Erika Dreifus

Back in January, I published a post that included the following:

If you follow bookish sites, or even simply book coverage elsewhere, you’ve likely been catching lots of lists setting forth the “most anticipated” books of 2025. As far as I’ve noticed, as “diverse” as those lists may seem to be, the presence of Jewish books—never mind translations of Israeli titles first written in Hebrew—ranges between “slight” and “nonexistent.”

(In the meantime, of course, the most prominent lists are building up buzz for new books by plenty of authors whose “criticism of Israel,” as demonstrated on multiple statements, petitions, etc., has crossed over into antisemitism, whether they acknowledge that or not.)

Having met a deadline a tad earlier than expected, I found myself with a short window of unexpected free time. It wasn’t quite enough to pitch, draft, and revise an actual article for an editor, but it was enough for me to do something.

I decided to take a quick look through one book-industry platform where reviewers (and others) can locate information about forthcoming titles. There, I found—or, in some cases, was reminded of—a number of books that will be published this year.

I then shared a number of titles that represented those that were on my radar. The final one on the list—Maya Arad’s Happy New Years: A Novel (trans. Jessica Cohen)—was released August 5 by New Vessel Press.

Flash-forward to today.

As the saying goes: plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

I’ve now had some time to gather information on books that will be published during the remainder of this year. You’ll find some of those that have caught my attention below.

These titles feature fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for adults, with a smattering of children’s books, too. (NB: There are more books on the list than I was able to include in the cover collage—I’m sorry I couldn’t feature every cover.)

• Ilana Kurshan, Children of the Book: A Memoir of Reading Together, St. Martin’s Press (out August 26).
• Diane Gottlieb (editor), Manna Songs: Stories of Jewish Culture and Heritage, ELJ Editions (out September 2). I’m proud to have written the foreword for this one.
• Yaakov Katz and Amir Bohbot, While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East, St. Martin’s Press (out September 2).
• Sarah Hurwitz, As a Jew: Reclaiming Our Story from Those Who Blame, Shame, and Try to Erase Us, HarperCollins (out September 9).
• Stefan Zweig (trans. Anthea Bell et al.), The Last Miracle: Jewish Stories, Pushkin Press Classics (out September 11).
• Atar J. Hadari, Arik & Company: A Documentary Poem, Ben Yehuda Press (out September 11).
• Yishay Ishi Ron (trans. Yardenne Greenspan), Dog: A Novel, Soncata Press (out October 1).
• Wendy Zierler, Going Out with Knots: My Two Kaddish Years with Hebrew Poetry, Jewish Publication Society (out October 1).
• Richard Michelson (illus. Stacy Innerst), What Louis Brandeis Knows: A Crusader for Social Justice Becomes a Supreme Court Justice, Calkins Creek (out October 7).
• Eli Sharabi (trans. Eylon Levy), Hostage, HarperInfluence (out October 7).
• Pamela Nadell, Antisemitism, an American Tradition, W.W. Norton (out October 14).
• Angela Buchdahl, Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi’s Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging, Pamela Dorman Books (out October 21).
• Lihi Lapid (trans. Amit Pardes ), I Wanted to Be Wonderful: A Novel, Zibby Publishing (out October 28).
• John Irving, Queen Esther: A Novel, Simon & Schuster (out November 4).
• Bianna Golodryga and Yonit Levi, Don’t Feed the Lion, Arcadia Children’s Books (out November 11).
• Douglas Century, Crash of the Heavens: The Remarkable Story of Hannah Senesh and the Only Military Mission to Rescue Europe’s Jews During World War II, Avid Reader Press (out November 18).
• David Weill, Tell Me I Belong: A Journey Across Faiths and Generations, Union Square & Co. (out December 9).
• Yosef Eliyahu Chelouche (eds. Michelle U. Campos and Or Aleksandrowicz), Between Jaffa and Tel Aviv, 1870-1930: A Memoir, Brandeis University Press (out December 22).