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On Fire Island

by: Jane L. Rosen

May 23, 2023 Berkley

320 pages

As an author, I usually try to disguise the self insert characters at least a little. But in the opening pages of ON FIRE ISLAND by Jane Rosen, the author makes it clear she’s going all in and giving us a main character that works in publishing (an editor who oddly edits her own spouses books). However, this kind of works because the self same narrator is dead. Which we also find out pretty quickly into the first page.

As far as dead narrators go, Julia Morse is a fairly likable one. She looks at most things with a dark sense of humor and wonders right along with the reader why she is still here observing the goings on of her family and neighbors on fire island the summer after her own funeral. Julia’s death provides us two major narrative advantages. One, she is clearly a very omniscient third person narrator, so we can follow around several different groups of people on fire island and get the scoop behind their backstories. It’s not odd that Julia gives us people’s entire life histories, including that of the guy that makes the sandwiches at her favorite store, because she is chatting with us from the vantage point of death. Second, her romance with her literary star writer husband would be way too saccharine for me if this was a romance. It’s all perfect looking people with exciting careers falling in love and not much struggle. I would be happy for her, but not lining up to read about it in a novel. After her death? Well, it’s just tragic and poignant and I really needed to know what happened with Julia and her spouse.

Julia’s now widower husband is one of the many characters we meet on fire island, and understandably our tour guide is rather fond of him. There’s a plot point about his last contracted novel that could be a nice reveal for anyone who doesn’t see it coming from a mile away like I did. Either way, his grief is handled with that sense of macabre humor that I already noted, and his story line is generally fulfilling. In fact, the ability to craft multiple genuinely fulfilling story lines for a host of well fleshed out characters is the highlight of On Fire Island. From the two teenagers looking to give each other a very exciting send off before college to the kleptomaniac who seems to only steal restaurant silverware, every person we meet is given a full treatment and we come to know and love them as we do our own quirky neighbors.

This story is a love letter to Fire Island, which will be the setting for the following two books in the series that are seeded here, but also to the communities of people we create around ourselves wherever we go. Sure, the narrator may be dead, but she formed so many connections while she was alive and that web continues on spinning without her. Plus, the publishing bits even seem somewhat realistic. (I especially enjoyed the agent). I’m looking forward to reading the next two books, although I will admittedly miss Julia. Even though I only met her long past her fictional demise, it’s nice to chat one publishing person to another.

Find It: Amazon | Bookshop

Counting the Omer With BookishlyJewish – Eternity Week

For things to last we need to love and commit to them. Love within eternity means being passionate enough to commit for the long haul. Do you love your choices? Then they’ll last forever.

ON BEING JEWISH NOW, edited by Zibby Owens, features a wide variety of Jews. The thing that unites them? Their love for Judaism, making them an eternal people. We survive because of our love for being Jewish, and our unwavering commitment to that heritage in whatever form it takes.

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Discipline within eternity means examining our habits and making sure we aren’t keeping toxic ones.

In FINALLY FITZ by Marisa Kanter the main character has to let go of parts of the past two realize a better future. She must examine her old defense mechanisms and realize when they are and aren’t healthy.

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Endurance within compassion means committing to helping others. It means looking past things that usually annoy or irritate you and finding ways to connect.

The title of Shai Held’s JUDAISM IS ABOUT LOVE says it all. People think of Judaism as entirely legal based, but those laws are meant to foster love and compassion for ones fellow human. It is an enduring comittment to making the world a better, more loving place.

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Eternity within Eternity, endurance within endurance. To me this is the entire story of the Jewish people and there’s no better book to reflect that than A LETTER IN THE SCROLL by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks may his memory be for a blessing.

The book dispela any myths about Judaism as well as explaining why a Jew today might still choose to practice and/or identify as Jewish.

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Humility within eternity mean realizing that our ability to endure comes from God. This only makes us stronger as human endurance is limited but Gods is limitless.

In MAN’S SEARCH FOR MEANING by Victor Frankl we learn how people survived the unthinkable.

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Bonding/Foundatin within endurance is the basis of all relationships. A true bond between people lays the ground work for a relationship that lasts forever.

You might be surprised by my pick here, but In LADY EVE’S LAST CON by Rebecca Fraimow you basically watch a relationship become even more important than heist. It was the most fun romance I read in a long time.

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When faced with hardship, try to meet them like a King Or Queen, with your head up and your heart steady. Majesty within endurance means pulling through bravely.

In KANTIKA by Elizabeth graver we watch a family saga through generations, and continents. Although their fortunes may have changed, they remain dignified throughout.

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The Safekeep

by: Yael Can Der Wouden

May 28, 2024, Avid Reader Press

272 pages

It’s a tricky thing for an author to let us hate his or her main characters. Yet somehow Yael Van Der Wouden opens her absolutely stunning debut novel The Safekeep by doing just that. The novel is told through eyes of Isabel, who strikes the reader as extremely paranoid, stodgy, and overall just plain rude. Which does not bode well for her when her brother dumps his girlfriend, Eva, on her for the summer at their family home. Seen through Isabel’s eyes, Eva is loud, uncouth, and particularly grating. I hated them both instantly. Yet by the end of the book I loved them so fiercely I would literally put myself between them and harm. It’s quite the feat.

The Safekeep is described as horror, mystery, erotica, literary, and just about everything in between. For me, I never felt the creeping dread or mystery that other readers report experiencing, but this is likely due to my particular family background. I understood where this was going from the first chapter. At the point when most of my fellow readers gasped in shock, I simply nodded in recognition. The only difference between me and Eva is that for my family you can replace the words “taxes” and “bureaucracy” with the names of various firearms. There are reasons I don’t visit certain countries despite them being locations my grandparents once lived. So I’m having a hard time placing this particular novel into a neat category, but I don’t have any difficulty describing it. It is magnificent. It is queer. It is full of longing, and also forgiveness. It is vicious, and it is gentle, and it will alter you forever.

Part of what underscored the plot is the interplay of hate and desire. The things that I hated when I met Isabel and Eva were the things about them that I knew lived somewhere deeply within myself – Isabel’s hoarding tendencies, and social anxiety. Eva’s inability to get her manners right in upscale society. Those things are a part of me too. I’m too shy, too loud, too much, too Jewish, too formerly poor to ever feel like I fit in. I am all too familiar with how one can both hate and love themselves. What I recognized most in both of them though, was the desire that lurks in their hearts. For Isabel, she misreads her own desires as loathing, channels them into cherishing objects. When Eva presents her with an actual outlet for all that pent up longing it releases with all the pent up energy of a volcano erupting. For Eva, desire is more complicated. Without spoiling the entire plot, let’s just say when Eva thinks she desires possessions I suspect she actually wants the security they represent. Not just physically, she well knows that safety can be a transient thing, but emotionally. To be secure in the presence of the people she loves. To have her desire received and reciprocated. Essentially, to be wanted.

If you have had the fortune, (or misfortune as the case may be), to experience this kind of want you’ll know that no object can fulfill it. You options are limited. You can pray you find a person (or persons) that can make even a dent in that yawning chasm of desire. You can accept that the yearning will always be a part of you, smoldering below the surface, waiting for a chance to burn you whole. Or you can be like me and let it out by writing stories about Jewish girls kissing on spaceships while they low key dabble in mysticism. As a coping mechanism, it is adequate, but I can’t say I highly recommend it.

In the end, the joke is on me for waiting all those months to read The Safekeep because my library hold took forever. Because the thing I want right now is a copy of the book, which I have indeed ordered, so that I can carry around with me like a security blanket in case I miraculously run into the author (who I think doesn’t even live on my continent?) so I can be too embarrassed to approach and get it signed anyway. I suggest you go read it, so that you too can be forever changed and forever wanting.

Find It: Bookshop | Amazon

Counting The Omer With BookishlyJewish – Tiferet Week

Loving Kindness within Compassion reminds us that our acts of kindness should be done from love, not pity. We must take care not to be patronizing.

In MY FINE FELLOW, an alternate history My Fair Lady retelling involving culinary school by Jennieke COhen, all characters have to come to an examination of their true motivations for helping others and move beyond condescension and into true compassion.

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Strength within compassion means having some discipline and recognizing you need to set limits to ensure you don’t burn yourself out or overextend. It also means addressing someone’s actual specific needs rather than what you think they need.

In WHY WE FLY by Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal both main characters learn something about advocacy – one needs to learn to also advocate for herself while the other realizes to ask the subject of her compassion what their true need is.

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Compassion within compassion is true empathy,and the ability to walk in another persons shoes. Looking for those we don’t typically feel compassion for and figuring out why that is so we can move beyond those limitations.

As a person of Ashkenaz descent, reading THE FLYING CAMEL edited by Loolwa Khazzoom allowed me to experience very different cultural backgrounds from my own. It was immersive in the best possible way.

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Eternity within Compassion means our empathy and compassion are not flimsy or transient. Even when we are busy we find the time for compassion.

In Jessica Lepe’s FLIRTY LITTLE SECRET there are about a million reasons why these two teachers shouldn’t explore their office romance. Yet their relationship survives anxiety, mistaken identities, family drama and more because they have the ability to walk in each others shoes and show compassion even during those moments.

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Humility within Compassion involves internalizing that your ability to help or perform a service does not make you inherently better than anyone else, especially the recipient of your kindness. Anonymous kindness is a good way to practice this sefirah.

SHE’S A MENTSCH by Anne Dublin features ten amazing Jewish women, several of whom are famous for social justice work.

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Foundation within Compassion reminds us that true compassion flows through a bond. Ideally our compassionate interactions produce a lasting connections rather than just a one off kind act.

In WOVEN ROOTS by Deatra Cohen and Adam Siegel we see how shared healing traditions and use of medicinal plants bonded very disparate communities in times when such inter-community connection and understanding was extremely challenging.

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Royalty within Compassion means recognizes everyone’s individual dignity. Don’t just be charitable, find ways to help people and communities provide and advocate for themselves in dignified fashions.

In DONA GRACIA SAVED WORLDS by Bonni Goldberg and illustrated by Alida Massari we read about one of the most majestic Jews – Dona Gracia Nasi – who recognized that each life deserved not only saving but also a place to live and practice ones religion with dignity.

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The Baker Of Lost Memories

The Baker of Lost Memories

Shirley Russak Wachtel

June 1, 2025 Little A

317 pages

In the days leading up to Yom Hashoa, Holocaust Remembrance Day, I saw many reminders that living survivors of the Holocaust are dwindling. I don’t dispute the importance of documenting these first hand accounts while we still can, but I would like to contend that we have generations of survivors yet to come. Because in some way, a lot of us are still surviving what happened to our parents and grandparents, still living in the long shadow the Holocaust casts over us. In The Baker of Lost Memories by Shirley Rusaak Wachtel we see this second hand trauma play out.

Lena is growing up in Brooklyn, the second daughter of parents who have survived both the camps and the loss of their previous child. The first section of the book takes us back to the Łódź ghetto where we experience the unthinkable cruelty they endured. It’s the kind of thing I don’t often read due to personal trauma, but I wasn’t expecting it in here and I had already committed so I shouldered my way through. After that, the book changes tone as we learn what it is like for Lena to spend her formative years carrying the weight of that past.

On the outside, Lena has what most people would consider a charmed existence. She certainly doesn’t face the persecution her parents did. Yet still, something is not quite right. Her parents can’t love another child in the same way after their experiences in the ghetto and camps. They can’t move on, and Lena can’t help but trip over their memories. Even the simple act of Lena baking a cake inadvertently reminds her mother of the past, triggering a spiral of sadness that threatens to consume them all. Lena feels she is never enough, and really how could she be? Nobody could fill the void in her parents hearts. Which might explain why such a bright young lady makes such awful choices.

The second half of the book follows Lena as she gets married, drops out of college, and opens a bakery. While she is afraid of failing in her parents eyes, they are equally afraid of being rejected by her. Indeed, she goes ballistic on them for even daring to ask that she check in once a week to let them know she’s still alive. Meanwhile they worry the way only Holocaust survivor parents can. They are generous, they are caring, but their communication is seriously lacking. They all talk both too much and too little without truly discussing what actually matters. It’s a pattern that many survivor children will recognize.

The main issue I had with this book was the disconnect between the cover copy and what was found in the pages. We are told Lena has everything she ever wanted – a wonderful man and a thriving business – meanwhile Lena never wanted a bakery and the reader never sees her fall in love with her husband, probably because she never did. We see this relationship for the abusive codependency it is right from the start and are exasperated by Lena’s inability to do so. The “surprise” the cover copy promises is evident to the reader several chapters in. Plus, nothing gives you the hint that you will be experiencing many chapters in the ghetto and even the camps. I would have entered this book with a different mind set had I known what I was actually getting into. I suggest avoiding the cover copy altogether. It’ll make for a better reading experience.

Lena ends up being a survivor in many ways, including carrying a lot of her parents pain. For anyone wondering if there will still be survivors left in a decade, the answer can be found in The Baker of Lost Memories. We are all surviving in our own imperfect ways. Sometimes it’s the only thing we can do.

Note: BookishlyJewish received an ARC of this book from the publisher

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Counting The Omer With BookishlyJewish – Gevurah Week

The cover of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.

Love within Might, or discipline, means that we hold up those we love to a set of standards. We channel our love in correct directions and demand respect.

The two friends in TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW by Gabrielle Zevin love each other something fierce even though they are never romantic lovers. And they call each other on their bullshit even when no one else will. To me, that’s a true love.

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Might within Might or Discipline within Discipline means actually being mighty and limiting your discipline appropriately. We all know what happens when we let anxiety, or the need for perfection, control us. We must marshal it and get the help we need to only use discipline in a healthy manner.

In JUST SHY OF ORDINARY by A.J. Sass the main character learns this lesson about their habit of picking/pulling out hair. Sometimes we need to ask for help and be sure any anxiety/worry is constructive.

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Beauty within might means recognizing our merits and mastering or channeling them towards the good. Weeding out any negative aspects and focusing on the positive.

In THE MATCHMKER’S GIFT by Lynda Cohen Loigman the main character and her grandmother both hone their gift of matchmaking against the odds in their personal lives to bring forward only the good, discarding the bad, for the benefit of their communities.

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Eternity within might means endurance, tenacity, and discipline. I can think of no more enduring character thatn the real life subject of Michael Levy’s hauntingly beutiful memoir, ONE HUNDRED SATURDAYS, Stella Levi. She endured and her legacy will last forever.

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The cover of The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem

Might is often associated with justice. For Splendor/Humility within Might we remind ourselves that judgement should never come from a place of arrogance.

When reading THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF JERUSALEM by Sarit Yishai-Levi (translated by Anthony Berris, but hey if you don’t need a translation go for it!) I found myself judging and feeling superior to every character, only to have that arrogance come smashing down around me as I learned about them and their pasts. It was an important lesson

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Foundation within Might is working together to achieve mutual benefit. In unison we achieve a solid foundation.

When I read Rabbi Ruttenberg’s ON REPENTANCE AND REPAIR I did not feel chastised, I felt embraced in a shared goal for mutual and societal benefit. The book epitomizes for me the desire to work as a community towards a better world.

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The cover of Rachel Friedman Breaks The Rules

Discipline and Might can be used destructively to tear other people down. In Majesty within might we focus on building up each others self esteem, bolstering the best in each other.

In RACHEL FRIEDMAN BREAKS THE RULES by Sarah Kapit, Rachel really does need discipline – the title is not kidding when it says she breaks the rules. But the way her father, and her Rabbi, go about it shows how much they are trying to build up Rachel as a person and celebrate her individuality.

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Author Inter – Kalyn Josephson

A yellow to orange color fade background. In middle is a photo of Kalyn Josephson standing outside with her hair down looking at the camera. Below the photo is text "Author Interview Kalyn Josephson"

In advance of her new novel, Ravenguard, which completes the Rvenfall series, we sat down to chat with author Kalyn Josephson.

BookishlyJewish: Hi Kalyn, it’s so great to talk with you again. I’m super looking forward to Ravenguard. Did you always know this would be a series of 4?

Kalyn Josephson: It’s great to chat with you again too, thanks for having me! I did not know the Ravenfall series would span four books when I wrote it. Ravenfall was originally a standalone YA fantasy that I ultimately trunked, so when we sold it in a two-book middle grade deal, I only knew the second book would focus on Anna’s relationship with her father, with a new magical mystery. But we got such a great reception to the series that my publisher asked for two more!

BookishlyJewish: I have bragged before about how much I love the physical copies of these books, because the covers are so stunning. My personal favorite is Hollowthorn. Do you have a favorite cover?

Kalyn Josephson: Ah, thank you! The artist, Ramona Kaulitzki, has done a stunning job with all of them. But I agree, Hollowthorn is my favorite too!

BookishlyJewish: One of the things I have loved about being on this journey with Anna and Colin is watching their personal growth. Particularly, we have seen Anna go from not feeling “Jewish enough” to embracing her heritage and even learning some Jewish magic. Will this line continue into the next book?

Kalyn Josephson: It definitely does. Throughout the series, Anna has grown so much in relation to her identity, and in Ravenguard, I finally get to let her sit comfortably in it, which was a nice change of pace. It’s much more Colin having the identity crises in book 4!

BookishlyJewish: How about Colin’s evolving thoughts on exactly when and how to use his powers? Does this theme recur?

Kalyn Josephson: It’s a core theme, in fact! How to be a Raven, what kind of Raven to be, how to help people and keep them safe—these questions have always been at the core of Colin’s journey, and Ravenguard is where he finally gets some answers. With everyone else’s help, of course.

BookishlyJewish: Any chance we learn more about Colin’s King of the Dead magic and the legends behind it?

Kalyn Josephson: It’s like you’re in my head! A big part of Colin’s arc in Ravenguard focuses on going back to his roots. We revisit both Fin and Faerie in RAVENGUARD, bringing the series full circle. I really enjoyed digging into this because it’s been such a continuous thread throughout the books for Colin!

BookishlyJewish: I am a sucker for a sentient house, and Ravenfall is a pretty awesome sentient house. I have, however, wondered how the house feels about Anna and Colin potentially heading to college one day.

Kalyn Josephson: I think you’d break its little heart asking it logical questions like that. Unless of course, that also meant that Max went to college too, in which case it would organize the going away party itself.

BookishlyJewish: Ravenfall always makes me think of Halloween, and Hanukkah has been featured as well. Do you have a favorite holiday, either secular or Jewish?

Kalyn Josephson: The Halloween season is by far my favorite, but I honestly just love holidays. I’ll take any excuse to get a bunch of friends together over some good food and fun traditions!

BookishlyJewish: Ending a series is a huge milestone, how are you feeling about this?

Kalyn Josephson: Very grateful to have been given the opportunity! Ravenfall is the longest series I’ve written, and will likely keep that title, as drafting a third and fourth book inspired challenges I hadn’t faced before. It’s very difficult to keep a story both familiar and fresh across so many books, and I’m in awe of the authors who do it!

BookishlyJewish: But also…what are you planning next?

Kalyn Josephson: I have two new series announced, including my next middle grade book, GRIMLORE MANOR, which I’m very seriously pitching as “what if Wednesday Addams and Eeyore had to team up to win The Inheritance Games.” I also have my adult fantasy debut, THE LIBRARY OF AMORLIN, releasing next spring, about a con artist who has to infiltrate a magical library.

BookishlyJewish: I always end by asking if you have a Jewish book you’d like to recommend to our readers.

Kalyn Josephson: TALES OF THE FLYING FOREST by RM Romero! Think Jewish Narnia.

Find the Books:

Ravenfall: Amazon | Bookshop

Hollowthorn: Amazon | Bookshop

Witchwood: Amazon | Bookshop

Ravenguard: Amazon | Bookshop

Counting the Omer – Hessed Week

Hessed, or lovingkindness is the sefirah for the first week of the Omer. It encompasses many forms of love, but also generosity and care for ones fellow man. Acts of hessed are things we do for one another out of love, not obligation.

Night 1: Hessed within Hessed, to me is the day where we experience the full range of love. In GOING BICOASTAL by Dahlia Adler we see that no matter we choose, so long as we approach it with love, everything will be alright. There are literally to story lines – sliding doors style – but the main characters approach to life and love is a constant.

It’s also a very gentle book, allowing me to be kind to myself too.

Find it: Amazon | Bookshop

Day 2: Strength in Hessed, which reminds us that love needs boundaries. You must respect your partner, and they in turn must respect you. Everyone needs space to grow and be their own person within a relationship.

In Ina Garten’s BE READY WHEN THE LUCK HAPPENS she details how she and her husband actually needed a brief separation to work through how to each be their own person, making for a stronger marriage

The cover for Be Ready When the Luck Happens

Find It: Bookshop | Amazon

Day 3: Beautiful Love, in contrast to the prior day, Tiferet, or beauty within love recognizes acts of kindness even to those that don’t deserve it. It is love without expectation of reciprocity and empathy for all.

In HOME FOR THE CHALLAH DAYS by Jennifer Wilck the main characters find empathy for the perpetrator of an antisemitic attack and attempt to end the violence. It’s a romance between Jews- I promise! -but this subplot showed a new facet to the main characters.

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Day 4: Endurance in Love, which means fighting for what you love no matter the setbacks or hardships. In WAKE ME MOST WICKEDLY by Felicia Grosman the odds are stacked against our couple. Yet, they find a way to each other despite the seaming impossibility of it all.

Find It: Amazon | Bookshop

Day 5: Splendor and Humility in Love and kindness, because when you are convinced you’re right, you need the ability to see the other side, to forgive and sometimes even cede for the person you love.

In LATE NIGHT LOVE byChayla Wolfberg we get one of the most Jewish, and satisfying, apology and forgiveness scenes in a romance I’ve ever read.

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Day 6: Foundation in Love and kindness – to have lasting love, there must be bonding, a sense of kinship and attachment.

In HONEY AND ME by Meira Drazin the main character and her friend spend their bat mitzvah year growing as people and learning to accommodate each other. To each shine without overshadowing the other forming an everlasting bond

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Day 7: Majesty within Lovingkindness. Some people interpret this day as mature love. A celebration of personal dignity and love that elevates the spirit.

In NIGHT OWLS by A.R. Vishny, two of the POV characters are estries. As such, they are way older than they look. Yet they are still discovering who they are, how to value their unique gifts, just like the rest of us.

Find It: Bookshop | Amazon

Middle Grade Books Featuring Passover

Passover was one of my favorite holidays as a kid. Much more so than the holiday most people associate with Jews – Hanukkah – because it came with a two week vacation from school and usually a gift, no matter if I found the Afikomen or not.

As I grew older, I began to appreciate the cultural and religious traditions just as much as my time off, because really it wasn’t time off anymore- we spent the days right before the holiday helping my mother “turn over” the kitchen from chametz to kosher for Passover. For my orthodox family, that meant boxing up all the usual dishes and foods and schlepping up the special Passover dishes from their boxes in the basement. They would then dwell in our newly scrubbed kitchen that was covered in so much silver foil it resembled a space ship. This might be where my love of space ships first began. Also possibly the origin story for my almond macaroon obsession.

I would made a special trip to the library prior to the holiday to check out enough books to last me through the eight days. Back then, I read one a night minimum, which made for a hefty haul. Yet almost none of these books were Passover related, or even Jewish at all. Because back then, outside of orthodox publishers whose books rarely made it to public libraries, there wasn’t much available available in Jewish Interest for kids after they graduated from picture books. Obviously, Passover has its own special book – the Haggadah – but now there’s also new offerings for our younger readers. Hopefully this turns some of them on to reading Jewish literature – and maybe even writing some of their own! – as they grow. Plus, they make a great afikomen gift.

Golem Crafters by Emi Watanabe Cohen is a charming middle grade book about two siblings delving into their family history while learning to craft golems from their grandfather. It contains one of the most hilarious depictions about a Passover Seder I have read in any book ever. The line about gefilte fish from jars slayed me. But Golem Crafters is about more than just humor.

These kids are dealing with a heavy family history – most historical Jews did not exactly lead happy, persecution-free lives- plus the struggle of explaining how a person can be both Japanese and Jewish to classmates who insist their intersectional background makes them unable to fully claim either heritage. They learn a lot about identity, which is thematically very relevant to the Passover holiday when our identity as a people was formed.

Find It: Amazon | Bookshop | BookishlyJewish Review

Let’s face it, the Seder is long. It’s also a time of strong family memory creation. Dara Horn and Theo Ellsworth’s graphic novel One Small Goat combines these two concepts by sending a wise child through Seders of the past to find a missing Afikomen, so that his family can finally end their Seder. It is a tour through Jewish history, but also an homage to the Jewish tradition of asking questions. This book is great for your more reluctant readers in addition to your critical thinkers. Even the parents will enjoy the story.

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I’ve had my moments of personal pain with Jewish anthologies, usually when they claim to represent a broad swath of Jews but pointedly leave out the ones they find embarrassing (aka the ones that grew up like I did and the ones that practice orthodoxy as I still do). Therefore, I was very pleased to see some of my favorite orthodox creators included in the compilation On All Other Nights edited by Chris Baron, Joshua S. Levy, and Naomi Milliner.

The book features different stories arranged around to the order of the Seder itself. Kadesh, urchatz… I understand it’s impossible to include everyone – we contain multitudes! – but I hope some kids find themselves in this book this Passover.

Find It: Amazon | Bookshop

Technically speaking, Honey and Me by Meira Drazin covers a lot of holidays. We meet Orthodox best friends Milla and Honey right before the high holidays and follow them through their bay mitzvah year straight through receiving the Torah at Shavuot. However, Passover is a critical turning point in not only their relationship, but also Mills’s relationship with her mother.

It’s a story of quiet growth, of appreciation for what one has, while also an acknowledgement that one must take care of oneself in order to be a fully realized person. It’s one of my favorite reads this year and I highly recommend it for Passover.

Find it: Amazon | Bookshop

The cover for The Trouble With Good Ideas

The trouble With Good Ideas is a book for anyone that’s ever had trouble with change, had to deal with being the only Jew in their class, or who has lost a grandparent to any form of dementia. The main character, Leah, is forced by life circumstances to switch from her Jewish surroundings to a town where she must attend public school where she faces significant antisemitism. To solve her problems Leah forms a golem.

What she fails to realize is that all Golems eventually have a mind of their own, and often turn on their creators or those around them. As the only Jew around, Leah is having to explain a lot, including Passover, to her classmates. She’s also facing her own redemption story. Much like the Jews in Egypt.

Find It: Amazon | Bookshop

Counting The Omer With BookishlyJewish

Counting the Omer is one of the lesser known Jewish traditions, but this year BookishlyJewish is hoping you’ll count with us! So what is the Omer? Well, starting from the second night of Passover we count the days until we receive the Torah during the holiday of Shavuot. It takes 49 days and is a time of personal and spiritual growth as we prepare to receive the Torah.

Traditions surrounding the Omer are numerous – including some that are usually associated with mourning- but the actual process is simple enough. Every day you add a new day to the tally. Sound easy? It is and it isn’t. Jewish days start at night, so every night you can count and make a blessing. If you forget at night, you can still count right up until sundown starts the next day. You simply wouldn’t make the blessing when counting during daytime hours but would be welcome to do so the next night, as you’ve gotten credit for the day and your count is unbroken. Miss an entire day from sundown to sundown and you won’t be able to say the blessing for the rest of the count. Which means lots of kids and adults have fun asking each other if they’re “still in it” – meaning they haven’t forgotten an entire day and are are still eligible to make a blessing. It’s a big accomplishment, and a lot of fun! It’s also kind of hilarious, because you don’t want to accidentally count without intention and before making the blessing, which is why if someone asks you what day it is you promptly respond with “yesterday was…”

Where does the spiritual growth come in? Well, remember those mourning rituals I mentioned? In addition to being the time when the Jews leveled up spiritually by preparing the receive the Torah in the dessert, The Omer is a time that has been associated with the death of a generation of Torah scholars who tradition holds were beset by plague due to not respecting one another. Therefore, we do not have weddings, cut our hair (some men even grow full Omer beards), and other such stringency that is typically part of mourning. Mostly we’re trying to work on ourselves to be better people, and repair what went wrong. In kabbalistic tradition, each of the seven sets of seven is associated with one of the seven aspects of the God – the sefirot. Each day within that seven days focuses on a different feature of that aspect of the divine. Therefore, a person can strive to emulate to God, one day at a time. In this way we prepare ourselves spiritually to receive the Torah while also participating in tikun olam – repairing a broken world.

So where do the books come in? We’re going to feature one book a day that we think pairs well with that days sefirah. Some of those connections may be loose – don’t worry we will explain them! We also don’t expect anyone to be able to read a book a day. That would seriously crush anyone’s Goodreads challenge. Instead, we’re hoping you might pick the book out of each set of seven that most speaks to you. The Omer is counted up rather than down – we track how many days have passed rather than how many we have left to go, because each day is an accomplishment. Each day we get to be better people. Focus on your achievements- each book you have been able to read – rather than mourning the ones you haven’t gotten to yet.

We can’t wait to start counting with you!