Bookishly Jewish

Hanukkah is an interesting holiday, because it has taken on an oversized importance in the Jewish calendar thanks to the non-Jewish holidays that surround it. For Jessica Sacks, protagonist of Jennifer Wilck’s romance Deadlines, Donuts & Dreidels, it also represents a way to disguise her trip home as a visit for the holidays rather than the unfortunate side effect of her being fired from her job as a reporter. Thanks to a mistake on a prior article, she’s out on her behind – unless she can convince local hometown hero Thomas to give her an interview so she can impress her former boss.

Thomas just so happens to be Jessica’s neighbor and childhood crush. Except the holiday season isn’t so benign for him either. As a firefighter, he’s recently rescued a man from a burning building and the town wants to honor him. As an alcoholic, he’s resigned from his position due to shame over having been under the influence on the job, is determined to ignore the honors being bestowed on him, and also preparing for a dry Christmas. The last thing he needs is his nosy neighbor – who just so happens to have grown up into a very attractive woman – poking around and exposing his secrets.

Jessica is walking a tight line. She wants to use the growing attraction between her and Thomas as a means to get him to open up, but she doesn’t want to be manipulative. In fact, the further she delves into the relationship, the more distasteful the assignment becomes. Deadlines, Donuts & Dreidels is steamy – there are two sex scenes – Jessica and Thomas clearly have chemistry. It’s understandable that Jessica doesn’t want to jeopardize the relationship. To make it all worse, she’s coming under pressure from her mother who doesn’t want her to date a christian.

Interfaith romance is an interesting choice for Hanukkah, which is technically a celebration of Jewish rebels who refused to assimilate into Greek culture, but Wilck handles a difficult topic with grace. Jessica has an intriguing visit to her Rabbi which shines a light on what this relationship means for reform Jews.

In the end, we see a blending of holiday customs that is both sensitive and sweet. Jessica and Thomas both need to realize their own worth, and their friends and family are there to help them through that process. It’s the kind of book to cozy up with a cup of peppermint hot chocolate and a jelly donut, whether you’re doing so in front of a tree or a menorah.

Note: BookishlyJewish I received a copy of this book from the author

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As a writer, I’m no stranger to failure. The vast majority of writers, even successful ones, will face far more rejection in their careers than they do success. One of my writing groups routinely ponders the fact that the difference between those who make it and those who don’t, for the majority of authors, has more to do with thick skin/perseverance than talent. So I can really empathize with the dreidel in Little Dreidel Learns to Spin.

Who among us hasn’t felt like we are struggling to do the thing we are born to do, yet somehow keep messing up while all our critique partners are sailing through? Poor little dreidel is aware that this is his moment, the holiday for which he was created to dance and spin, but he just can’t figure it out. Yet he keeps getting back up, dusting himself off, and trying again. Even when advice from friends and relatives is less than helpful. Even when it seems like everyone else is more talented. Even when falling hurts.

Because trying again is the only way to finally get it right.

We all learn at different rates, so it was nice to see a book where kids learn that the point is to keep trying until they figure it out. That sometimes, even when we are all striving for the same goal, we each have different paths to success. Little Dreidel does indeed learn to spin, and it is all the more delightful because it didn’t come easily.

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

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I have been lucky enough to travel to London a few times, and overall the experience is great. I can read all the street signs, order easily in a restaurant, and even read the local paper. There’s just one hitch – Londoners drive on the left side of the road and taking “the tube” was so confusing I was grateful for the NYC subway system for the first time ever in my life. (Don’t tell anyone I said that, because really my complaints about the subway are numerous). Which is why I considered it a true sign of love and devotion when Cohen, American expat and hero of Sharon Ibbotson’s romance Hanukkah At The Great Greenwich Ice Creamery, braved three transfers to court the heroine, River.

Cohen fled to London from NY after a particularly vicious divorce. His ex wife has absolutely zero redeeming qualities, and when he tried to go to therapy to process it all, the only thing that resulted was a further complication to his already tenuous relationship with his mother. So off Cohen went, to lick his wounds and throw himself into his work an entire ocean away from all his problems. It was a lonely but functional existence until his mother hunted him down and forced him to visit her old friend and owner of the ice creamery in the title. Turns out, the friend has a daughter named River, and Cohen finds himself absolutely smitten.

There are several unusual choices made for a romance novel. For one, there is only a single POV and it is male. We never enter River’s head, only Cohen’s, and as a fellow American I found it pretty funny when he would suddenly say or think things that were very British (lift, flat, etc.). It made me wonder how long full cultural assimilation takes. For another thing, there is no third act break up. Hanukkah At The Great Greeniwch Ice Creamery is an exquisitely gentle book. I kept biting my nails, fretting about when things would go awry, but that moment never came and I was actually quite happy without it. There is a happily ever after, but there was no huge blow up and grovel proceeding it. Instead, Cohen had to work through some of his personal issues and mend past relationships.

He also has to prove to everyone else that he’s worthy of River. After suffering an infection as a child, River has grown up deaf. Not only must Cohen learn to navigate British public transportation, he needs to learn British Sign Language, which is very different from American Sign language. As Christmas and Hanukkah approach River invents new flavors for the ice creamery’s holiday line up and each flavor sampled brings back a host of memories for Cohen and River. We explore the new relationship but also their pasts. The romance is closed door, and generally fades to black.

By the time we find out the actual three flavors chosen for the holiday menu, readers understand why Cohen might be willing to put up with the tube forever if it means keeping River in his life. Hanukkah At The Great Greenwich Ice Creamery didn’t follow every plot beat I expected for a romance, but it still gave me that warm and fuzzy feeling. Kind of like when my train gets rerouted but I still manage to somehow find my way home. Plus, it made me really, really want ice cream.

Note: BookishlyJewish received an e-copy of this book from the publisher after we requested one.

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The origins of our 100 Nights To Hanukkah event this year are less than noble. It was not yet even Halloween and I had gotten a promo email in my inbox for “100 Nights to Christmas.” To say I was less than thrilled to see the unwritten societal agreement not to shove Christmas down everyone’s throats until after Thanksgiving broken, is an understatement. However, the results of my organizing out of spite were pretty great.

We’ve been able to feature a ton of new authors and books on our nightly countdown posts on social media. Interaction from readers has been at an all time high. Plus – we found a ton of books! Such a good time was had by all that we’ve decided to make it an annual event in some form or another.

Now that Hanukkah is upon us, it’s time to tally up how many of the 100 you’ve read…but also to tell us which ones you’re planning to read over the holiday. Drop your counts in the comments and HAPPY HANUKKAH EVERYONE.

Adult Romance:

Bens Bakery and The Hanukkah Miracles by Penelope Peters: Amazon

Bright Winter Lights by Liz Maverick: Amazon

Burning Bright by Wendy Warren, Stacey Agdern, KK Hendin, Jennifer Gracen: Amazon

Deadlines Donuts and Dreidels by Jennifer Wilck: Amazon | Bookshop

Dreidel Date by Eliana West: Amazon

Dreidels and Do-overs by Kim Fielding: Amazon

Dreidel Do-Over by Amanda Usen: Amazon

The Dreidl Disaster by Stacey Agdern: Amazon | Bookshop

Eight Crazy One Night Stands: Amazon | Bookshop

Eight Days by Ruth Nix: Amazon

Eight Kinky Nights: Amazon | Bookshop

Eight Nights of Apricot Cookies by Roni Denholtz: Amazon

Eight Nights to Win Her Heart by Miri White: Amazon | Bookshop

Eight Nights to Win Her Heart by Roni Denholtz: Amazon

Eitan’s Chord by Shira Glassman: Amazon

Fortunes Holiday Surprise by Jennifer Wilck: Amazon | Bookshop

Hanukkah At The Great Greenwich Ice Creamery by Sharon Ibbotson: Amazon

Hanukkah Hearts by Jean Joachim: Amazon

The Hanukkah Hook-Up by Jessica Topper: Amazon | BookishlyJewish review

Hearts of Hanukkah: Amazon

Holidays in Manhattan by Jennifer Gracen: Amazon

How to Survive a Chanukah Party by Rachel Abugov: Amazon

Homemade Hanukkah by Eliana West: Amazon

Home for Hanukkah by Rebecca Crowley: Amazon

Home For Hanukkah by Celine Banks: Amazon

I’ll Be Home for Hanukkah K K Hendin: Amazon

I made it Out Of Clay by Beth Kander: Amazon | Bookshop

A Jewish Love, Actually by Alex Turner: Amazon

Leah’s Perfect Christmas by Catherine Beck: Amazon

Light It Up by Evie Blum: Amazon | Bookshop

Lighting The Flames by Sarah Wendell: Amazon | Bookshop

Lights of Love by Morgan Malone: Amazon

Love and Latkes by Stacey Agdern: Amazon | Bookshop | BookishlyJewish review

Love and Latkes by Amanda Page: Amazon

Love You A Latke by Amanda Elliot: Amazon | Bookshop

The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer: Amazon | Bookshop

Meteors and Menorahs by Nessa Claugh: Amazon | Bookshop

Miracles and Menorahs by Stacey Agdern: Amazon | Bookshop | BookishlyJewish review

Mistletoe and Menorahs by Marily Jeulin and illustrated by Suzanna Smith: Amazon

Mistletoe and Mishigas by M. A Wardell: Amazon | Bookshop

Moonlights, Menorahs, and Mistletoe by Wendy Warren: Amazon

Newly Fallen by Megan Hart: Amazon

The Remaking of Corbin Whale by Roan Parrish: Amazon | Bookshop

Season of Love by Helena Greer: Amazon | Bookshop

The Sentient Lesbian Dreidel Eats Gimmel Off My Butt by Chuck Tingle: Amazon

Shine A Light by Rebecca Crowley: Amazon

Snowbound In her Boss’s Bed by Marcella Bell: Amazon

Spark by Allie Lasky : Amazon | Bookshop

To Touch The Light: E. M. Lindsey: Amazon

Twinkle by Allie Lasky: Amazon

Two Weeks in Toronto by Amelia Doyle: Amazon

Chapter Books:

How I Saved Hanukkah by Amy Goldman Koss and illustrated by Diane DeGroat: Amazon

The Magic Menorah by Jane Breskin Zalben and illustrated by Donna Diamond: Amazon

Paula Levine is a Potato Pancake by Rebecca O’Connell and illustrated by Majella Lue Sue: Amazon

Pinky Bloom and the Case of the Magical Menorah by Judy Press and illustrated by Erica-Jane Water: Amazon | Bookshop

Rachel Friedman and the Eight Not-So Perfect Nights of Hanukkah by Sarah Kapit and illustrated by Genevieve Kote: Amazon | Bookshop

CookBooks:

Hanukkah Treats to Make and Bake by Ronne Randall: Amazon | Bookshop

Latkes and Vodka by Yael Mao: Amazon

Horror:

Dreidel of Dread by Alex Shvartsman and illustrated by Tomeu Riera: Amazon

Eight Very Bad Nights edited by Tod Goldberg: Amazon | Bookshop

Humor:

How To Spell Hanukkah…And Other Holiday Dilemmas edited by Emily Franklin: Amazon

Literary:

The Power of Light by Isaac Bashevis Singer: Amazon

Mystery:

Hanukah Guilt by Rabbi Ilene Schneider: Amazon

The Latke in the Library by Libi Astaire: Amazon | Bookshop

Middle Grade:

A Donut in Time by Elana Rubinstein: Amazon | Bookshop

Benji Zeb is a Ravenous Werewolf by Deke Moulton: Amazon | Bookshop | BookishlyJewish review

The Festival of Lights edited by Henry Herz : Amazon | Bookshop

The Golden Dreidel by Ellen Kushner and illustrated by Kevin Keele: Amazon | Bookshop

Hollowthorn: Amazon | Bookshop | BookishlyJewish review

Rebecca Reznick Reboots the Universe: Amazon | Bookshop | BookishlyJewish review

Takedown by Laura Shovan: Amazon | Bookshop

This Is Just a Test by Wendy Wan-Long Shang and Madelyn Rosenberg: Amazon | Bookshop

Nonfiction:

Halachic Handbook: The Laws of Chanuka by Rabbi Yitzchok Rosedale: Amazon

Inside Chanukah by Aryeh Pinchas Strinkoff: Amazon

The Lights of Chanukah by Avraham Arieh Trugman: Amazon

Picture Books:

Beam of Light by Elisa Boxer and illustrated by Sofia Moore: Amazon | Bookshop

Chanukah Lights by Michael J Rosen and illustrated by Robert Sabuda: Amazon | Bookshop

Chanukah On The Prairie by Burt E. Schuman and illustrated by Rosalind Charney Kaye: Amazon

The Eight Knights of Hanukkah by Leslie Kimmelman and illustrated by Galia Bernstein: Amazon | Bookshop

Eight Winter Nights by Laura Krauss Melmed illustrated by Elisabeth Schlossberg: Amazon

The Hanukkah Magic of Nate Gadol by Arthur A. Levine and illustrated by Kevin Hawkes: Amazon | Bookshop

Hanukkah at Valley Forge by Stephen Krensky illustrated by Greg Harlin: Amazon | Bookshop

Hanukkah Pajamakkahs by Dara Henry and illustrated by Olga Ivanov and Aleksey Ivanov: Amazon | Bookshop

Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins by Eric A. Kimmel and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman: Amazon | Bookshop

J is for Januca by Melanie Romero and illustrated by Cassie Gonzalez: Amazon | Bookshop

Katie Koala and The Perfect Latke by Nina Schultz and Illustrated by Selfi Sidabutar: Amazon

The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming by Lemony Snicket and illustrated by Lisa Brown: Amazon | Bookshop

The Light From My Menorah by Robin Heald and illustrated by Andrea Blinick: Amazon | Bookshop

Meet The Latkes by Alan Silberberg: Amazon | Bookshop

My First Hanukkah by Anna Kris: Amazon

The Odd Potato by Eileen Bluestone Sherman: Amazon

Oskar and the Eight Blessings by Tanya Simon, Richard Simon, and illustrated by Mark Siegel: Amazon | Bookshop

Young Adult Romance:

As If On Cue by Marissa Kanter: Amazon | Bookshop

Eight Dates and Eight Nights by Betsy Aldredge: Amazon | Bookshop | BookishlyJewish review

Eight Nights of Flirting by Hannah Reynolds: Amazon | Bookshop | BookishlyJewish review

The Eight Slopes of Chanukah by Jacqueline Elisabeth: Amazon | Bookshop

How To Excavate a Heart by Jake Maia Arlow: Amazon | Bookshop | BookishlyJewish review

Recommended For You by Laura Silverman: Amazon | Bookshop

Sick Kids in Love by Hannah Moskowitz: Amazon

What I Like About You by Marissa Kanter: Amazon | Bookshop

Introducing readers to the main character of a book is a crucial part of setting the stage for what is to follow. In Rules For Ghosting, the moving debut romance from Shelly Jay Shore, the reader is immediately clued into the fact that the main character is trans. While the POV is third person, we are deeply in Ezra’s head, and we are therefore able to see the cognitive dissonance produced by how he thinks of himself and how the world perceives him. It’s such a gentle slide we hardly notice it happening. Which is why I was so busy contemplating how unfair life can be that I barely noticed the ghosts.

I probably share that fact with Ezra. He’s worked or volunteered in the family funeral home since he was a small child, but after the death of his grandfather, when he began to see ghosts, Ezra has avoided the place he once loved. I don’t blame him. It’s got to be pretty creepy to realize the Zeidy you’ve been talking to for weeks is actually dead. Unfortunately, that’s not the biggest revelation in Ezra’s life. Within the first few chapters his mother has announced that she’s been having an affair with their Rabbi’s wife, there are outside funeral corporations looking to buy out the struggling family business, and Ezra’s job as a yoga teacher is yanked out from under him. Which means he’s stuck going back to work at the funeral parlor to make up for his mothers absence while trying to untangle the financial mess the family is in.

Weirder? One of the ghosts is following him around and it just so happens to be the dead husband of the guy Ezra is crushing on. Yikes.

The potential for dark humor and bizarre shenanigans is epic, and indeed Rules for Ghosting does have a very tongue in cheek side. These siblings can banter like nobody’s business- which is good because every family holiday celebration we witness (Passover, Lag B’aomer) is a straight up disaster. We are talking literal dumpster fires. But we also see a strong element of found family in Ezra’s personal life, and there are extremely poignant scenes. My personal favorite was when Ezra’s family goes out of their way to accommodate a funeral for a queer client and Ezra discovers they go that extra mile for everyone.

Almost as immediately as we understand Ezra’s dysphoria, we also understand his psychological needs. He has a hard time asking for help, low self esteem, and in general is keeping the massive secret of seeing ghosts from everyone in his life. Watching him move through the process of dealing with all that is like watching a rebirth, which is apt given his preferred job is working as a birth doula. (Side note, I enjoyed all the doula scenes but there was one tiny thing that really bothered me about how Ezra described his job to his roommates. Don’t get hung up on it – keep going, one of the doula scenes is truly fantastic).

The choices made to have readers so deeply immersed in Ezra’s head made his life and emotional landscape much more visceral to me. There’s enough drama to fill a soap opera for several seasons in these pages, but that wasn’t what pulled me in. I enjoyed learning about Ezra, working through his issues with him, and meeting the tidal wave of support he receives when he is finally ready to accept it. Rules For Ghosting is not a cozy or sweet romance- there’s high stakes and one very spicy sex scene – but I would still describe it as a comfort book that made me feel cozy and loved. This might be a book populated by the dead, but it is about the living and left me feeling more alive.

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Memory is a tricky thing. Two people may recall the same incident in wildly different fashion. Some of us selectively focus on the good or the bad. Over time, it becomes a wonder anyone can bear to remember anything at all. Which is a problem for Fay, the main character in Emi Watanabe Cohen’s thoughtful sophomore Middle Grade fantasy Golemcrafters. 

Fay has grown up somewhat in her older brother Shiloh’s shadow. Her one former friend has joined the group of girls that tease her for not being Japanese enough because her father is Jewish – calling her names like Anne Frank and laughing at her Japanese pronunciation and curly hair. She does well in some subjects but not in others, and generally feels lost. Meanwhile, Shiloh is dealing with an antisemitic bully who has now started beating him up for reporting antisemitic graffiti. The school is less than helpful about any of this. So when their grandfather from NY shows up offering to teach them golem craft, the siblings are eager to go on this adventure together. 

As it turn out, Fay has a gift for making Golems. As creatures built from words and memories pressed into clay, they come easily to Fay who is hyperlexic and has an easier time with Hebrew than Shiloh. Her days are filled with sculpting, but at night she and Shiloh travel through shared dreams to a fantasy universe. Delighted to have found their own version of Narnia, they are confused as to why everything always ends in destruction and murder in these dreams. They hope to use Fay’s Golems to save the day but quickly learn that this isn’t so simple. The fantasy world is actually ancestral memories, and you cannot change centuries of antisemitic incidents no matter how much you want to.

Shiloh finds himself in the awkward situation of coming in second to his little sister. Meanwhile, Fay has all this power that she is afraid to use. As the superior Golem crafter, she experiences her ancestors memories much more acutely than Shiloh and struggles with when to fight vs. when to hide. It’s a conflict familiar to countless generations of Jews who have argued over how to best combat antisemitism only to realize that step one should probably be to stop blaming the victims in the first place. There’s a line about how Jewish children are not supposed to be storybook heroes that really hits home.

Watanabe Cohen is facile with languages and the wordplay with both Japanese and Hebrew is delightful. Furthermore she brings some much appreciated humor to a difficult topic. The Passover seder depicted was particularly funny and comes at a time when Fay needs some joy in her life.

Golemcrafters was obviously written before this year of rising antisemitism, but it feels timely nonetheless. Jewish kids today could use Fay and Shiloh’s perspective, their non-Jewish peers will benefit from learning to step outside their own experiences, and everyone supremely needs the reminder that Jews don’t all look alike and come in a variety of shapes and sizes.

BookishlyJewish received an e-copy of this book from the publisher

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BookishlyJewish: I’m so excited to have you back! It seems like an eternity has passed since your last interview on the blog, when really I think it’s been about a year. I know that Kalyna the Cutthroat has just made its way into stores. What should readers prepare for when picking it up?

Elijah Kinch Spector: I’m happy to be back! Kalyna the Cutthroat is a queer (and yes, very Jewish) fantasy novel about con artistry, dark magic, and relying on mutual aid when systems fail us.

BookishlyJewish: Do you think people can jump right into Cutthroat, or should they first read Soothsayer if they haven’t already?

Elijah Kinch Spector: People can absolutely start with Cutthroat! Reading the first book will deepen someone’s understanding of certain aspects of the second, but each one is written to be a complete story that can stand on its own.

I wrote it that way in large part for new readers, but also because I would’ve gotten bored writing a sequel that hewed too close to the first one.

BookishlyJewish: In what ways does Cutthroat differ from Soothsayer? In what ways is it similar?

Elijah Kinch Spector: First of all, the narrator is different! The first book was narrated by Kalyna herself, but in the second I wanted to show her from the outside. Show just how overpowering, and even scary, her con artistry can be to an observer. So I went for a Holmes and Watson dynamic. (Or probably more accurately, Raffles the Gentleman-Thief and Bunny.)

I also used the second book to explore locations that are discussed, but never seen, in the first book. Such as the other two fourths of the Tetrarchia: the cobbled-together country where both books are set.

This gave me a different angle on some of the same questions at the heart of Soothsayer, like who gets excluded from a national project. And, just like in the first book, I worked really hard to address those larger issues as part of a fun and exciting story!

BookishlyJewish: I have to know – is Grandmother still as awful?

Elijah Kinch Spector: Well, Kalyna’s  grandmother actually isn’t in this book, but you could say she haunts it. Or perhaps looms over it. And I promise you: Grandmother was never the type to grow as a person.

BookishlyJewish: Has your creative process changed on writing a sequel? Any advice for writers feeling a slump on their second book?

Elijah Kinch Spector: It changed a lot! I wrote the first book on and off over ten years, scratching most of the first draft in notebooks on my lunch breaks. The second one, however, had a real timeline, and I soon realized that writing the first draft by hand would be too slow. But I needed a way to write that wouldn’t allow me to spend all day editing myself—would allow me to just barrel forward and get it done.

So I actually went to New York City’s last typewriter store and bought one from 1970 or so. Honestly? Worked great. That’s good advice… if you’re me, specifically.

BookishlyJewish: Now that Cutthroat is safely in the hands of its readers, do you have plans for your next project?

Elijah Kinch Spector: I do! But have to give you the annoying old, “I can’t talk about it yet.”

BookishlyJewish: Kalyna has always managed to surprise me, does she surprise you too when writing?

Elijah Kinch Spector: Honestly, yes. Writing her from an outside perspective for the first time, I was surprised (and a bit delighted) at how scary she could be. To people she’s conning, to people she’s helping, or to people she loves.

BookishlyJewish: If you had the opportunity to see the future, like Kalyna pretends she can, would you take it?

Elijah Kinch Spector: No thanks! My favorite novel in the entire world is Alexandre Dumas’ Count of Monte Cristo, and one of many things I love about it is this line from the end:

“Until the day when God deigns to unveil the future to mankind, all human wisdom is contained in these two words: ‘wait’ and ‘hope.'”

BookishlyJewish: Any really fun or proud moments from your author journey you’d like to share?

Elijah Kinch Spector: The Soothsayer hardcover didn’t have a map (as you may remember). But we got one for Cutthroat, by Virginia Allyn, and it’s beautiful. I sent Erewhon the most amateurish scribble you’ve ever seen in your life, and what I got back was breathtaking. It made this world, which lives mostly in my head, feel real in an all new way.

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

Elijah Kinch Spector: Solomon Brager’s Heavyweight: A Family Story of the Holocaust, Empire, and Memory is a smart, painful, funny, and frighteningly well-researched graphic memoir that came out this past summer.

It tells the story of how Brager’s great grandparents—one of whom was a boxer!—escaped Nazi Germany, while interrogating the agreed upon family account and exploring the toll that telling these kinds of stories can take on us now. It’s also darkly funny and wonderfully drawn!

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Octogenarians are definitely a group underrepresented in publishing. Books depict them as either cutesy eccentric side characters, sage advisors whose advice is usually ignored, or simply not at all. I get it. Publishing is a business and marketing teams worry about their ability to sell books featuring protagonist that aren’t as sexy as a twenty something. In fact, they’ll be even less likely to give a book a chance if the senior citizens involved commit the crime of actually having sec at their age. Thankfully, Lynda Cohen Loigman’s latest historical novel The Love Elixir Of Augusta Stern made it through, and she’s here to show you that retirement community’s have more drama than Melrose Place. 

Yes, I realize that Melrose Place references are going to make some of my younger readers think I’m a senior citizen too. That’s OK. This is a review about acceptance of our fabulous selves at all ages, dated Melrose Place references included. 

The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern toggles between the 1980s when pharmacist Augusta is forced to retire and the 1920s when she was a young girl working in her fathers pharmacy by day and learning Jewish herbalism from her great aunt Esther by night. Augusta meets some surprise blasts from the past at her new retirement community, including Irving who readers will learn from the 1920s portion, is the man that broke her heart. She’s been single for the rest of her life. 

The 1920’s bits are full of prohibition era Jewish mobsters, period detail about the kinds of products and services you could find in pharmacies, and also the wisdom of hundreds of years of Jewish women called witches when they solve problems that modern medicine cannot. Augusta feels forced to choose between pharmacy training – a rare opportunity for women in that era- and the gifts of her aunt Esther. While Augusta’s father shows a surprising amount of determination to champion his daughters ability to perform the job of a pharmacist just as well, if not better, than any man, he is vehemently opposed to Esther’s traditional herbal treatments and superstitions. These involve treatments my mother would call bubbie meises even as she forced us all to keep them ‘just in case’. 

Things have improved by the 1980s, Augusta is not the only female pharmacist around, but they aren’t perfect. She actually has no desire to retire to sunny Florida. She’s forced to do so by a medical system that pushes her out due to her age, despite her continued stellar job performance. 

Now let’s turn to our current day – I like to think Augusta would have been enthused about how many people mix modern medicine with traditions like herbalism, acupuncture, and meditative practice. But be honest – when I opened this review with the word ‘octogenarian’ what did you think? Were you excited to read a book about “old people”? Did you expect a story about finding one’s true love at any age? To laugh out loud and be held in suspense to the point of turning each page rapidly so as to find out how it all ends? Because The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern accomplishes all of those things and more, not in spite of the age of the protagonist but because of it. 

I can only hope I’m as vigorous as Augusta when I turn eighty. Unlike her I am actually wishing I could retire sooner rather than later, and this action packed retirement community had me looking to move up that timeline. We need more Augusta’s in our lives and on our shelves. To remind us all that there’s beauty at every stage in life. 

Note: BookishlyJewish received an arc of this book from the publisher after we asked them for one.

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With one very notable exception, whenever a book is adapted into a movie or television show, I refuse to watch it unless I’ve already read the book. I also almost always prefer the book. So I haven’t yet watched The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem on Netflix. I’m not sure I ever will, but I literally inhaled the book. 

The story follows multiple generations of women in a spaniol family living in Jerusalem from the Turkish occupation all the way through the founding of the modern state of Israel. To say they have difficult relationships with their mothers is an understatement larger than the Red Sea. The wheel of fortune turns faster than the sellers in Mahne Yehuda can talk, and we follow the family through both wealth and poverty. Underlying it all is a curse that seems to prevent the women from being loved by their spouses. This curse-follows-generations-of-women-in-a-family plot line seems to be a popular trope in Israeli literature, at least based on the Israeli novels in translation I stumbled upon in my local library when I was a kid. (I wish I remembered the names of those books). In fact, you can actually still find people today who perform the kind of livianos treatments with boiled lead that are mentioned in the book.

There’s a bit of framing where the story of the family is told to the youngest woman in the line who is seeking to piece together her own tumultuous relationship with her mother, but it is inconsistently used, and after the first third of the book largely abandoned. Confusingly it’s not a clean break – sometimes within the space of a few paragraphs the same character is referred to in the first person and then the third person without an explanation for the swapping of viewpoint. Once you move past it, things flow more easily until we return to first person narration for the last few pages.

In a book where the majority of the characters are Jewish, and mostly only associating with other Jews, the tension must also come from Jews. With the possible exception of Rachelika, the sister of the titular character, these people are extremely flawed. This means they’re also extremely human. Nuance is embraced in a way that is sadly becoming rarer and rarer these days. In addition to beautiful traditions like shabbat hamin, there is a patriarchy so strong that wives sometimes come off as glorified servants, and an Ashkenazi/Mizrahi divide so deep that a Mizrahi man falling for an Askenazi woman is taken as proof positive of her being Lilith incarnate. It’s historically accurate and eye opening. 

The choice to focus on a Spaniol family is an intriguing one. Many people have tried to gloss over the fact that there were Jews- particularly Mizrahi families- living in the region well before the 1940’s. Some of these families were living there from before anyone can even remember and others were refugees that immigrated when they were violently evicted from the Arab and Spanish speaking countries where they were living. Their very existence is an inconvenient truth, much like the chapter on how the Ein Kerem neighborhood was once occupied by Arabs until the War of Independence when they fled and Jews took it over. Not to mention the chapters depicting the role that the British empire played in causing all of this strife, which their descendants seem to have buried in their collective memories. These stories are important. They need to be told. You can’t wrap a pretty bow around a complicated narrative just to make it fit your current world view. This family is messy and the world they lived in was even messier. I appreciated the allowance for them to be fully rounded rather than card board cut outs.

Looking back on that Netflix show, I think I probably will never watch it because when I google and see the casting choices, I’m wary. I don’t mind that they shrunk two sisters into one – that seems to be the common move in central casting to save money. More bothersome to me is that the actress chosen for the lead – who is indeed beautiful, and I’m sure a very talented actress- doesn’t have the green eyes and red hair so focused on in the book. Instead those physical characteristics were given to the Ashkenazi love interest who tears the family apart. One wonders if the casting director felt the need to go with someone who displayed stereotypical Mizrahi features – dark hair, dark eyes – to prevent audience confusion as to why a green eyed red head is speaking Ladino. All Ashkenazim looking blond and blue eyed and all sephardim presenting with tan skin and dark hair is one of the biggest misconceptions about Jews that exists in the general public and amongst our own communities. I loved that The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem book chose to show the full breath of these communities and push back against the stereotypes about who should look like what. Having lived in Mizrahi communities, I can tell you this is much more accurate than concluding a person with green eyes must be of German descent.

There is a commitment here to presenting the world as it is in reality, rather than the world we create in our heads to suit our own needs and prejudices. In fact, I’d argue this is one of the strongest messages in The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem, as evidenced in the conclusion. Only when all the truths, including the inconvenient ones, are brought to light can we understand our histories and move forward to find resolution. Perhaps when everyone starts looking at their full pasts, rather than trying to find someone else to blame, there can be understanding, healing, and hope. 

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Writing with intent to traditionally publish is a long and tortuous journey. For every starry eyed, young person with a glossy write up in Publisher’s Marketplace detailing how they got a 6 figure deal at auction on their debut novel which they wrote in two months or less, there is an army full of writers with much more typical journeys – a few novels to sign with an agent, a round or seven on submission before one of their works receives a modest offer (sometimes with an agent switch in the middle there), and even more hard work and uncertainty before people consider them as having “broken out.” What typically separates a writer who is going to survive and a writer that gives up is not talent – it’s their friend group.

Alyson Richman’s new historical fiction The Time Keepers demonstrates how individuals across cultural barriers can come together over shared interests. The novel is told in several viewpoints – a 1979 suburban Irish housewife who married a Jewish man in NY, her teenage daughter, a Vietnam refugee caring for her orphaned nephew, and a war vet who cannot bear to return home thanks to the facial scarring he sustained in the war. At first it would seem like these people would make an unlikely peer group, yet over the course of the story we find them building a strong and lasting community of support around each other. At its center is the watch store that helps heal them all.

At first glance, my primary writing group would also not be people you’d throw together at a dinner party. Despite our very different backgrounds, through our shared interest in writing we have bonded and expanded each others lives. We support each other through this journey. I understand that querying, submission, and debuting are not exactly on par with the Vietnam War, but the everyday ways in which we connect remind me of the characters in the Time Keepers. Just as two characters bond over the similarities and cultural meanings in matzah ball soup and pho, I cannot reach for the jar of red boat fish sauce in my cabinet without thinking about my writing buddy who introduced me to it. As the characters strive to protect the children in their lives, I am reminded about how our group’s talk of pacing and one page plot summaries somehow drifted into the state of child care in various countries.

Human connection is possible across cultural and religious divides, because the human experience belongs to all of us. The Time Keepers reminds readers to reach out and form those connections, offer and receive support, despite initial hardship. After all, isn’t that what this entire reading and writing thing is about?

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