2024 was a big year of growth for BookishlyJewish. I set a goal of two posts a week and unless I was on vacation, we accomplished it. We rolled out four new features, which are looking like they might become annual staples. 100 Nights to Hanukkah was a huge hit driving both traffic and reader engagement so we would love to run a version of this next year, right along with out Hanukkah Gift Guide. Cookbook Week is selfish – I love cookbooks and will blab about them endlessly, but it also came with one of my favorite authors telling me she loves the exact same recipe as I do, which was a moment I never though would happen in my life. Reader’s Choice needs a bit of tweaking, but that’s what trying things out is for!
We reviewed a total of 72 books, with huge improvement in the nonfiction and picture book areas in particular. I’d like to have more Jewish YA to review but am somewhat limited by what gets published.
As you can see, the easier you make it for me to read your book the more likely it is to get reviewed. However, I will still track down books that are interesting to me and my library is amazing! 22 of these were read on an e-reader, the rest were physical copies.
Want more reviews? So do I! But I am but one human with a slow reading pace. We need more guest reviewers! Trust me, I try and make the process painless. If you are a Jewish publishing person, writer, librarian etc. I want your guest reviews!!!
This was also the first year I kept good records. Therefore, it was exciting to look back and find 16 books with queer rep, 5 with BIPOC rep, 6 with disability or neurodivergent rep, and increasing sephardic, mizrahi and orthodox rep. We can only review what’s being published but please we would love to receive more of these. If I know a book contains this rep I will jump it to the head of the line.
There’s no breakdown of self pub, indie, trad because when I tried I got really confused as to who I should be counting as small press/indie. Suffice it to say, we have some of every category in there. We welcome them all. We even had our first book in translation and two books of poetry!
Here’s to hoping 2025 brings even more wonderful expansion for us. We always love to hear your thoughts and suggestion so please fell free to comment or email us!