Brief Book Reviews (2024)

For the most part, this page will reflect what I post about my reading on Goodreads. Frankly, what I’m posting are really brief notes, not book reviews.

The most recent reading is listed first.

  • The Promise by Bridget Hodder and Fawzia Gilani-Williams with illustrations by Cinzia Battistel (Kar-Ben, 2023). A beautiful story of interfaith (Jewish-Muslim) friendship, ostensibly for children but really for us all
  • Foster by Claire Keegan. (Grove Press, 2022). Had been hearing lots of literary love for Claire Keegan and a friend recommended this as a gateway to her work.
  • Ping-Pong Shabbat: The True Story of Champion Estee Ackerman by Ann Diament Koffsky with illustrations by Abigail Rajunov (Little Bee Books, 2024). Now a college undergraduate, Estee Ackerman is pretty young to have a picture book dedicated to the true story of her championship ping-pong record—and the dilemma that arose when she, an Orthodox Jew, was confronted with a Shabbat tournament date. A bright (and brightly illustrated) book; a welcome addition.
  • Shelter: October 7th and After edited by Oded Wolkstein and Maayan Eitan with multiple translators (Israeli Institute for Hebrew Literature, 2023). I’m not surprised that I’ve heard/read nothing about this collection in mainstream literary discourse, although I might have expected more from the Jewish press. Then again, even I had neglected to read it—although I’d downloaded a (free!) English version to my Kindle months ago—until I was reminded of it via an email about a stage adaptation. The description is a tad misleading for anyone whose brain automatically translates the words “short stories” into fiction. The vast majority of these pieces by Israeli and American writers—including those by highly esteemed fictionists such as Joshua Cohen and Elisa Albert—read as nonfiction. But go see for yourself. You can download a copy (again, at no charge) in English or Hebrew at https://www.ithl.org.il/article/shelter/. At under 90 pages, this powerful collection won’t take you long to read (I’m going to re-read it this week). And then, if you agree with my take that more people should read it, please tell others to do so.
  • Oc7ober Shiva: A Collection of Poems About Israel by Rabbi Hanna Yerushalmi (2024). The second of two volumes to date, evidently self-published. Moving poems, deeply inflected by the ongoing captivity of hostages kidnapped from Israel October 7, 2023.
  • Canción by Eduardo Halfon (trans. Lisa Dillman and Daniel Hahn; Bellevue Literary Press, 2022). Another accomplishment from Eduardo Halfon (translated by Lisa Dillman and Daniel Hahn). As is always the case with Halfon’s work, it’s difficult to know exactly what, in this book billed as a fiction, has been invented (beside the narrator Eduardo Halfon’s chain-smoking) and what’s very much real. The fact of his paternal grandfather (also named Eduardo Halfon)’s 1967 kidnapping, as recounted within, is all too true. 
  • She Persisted: Rachel Levine by Lisa Bunker with interior illustrations by Gillian Flint (Philomel, 2023). I’m hoping to write biographies for kids myself, and I checked this one out from the library in part for learning/research purposes, and in part in keeping with my current #JewishBookMonth reading. (The book includes one brief reference to Levine’s Jewishness.)
  • Sarra Copia: A Locked-in Life by Nancy Ludmerer (WTAW Press, 2023). A novella based on the fascinating life of the title character, who, as the jacket copy notes, “was confined in the Jewish ghetto in Venice from her birth in 1592 until her death forty-nine years later.”
  • Perfect Match: The Story of Althea Gibson and Angela Buxton by Lori Dubbin with illustrations by Amanda Quartey (Kar-Ben, 2024). It seems that I’ve always known about tennis great Althea Gibson (1927-2003)—but I’d never heard of Angela Buxton (1934-2020). This lovely book begins with dual biographical portraits that converge in the mutually reinforcing friendship between the two players: one, a Black American (Gibson); the other, a Jewish Briton (Buxton). We see how this friendship evolved into the duo’s historic doubles partnership (their wins include the 1956 Wimbledon women’s doubles championship). There’s history threaded here—including the racism and antisemitism that confronted these women—along with powerful messages about perseverance, recognizing and building on one’s strengths, and friendship. Bright, beautiful illustrations, too.
  • Many to Remember by Rachel Kaufman (Dos Madres Press, 2021). In which the poet’s inspiration stems from her own (Ashkenazic) family history and from her scholarly/archival research into the experiences of conversos in the New World.
  • Israel Alone by Bernard-Henri Lévy (trans. Steven B. Kennedy; Wicked Son, 2024). Absolutely superb. My library copy is stuffed with papers to mark pages to revisit. I must purchase my own copy. (Reminder: This is a book that a prominent book-trade outlet refused to advertise, after they’d agreed to.)
  • On Being Jewish Now: Reflections from Authors and Advocates edited by Zibby Owens with the Founding Team of Artists Against Antisemitism (Zibby Books, 2024). As with many anthologies, readers are likely to respond more powerfully to some pieces than others. But what unites this collection is its essential purpose, which, as suggested within the cover copy, is to chronicle “what it means and how it feels to be Jewish now, including how life has changed since October 7, 2023.” This makes the book an essential piece of history, part of what will eventually become a literary canon. That it’s available now is due to the swift (and Herculean) efforts of its editor/publisher, but that scope/timetable also means that the work was necessarily limited. Fortunately, those who might wish to contribute their own essays “on being Jewish now” should take note of an opportunity to do so online. (This reader, for one—a Reform Jew based in New York—would love to read more essays written by Jews who live outside the United States, and more work from self-identified Orthodox Jews.) A postscript: Sales will benefit The Artists Against Antisemitism (https://www.theartistsagainstantisemitism.com/) on whose board I currently serve
  • The Anatomy of Exile by Zeeva Bukai (Delphinium Books, 2025). As a fan of my friend Zeeva Bukai’s short fiction, I have been looking forward to this novel since I learned that it was in the pipeline. I cannot wait for it to make its official debut so I can talk about it with other readers! Complimentary advance copy.
  • Smoke at the Pentagon: Poems to Remember by Jacqueline Jules with illustrations by Eszter Anna Rácz (Moonshower/Bushel & Peck, 2023). Jacqueline Jules was a school librarian in Arlington, Virginia—near the Pentagon—on September 11, 2001. These poems, as the jacket copy explains, “tell the stories of young people from all aspects of the Arlington and Pentagon communities, and are composites drawn from personal experiences with students and friends residing in Northern Virginia at the time of the attack.” Although collected here for the benefit of younger readers, they have so much to convey to older ones, too, and they do so with Jules’s trademark artistry and sensitivity.
  • The Heroes of October 7th: Heroic Stories for Children edited by Hadassa Ben Ari with illustrations by Tehila Bar-Hama (trans. Dr. Juliana Brown et al.; Yedioth Books, 2024). Please read my longer-than-usual remarks on Goodreads.
  • 10/7: 100 Human Stories by Lee Yaron (St. Martin’s Press, 2024). I’m not capable of writing about this book—at least, not yet.
  • On a Chariot of Fire: The Story of India’s Bene Israel by Erica Lyons with illustrations by Siona Benjamin (Levine Querido, 2024). A beautiful, informative picture book that brings together the signature talents of author Erica Lyons—who specializes in spotlighting lesser-known elements of Jewish history—and artist Siona Benjamin.
  • Your Presence is Mandatory by Sasha Vasilyuk (Bloomsbury, 2024). One of the best novels I’ve read in a while.
  • Mixed-Up Mooncakes by Christina Matula and Erica Lyons with illustrations by Tracy Subisak (Quill Tree Books, 2024). Charming story about young Ruby and her family, who celebrate “two extra-special harvest holidays”: the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival and the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
  • Lovely One: A Memoir by Ketanji Brown Jackson (Random House, 2024). Fascinating.
  • Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: A Novel by Gabrielle Zevin (Knopf, 2022). I’d put off reading this–despite all the buzz–because I really don’t follow gaming. Told by others that that shouldn’t keep me away, I gave it a go. Liked it a lot–although I still felt as though I really didn’t “get” everything gaming-related.
  • Shiva: Poems of October 7 edited and translated by Rachel Korazim, Michael Bohnen, and Heather Silverman (The Institute for Jewish Research and Publications, 2024). Bilingual (Hebrew/English) volume of poems divided into sections titled “Terror,” “That Shabbat and Other Appointed Times,” “Hostages,” “Language,” “Loss,” “The Other Side,” and “The Future.”
  • On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice by Adam Kirsch (W.W. Norton, 2024). From the preface: Kirsch’s goal in this slim, clear-eyed book “is to offer a critical introduction to the ideology of settler colonialism as elaborated in the work of theorists, writers, and activists. Focusing on ideas, not individuals or institutions, I look at how this way of thinking developed, what it has to say about America and Israel, and why it falls prey to some of the same crucial errors as earlier radical ideologies.”
  • Space Torah: Astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman’s Cosmic Mitzvah by Rachelle Burk with illustrations by Craig Orback (Intergalactic Afikoman, 2024). A delightful picture-book biography about former astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman (b. 1944). On his final space mission, Hoffman brought a miniature Torah into orbit; the book traces how both he and that Torah came to be there.
  • For the Love of the Father by Chochana Boukhobza (trans. Nina B. Lichtenstein; Hamsa Press, 2019). Finally read this one during #WomenInTranslationMonth. Glad to have been introduced to this author’s work through the translation (I may try to track down more in the original French). I found echoes of Lucette Lagnado’s (nonfictional) The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit in this novel involving a North African Jewish family that, mid-20th century, begins anew in France. Will confess that I’m somewhat puzzled by the abrupt ending—to the point that I’m wondering if the printer omitted the “actual” concluding text (another reason to try to find the text in French for comparison).
  • Seven Good Years: A Yiddish Folktale by Shoham Smith (trans. Ilana Kurshan, with illustrations by Eitan Eloa; Kalaniot, 2023). A sweet retelling of a Yiddish tale by I.L. Peretz (1852-1915). A children’s book that works nicely for #WomenInTranslationMonth, too.
  • On Her Own: A Novel by Lihi Lapid (trans. Sondra Silverston; HarperVia, 2024). Perfect title for #WomenInTranslationMonth, this novel is a propulsive read. (I don’t often read a novel in a single day, staying up past bedtime because I have to finish a book, but that’s what happened with this one.) The conclusion may wrap up too tidily for some, but frankly, I was grateful for it. Very much a Jewish/Israeli read—readers not already familiar with the sequence of holidays between Passover and Yom HaAtzmaut and their respective significance, might be a little disoriented at first, but that shouldn’t keep anyone away.
  • Old Babes in the Wood: Stories by Margaret Atwood (Doubleday, 2023). Bookended by stories linked by their focus on the characters of Nell and Tig, this collection offers a remarkably diverse set of storytelling approaches, from realist to very-much-not-so. I’m not typically so enthusiastic about the latter, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed “Impatient Griselda” and “Metempsychosis: Or, the Journey of the Soul,” in particular. (Back in realist mode, standouts for me included two World War II-related stories from those featuring Tig and Nell [“Two Scorched Men” and “Wooden Box”] as well as the academically-inflected “Airborne: A Symposium”].) I also loved the wry touches throughout.
  • A Party for Florine: Florine Stettheimer and Me by Yevgenia Nayberg (Neal Porter Books, 2024).  Although fictional, this picture book offers a fine introduction to the life and work of real-life artist Florine Stettheimer (1871-1944). (As another reviewer has noted, there is some discrepancy between invocations Stettheimer’s art lessons in Stuttgart [author’s note] and Vienna [text], but I’m overlooking that for now.) The art is consistently gorgeous, whether it’s author-illustrator Nayberg’s original work or replicas of Stettheimer’s. Complimentary digital review copy.
  • And The Bride Closed the Door by Ronit Matalon (trans. Jessica Cohen; New Vessel Press, 2019). Received this complimentary review copy five years ago; I’m sorry that it took me until now to read it, for #WITMonth (Women in Translation Month).
  • The Last of the Light by Alexander Shalom Joseph (Orison Books, 2024). A dystopian chronicle of the last month in the life of the unnamed protagonist—and, evidently, the last month of human life. Despite the grimness from the outset, it’s a quiet, gentle book—more melancholic than menacing.
  • This Is Not a Cholent by Sarah Sassoon with illustrations by Viviana Garofoli (Kar-Ben, 2024). A sweet reminder about (or introduction to) some varieties of Jewish diversity. Set in Australia (which, as noted in back matter, is home to “the ninth-largest Jewish population in the world”), this food-focused story features Amina, her grandmother, and a dish as traditional to their Iraqi-Jewish background as cholent is their Ashkenazi-descended counterparts.
  • Morning After the Revolution: Dispatches from the Wrong Side of History by Nellie Bowles (Thesis, 2024). Borrowed this from the library after the author appeared as a guest in an online book club I attended. The style is lively and frequently witty; there’s no doubt that some policies Bowles critiques here have overreached. Still, some arguments are more convincing than others; some would have benefitted from a more generous acknowledgment of counterargument and differing perspectives.
  • Saliman and the Memory Stone by Erica Lyons with illustrations by Yinon Ptahia (Apples and Honey Press, 2024). This picture book offers both a moving universal story of change/relocation/leaving “home” and an engaging introduction to the under-explored history of the migration of Yemenite Jews to the Land of Israel/Ottoman Palestine in the early 1880s.
  • Operation Shylock: A Confession by Philip Roth (Simon and Schuster, 1993). Should have read this novel long ago.
  • Saying No to Hate: Overcoming Antisemitism in America by Norman H. Finkelstein (The Jewish Publication Society, 2024). A solid overview—published not long after the passing of author Norman H. Finkelstein—of the history of antisemitism in the United States (including a number of episodes I hadn’t known about). All too timely. Carefully documented (yes, there are footnotes), but aimed toward a general readership.
  • Israel Through the Jewish-American Imagination: A Survey of Jewish-American Literature on Israel 1928-1995 by Andrew Furman (SUNY Press, 1997). I’ve read several of my friend Andy Furman’s books, but this one—his first—I hadn’t yet picked up. It is a fascinating work of scholarship and makes me wonder 1) what Andy might think of his own predictions 25 years or so after publication and 2) which writers/books he might focus on in a “sequel” along the same lines.
  • Departure Stories: Betty Crocker Made Matzoh Balls (and Other Lies) by Elisa Bernick (Indiana University Press, 2022). The jacket copy sums this up well: “Elisa Bernick grew up ‘different’ (i.e., Jewish) in the white, Christian suburb of New Hope, Minnesota during the 1960s and early 1970s. At the center of her world was her mother, Arlene, who was a foul-mouthed, red-headed, suburban Samson who ultimately shook the walls of their family until it collapsed. Poignant and provocative, Departure Stories peers through the broader lens of Minnesota’s recent history to reveal an intergenerational journey through trauma that unraveled the Bernick family and many others.” An extremely interesting and well-written work of nonfiction and history—personal, familial, and other.
  • Waiting to Be Arrested at Night: A Uyghur Poet’s Memoir of China’s Genocide by Tahir Hamut Izgil (trans. and with an introduction by Joshua L. Freeman; Penguin 2023). Not enough attention is going to the experiences of Uyghurs in China. This memoir helps remedy that while also telling what is ultimately a new immigration story.
  • Bylines and Blessings: Overcoming Obstacles, Striving for Excellence, and Redefining Success by Judy Gruen (Köehlerbooks, 2024). As the jacket copy posits: “What happens when career ambition begins to clash with a commitment to religious and personal values? In Bylines and Blessings, award-winning author Judy Gruen shares how she resolved these two seemingly conflicting drives.” The memoir capably traces Gruen’s evolution as both a journalist/essayist/author and as a ba’alat teshuva (someone who finds her way to traditional/Orthodox Jewish practice from a previously secular background). While the jacket copy’s promise that “this book will feel like having a heart-to-heart talk with an old friend” is largely true, readers should be prepared (as can happen in conversations with friends) for frank commentary that, depending on one’s own perspectives, some may find to be on the judgmental side. Complimentary gift copy.
  • The Hebrew Teacher: Three Novellas by Maya Arad (trans. Jessica Cohen; New Vessel Press, 2024). Gobbled this one up. Would have given five stars to the first (title) story/novella alone. I could not put that one down. Absolute spot-on depiction of what I’ve witnessed in literature/academia (I couldn’t help wondering if any of the people I’ve had the displeasure of encountering might have served as a real-life inspiration). The two other pieces, more deeply situated within familial settings, simply didn’t captivate me as much–but I can imagine others having different responses. More of Maya Arad’s work in English, please! Complimentary review copy.
  • Displaced Persons: Stories by Joan Leegant (New American Press, 2024). A superb short-story collection, published as a winning manuscript in the New American Fiction Prize series. The book is divided between stories set in the “East” (Israel) and the “West” (the United States). I’ll admit that I was especially drawn to the former. Complimentary review copy.
  • Golem Girl: A Memoir by Riva Lehrer (OneWorld, 2020). I don’t think I’ve ever read anything quite like this. Riva Lehrer weaves together her (extraordinary) life story with samples of her (also extraordinary) visual art. And if intersectionality is something you look for in your reading, this book meets that criterion; as the bio note on the jacket notes: “Riva Lehrer is an artist, writer, and curator whose work focuses on issues of physical identity and the socially challenged body. She is best known for representations of people with impairments, and those whose sexuality or gender identity have long been stigmatized.” And as the title suggests, that Lehrer was born into a Jewish family is a not-incidental fact that is integrated into the memoir as well.
  • Only Kidding! My First Book of Jewish Jokes by Sari Kopitnikoff (Ideastrator Press, 2022). The author gifted me with a copy of this book, and I am so glad that she did. A “first book of Jewish jokes” might be ostensibly aimed for younger readers, but this is bound to please the grown-ups, too.
  • Eve and Adam and Their Very First Day by Leslie Kimmelman with illustrations by Irina Avgustinovich (Apples & Honey Press, 2023). A lovely retelling of, well, “Eve and Adam and Their Very First Day.” Since I frequently teach Michal Lemberger’s short story “After Abel” to my undergraduates, I can’t help thinking of this book and that story as a terrific kidlit/adult reading pair that refocuses the story on Eve. The illustrations are gorgeous.
  • As Figs in Autumn: One Year in a Forever War by Ben Bastomski (Delphinium Books, 2023). I was gifted a copy of this memoir by a former “lone soldier,” as Diaspora residents who volunteer to serve in the Israel Defense Forces are called; such soldiers don’t have their nuclear families nearby (they are “lone”). Normally, I might have become impatient with the book’s highly lyrical style—my taste runs to plainer language and more linear narratives. And I might have wished for more historical/geographical background to have been included to help contextualize the “forever war” (less for my own needs than for some other readers I envisioned reading it). But reading this book after October 7, 2023, meant that as soon as I learned that this lone soldier had been “matched” with a family living on Kibbutz Be’eri—spending his frequent Sabbath leaves with them, calling the parents his parents and the children his siblings—I was riveted. And dreading what might have happened to this family that horrible day when Hamas terrorists came to their community. (The book, of course, ends long before that day; this post on the Jewish Book Council site will fill you in.) In short, it’s difficult to imagine many more timely books–or better literary glimpses into life on Kibbutz Be’eri, before.
  • Am Yisrael Chai: Essays, Poems, and Prayers for Israel edited by Menachem Creditor (2023). As summarized by Hadassah magazine: “For Jewish people everywhere, October 7 will forever be synonymous with the brutal terror attacks committed against Israel by Hamas. Shock, anger, grief and fear immediately took hold and nearly consumed each of us. Yet a mere five days after the attacks, writer and activist Rabbi Menachem Creditor, the Pearl and Ira Meyer scholar-in-residence at UJA-Federation New York, put out a call for contributions in reaction to Hamas’s carnage. Writers had exactly four days to send submissions to Creditor. The result is Am Yisrael Chai: Essays, Poems, and Prayers, a collection of writing in support of Israel edited by Creditor, with all proceeds benefiting UJA-Federation of New York’s Israel Emergency Fund.” I’m proud to have contributed three poems for reprint in this anthology.