Jewish Book Club discussion

Hello. We are trying something new for the May book to try to generate more group traffic. Usually, the mods pick a genre and ask members to come up with a book in that category. This can be problematic because not everyone enjoys a genre or the genre is obscure enough that there are not enough nominations. This time around, it is your turn. We are not asking for a genre. The first 6-7 books that you nominate- within in reason eg no self promotion and try to limit to under 500 pages- that you think the group will enjoy reading and discussing will be the ones going to the poll. The one caveat we do ask is that books should be at least 3 months past publication date to allow for libraries to obtain it and for prices to go down on various book buying sites. If this works better than the “genre system” we might include member’s choice once a quarter or more often to generate more group discussion. Thank you and we look forward to your nominations.

Reserved for nominations

1. The German Wife by Kelly Rimmer

2. Hannah's War by Jan Eliasberg

A new translation of Sons and Daughters by Chaim Grade will be published on March 25th. It’s getting a lot of buzz. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo...

Michelle, a lot of people rely on libraries, myself included. Because of the publication date, a) the price might be too high for some people on various sites and b) many libraries might not have the book yet. Please file this for a future group read because it sounds intriguing. I will add the caveat of publication date to message 1 so people know not to nominate “brand new” books.

Michelle wrote: "A new translation of Sons and Daughters by Chaim Grade will be published on March 25th. It’s getting a lot of buzz. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo..."

I have an ARC of the book, I just haven't read it yet.

These are my nominations:
I Want You to Know We’re Still Here: A Post-Holocaust Memoir
by Esther Safran Foer
Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times - Jonathan Sack
The Periodic Table by Primo Levi
The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture by Gabor Mate
Man's Search for Meaning by VIktor E. Frankl
Emma Goldman by Vivian Gornik
Becoming Elijah - Prophet of the Transformative by Matt Daniel

Kerry, it is only 1 per person. Please pick a book that is at least 3 months past publication date as your nomination.

Kerry wrote: "These are my nominations:
I Want You to Know We’re Still Here: A Post-Holocaust Memoir
by Esther Safran Foer
Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times - Jonathan Sack
The Periodic Table..."

Excited that I've read 2 of them! But won't say which, Kerry, until you pick which one is your nomination, as per Brina's request. 🙂

On All Other Nights: A Passover Celebration in 14 Stories
Edited by Chris Baron, Joshua S. Levy, Naomi Milliner
I loved this passover anthology published last year.

Julie wrote: "On All Other Nights: A Passover Celebration in 14 Stories
Edited by Chris Baron, Joshua S. Levy, Naomi Milliner
I loved this passover anthology published last year."

Julie, you have good taste. Josh S Levy has won five book awards. He won JBC book award last week.
On that note, did you by chance receive a pm today? Let us know.

Hi everyone.
As Brina wrote, we are giving our members free reign for nominating books for the month of May. We felt this choice would have hopefully accelerated nominations as well as help initiate more discussions. We, as mods, are not understanding the reasons for a slow down other than the notification issues that GRds removed. And, we also can't know how many members receive notifications, if at all, or don't check the page due to lack of interest or prompting-
We need some feedback. Please.
If you are more comfortable, you can send me a private message, or to the other mods if you like. We will "not" share your name- only the needed information. Thank you so much for your time.
Stacey B.

Also for those of you wanting to read children’s books as opposed to ones geared toward adult readers, we have created a new folder specifically for that purpose. For our main group read, we are still gearing the group toward adult content books. As Stacey noted, we still have few nominations. If we still have zero by Sunday , I might refresh this with a second eblast and/or the moderators will put our heads together and choose books. Keep the nominations coming. We want to see what books you want to read.

I nominate The German Wife by Kelly Rimmer. It's not a 100% Jewish theme but it's WWII historical fiction so Jewish context. I loved it and I learned something about American history too.

Thank you, Donna. The German Wife is available at my library in all forms, Amazon, thrift, etc. it is nomination 1.

Hannah's War by Jan Eliasberg

Hannah’s War is also available at all the places in all forms for relatively inexpensive. That’s 2 nominations. We could use 4 more. Thanks, Debra.

Brina, what about Julie's nomination (Comment No. 9) -- On All Other Nights: A Passover Celebration in 14 Stories? Too late to vet it tonight, though. Tomorrow!...

Oh, I see. Children's lit. 😁

My idea for that folder is as people have books they recommend to please add to the folder. Jan will be moving it to the main page later today. As of now we have 2 nominations here and I’d love 4 more by the end of the week.

Stacey B wrote: "Jan wrote: "Brina, what about Julie's nomination (Comment No. 9) -- On All Other Nights: A Passover Celebration in 14 Stories? Too late to vet it tonight, though. Tomorrow!...

Oh, I see. Children's lit. 😁"

Stacey, mods can move discussion and folders, but not comments. Julie could re-post over there, or when you've read the stories, you could describe the book. Jewish Children's Literature

Brina wrote: "Hello. We are trying something new for the May book to try to generate more group traffic. Usually, the mods pick a genre and ask members to come up with a book in that category. This can be proble..."
The Family Carnovsky
The Tsimbalist
The Family Mashber
The Zelmenyaners: A Family Saga

Perlie wrote: "Brina wrote: "Hello. We are trying something new for the May book to try to generate more group traffic. Usually, the mods pick a genre and ask members to come up with a book in that category. This..."

Good Morning Perlie-
Thank you for these nominations.
Out of the four you posted and since its only "one" per customer, which one of these would you like us add?

Good morning. Today was supposed to be the last day for nominations so a little housekeeping.

We have 2 nominations, we are waiting for Kerry and Perlie to choose 1 book from their lists. We could use 2-3 more after that. Otherwise the moderators will choose. We are asking you to choose the books this month so we would appreciate it if we get some more nominations in today. Hopefully the poll can get set up tomorrow. Thank you.

** This book is vetted as Perlie's first nomination choice.
The Family Carnovsky
by I. J. Singer | Apr 1, 2024
Paperback $19.99
Kindle $7.99
In my library

** This book is vetted as Kerry's first choice for May 2025
nominations.
I Want You to Know We're Still Here: A Post-Holocaust Memoir
by Esther Safran Foer | Mar 31, 2020
Kindle $17.00
Paperback
15.50 to $17.00
In my Library

One more nomination by Jan -
On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice
Adam Kirsch (Author)

August 20, 2024
Kindle $11.99
Hardback $ 16.93--$21.32
There is a CD and Audio version- not seeing a PP format.
Libraries will order it as a request.

Unless anyone else has a last minute nomination I am going to post the poll later today. Thank you.

Perlie wrote: "Brina wrote: "Hello. We are trying something new for the May book to try to generate more group traffic. Usually, the mods pick a genre and ask members to come up with a book in that category. This..."
Sorry! I guess I didn't read the directions very well! ;-/
I'll go with The Family Carnovsky.

Real life happens. I’ll get to the poll tomorrow. Thank you, Perlie. I’m closing this thread now.

Reminder that today is the last day to vote on the poll for May’s book. The poll is at the bottom of the group home page.