Esther, Ruth, Jonah Deciphered

On Ruth, the Midrash quotes Rabbi Ze'ira, of the Third Century CE, as saying, "this Scroll tells us nothing of ritual purity or impurity, of prohibition or permission..." but is that correct?

And the wretched Jonah, tossed on the high seas, is swallowed by a great fish, spewed back onto dry land, and thus forced to go to Nineveh. Can this really be believed?

Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg gives rational answers to these and other difficult questions and in doing so, forces the reader to re-think many of his pre-conceived notions about these books, no matter how many times he has read them or how well he thinks he understands their meaning.