New moon, new month

Jewish Book Month is an international celebration that traces its origins to Fanny Goldstein, a librarian at the Boston Public Library, who in the weeks before Chanukah in 1926, promoted Jewish books as ideas for gifts.

Today there is a bookish buffet of opportunities to enjoy author talks and book discussions, both locally and online from communities around the world.

Jewish Book Month, however, is also an occasion that lends itself very nicely to do-it-yourself celebrating. Find a book that piques your interest–or one you’d like to share–and let the celebratory reading begin.

JUST RELEASED

Bookish People by Susan Coll

Author Susan Coll, who Newsday calls the “queen of literary comedy,” worked for years as Director of Events and Programs at DC’s acclaimed Politics & Prose and today is President of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. Mining her extensive book-world experience, her new novel takes us behind the scenes of a turbulent week in a busy DC independent bookstore.

At the story’s center is Sophie Bernstein, who has owned the store and nurtured its success for 20 years. But lately, Sophie has developed a stormy relationship with her career choice, reflecting upheavals in her life and the world around her. She’s grieving the sudden death of her husband. Her longtime manager is leaving for law school in Chicago. The shop’s vacuum cleaner, named the Querk III, has eaten her car keys. And despite her son’s expensive education, he’s decided to become a yoga instructor.

With horror, Sophie watches the unfolding 2017 attack in Charlottesville, in which a protester is killed and one of her employees is among those injured. Against this backdrop of violent racism and rising antisemitism, she rereads Anne Frank and is compelled to prepare a place to hide. In her case, the space is 350 windowless feet accessed by pushing a button behind the store’s shelf of Graham Greene novels.

As the novel unfolds, two other narrators’ voices are added to Sophie’s: 23-year-old Clemi, an aspiring novelist who manages the store’s author events, and renowned British financier-turned-poet Raymond Chancer, whose celebrity is on a very public downslide.

Add in a Russian tortoise named Kurt Vonnegut Jr., an ex-employee making uncanny predictions about the future, and a lawsuit about a dog-bitten bagel, and you’ll find a surprising funny reflection of facing the challenges–both large and small–that collide in the chaos of life.

RECENT AND COMING SOON

Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro

A gripping exploration of family secrets that has been named one of the most eagerly anticipated books of the year ( LA Times , LitHub , Library Journal , The Millions ).

Funny You Should Ask by Elisa Sussman

This year’s to-read Jewish rom-com.

The Village Idiot by Steve Stern

Called a “wild, effervescent, absinthe-soaked novel that tells of the life of the extraordinary artist Chaim Soutine.”

The Jewish Deli: An Illustrated History of the Chosen Food by Ben Nadler

A celebration of Jewish food, with history, lists of favorite delis, and more, by New York comic artist and deli aficionado Ben Nadler.

On the One Hand / On the Other Hand by R. O. Blechman

This double-sided book collects work from Blechman’s more-than-70-year career. One side features artwork, cartoons, and New Yorker magazine covers; the other is a collection of essays on literature, film, theater, history, and his fellow cartoonists and illustrators.

Betsy Gomberg reads (and sometimes writes about) Jewish books. She is Spertus Institute’s Director of Marketing & Communications.