Thursday, May 1, 2025

April 2025 Books

 


Shadows of Tokyo by Matthew Legare - This is the opening of a detective series, and I didn't love it. A little too bloody for me. Interesting look at Japan in this time period (1931), though, and so that made it worth reading. 

We Must Not Think of Ourselves by Lauren Grodstein - wonderful book about the Warsaw Ghetto, in particular the Oyneg Shabbes group that documented life in the ghetto. I had the privilege of visiting the archives this week...and the author had said that "every document could be its own novel" and she was right. 

The Judgement of Yoyo Gold by Isaac Blum - interesting look at an Orthodox Jewish community and how the kids and adults interact with the outside world. How can you be both inside and outside a community at the same time? The ending was a little abrupt but I'm not sure how else it could have gone....

Just Right Jillian by Nicole Collier - A fifth grader recommended this to me and it was sweet and heartfelt, and I loved it. A really good insight into the mind of a fifth grader, too.

The Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins - I love the Dove Pond series, it's a sweet blend of Gilmore Girls, Sweet Magnolias, with a magical twist. Totally fluffy but perfect. 

Say You'll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez - a little heavier than some of her other romance novels, but a good happily-ever-after ending! 

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon - Everyone was recommending this to me but I thought it would be scary! (maybe it was the cover) and so I avoided it. But I am so glad I read it - what a wonderful book with incredible historical insights. Loved this one, don't skip it. 

The Museum of Lost Quilts by Jennifer Chiaverini - I have read all the books in this series before and while the ending seemed quite obvious to me, I enjoyed the ride. 

The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner - such a good book! She writes beautifully about sister dynamics and I really liked the story. 

Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake - did not love this book... it was basically a magical version of Succession. It was a little too much for me.

Previously....

March Books
February 2025 Books
January 2025 Books

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Monday, March 31, 2025

March 2025 Books #mylifeinbooks


 Hello, March and some serious Spring Break reading....

We Would Never by Tova Mirvis - Okay, I'm not a "true crime" gal, so maybe that's why I didn't love this story of basically all unlikeable characters.

Till there Was You by Lindsay Hameroff - a sweet and cute book about a chef and a rock star...and their love story. I appreciated the lowkey Jewish character and the matzah ball soup...(even though the spelling of "till" in the title really annoys me)

One Little Goat: A Passover Catastrophe by Dara Horn and Theo Ellsworth - hmm...I might not have been the target audience for this strange book, but I'm trying to figure out who that audience actually is. I found it a little bit hard to follow, so maybe someone out there can explain it to me? 

Last Twilight in Paris by Pam Jenoff - I appreciated the two lesser known stories of World War 2 - the British delivering Red Cross packages (it also just fueled my current anger at the ICRC for their lack of assistance then (Holocaust) as now with the hostages in Gaza) and the prisoners in a Paris department store. A little bland but readable!

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins - The hard part of a prequel is that you kinda already know the ending but this one still held me on the edge of my seat. And now I'm loving the tiktok theories, the online speculation, and all the ways that the fan base is taking this one really hard. I like it even more upon later reflection on the complexity of the story. Did she know all this backstory when she wrote the original trilogy!? 

The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza - This was on a lot of "top" lists last year and for some reason I didn't think I'd like it...and I only sortof liked it. I liked the historical story more than the contemporary one.

Never Planned on You by Lindsay Hameroff - a companion to the book by this author that I read earlier in the month, it's a sweet romance. The Jewish representation was a little less low-key, but still incidental and also felt really authentic. 

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler - I don't know how I missed this one when it first came out but to be honest, it was almost too close to home. I read it through squinting eyes hoping not to see the next terrible thing. But I think she's a great writer and it was compelling and hard and also a little odd...

Show Don't Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld - I really don't like short story collections. Either the stories all feel too similar, or they end too quickly, or it's too uneve of an experience. I felt all of that as I read these. I liked a few of the stories better than others, but I kept getting annoyed at having to start a new story just when I was figuring the previous one out. I'm sticking to novels. 

Previously....

February 2025 Books
January 2025 Books

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Friday, February 28, 2025

February 2025 Books


Happy to Help: Adventures of a People Pleaser by Amy Wilson - This was different from my usual fiction, but I enjoyed this collection of essays about a woman who is a "people pleaser" and how perhaps...that's not always great.

Rachel Weiss's Group Chat by Lauren Appelbaum - Um....meh? I think this was supposed to be a take on Pride and Prejudice, but it didn't work for me.

The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray - a very complex family system and how a family rallies around each other even when there's a lot of dysfunction. I'm still not exactly sure how the crisis exactly happened, but it did make for a compelling read!

Rules for Ghosting by Shelly Jay Shore - loved this one! It's about a queer Jewish person who has no issues with either of those two identities! The issues were related to how he can see ghosts, which is a silly and fun part of the story. Anyway, don't skip this one. 

Across Seward Park by Gail Lehrman - I like a good family saga....this one didn't really disappoint! A solid story about a family living through the turmoil of America from the early 1900s up through to the 1950s. 


Previously....

January 2025 Books

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Friday, January 31, 2025

January 2025 Books

 

Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali - This is a wonderful book following two young women in Iran and how they live through the revolution and beyond. It was on so many "favorite lists" from last year, but I didn't realize I had read the author's earlier book and enjoyed that as well. Highly recommend.

I Made it Out of Clay by Beth Kander - a fun Chanukah + Golem story that had a lot of good parts (loved the Chicago elements and the camp-themed wedding) but overall didn't totally work for me. 

The Wedding People by Alison Espach - Goodness, this was probably the most polarizing book of 2024. Some people loved this one and some hated it. Since I read it knowing that, I was able to see both sides. I definitely didn't hate it but I also didn't love it. I kept waiting for something to really happen, and I felt annoyed by the characters a lot of the time. 

The Convert by Stefan Hertmans - This is a fascinating look at the Middle Ages, a Christian teenager who converts to Judaism because she meets a Jewish boy...and a crazy saga that ensues. It's speculative, but based on a few genizah fragments so there might actually have been a real story here. But the book could have been a novella, without the author's own drama and research. 

Crescent Moon Tearoom by Stacy Sivinski - Apparently I like "cozy fantasy" and this one qualified. I loved the house, which is an other character in the book, and overall enjoyed this one but it was a little too long and draggy by the end. 

The Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors - I wanted to love this book but found it to be a little bit lacking. I'm usually a sucker for a good sister story, but I found this one hard to hold onto. 

On Her Own by Lihi Lapid - I really liked this one - the themes of motherhood and self-worth, about what makes Israeli society, and a little of its underbelly too. A little bit of intrigue, drama, suspense...I look forward to the discussion about this one with our book group!

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Monday, December 30, 2024

Books I Read in 2024

 

Welcome to Year 17 of my year-end wrap up of books! I feel like this is such a great time to be a reader - there are so many incredible books out there, people are sharing their reading habits in such fun ways, and I'm never without something new to look at. I just did a review of some of my favorites from previous years and went back to see if any of those authors had new books that I had missed. I'm always sad when the answer is no! I'm a big fan of the whole BookTok and Bookstagram, but I try not to get too caught up in the hype. I had a few DNFs (did not finish) books from those that I tried so hard to like. 

This year saw the end of one of my favorite series, the Maisie Dobbs mysteries. I'll be sad next year when there isn't a new one! Hopefully it's not the end for Gabriel Allon, and of course I loved the newest book in his saga too. I like to alternate between literary fiction and romance novels, and I love it when kids come running up to me with their recommendations. I usually try to drop whatever I'm reading and get those done right away so I can chat about it with the kids! 

So here's the 2024 list:

  1. The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

  2. Can we Talk About Israel? By Daniel Sokatch

  3. Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

  4. The Society of Shame by Jane Roper

  5. Don’t Forget to Write by Sara Goodman Confino

  6. Kunstlers in Paradise by Cathleen Scheine

  7. The Only Purple House in Town by Ann Aguirre

  8. The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman

  9. Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

  10. Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult

  11. You Have a Match by Emma Lord

  12. Have You Seen Luis Velez? By Catherin Ryan Hyde

  13. Drop, Cover, and Hold On by Jasmine Guillory

  14. Amazing Grace Adams by Fran Littlewood

  15. The Maid by Nita Prose

  16. Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan

  17. The Women by Kristin Hannah

  18. The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict

  19. The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer

  20. The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn

  21. Meant to Be Mine by Hannah Orenstein

  22. The Life Intended by Kristin Harmel

  23. The Dragonet Prophecy by Tui T. Sutherland

  24. The Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare

  25. One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid

  26. The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic by Breanne Randall

  27. Bride by Ali Hazelwood

  28. The Amen Effect by Sharon Brous

  29. Suicide Notes by Michael Thomas Ford

  30. Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle

  31. Family Family by Laurie Frankel

  32. Once We Were Home by Jennifer Rosner

  33. Jews Don’t Count by David Baddiel

  34. A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams

  35. Marry Me By Midnight by Felicia Grossman

  36. Rivals by Katharin McGee

  37. Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Sutanto

  38. The Hebrew Teacher by Maya Arad

  39. The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

  40. In the Shadow of the Greenbriar by Emily Matchar

  41. Stockholm by Noa Yedlin

  42. Welcome Home, Caroline Kline by Courtney Preiss

  43. This Summer Will be Different by Carley Fortune

  44. Reign by Katharine McGee

  45. The Fellowship of the Puzzlemakers by Samuel Burr

  46. A Death in Cornwall by Daniel Silva

  47. The Comfort of Ghosts by Jacqueline Winspear

  48. Tangled Up In You by Christina Lauren

  49. Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez

  50. Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez

  51. Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan

  52. The Briar Club by Kate Quinn

  53. The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren

  54. Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray

  55. Behind Every Good Man by Sara Goodman Confino

  56. When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb

  57. The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren

  58. The Husbands by Holly Gramazio

  59. Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center

  60. Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew by Emmanuel Acho

  61. Magical Meet Cute by Jean Meltzer

  62. The Secret Recipe of Ella Dove by Karen Hawkins

  63. Past, Present, and Future by Rachel Lynn Solomons

  64. The Book of Silver Linings by Nan Fishcer

  65. Sandwich by Catherine Newman

  66. The Frindle Files by Andrew Clements

  67. The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson

  68. Flunked by Jen Calonita

  69. The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

  70. The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier

  71. Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

  72. The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen by Isaac Blum

  73. The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman

  74. Operation Bethlehem by Yariv Inbar

  75. Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller

  76. You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian

  77. Love You A Latke by Amanda Elliot

  78. Songs for the Brokenhearted by Ayelet Tsabari

  79. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

  80. Terrace Story by Hilary Leichter

  81. Hanukkah Hook-Up by Jessica Topper

  82. Late Night Love by Chayla Wolfberg

  83. Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop by Roselle Lim

  84. The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong

And here are all my mini-reviews:  


It's hard for me to choose favorites but here is a list of the ones I liked best:
Don’t Forget to Write by Sara Goodman Confino
Have You Seen Luis Velez? By Catherin Ryan Hyde
The Women by Kristin Hannah
Family Family by Laurie Frankel
Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray
The Briar Club by Kate Quinn
The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman
Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller
Songs for the Brokenhearted by Ayelet Tsabari

I track my books on GoodReads and StoryGraph and as always, I'll share monthly updates here and on the socials so stay tuned.

What do you think I should read in 2025? What are you reading? What were your favorites of 2024?

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December 2024 Books #MyLifeInBooks

Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman - Loved this one. It's historical, a little magical realism, a love story, Jewish...checked so many happy boxes for me. I wanted it to keep going....one of my favorites of the year!

Operation Bethlehem by Yariv Inbar - This was a book group selection for me, and as a group we liked it. I thought the story was interesting, although I got a little lost at one point, and I thought the theme of what it means to feel "at home" was very relevant.

Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books - Could NOT put this one down! Loved it - the cast of characters was wonderful, it was clever and compelling, and of course, timely. I know it was meant as a satire, and I thought it really worked.

You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian - It was a little too long but overall a sweet story of grief and love - it took me a while to realize that it was set in 1960 (I'm sure I just missed that moment), which obviously explained the terrible fear of discovery of the gay characters. 

Love You a Latke by Amanda Elliot - How could I not read htis one!? A quick and fun Chanukah romance novel with the added benfit of a real commentary on how it feels to be the token Jew, especially at Christmastime. Will this be the next Hallmark Chanukah movie???

Songs for the Broken Hearted by Ayelet Tsabari - So good! A look backwards and forwards at the Yemeni Jewish community as they came to Israel in 1950 and their generations in the 1990s. Such a compelling story as Zohara tries to figure out her mother's hidden past and her own Yemeni-Israel-Jewish identity.

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan - Okay, Oprah, I would never have picked this one up without you. A very short and powerful novel highlighting what it means to do right in the world, even when things are stacked against you. 

Terrace Story by Hilary Leichter - I am pretty sure that I got this book from the New York Times Book Review. While I was reading it, however, I kept thinking, "who the heck recommended this book to me and why am I still friends with them?" This book is weird. (See: The Husbands) I can see how it is a meditation on grief and love, physical and emotaional space, family and relationships. But I didn't really like it. 

The Hanukkah Hook-Up by Jessica Topper - a silly, fun Chanukah romance

Late Night Love by Chayla Woflberg - A sweet romance by a former student! Loved the shoutout to our synagogue :-)

Vanessa Yu's Magical Paris Tea Shop by Roselle Lim - A lovely story about magic and matchmaking, and it reminded me a little bit of the Matchmaker's Gift too. This author's earlier book was one of my favorites of last year, and I liked this one a lot too!

The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong - It was odd that the last two books I read this year were both about seeing the future! This one was a really cozy magical fantasy about found family, and I really enjoyed it!

November Books
October Books
September Books
August Books
July Books
June Books
May Books
April Books
March Books
February Books
January Books

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Saturday, November 30, 2024

November 2024 Books #MyLifeInBooks

The Frindle Files by Andrew Clements - I *loved* this modern-day follow up to the 25-year-old Frindle. If you haven't read it, find a fifth grader and share it with them. And then read this one! Loved it. Great middle grade novel about the power of words and using them wisely.

The House of Eve by Sadaqa Johnson - Historical fiction about black women in the 1950s. It was an interesting look at a piece of history that I haven't read about before. The "twist" seemed fairly obvious to me, but otherwise it was a pretty good story.

Flunked by Jen Calonita - A fifth grader ran up to me at Hebrew School and said "Rabbi! Book recommendation!" so I immediately borrowed it from Libby and it was delightful. The first in a series called "Fairy Tale Reform School," and now I'm pretty sure you have an idea of what it's all about. 

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst - This checks all the boxes: found family, magical stuff, cozy fantasy. As long as I didn't think too hard about the world-building, it was great. 

The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier - Historical fiction about the glassmakers of Murano, Italy. It follows a family through history but through an odd and completely mystifying time travel technique that totally threw me off. Much like the previous book, as long as I didn't think too hard about it, it was great. I wish it had been a more traditional family saga...without the weird time skips that didn't make sense.

Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe - Um...quirky? That's probably the word for this book. On the one hand, I liked the found family, struggle-to-find-your-narrative story. On the other hand, I was a little thrown by the um...use of the internet to earn a living. Enjoyable but a bit odd.

The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen by Isaac Blum - I liked Hoodie (short for Yehuda), an Orthodox teen who narrates the story. It's a fairly powerful story about Hoodie's intersection with the non-Jewish world around him, with the addition of some terrible antisemitism that rocks his community. 

October Books
September Books
August Books
July Books
June Books
May Books
April Books
March Books
February Books
January Books

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