the whole panel," Artman said. "Every panel, we learn something new. I think it was very exciting to hear the discussion of what makes a Jewish writer and about attracting younger readers."