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

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!