As we move into the High Holiday season, with Rosh Hashanah starting on September 15 and Yom Kippur on September 24, why not try a new book by a Jewish author? These represent many different experiences of Judaism, with some identifying strongly with the religion, others with the culture, and there are as many ways to be Jewish as there are Jewish people!
James McBride’s new novel The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store needs no further promotion, as evidenced by the number of holds, but it’s too good to not include! This historical tale focuses on the pre-World War II Chicken Hill, a working-class neighborhood where Black and Jewish residents live side-by-side. McBride has shared that the character of Chona was heavily inspired by his grandmother who also had polio, but he wanted to create a version of her in which she was beloved by her husband. You can also check out McBride’s award-winning memoir, The Color of Water, in which he comes to terms with his mixed heritage as the son of a Black preacher and a mother who was raised as an Orthodox Jew.
Rachel Lynn Solomon writes both young adult and adult contemporary romances centering Jewish characters dealing with mental illness. Her latest for adults, Business or Pleasure, features a ghost writer named Chandler who has a disastrous one-night stand only to discover he’s her latest client. As the two form a relationship, they share their experiences with mental illness and Jewish identities, and the stigmas that can accompany both.
If you’re a fan of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens, either on page or on screen, perhaps you’ve thought to yourself: I wish Aziraphale and Crowley were Jewish and gay. If that’s you, you must read Sacha Lamb’s When the Angels Left the Old Country. Uriel is an angel, Little Ash is a demon, and the two embark on a journey from their tiny shtetl to America when a girl from their village goes missing. They encounter the burgeoning labor movement, corruption, friendship, and romance in a totally new imagining of the immigration story.
Looking for recipes to liven up your Shabbat table or new ideas for breaking the Yom Kippur fast? We’ve got Jewish cookbooks aplenty!
Michael Twitty, James Beard award-winning author, offers meditations and recipes that blend his African and Jewish backgrounds in KosherSoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew. He ties the food to the migration and diasporic patterns of both communities, including such innovative options as using peach cobbler for tashlich, part of the process of atoning for sins before Yom Kippur.
Leah Koenig’s new cookbook Portico: Cooking and Feasting in Rome’s Jewish Kitchen offers another sub-culture of Jewish eating. Exploring the history and culture of Roman Jews, Koenig brings readers over 100 kosher recipes that meld Italian and Jewish traditions. I’m personally looking to try concia, or silky marinated zucchini!
If you want to change up the traditional options, Jake Cohen is your guy. His brand new offering, I Could Eat: Classic Jew-ish Recipes Revamped for Every Day, is sure to make mouths water and stomachs grumble, with recipes from his own Ashkenazi and his husband’s Iraqi Sephardic background. Everything bagel panzanella, anyone?
~ posted by Jane S.
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