Infinity Author Michael Kleiner's book receives first place in Beach Book Festival

Not sure what to read for the summer? Well, The Beach Book Festival can help. They recently announced the winners of their annual competition program spotlighting the hottest reads of the upcoming summer season, and West Mt. Airy's Michael Kleiner received first place in the Autobiography/Biography category for his book, Beyond the Cold: An American's Warm Portrait of Norway. He received his award on June 5 at the prestigious Algonquin Hotel in New York City, former meeting place of famous and aspiring writers, actors, actresses, columnists and critics, beginning in 1919.

The Festival, which is among a number of competitions sponsored by JM Northern, based in Hollywood, CA, considers self-published or independent published non-fiction, fiction, biography/autobiography, children's books, teenage, how-to, science fiction, romance, comics, poetry, spiritual, compilations/anthologies, history, business and health-oriented books. In addition to the category winners and a grand prize recipient, 39 authors were honorable mention recipients.

For Mr. Kleiner, this comes on the heels of Norwegian American Weekly citing Beyond the Cold as "a great book to give and get" in its Christmas catalog. "I now have winter and summer covered," jokes Kleiner. "The Beach Book Festival announced the winners on its site on Monday (June 1) and I scrolled down and saw my name in first place. Obviously, it was overwhelming to see my name in first place. The ceremony was four days later."

The book chronicles Kleiner’s year living in Norway with his family at age 11, attending a Norwegian school, learning a different language, new sports and about Norwegian culture. He has returned five times as an adult, and he develops an affinity and passion for the country, its culture and people although he is not of Norwegian descent. Not only does he find a second home and family, but a country that is more than cold weather and that these intercultural experiences contributed to the person he has become.

Beyond the Cold is written with warmth, sensitivity, humor, caring and insight. There are a number of accounts of Norwegian’s resistance during WWII and personally meeting Jewish and non-Jewish survivors in Norway and other European countries. He also includes research about places he visits and Norwegian history and customs. The combination of childhood memories and adult experiences and perspective makes the book unique.

In addition to readers, Beyond the Cold  has been reviewed favorably by Fjell og Vidde, Norway’s largest outdoors magazine; The Norseman, a magazine for Norwegians and friends of Norway outside the country; is listed among Books about Norway on The National Geographic Traveler 48 Hours in Oslo blog, right there with Sigrid Undset and Henrik Ibsen. Last October, he was invited to the four-day Norwegian Fall Festival, the largest Scandinavian festival in North America – approximately 60,000 people -- held in Minot, ND.

Mr. Kleiner operates his own public relations and web site business with a concentration on authors, small businesses and special events. A past president of  the Mt. Airy Business Association, he is a graduate of Germantown Friends School, Rutgers University (B.A. in Journalism and History) and Temple University (Ed.M in Educational Media).