BookishlyJewish is super excited to be a part of Zoe Kaplan’s #ReadsofAwe this year! We are releasing several reading lists for those wanting to plan ahead and strategize the best way to complete their Bingo boards.
Today’s list, The Overachiever Version, features one book for each box, no duplicates. This would require A LOT of reading in a very short time frame, and likely is not possible for most. However, we also note the other categories each book will fulfill. Even if you are short on time, or have read some of these before, you can still find something new for your TBR. We look forward to seeing your pretty bookstacks as part of the photo challenge!
Coming soon: My personal reading list and a short-on-time board that uses short stories instead of novels.
GENRE BOXES
Non -Holocaust Historical
Marry Me by Midnight by Felicia Grossman
London, 1832: Isabelle Lira may be in distress, but she’s no damsel. Since her father’s death, his former partners have sought to oust her from their joint equity business. Her only choice is to marry—and fast—to a powerful ally outside the respected Berab family’s sphere of influence. Only finding the right spouse will require casting a wide net. So she’ll host a series of festivals, to which every eligible Jewish man is invited.
Once, Aaron Ellenberg longed to have a family of his own. But as the synagogue custodian, he is too poor for wishes and not foolish enough for dreams. Until the bold, beautiful Isabelle Lira presents him with an irresistible offer . . . if he ensures her favored suitors have no hidden loyalties to the Berabs, she will provide him with money for a new life.
Yet the transaction provides surprising temptation, as Aaron and Isabelle find caring and passion in the last person they each expected. Only a future for them is impossible—for heiresses don’t marry orphans, and love only conquers in children’s tales. But if Isabelle can find the courage to trust her heart, she’ll discover anything is possible, if only she says yes.
Also fulfills: romance, adult, and 2023 release squares
Find It: Goodreads | Bookshop | Amazon | BookishlyJewish Review
Contemporary
Imogen Obviously by Becky Albertalli
Imogen Scott may be hopelessly heterosexual, but she’s got the World’s Greatest Ally title locked down.
She’s never missed a Pride Alliance meeting. She knows more about queer media discourse than her very queer little sister. She even has two queer best friends. There’s Gretchen, a fellow high school senior, who helps keep Imogen’s biases in check. And then there’s Lili–newly out and newly thriving with a cool new squad of queer college friends.
Imogen’s thrilled for Lili. Any ally would be. And now that she’s finally visiting Lili on campus, she’s bringing her ally A game. Any support Lili needs, Imogen’s all in.
Even if that means bending the truth, just a little.
Like when Lili drops a tiny queer bombshell: she’s told all her college friends that Imogen and Lili used to date. And none of them know that Imogen is a raging hetero–not even Lili’s best friend, Tessa.
Of course, the more time Imogen spends with chaotic, freckle-faced Tessa, the more she starts to wonder if her truth was ever all that straight to begin with. . .
Also Fulfills: Romance, LGBTQ+, and YA boxes
Find It: Goodreads | Bookshop | Amazon
Science Fiction/Fantasy
Tracker220 by Jamie Krakover
Through thoughts and blinks, Kaya can access anyone or anything on the tracker network. But the authorities monitor everything-where Kaya goes, who she talks to, and what she searches. And without the ability to turn it off, Kaya and her family can’t observe a tech-free Shabbat. To fix the glitch, the authorities slice into her skull to reset her tracker, leaving Kaya to question more than the system’s invasion into her faith.
Kaya won’t be a lab rat again.
Evading the authorities requires some serious tech skills the rogue underground Ghosts can offer. But Kaya’s not sure she can trust them-even if their top tech wiz, Bailen, has interest in her running deeper than her bum tracker. Kaya must decide if gaining freedom is worth losing her tracker’s infinite knowledge-because to take down the tracker network, she must betray the only tech she’s ever known.
Also Fulfills: YA
BONUS Box: Supports an independently published book
Find It: Goodreads | Bookshop | Amazon | BookishlyJewish Review
NonFiction
One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World by Michael Frank, illustrated by Maira Kalman
With nearly a century of life behind her, Stella Levi had never before spoken in detail about her past. Then she met Michael Frank. He came to her Greenwich Village apartment one Saturday afternoon to ask her a question about the Juderia, the neighborhood on the Greek island of Rhodes where she’d grown up in a Jewish community that had thrived there for half a millennium.
Neither of them could know this was the first of one hundred Saturdays over the course of six years that they would spend in each other’s company. During these meetings Stella traveled back in time to conjure what it felt like to come of age on this luminous, legendary island in the eastern Aegean, which the Italians conquered in 1912, began governing as an official colonial possession in 1923, and continued to administer even after the Germans seized control in September 1943. The following July, the Germans rounded up all 1,700-plus residents of the Juderia and sent them first by boat and then by train to Auschwitz on what was the longest journey–measured by both time and distance–of any of the deportations. Ninety percent of them were murdered upon arrival.
Probing and courageous, candid and sly, Stella is a magical modern-day Scheherazade whose stories reveal what it was like to grow up in an extraordinary place in an extraordinary time–and to construct a life after that place has vanished. One Hundred Saturdays is a portrait of one of the last survivors drawn at nearly the last possible moment, as well as an account of a tender and transformative friendship between storyteller and listener, offering a powerful “reminder that the ability to listen thoughtfully is a rare and significant gift” (The Wall Street Journal).
Also Fulfills: Adult
Find It: GoodReads | Bookshop | Amazon | BookishlyJewish Review
Poetry
Everything Thaws by R.B. Lemberg
R.B. Lemberg’s poems are a manifesto of memories, unearthing worlds that are gone and poignantly present: their childhood in the Soviet Union, suspended between Ukraine and the permafrost of Siberia, among the traumatized, silent, persecuted members of their Jewish family; Lemberg’s coming of age in Israel, being the other wherever they go, both internally and externally, in multiple identities, languages, genders; and the arrival in “the lost land” of their America, where they have put down “tentative roots.”
Every line in this stunning, lyrical memoir is chiseled with the poignant precision of ice into a coruscating cascade that engulfs us with the author’s sensations of solitude, anger, grief; sometimes hurling like an avalanche, sometimes tenderly unfolding like constellations in a circumpolar sky – leaving open the possibility that with the disturbing truths covered for decades, the thawing permafrost from Lemberg’s past might also lay bare layers of love.
Also Fulfills: nonfiction, adult
Find It: GoodReads | Bookshop | Amazon
Short Story
The Moon Rabbi by David Ebenbach published in Clarkesworld
It’s a short story, so there’s no cover copy, but trust me when I say if you are struggling with processing everything that is going on right now, this story will uplift you.
Also fulfills: Themes of Renewal
Comic/Graphic Novel
Hereville by Barry Deutsch
Spunky, strong-willed eleven-year-old Mirka Herschberg isn’t interested in knitting lessons from her stepmother, or how-to-find-a-husband advice from her sister, or you-better-not warnings from her brother. There’s only one thing she does want: to fight dragons! Granted, no dragons have been breathing fire around Hereville, the Orthodox Jewish community where Mirka lives, but that doesn’t stop the plucky girl from honing her skills. She fearlessly stands up to local bullies. She battles a very large, very menacing pig. And she boldly accepts a challenge from a mysterious witch, a challenge that could bring Mirka her heart’s desire: a dragon-slaying sword! All she has to do is find–and outwit–the giant troll who’s got it!
A delightful mix of fantasy, adventure, cultural traditions, and preteen commotion, Hereville will captivate middle-school readers with its exciting visuals and entertaining new heroine.
Also Fulfills: MG/Children’s, Sci Fi/Fantasy, frum
Find It: Goodreads | Bookshop | Amazon | BookishlyJewish Review
Romance
B’Nai Mitzvah Mistake by Stacey Agdern
Judith Nachman loves working as a project manager at the Mitzvah Alliance charity, and after five years, it’s finally her turn to have the bat mitzvah of her dreams. Judith is enjoying every single moment of the process-until she learns she has to share her day with the annoying hockey player who derailed her sister’s career.
Retired hockey player Ash Mendel is determined to start an organization to support Jewish athletes, and the first step is to have his bar mitzvah. He’s not sure what he wants his day to look like, but he knows he definitely wants forgiveness from Judith, the woman he’s sharing the date with.
But Judith’s nephew needs to interview an athlete, and Ash needs professional advice for his foundation, so they exchange favors. Except as they get to know each other and their worlds start to mingle, Ash and Judith will have to decide whether sharing their lives as well as their B’Nai Mitzvah is the best decision they could make, or the biggest mistake of their lives.
Also Fulfills: blue cover, 2023 release, contemporary, adult
Find It: GoodReads | Bookshop | Amazon
AGE BOXES
Picture Book
Gitty and Kvetch by Caroline Kusin Pritchard
Gitty and her feathered-friend Kvetch couldn’t be more different: Gitty always sees the bright side of life, while her curmudgeonly friend Kvetch is always complaining and, well, kvetching about the trouble they get into.
One perfect day, Gitty ropes Kvetch into shlepping off on a new adventure to their perfect purple treehouse. Even when Kvetch sees signs of impending doom everywhere, Gitty finds silver linings and holds onto her super special surprise reason for completing their mission.
But when her perfect plan goes awry, oy vey, suddenly it’s Gitty who’s down in the dumps. Can Kvetch come out of his funk to lift Gitty’s spirits back up?
Find It: GoodReads | Bookshop | Amazon
MG/Children’s
Rebecca Reznik Reboots The Universe by Samara Shanker
Rebecca Reznik is having a rough time. Her dad lost his job, and her parents are fighting all the time. Her obnoxious brother, Jake, is acting out even more than usual. And post-Bat Mitzvah Becca is expected to be grown up and spiritually mature–whatever that means–but in the wake of these upsets to her routine, she just feels frustrated and helpless. Even worse, she’s starting to suspect that the awful vibes surrounding her house might be about more than family drama.
When Becca discovers a (not) Hanukkah goblin that’s turned her bedroom upside down, literally, she and her best friends Naomi and Eitan once again find themselves facing down demons from Jewish lore.
Armed with the lessons learned from her last tussle with mythological figures and the loyalty of her friends, Becca will do whatever it takes to defend her fractured family and save Hanukkah.
Also Fulfills: Science Fiction/fantasy, contemporary, neurodivergence, 2023 release
Find It: GoodReads | Bookshop | Amazon
Young Adult
Bone Weaver by Aden Polydoros
The Kosa empire roils in tension, on the verge of being torn apart by a proletarian revolution between magic-endowed elites and the superstitious lower class, but seventeen-year-old Toma lives blissfully disconnected from the conflict in the empire with her adoptive family of benevolent undead.
When she meets Vanya, a charming commoner branded as a witch by his own neighbors, and the dethroned Tsar Mikhail himself, the unlikely trio bonds over trying to restore Mikhail’s magic and protect the empire from the revolutionary leader, Koschei, whose forces have stolen the castle. Vanya has his magic, and Mikhail has his title, but if Toma can’t dig deep and find her power in time, all of their lives will be at Koschei’s mercy.
Also Fulfills: science fiction/fantasy, LGBTQ+,
Find It: GoodReads | Bookshop |Amazon | BookishlyJewish Review
Adult
Fire Season by K.D. Casey
Charlie Braxton has it all: a wicked curveball, a beautiful wife, and the kind of money and attention that’s attached to a professional baseball contract. Except his famous curveball comes with intense social anxiety, his wife is actually his soon-to-be ex-wife, and the money… Well, suffice it to say, he knows what it’s like to be treated like an ATM. But at least he’s better off than the new guy.
Relief pitcher Reid Giordano is struggling to maintain his sobriety—and his roster spot. The press, along with a heck of a lot of his new Oakland teammates, seem to think his best baseball days are behind him. Only Charlie Braxton gives him the benefit of the doubt—and a place to stay when Reid finds himself short on cash…and friends.
When their growing friendship turns into an unexpected attraction, and that ignites a romance, both Charlie and Reid must grapple with what it means to be more than teammates. And as their season winds down, they’ll need to walk away…or go out there and give it everything they’ve got.
Also Fulfills: Romance, LGBTQ+, contemporary
REPRESENTATION BOXES
LGBTQ+
Going Bicoastal by Dahlia Adler
Natalya Fox has twenty-four hours to make the biggest choice of her life: stay home in NYC for the summer with her dad (and finally screw up the courage to talk to the girl she’s been crushing on), or spend it with her basically estranged mom in LA (knowing this is the best chance she has to fix their relationship, if she even wants to.) (Does she want to?)
How’s a girl supposed to choose?
She can’t, and so both summers play out in alternating timelines – one in which Natalya explores the city, tries to repair things with her mom, works on figuring out her future, and goes for the girl she’s always wanted. And one in which Natalya explores the city, tries to repair things with her mom, works on figuring out her future, and goes for the guy she never saw coming.
Also Fulfills: YA, romance, contemporary
Find It: Goodreads | Bookshop | Amazon
Frum
Aviva Vs. The Dybbuk by Mari Lowe
A long ago “accident.” An isolated girl named Aviva. A community that wants to help, but doesn’t know how. And a ghostly dybbuk, that no one but Aviva can see, causing mayhem and mischief that everyone blames on her. That is the setting for this suspenseful novel of a girl who seems to have lost everything, including her best friend Kayla, and a mother who was once vibrant and popular, but who now can’t always get out of bed in the morning. As tensions escalate in the Jewish community of Beacon with incidents of vandalism and a swastika carved into new concrete poured near the synagogue…so does the tension grow between Aviva and Kayla and the girls at their school, and so do the actions of the dybbuk grow worse. Could real harm be coming Aviva’s way? And is it somehow related to the “accident” that took her father years ago?
Also Fulfills: MG/Children’s, Contemporary,
Find It: GoodReads | Bookshop | Amazon | BookishlyJewish Review
Jews of Color
A Kiss From The Past by Kelly Cain
Nichelle Sampson is living the life she always dreamed of. She’s a political science professor like her father, is in her sorority’s leadership like her mother, and has wonderful friends. The only thing missing is romance. But when a letter and mysterious ring arrive, Nichelle’s perfect life is shattered. She’s shocked to learn that she’s adopted, bi-racial, and her origin story isn’t what her parents claimed. Looking for the truth, Nichelle sets out to unlock the secrets behind her birth family through the heirloom ring.
Geochemist Clark Lin-Lee prefers spending time alone in his lab, but when a beautiful professor visits his family jewelry store intent to solve a mystery, he agrees to accompany her. Clark should say no-he has his own unresolved family history and is secretly scheduled to testify against Nichelle’s mother’s company in his latest conservation case. But Nichelle is as persuasive as she is sexy, and for the first time in his life, Clark is ready for an adventure.
Can Nichelle and Clark wade through the increasing questions together or will secrets drive them apart?
Also Fulfills: contemporary, romance, adult, blue cover
Find It: GoodReads | Bookshop | Amazon | BookishlyJewish Review
Disability/Neurodivergence
The Many Mysteries of the Finkel Family by Sarah Kapit
When twelve-year-old Lara Finkel starts her very own detective agency, FIASCCO (Finkel Investigation Agency Solving Consequential Crimes Only), she does not want her sister, Caroline, involved. She and Caroline don’t have to do everything together. But Caroline won’t give up, and when she brings Lara the firm’s first mystery, Lara relents, and the questions start piling up.
But Lara and Caroline’s truce doesn’t last for long. Caroline normally uses her tablet to talk, but now she’s busily texting a new friend. Lara can’t figure out what the two of them are up to, but it can’t be good. And Caroline doesn’t like Lara’s snooping–she’s supposed to be solving other people’s crimes, not spying on Caroline! As FIASCCO and the Finkel family mysteries spin out of control, can Caroline and Lara find a way to be friends again?
Also Fulfills: MG/Children’s, contemporary, themes of forgiveness
Find It: GoodReads | Bookshop | Amazon| BookishlyJewish Review
OTHER/MISCELLANEOUS BOXES
Themes of Renewal
When The Angels Left The Old Country by Sacha Lamb
Uriel the angel and Little Ash (short for Ashmedai) are the only two supernatural creatures in their shtetl (which is so tiny, it doesn’t have a name other than Shtetl). The angel and the demon have been studying together for centuries, but pogroms and the search for a new life have drawn all the young people from their village to America. When one of those young emigrants goes missing, Uriel and Little Ash set off to find her.
Along the way the angel and demon encounter humans in need of their help, including Rose Cohen, whose best friend (and the love of her life) has abandoned her to marry a man, and Malke Shulman, whose father died mysteriously on his way to America. But there are obstacles ahead of them as difficult as what they’ve left behind. Medical exams (and demons) at Ellis Island. Corrupt officials, cruel mob bosses, murderers, poverty. The streets are far from paved with gold.
Also Fulfills: non-holocaust historical, Young Adult, LGTBQ+
Find It: Goodreads | Bookshop | Amazon | BookishlyJewish
Themes Of Forgiveness
Ellen Outside The Lines by A.J. Sass
Thirteen-year-old Ellen Katz feels most comfortable when her life is well planned out and people fit neatly into her predefined categories. She attends temple with Abba and Mom every Friday and Saturday. Ellen only gets crushes on girls, never boys, and she knows she can always rely on her best-and-only friend, Laurel, to help navigate social situations at their private Georgia middle school. Laurel has always made Ellen feel like being autistic is no big deal. But lately, Laurel has started making more friends, and cancelling more weekend plans with Ellen than she keeps. A school trip to Barcelona seems like the perfect place for Ellen to get their friendship back on track. Except it doesn’t. Toss in a new nonbinary classmate whose identity has Ellen questioning her very binary way of seeing the world, homesickness, a scavenger hunt-style team project that takes the students through Barcelona to learn about Spanish culture and this trip is anything but what Ellen planned.
Making new friends and letting go of old ones is never easy, but Ellen might just find a comfortable new place for herself if she can learn to embrace the fact that life doesn’t always stick to a planned itinerary.
Also Fulfills: MG/Children’s, blue cover, LGBTQ+, neurodivergence, contemporary
Find It: GoodReads | Bookshop | Amazon | BookishlyJewish Review
Translation
The Saturday Morning Murder by Batya Gur translated by Dalya Bilu
When Dr. Eva Neidorf is found dead on the morning that she is to give a lecture to the Jerusalem Psychoanalytic Society, Chief Inspector Michael Ohayon investigates–revealing, along the way, intimate details about his own life. As he works around the clock to find the killer, he must also solve the riddle of the enigmatic self-contained world of the Psychoanalytic Society.
Also Fulfills: published before 2020 and adult
Find It: GoodReads | Bookshop | Amazon
Out Of Your Comfort Zone
Charwood by Josh Schlossberg
Dark doings are afoot in the forests of Charwood…
After joining the Tenders, a band of backwoods activists claiming to solve climate change by burning trees for energy, Orna Tannenbaum falls in with Rowan, their odd yet charming leader. But when she uncovers what the Tenders are really up to in the forest, she must apply the ancient wisdom of her culture to battle dark forces threatening to gain a foothold in our world.
An ecological Jewish folk horror novel 5,783 years in the making.
Also Fulfills: adult
Find It: GoodReads | Bookshop | Amazon
Blue Cover
Solomon’s Crown by Natasha Seigel
Two rival kings fall desperately in love–but the fate of medieval Europe hangs in the balance.
Twelfth-century Europe. Newly crowned King Philip of France is determined to restore his nation to its former empire and bring glory to his name. But when his greatest enemy, King Henry of England, threatens to end his reign before it can even begin, Philip is forced to make a precarious alliance with Henry’s volatile son–risking both his throne, and his heart. Richard, Duke of Aquitaine, never thought he would be king. But when an unexpected tragedy makes him heir to England’s royal seat, he finally has an opportunity to overthrow the father he despises. At first, Philip is a useful tool in his quest for vengeance . . . until passion and politics collide, and Richard begins to question whether the crown is worth the cost.
When Philip and Richard find themselves staring down an impending war, they must choose between their desire for each other and their grand ambitions. Will their love prevail if it calls to them from across the battlefield? Teeming with royal intrigue and betrayal, this epic romance reimagines two real-life kings ensnared by an impossible choice: Follow their hearts, or earn their place in history.
Also Fulfills: LGBTQ+
Find It: GoodReads | Bookshop | Amazon | BookishlyJewish Review
Fall Setting
Black Bird, Blue Road by Sofiya Pasternack
Pesah has lived with leprosy for years, and the twins have spent most of that time working on a cure. Then Pesah has a vision: The Angel of Death will come for him on Rosh Hashanah, just one month away.
So Ziva takes her brother and runs away to find doctors who can cure him. But when they meet and accidentally free a half-demon boy, he suggests paying his debt by leading them to the fabled city of Luz, where no one ever dies–the one place Pesah will be safe.
They just need to run faster than The Angel of Death can fly…
Also Fulfills: MG/Children’s, Science Fiction/fantasy, disability
Find It: GoodReads | Bookshop | Amazon | BookishlyJewishReview
Published Before 2020
If All The Seas Were Ink by Ilana Kurshan
At the age of twenty-seven, alone in Jerusalem in the wake of a painful divorce, Ilana Kurshan joined the world’s largest book club, learning daf yomi, Hebrew for “daily page” of the Talmud, a book of rabbinic teachings spanning about six hundred years. Her story is a tale of heartache and humor, of love and loss, of marriage and motherhood, and of learning to put one foot in front of the other by turning page after page. Kurshan takes us on a deeply accessible and personal guided tour of the Talmud. For people of the book–both Jewish and non-Jewish–If All the Seas Were Ink is a celebration of learning, through literature, how to fall in love once again.
Also Fulfills: non fiction, adult
Find It: GoodReads | BookShop | Amazon | BookishlyJewish Review
2023 Release
Endpapers by Jennifer Savran Kelly
It’s 2003, and artist Dawn Levit is stuck. A bookbinder who works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she spends all day repairing old books but hasn’t created anything of her own in years. What’s more, although she doesn’t have a word for it yet, Dawn is genderqueer, and with a partner who wishes she were a man and a society that wants her to be a woman, she’s struggling to feel safe expressing herself. Dawn spends her free time scouting the city’s street art, hoping to find the inspiration that will break her artistic block–and time is of the essence, because she’s making her major gallery debut in six weeks and doesn’t have anything to show yet.
One day at work, Dawn discovers something hidden under the endpapers of an old book: the torn-off cover of a lesbian pulp novel from the 1950s, with an illustration of a woman looking into a mirror and seeing a man’s face. Even more intriguing is the queer love letter written on the back. Dawn becomes obsessed with tracking down the author of the letter, convinced the mysterious writer can help her find her place in the world. Her fixation only increases when her best friend, Jae, is injured in a hate crime for which Dawn feels responsible. But ultimately for Dawn, the trickiest puzzle to solve is how she truly wants to live her life.
A sharply written, page-turning, and evocative debut, Endpapers is an unforgettable story about the journey toward authenticity and the hard conversations we owe ourselves in pursuit of a world where no one has to hide.
Also Fulfills: adult, LGBTQ+