December 2024: Five book recs, the 2024 Readers' Choice Survey, and voices of empathy
Writing, reading, resources and recipes + an update from day 422
Dear friends,
For those celebrating, I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving weekend. Yes, many Americans abroad do celebrate Thanksgiving, though we had our turkey and stuffing etc. on Shabbat so I didn’t get a picture. I hope you managed to have a decent month or at least get through the days as best as possible, and that December will see our hostages home and bring less suffering for all. Scroll down for your monthly dose of book reviews, upcoming literary events, a story, a recipe, essays, and an update from my corner of Israel. Plus, don’t miss my annual readers’ choice survey!
Brief writing update: Now that I’ve started querying agents for my new book (a sister volume to The Book of Jeremiah), my writing is focused on my next project, a novel inspired by my great aunt (for the real story, see For Czarna and Czarna, Reimagined). It’s still at the very early stages. I’m writing random scenes here and there, sometimes based on the information I have from our family book or my own research, and sometimes starting with a writing prompt. Each scene will require more research down the line (Jewish prisoners of war in Siberia, circa 1915; leather goods stores in Strasbourg, France, circa 1932, etc. etc.) I haven’t made an outline but I hope it will all come together at some point.
Some nice news: The Hadassah New Orleans Readers’ Circle will be discussing The Book of Jeremiah on December 15th! If you’re in a book club or know someone who is, I’d love to meet with your group!
Recommended Reading
I had a banner reading month, so I’m up to 79 books for the year. I have LOTS of recommendations for you this month!
Olive Days by Jessica Elisheva Emerson: This debut novel was an eye-opener for me. Rina is a young mother and artist whose husband convinces her to take part in an evening of spouse swapping with three other couples from their modern Orthodox community in Pico-Robertson in Los Angeles. (Sounds wild? It was to me, too. But apparently these things do happen occasionally as a means to help stagnating relationships). The novel follows Rina’s unraveling after the fateful evening, the cost she pays as she tries to balance her (new and now-unleashed) desires as a woman, an artist and Jew. As Jessica explained at the Literary Modiin event this past month she was interested in exploring a story in which this experiment didn’t work, and she wanted to focus on both women’s desire and her character’s search for identity. The results is very well-done, and I think this would make an excellent choice for a book club!
We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman: Edi(th) and Ash(ley) are lifelong friends, and when Edi gets a fatal cancer diagnosis but there are no hospice centers with availability near her husband and young son, they decide Edi would be best off in a hospice near Ash in western Massachusetts. Despite the horrible circumstances, Ash, together with a cast of loving family members, doctors, nurses, guitar players and others, make Edi’s final weeks and months into a celebration of life in all its messiness and beauty. This is a short but powerful book that also has lots of humor. (One example: One of the other patients in the hospice blasts the soundtrack to Fiddler on the Roof non-stop, so the story is punctuated by familiar lyrics). Hats off to the author, who has accomplished the impossible. As KJ Dell’Antonia wrote in her blurb: “The funniest, most joyful book about dying—and living—that I have ever read.” Highly recommended!
Everything Matters! by Ron Currie Jr.: Hat tip to John Warner, of The Biblioracle Recommends Substack, for recommending this (not new) book in his post about being decent to each other. The star of this novel is Junior Thibodeau, who comes of age in rural Maine in the 70s and 80s, where baseball, the legacy of his father’s Vietnam years, and rising drug and alcohol are key factors in his childhood and youth. Junior knows something that no one else does: when he is 36, a giant comet will come crashing into earth, obliterating everyone and everything. With such knowledge, how should he live his life? Exploring themes of sons and fathers, lost love and reconciliation, and the nature of the universe, this line, from the book description sums it up nicely: “A tour de force of storytelling, Everything Matters! is a genre-bending potpourri of alternative history, sci-fi, and the great American tale in the tradition of John Irving and Margaret Atwood.” For audiobook listeners, this one has a full cast narration, the kind of book that you’re sad when it’s over. I’m looking forward to checking out the author’s other books. Loved this one!
Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang: In Chinese, the word for America is Mei Guo, which translates to “beautiful country,” but this heartful memoir shows that for undocumented families, America is anything but beautiful. From her first moments in New York at the age of 7, Qian absorbs her parents’ fear of being deported. Fear and poverty are the overwhelming themes of her childhood, even as she learns English, begins to excel at school, and find refuge in books. Her parents go from job to job, misery to misery, taking out their frustrations on each other, with Qian often in the middle. The memoir is told in Qian’s young voice with lyric clarity. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by the author, and I was immensely impressed with her clear-eyed storytelling and precision. From Kirkus: “A potent testament to the love, curiosity, grit, and hope of a courageous and resourceful immigrant child.”
Orbital by Samantha Harvey: This slim volume was the surprise winner of the 2024 Booker Prize, and I’m so glad it won! Six astronauts from different countries - the US, Italy, Japan, England, and Russia - are orbiting the earth in an international space station. While in space, the astronauts grapple with loss, loneliness and fatigue while occasionally getting calls from civilians on earth. If you’re very into plot-driven novels, this one might not be for you, but I loved the concept, or as the Booker Prize judges said: “Samantha Harvey’s compact yet beautifully expansive novel invites us to observe Earth’s splendour from the drifting perspective of six astronauts…Moving from the claustrophobia of their cabins to the infinitude of space, from their wide-ranging memories to their careful attention to their tasks, from searching metaphysical inquiry to the spectacle of the natural world, Orbital offers us a love letter to our planet as well as a deeply moving acknowledgement of the individual and collective value of every human life.”
2024 Readers’ Choice Survey
I’m always looking for good book recommendations, as I’m sure are many of you. For the last three years, I’ve held the annual Readers’ Choice survey, to great response. Many of the books I read this year were a direct result of that survey…so let’s do it again. Please fill out this quick, 2-minute Readers’ Choice survey and list your five favorite books of the year. Note: the books do not need to have been published in 2024, just your five favorite reads. Look for the results in my January newsletter.
Events
I’m excited for Literary Modiin’s December event - coming up in two weeks, on Sunday, December 15. It’s both in-person and on Zoom (doors open at 19:30 Israel time and the program begins at 20:00 Israel / 1 pm Eastern). Register here to hear from Jane Medved (WAYFARERS), Norrin M. Ripsman (THE ORACLE OF SPRING GARDEN ROAD), and Jennifer Lang (LANDED). If you’re in reasonable driving distance of Modiin, I’d love to see you in person!
Earlier that same day, December 15, I’ll be meeting with the Hadassah New Orleans Readers’ Circle to discuss The Book of Jeremiah. I believe it is open to the public, so drop me a line if you’d like the Zoom link.
Save the dates for additional upcoming Literary Modiin events - Sunday January 19 with Benjamin Resnick, Galina Vromen, and Judy Gruen (already open for registration), Sunday February 16 (on Zoom), and Sunday March 23 (in person and on Zoom)! Missed any of our Literary Modiin events? Catch the recordings here.
Jewish Book Month
It’s Jewish Book Month! Celebrate by buying Jewish books, inviting authors to your local events, reviewing their books, amplifying your recommendations on social media, and more! Check out the Jewish Book Council’s excellent list of how you can celebrate Jewish Book Month, or a few of my book lists: Books by authors hosted by Literary Modiin, Books to read for Jewish American Heritage Month or Canadian Jewish Heritage Month, Read Israeli women.
Story of the Month
And now for something completely different….Simone de Beauvoir Is Living on Mars by Mary Grimm (Alaska Quarterly Review). I enjoyed this hermit crab short story, perhaps due to the space aspect (having just read Orbital), perhaps due to the French, perhaps because it is so completely removed from reality.
Resource of the Month
Hat tip to Erika Dreifus (whose The Practicing Writer 2.0 Substack is a must read for any writer) for pointing me to Katie Hale’s 5 ways to get back to writing when you feel like the ideas well has dried up. Lots of great suggestions in here!
Recipe of the Month: A Hearty Meat & Cabbage Soup
Welcome to the (near) end of the newsletter, where you’re rewarded with a yummy recipe. This one comes via my friend Annie, known to be one of the best cooks and bakers around. Luckily I went pomegranate picking with her the other week, and she shared this recipe, perfect to keep you warm now that winter is upon us. It got rave reviews from my family.
Ingredients
2 -3 onions sliced in half moons
1 green cabbage, shredded
1/2 kilo of beef stew - sliced into small pieces
1/2 cup shredded carrots
2-3 cups tomato sauce
A few squirts of tomato paste
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
1/2 fresh lemon squeezed
1/3 cup sugar
Sautee onion in oil of your choice until it’s translucent. Add cabbage and carrots cook until soft and slightly golden. In a separate pan, brown the beef slices and then add to the cabbage mix. Add tomato sauce, spices, and sugar. Cover with water or vegetable broth and cook on a low flame for a couple of hours. Adjust for seasonings. Enjoy! Note: my soup came out rather sweet, so I’ll probably try a bit less sugar next time.
Israel Update
Today marks a year since the end of the temporary truce of November 2023, when 105 hostages came home. Last year on December 1, I’d driven my daughter back to her base for reserve duty and then went on to volunteer in a cauliflower field. Early that morning, Hamas had violated the ceasefire and by the time I got to the cauliflowers, we heard the loud roars of our air force responding. It was a gray day, and I remembering thinking that it was going to be a very long time before another truce could be negotiated.
Little did we know how very long. We’re now on day 422, with 101 hostages still captive in Gaza. Whether the tenuous ceasefire with Hezbollah will last, whether there is now an opening for a ceasefire in Gaza and the return of our hostages, I don’t know. But I pray this is the month we will see less death and destruction, and all of our hostages returned home.
Ceasefire: May it be Your will
If you’re wondering about the ceasefire, and asking Why a ceasefire with a potent Hezbollah, but not with a weak, hostage-holding Hamas? David Horowitz, editor of the Times of Israel, asked that same question last week:
These are the very first few hours of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire…
By the time you read this, or not long after, things may have calmed down. Perhaps the deal will hold, the lives of soldiers and civilians will be saved, Hezbollah will ultimately be disarmed, Hamas will prove more forthcoming on terms for a hostage deal, and even the US hope of a process toward Israeli-Saudi normalization will be vindicated. May it be Your will.
Perhaps, too, however, matters will deteriorate further, and the ceasefire will collapse. After all, at its core, it is built on an extremely fragile, even absurd concept: Israel and Lebanon have committed to a series of terms that are intended to be binding on a much-degraded but still highly potent terrorist group, Hezbollah, that retains tens of thousands of drones, rockets and missiles and the capability to launch them.
As I write these words on Sunday, Dec. 1, the ceasefire has *mostly* held, but that didn’t stop the Houthis from launching a ballistic missile at us this morning at 6:21 am, sending us into our safe room.
In Modiin…
Last week, Modiin lost brave soldier, Yona Brief, z”l, a combat medic. I’m not close to the family, but we have many mutual friends, and over the last 14 months, my local whatsapp groups have been filled with reports of his condition deteriorating and requests to pray. Everyone knew his story: Yona was wounded in May 2023 and could have been discharged from the army, but he insisted on going back to his unit. On October 7th, in the battle at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, as he cared for others, he was grievously injured by 13 bullets. He spent nearly 14 months in the ICU with his family by his side. He lost both legs, underwent multiple surgeries, and ultimately succumbed to his injuries last Tuesday. Read Michael Oren’s report of Yona’s funeral - and his life - here.
Last night at the hostage rally in Modiin we heard from the aunts of Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36, a dual Israeli-US citizen who was taken captive from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz. On October 7th, his wife was seven months pregnant with their third daughter. We watched heartbreaking videos of his 7-year-old daughter asking everyone to pray for her father’s return, and his 2-year-old daughter crying inconsolably for her father. It was dark (the lights weren’t working for some reason) and chilly and not as well attended as other rallies, but I was glad to be there and show the family a tiny modicum of support. This article, A Life Held Hostage, in Tablet, goes much more into Sagui’s story.
Voices of Empathy / For Further Reading
I am blessed to have many writer friends here who express themselves with amazing nuance, talent, brilliance, and empathy. They often express what I aspire to express, and inspire me to work towards a better world.
Rebecca Bardach’s recently launched Substack, Between Despair and Determination, is an excellent example. I wish I could copy every paragraph in this column, So Here We Are. Here’s a small snippet but I encourage you to read the entire thing.
We are part of a long history and crowded community of people who lived in troubled times, under troubling regimes and systems, at the mercies of troubling forces and whims of the powerful, looming many times the size of the miniature individuals living within. Many were swallowed up in the suffering and morass of their time and place. But there are always - always - those who fought, struggled and suffered to make things better…
In two beautiful new essays, Joanna Chen reflects on absolute positions and refusing to cut herself off from reading voices who disagree with her:
Navigating a Broken World (Consequence Forum)
I’m Not Going to Shut Up (Lilith)
Psalm 34 asks who is the person who desires life and loves days. I aspire to be that person. I aspire to be that woman. I’m going to keep on doing what I believe in, including my work with Palestinian children at Road to Recovery. I’m going to read widely, with as many voices and opinions as possible, because I don’t want to be cut off from this world, however broken it is.
And lastly, here is Ilana Blumberg’s wide-ranging, scholarly and personal piece: ‘I Hope You and Your Loved Ones Remain Safe’: Dispatch from a Teacher-Scholar-Life Writer in Wartime (Life Writing), in which she reflects on the last 14 months, reaching out to her students, writing as testimony, writing as a means to maintain her hope. (Here too, I would like to quote from every paragraph. It feels a bit of a disservice to the essay to share only this small snippet, so again, I encourage you to read the whole thing).
Writing brings me hope. There will come a day when we will return to the classroom capable of true study. When my teacher-self will re-emerge fully, no longer afraid to reach deep into my reserves and teach from there, not from the shallows I draw from right now. When the tension and the fear will subside.
I’ll leave you on those notes of hope and pictures of persimmons. By Chanukah or Christmas or whatever you celebrate, may we see more light and less darkness. Until next month, b’sorot tovot. Am Yisrael Chai.
A small way to support my work: Since June 2019, I’ve hosted the monthly Literary Modiin author series, and since April 2020, I’ve been putting out this monthly newsletter. Both represent a significant amount of effort for me, but I love talking about books and promoting other authors, and I’m committed to keeping both of these things FREE for all. I do incur some expenses to keep these up, however, so if you have enjoyed the Literary Modiin events and/or if you enjoy the newsletter or both, and you’d like to support my work in some small, tangible way, I’d be grateful if you’d click on the “Buy Me a Coffee” link below. (If you can’t, that’s fine too)! I appreciate your continued support for these events, book recommendations and my literary musings.
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Julie Zuckerman's debut novel-in-stories, The Book of Jeremiah, was published in May 2019 by Press 53. Her fiction and non-fiction have appeared in CRAFT, Tikkun, Jewish Women’s Archives, Crab Orchard Review, The Coil, The SFWP Quarterly, Ellipsis, MoonPark Review, Sixfold, and The MacGuffin, among others. She is the founder and host of Literary Modiin, a monthly author series celebrating fiction, memoir and poetry with Jewish content. A native of Connecticut, she lives in Israel with her husband and four children. www.juliezuckerman.com
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so much delight here! thank you!
Love all of this, as always. But especially the book reccs and recipe.