Erika Dreifus

The My Machberet blog is proud to serve as December 2019 host for the Jewish Book Carnival, a monthly event where those who cover Jewish books online “can meet, read, and comment on each others’ posts.” Organized by the Association of Jewish Libraries, the Carnival travels around and is hosted on a different participant’s site on the 15th of each month.

Herewith, the December 2019 Jewish Book Carnival:

• From me: a reminder that we are now well into Jewish Book Month, which, as a reminder, takes place during the month preceding Hanukkah. I’ll send you over to a recent Washington Post Book Club newsletter, which recently ran a terrific piece about it, to learn more. (And I’ll admit that I’m more than a little bit proud that something that I shared on Twitter evidently helped generate the piece.)
• Also timely/time-sensitive: Along with the Book of Life podcast’s Jewish Kidlit Mavens Facebook group, and the Jewish Book Council, the Association of Jewish Libraries is co-sponsoring #Readukkah, a Jewish Reading Challenge, during the eight days leading up to Hanukkah, December 15-22, 2019. Find out how to participate here. 
• Gila Green shares a lovely chat with writer and fiction editor Julie Gray who moved from Hollywood to Tel Aviv seven years ago.  
• Batya Medad reviews #ShidduchCrisis: Short Stories by Penina Shtauber.
• Life Is Like a Library looks at a great resource for mothers and their Bat Mitzvah-aged daughters, created in memory of Hallel Yaffa Ariel, HY”D.
• On her blog, Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb, Deborah interviews Sarah Abrevaya Stein about Stein’s new book, Family Papers: A Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century.
• Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein reviews Judaism Reclaimed: Philosophy and Theology in the Torah by Shmuel Phillips.
• Jill at Rhapsody in Books reviews A Moon for Moe and Mo by Jane Breskin Zalben and illustrated by Mehrdokht Amini, in which a Jewish and Muslim family find they have much in common and celebrate Rosh Hashanah and Ramadan together.
• The Whole Megillah’s Barbara Krasner interviews Israeli author Devori Busheri and Kar-Ben publisher, Joni Sussman, about In the Jerusalem Forest, Busheri’s picture book (illustrated by Noa Kelner) based on a Hayyim Bialik poem.
• The Book of Life podcast shares “A Field Guide to Jewish Kidlit” to help book-lovers find titles for holiday gift-giving or year-round reading. (And podcast host Heidi Rabinowitz sends along a bonus link: a guest post at Multicultural Kid Blogs about “Hanukkah Books with Modern Settings.”

Many thanks to all of the contributors for these links. Please go read/comment/share!