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On the eve of his fortieth birthday, the author reflects upon his life, which does not include a wife, kids, car or a house, in a series of humorous stories that discuss automatic hand dryers, toy poodles and the McRib.

-- Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bible!

Select articles from various newspapers and magazines about Jews in Asia during WWII. They are written by Prof. Jonathan Goldstein and date from 1986 to 2012.

Yes, it's the greatest story ever told, but let's face it: It always could have used a little punching up. In Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible!, Jonathan Goldstein brings human depth, humour, and snappier dialogue to millennia-old biblical stories. Goldstein's version of the Bible answers the questions you need to know: Wouldn't a person get bored living inside a whale? How did Joseph explain Mary's pregnancy to the guys at work? How could anyone be as dense as Samson?

This startlingly original debut from This American Life contributor Jonathan Goldstein is, according to a Vice Magazine reviewer, "the cleanest dirty book I've ever read." It's a snapshot of the mind of Josh, a rather confused young man who must cope with his father's listlessness and his own overwhelming lust, not to mention the arrival of the Moschiach, inventor of the infamous Love Lotion. Lenny Bruce Is Dead walks a tightrope between the searingly funny and the poignant. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll long for some Love Lotion of your own. And you won't forget Josh–ineptitude, scatological neuroses, urban angst, self–deprecating humor and all.

At McDonald's, when I'm throwing out the stuff on my tray, there's a point where I get scared that my wallet could have been on there, too. I always think, as everything is tumbling into the garbage, that I might have tossed my wallet on the tray and forgotten. It always feels possible. So begins Jonathan Goldstein's first novel, Lenny Bruce is Dead. It's the story of Joshua, a young man who's uncertain about a lot more than the possible loss of his wallet. He might as well be talking about his whole life. Josh is having a hard time finding his way in the world; deciding on a career and keeping a girlfriend are too much to handle, not to mention the fact that after the death of his mother he has moved back into his childhood suburban home to be with his father, Chick. Oh, and then there's the arrival of the Moschiach (inventor of the infamous Love Lotion) to further complicate things. Lenny Bruce Is Dead walks a tightrope between being searingly funny and poignant - you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll long for Love Lotion (and a Moschiach of your own). And you won't forget Josh - ineptitude, scatological neuroses, urban angst, self-deprecating humour and all.

I Found Your Address in a Fortune Cookie is a short novel documenting a man's life from childhood to death-bed. It is structured as a series of fragments that, while not strictly chronological, play off one another to create an emotional landscape. The narrative voice shifts between the first and third person. Although going about his life with the semblance of routine, Joshua, the protagonist, is thirsting for something unnamable. His desire runs from mundane, sensual pleasures like lying in bed or drinking coffee to desires for which there are no easy names, like the desire to escape the body. The novel is composed of a series of romantic relationships that span Joshua's early adolescence to his middle age. Approaching death, he withdraws into a dream world in which the messiah has arrived; but even salvation offers little in the way of providing a bottom line to existence. The messianic age proves only to be a continuance of the mundane.