It’s 1956, and 19-year-old Marion Brooks is living with her widowed father and sister in Bronxville, New York, teaching ballet to children. Marion has always dreamed of becoming a professional dancer but knows it is her father’s wish for her to marry and settle down. When she learns that Radio City Music Hall is looking for new Rockettes, Marion secretly auditions, is selected and decides to take the job – even though she is promptly kicked out of her father’s house. Work begins immediately and complex routines need to be learned and then performed, perfectly synchronized four times a day. Marion is exhausted but exhilarated, happy to be living her dream and making fast friends with her dance troupe. Deep down, though, she wishes for her family’s support.
Meanwhile, New York City is under attack. For sixteen years, the “Big Apple Bomber” has been planting bombs in crowded public places, causing mayhem, and eluding the police. The night the bomb explodes in Radio City Music Hall, Marion witnesses it firsthand from the stage as it takes away someone she loves. She also is witness to the suspicious man who she believes planted the bomb. When the police turn away her assistance, Marion enlists the help of her blind-date Peter Griggs, a psychiatric resident at a local hospital who is interested in the new art of criminal profiling, to find the bomber.
If you are in the mood for engrossing, well-researched historical fiction that brings the glitz and glamour of Radio City, theatre, and New York alive, pick up this perfect blend of family drama, a suspenseful murder mystery and a smidge of romance. Aptly named, The Spectacular by Fiona Davis is so good, it just might make you dance with joy.
Pippa and Gabe Gerard are a gorgeous, happily married couple – the type that everyone envies. They have two beautiful daughters and live in a cliff-side cottage outside of Melbourne, with amazing ocean views and a dramatic drop down to the jagged rocks below. Unfortunately, this dramatic spot attracts all sorts of attention – the worst being people who come there to end their lives. Gabe has talked seven people down from the drop since moving there a few years previously, and the local paper declares him a hero.
Things change the day Amanda Cameron comes to the cliff. After talking with Gabe, she falls to her death. Gabe is more than a little shaken afterwards, and Pippa begins to suspect foul play. When Pippa learns that Gabe has a past connection to Amanda, she begins to question to how well she truly knows her husband, her supposed soulmate, after all.
The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth is perfectly executed domestic suspense that you will want to clear your schedule for. Alternating between the past and present and told from both Pippa and Amanda’s perspectives, this novel slowly peels away layers as it exposes the flaws in both women’s marriages. The Soulmate explores the ideas of fidelity and loyalty and will keep you on edge of your seat the until its satisfying end. Place your hold today.
Cormac McCarthy passed away on June 13, 2023, at 89 years old. He is known for changing the landscape of American literature, eschewing conventional usage of punctuation, and having a generally bleak outlook on American life. He won numerous awards for his works, including the Pulitzer Prize for his novel, The Road; the National Book Award for All the Pretty Horses; and the film adaptation of his novel No Country for Old Men won four Academy Awards. McCarthy wrote twelve novels, multiple short stories, a few screenplays (some never published), and a couple plays.
Maybe you haven’t read any of McCarthy’s work, maybe you’re interested in one of his works you haven’t read, or you’re ready to watch a film adaptation; whichever you choose, we’ve got the materials to help you honor him.
“A young boy, an old man, and the outlaw who has unknowingly killed the boy’s father, all try to resist the changes brought about during the period between the wars.”
“Based on incidents that took place in the southwestern United States and Mexico around 1850, this novel chronicles the crimes of a band of desperados, with a particular focus on one, “the kid,” a boy of fourteen.”
“Cut off from the life of ranching he has come to love by his grandfather’s death, John Grady Cole flees to Mexico, where he and his two companions embark on a rugged and cruelly idyllic adventure.”
“Stumbling upon a bloody massacre, a cache of heroin, and more than $2 million in cash during a hunting trip, Llewelyn Moss removes the money, a decision that draws him and his young wife into the middle of a violent confrontation.”
This film adaptation was released in 2007, directed by the Coen Brothers. It stars Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, and Javier Bardem, who won the Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won four.
“Apocalypse grips the earth; wildlife has disappeared; and starvation prevails. Amidst this bleak backdrop, a man and his young son slowly make their way toward the coast. Avoiding roves of marauding cannibals and fighting off starvation, they gain hope and stamina in knowing they are some of the remaining few virtuous people.”
Viggo Mortensen, Robert Duvall, and Charlize Theron star in this 2009 film adaptation. While it wasn’t nominated for any Academy Awards, it did win a couple film critics awards: Best Cinematography and Best Actor for Viggo Mortensen.
“In 1980 Pass Christian, Mississippi, salvage diver Bobby Western, after a plane crash, discovers the pilot’s flight bag, the plane’s black box and the tenth passenger are missing, submerging him in a conspiracy beyond his understanding as he is shadowed in body and spirit by the past and present.”
“1972, Black River Falls, Wisconsin: Alicia Western, twenty years old, with forty thousand dollars in a plastic bag, admits herself to the hospital. A doctoral candidate in mathematics at the University of Chicago, Alicia has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and she does not want to talk about her brother, Bobby. Instead, she contemplates the nature of madness; she surveys the intersection of physics and philosophy; and she introduces her cohorts, her chimeras, the hallucinations that only she can see. Told entirely through the transcripts of Alicia’s psychiatric sessions, Stella Maris is a philosophical inquiry that questions our notions of God, truth, and existence.”
After the successful celebration of the 350th Anniversary of American Jewish History in May 2004, the Jewish Museum of Florida and prominent Jewish leaders in South Florida urged President Bush to name the month of May as Jewish American Heritage Month. In May 2006, the first Jewish American Heritage Month was celebrated, honoring the centuries of Jewish impact in America.
There is a myriad of ways that Jewish Americans have contributed to the United States. Below I’ve compiled a small selection of books to enjoy that acknowledge some of those contributions, whether you want to get lost in a story, experiment in the kitchen, or learn something new.
“Florence, the 20-year-old daughter of Jewish bakery owners Esther and Joseph Adler, starts the summer of 1934 training for an upcoming trip to France to swim the English Channel. When Florence’s life is cut short in tragedy, Esther and Joseph keep her death quiet from their eldest daughter, Fannie, who waits out a high-risk pregnancy in the hospital. Protecting the baby becomes paramount. While Fannie’s husband, Isaac, swindles away funds in real estate schemes, their young daughter Gussie, unable to grasp the reason behind the lie, mourns the loss of her beloved aunt and misses her mother. Gussie finds comfort in Anna, a young German girl mysteriously living with the Adlers, and Stuart, Flossie’s swim coach and admirer. Stuart, a handsome lifeguard and son of the elite Covington hotel owner, begins clandestine swimming lessons with Anna, growing closer as they also grieve for Florence. As the secrets threaten to spill and heartbreak blankets them, the family must unite to face a future without Florence.”
“Set against the backdrop of the Clinton and Lewinsky scandal, My Last Innocent Year is a coming-of-age story about a young woman on the brink of sexual and artistic awakening, navigating her way toward independence while recognizing the power, beauty and grit of where she came from. Timely and wise, it reckons with the complexities of consent, what it means to be an adult, and whether or not we can ever outrun our bad decisions.”
“Relying on classic Jewish dishes, new favorites, and some imports, Gray and Kassoff Gray look to change the traditional Jewish table by “blending” tastes and histories. With dishes like yukon gold and sweet potato latkes and vegetable kishka with sage and paprika mixed in with asparagus risotto with Parmesan tuiles and quick summer squash ratatouille, there is a little something from everywhere thrown into the pot. With more than 75 color photographs, stories, and instructions from the authors on almost every recipe, as well as other restaurateurs’ and chefs’ anecdotes peppered throughout, this book has a very personal and inviting feel, asking the reader to focus on enjoying the food.”
“Finding himself alone after his divorce and his mother’s recent death, Ben Ziskind distracts himself with work, crafting questions for a TV quiz show. When he decides to steal a Chagall painting that once belonged to his mother, his actions shake him from his hermetic shell. Flashbacks to Ben’s past and to the lives of Chagall and his one-time novelist friend, the Hidden One, merge together. Horn deftly weaves an intricate story steeped in folklore and family secrets. Along the way, readers are offered glimpses of the possibilities, allegorical and otherwise, of life’s beginning and end.”
“In this anthology of 14 short stories by YA authors, the protagonists experience all the familiar exhilaration, embarrassment, and anxiety of late adolescence, with physical symptoms to match: they’re torn, they freeze up, they blush. They are also Jewish, and what that means—in terms of family, upbringing, and beliefs—adds additional layers of questioning and rumination to their fledgling sense of themselves.”
“Russian Jewish folklore meets the modern world in this fantastical story of good versus evil. Estranged siblings Isaac and Bellatine Yaga come from a long line of Russian puppeteers, each having their own special talent (or curse). Isaac is the Chameleon King, changing his appearance by imitating a person’s muscle movements. Bellatine has hands which ignite and wake the puppets. The siblings reunite when they receive an inheritance—Thistlefoot, a living house with chicken legs that moves and responds to commands in Yiddish. Isaac and Bellatine tour the U.S. with Thistlefoot, performing their famous puppet shows, but they soon discover there are others intent on finding the magical house. The evil Longshadow Man is close and will let no one get in his way; however, the house has its own agenda, and dues must be paid to balance the universe’s energy.”
“In this ambitious mix of biography, historiography, and family memoir, historian Popkin (A New World Begins) pays tribute to his grandmother, novelist Zelda Popkin. Throughout, Popkin draws insightful comparisons between Zelda and other Jewish American writers and provides helpful synopses of her novels. This admiring profile restores a well-deserving author to the spotlight.”
“When Charles Lindbergh, Republican candidate in the 1940 presidential race, defeats popular FDR in a landslide, pollsters scramble for explanations–among them that, to a country weary of crisis and fearful of becoming involved in another European war, the aviator represents “normalcy raised to heroic proportions.” For the Roth family, however, the situation is anything but normal, and heroism has a different meaning. As the anti-Semitic new president cozies up to the Third Reich, right-wing activists throughout the nation seize the moment. Most citizens, enamored of isolationism and lost in hero worship, see no evil–but in the Roths’ once secure and stable Jewish neighborhood in New Jersey, the world is descending into a nightmare of confusion, fear, and unpredictability. But though the situation is grim, this is not a despairing tale; suspenseful, poignant, and often humorous, it engages readers in many ways. It prompts them to consider the nature of history, present times, and possible futures.”
“The Austrian Jewish Künstler family’s established, prosperous life is threatened when creeping Nazi reforms erode their freedom. Fortunately, they escape Vienna in 1939 and settle in Los Angeles, finding themselves on the fringes of its European émigré community. Salomea (“Mamie”), 11, enthusiastically explores her new home, helping her parents and aging grandfather learn English. When Mamie is 93, she invites her 23-year-old grandson, Julian, to stay with her; his New York life has disintegrated since he lost both his girlfriend and his roommate. His parents refuse to subsidize his aimless existence, so he reluctantly accepts Mamie’s offer, only to linger when the pandemic strikes. Over the months, Mamie recounts fascinating anecdotes about meeting famous writers and luminaries such as Greta Garbo. Contrasting the wartime excesses in Hollywood with privation in Austria, Mamie and Julian liken COVID-era isolation to the sense of exile so many faced when they fled Europe.”
“In Koshersoul, Michael W. Twitty considers the marriage of two of the most distinctive culinary cultures in the world today: the foods and traditions of the African Atlantic and the global Jewish diaspora. To Twitty, the creation of African-Jewish cooking is a conversation of migrations and a dialogue of diasporas offering a rich background for inventive recipes and the people who create them. The question that most intrigues him is not just who makes the food, but how the food makes the people. Jews of Color are not outliers, Twitty contends, but significant and meaningful cultural creators in both Black and Jewish civilizations. Koshersoul also explores how food has shaped the journeys of numerous cooks, including Twitty’s own passage to and within Judaism.”
Lewis Madigan’s elderly neighbor Chester Wheeler is dying of cancer. Several of his home healthcare aides have quit. Chester is a very difficult person to be around for a variety of reasons, and his family will not take care of him. Chester’s daughter Ellie is desperate to find someone to take the job and finally convinces Lewis to give it a try. Lewis is desperate for money and Ellie has promised a generous paycheck.
Lewis is good with Chester. He ignores a lot and hollers back at Chester. Chester has a final trip in mind and Lewis agrees to drive Chester’s old Winnebago cross county to visit his ex-wife. After many difficult days of traveling, the pair finally make it to Sue’s home, but she refuses to talk to Chester and refuses to allow him in her home. With Lewis’ help, Sue and Chester are able to talk things over. Before heading back home, Sue suggests that they travel to visit Chester’s friend Mike. They served together in Vietnam and have things to talk over.
On the way back home, Chester dies.
Home healthcare aide becomes Lewis’ new profession. He eventually decides to become a nurse but promises not to quit helping another very difficult patient. His schooling is placed on hold for a time to fulfill his promise.
Philip Solomon is an author suffering from writer’s block. He decides to write what he knows and begins to document the disappearance of his friend Jeff’s mother, some 40 years previously.
On November 12, 1975, 10-year-old Miranda Larkin arrives home from school to discover her mother Jane missing without a trace. There is only one suspect – Dan Larkin, Jane’s husband and father to Miranda and her brothers, Jeff and Alex. Dan is an unflappable criminal defense attorney and a narcissist, but as Jane’s body is never found, he is never charged with murder. As years pass, Dan begins to suffer from dementia, and as Phil Solomon begins research for his book, old feelings and suspicion begin to surface once again. Is it possible that the Larkin kids were raised by a man who killed their mother?
William Landay’s All That Is Mine I Carry With Me is the perfect blend of a literary whodunnit and legal thriller and is twisty emotional family drama that keeps you guessing. Place your hold for this (deservedly) popular read and then just try and put it down after the first page.
Saskia Kreis is a piano prodigy returning home after her mother’s death. Riding into her hometown of Milwaukee on fumes, Saskia is barely making ends meet by writing SAT questions. Her days of tickling the ivories are long behind her, abruptly ending as she entered adulthood. It wasn’t easy, after all, to be the child genius of an accomplished classical musician and a renowned author-illustrator.
Saskia knows that the family home, named Elf House, will be hers one day soon. A gothic mansion, the house has been in the family for generations and has its quirks. But when her mother’s will doesn’t name Saskia as the inheritor of the home, she has questions. Why did her mother leave the unfinished manuscript in her famous Fairy Tales for Little Feminists series to Saskia? And most of all, why did she leave the house to Patrick Kintner? Patrick is a spectral shadow on Saskia’s young adulthood that she just can’t shake. Elf House is meant to be Saskia’s, and she will do whatever it takes to make sure that her mother’s family legacy is protected.
Author Kapelke-Dale follows her debut The Ballerinas with a #MeToo story that will keep you reading “just one more chapter.”
In 1907, Sylvie Pelletier’s French-Canadian family relocates from Vermont to Moonstone Colorado for her father’s job as a quarry man for The Padgett Fuel and Stone Company. When the impressionable Sylvie is asked to work that summer in the manor house for the Padgett family, she is awe-struck by her surroundings and is drawn to her employer, the charming “Countess” Inge, and to Inge’s stepson Jasper, the heir to the family fortune. By the end of the season, however, Sylvie sees through the Padgett’s lofty ideas for the town’s future, and understands the feelings of discontent among the workers and their families who make up the town of Moonstone.
Sylvie learns even more when she becomes an apprentice to Miss. Katrina Redmond, the bold local editor of the local newspaper who is not afraid to publish unbecoming stories involving the company. When tragedy strikes, Sylvie is no longer content to sit on the sidelines and involves herself in attempting to unionize the stone workers, alongside the likes of Mary Harris “Mother” Jones.
Based on true stories from Colorado history, Gilded Mountain by Kate Manning is epic historical fiction to savor, with a memorable leading character who must come of age before her time. For fans of Kristin Hannah’s The Four Winds, this tale of the American West is beautifully and at times heartbreakingly told and it expertly captures the difficulties of the era and the disparities between the working poor and the robber barons they toiled for.
Read it or Weep 