Books: Palatable Pandemic, Familiar Face Returns
“Our Country Friends” Makes Pandemic Palatable
“Our Country Friends”
Gary Shteyngart
Penguin Random House
For Gary Shteyngart, who wrote about the painful adult consequences of his botched circumcision...
Booker Prize Goes to Novel About a South African Jewish Mother’s Dying Wish
The prestigious Booker Prize for fiction has gone to a South African’s novel about a Jewish woman’s dying wish.
Books: ‘Beautiful Country’ Dissects American Dream
“Beautiful Country”
Qian Julie Wang
Doubleday Books
During Qian Julie Wang’s flights from Shijiazhuang, China, to Beijing to New York City, her mother was hellishly motion sick.
The...
The author of ‘The Matzah Ball,’ a Hanukkah novel, wants Jews to read more...
By Philissa Kramer
Jean Meltzer always knew how “The Matzah Ball,” her first novel, would end.
“The rule of romance is that there has to be...
Sally Rooney Won’t Let Her New Novel Be Published in Hebrew
Bestselling author Sally Rooney won’t allow her recently published novel, “Beautiful World, Where Are You?” to be published in Hebrew because she supports a cultural boycott of Israel.
Books: Losing Count, Dealing with Home Envy
Progressives’ Blind Spot
Sasha Rogelberg | JE staff
“Jews Don't Count”
David Baddiel
Harper Collings
David Baddiel’s new book “Jews Don’t Count” wasn’t reviewed by The Guardian, Great Britain’s...
Books: ‘Something Wild’ Shares Realities of Abuse
“Something Wild"
Hanna Halperin
Viking Books
There are no heroes in Hanna Halperin’s debut novel “Something Wild.” But through reading the novel, one understands a little more...
Staff Picks: What We’re Reading This Summer
As writers ourselves — even if we happen to be of the “ink-stained wretch” variety — we’re constantly reading, whether it’s for the job or otherwise.
Summer Books Preview
If you look around right now, you might be thinking, “Wow. The weather is amazing, the streets are alive and it’s time for me to get outside again.
Books: Bibi Netanyahu as Fiction, Childhood in Philadelphia Remembered
The Creation of Netanyahu
“The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family”
Joshua Cohen
New...
