January 2025: Readers' Choice winners, books about exile, and wishes for a better year
Writing, reading, resources and recipes + an update from day 453
Dear friends,
Happy 2025! May it be a better year for all, and may January be the month that we see our hostages returned home. 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.
Brief updates from me:
This week, the newsletter hit a milestone - over 1,500 subscribers and over 2,000 followers on Substack. Thank you!! Please continue to comment, like, etc. and share with your book-loving friends.
ICYMI: My new essay, My Truth, was published by Writing on the Wall a few weeks ago. My other published pieces in 2024 were two short stories: The Hope (Judith Magazine) and The Loneliest Man Alive (History Through Fiction - in the members only section, but lifetime membership only costs $5). Both of the short stories will appear in my upcoming novel-in-stories. Much gratitude to the editors for publishing these pieces!
A writer’s life: At the end of each year, some people count their books read (me), their kilometers or miles run/biked/swam (not me), or all sorts of other things. I count my submissions to literary magazines. In 2024, I submitted 130 times. I no longer count my rejections, but suffice it to say, there have been many. I’m still waiting to hear from about 65-70 of those submissions. Fingers crossed!
Readers’ Choice 2024
Thank you to all 96 people who participated in my Readers' Choice survey. This year Kristin Hannah's The Women came in first, followed by Lisa Barr's The Goddess of Warsaw. Several of last year's winners appear again on this year's list, including Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead (last year - 2nd place; this year - 3rd place), Joyce Maynard's The Bird Hotel (last year - first place; this year, tied for third). Marjan Kamali's The Lion Women of Tehran came in fourth place, and also tied for third were Anne Berest's The Postcard (my personal favorite read of 2023), and Esther Goldenberg's The Scrolls of Deborah. See the full list of winners, runners-up, and honorable mentions (too many to put on the graphic).
I was thrilled to see several books that we heard about at Literary Modiin as runners-up, including Sasha Vasilyuk's Your Presence is Mandatory, Maya Arad's The Hebrew Teacher, and Joan Leegant's Displaced Persons. There are quite a few winners, runners-up, and honorable mentions I haven't read yet, and I'm looking forward to putting these on my TBR pile in 2025.
Recommended Reading
I had a banner reading month, so I finished the year at 89 books, probably the highest number of books I have ever read in one year. A lot of people ask how I manage to read so many books….My answer is two-fold: first, I do a heck of a lot of reading on Shabbat, when I’m not distracted by work or whatsapps or Facebook or anything on a device or screen. Second: I listen to A LOT of audiobooks - while I’m driving, cooking, if I’m volunteering in the orchards without a friend, etc. It means I rarely listen to podcasts. So be it. I have LOTS of recommendations for you this month!
The Anatomy of Exile by Zeeva Bukai: I received an advanced reader’s copy (ARC) of Zeeva’s debut novel (coming out this month), and it was excellent! Set in Israel and New York between the periods of the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War, this powerful novel follows Tamar Abadi, whose life is torn apart when her closest friend and sister-in-law Hadas is murdered in an abandoned village, her killer also found dead at the scene. Hadas and her brother Salim (Tamar’s husband) had come to Israel as children, Jewish refugees from Syria, and had been resettled, for a period, in the village. The police write it off as a terrorist attack, but Tamar knows the truth: Hadas was killed by her Palestinian lover in a crime of passion. In his grief over his sister’s death, Salim uproots the family to America with promises to return after he’s made enough money. As their children assimilate into American culture and economic success is slow in coming, Tamar tries to maintain their Jewish Israeli identity, longing to return home. Without giving any spoilers, history threatens to repeat itself in New York. The narrative is an excellent and nuanced portrayal of identity, prejudice, politics, parenthood, race, gender, exile, forbidden love, seen through the lens of a woman who is trying to keep her family together through life’s most painful and beautiful moments. I think this will make an excellent choice for book clubs (and I suspect that it will rank in next year’s Readers’ Choice awards). Join me to hear Zeeva speak about her book at February’s Literary Modiin event on February 16.
For the Love of the Father by Chochana Boukhobza (translated by Nina Boug Lichtenstein): This was the first book I’ve read by Chochana Boukhobza, and I’m so glad I did. Like the author herself, who immigrated to France in 1964 after the Tunisia Jewish community was uprooted, this slim novel covers the effects of a family’s exile. Alice, a young child at the time of her mother’s death and subsequent move to France, is now a successful lawyer, but haunted over the loss of her older sister Sassou, who has run away from the family. Alice must balance her duties as a daughter to an ailing father with her resentment at her older sister, whom she blames for banishing Sassou from the family. As the family “spirals deeper into silence, estrangement and loneliness” in France, Alice looks to friends, lovers, and her family for answers. A worthy read for its portrayal of trauma, displacement and the Tunisian Jewish community. I hope more of Chochana Boukhobza’s novels will be translated!
The Gates of Gaza by Amir Tibon: I was familiar with journalist Amir Tibon’s October 7th story from his tweets and articles immediately following that black day — he and his wife and two tiny daughters survived in their safe room for 10 hours without power and food, remaining completely silent, as Hamas terrorists rampaged and massacred their neighbors and friends on Kibbutz Nahal Oz and dozens of other Gaza envelop communities. His parents, retired general Noam Tibon, and his mother, a retired high school principal, got in their car in Tel Aviv and drove south to try to reach them. In the book, Tibon masterfully weaves his own tale and his heroic parents’ experiences of that day alongside the origin story of Nahal Oz and an extremely readable history and astute analysis of how we got to this point. If you’re going to read one book on October 7th, I highly recommend this one. I like this blurb from Yossi Klein Halevi: “More than an account of horror, Amir Tibon's riveting book is a story of courage. Tibon's extraordinary family and community offer a glimpse into Israel's resilience, and help explain why it may be premature to despair over the hope for peace." Amen.
Next Stop by Benjamin Resnick: I don’t usually read dystopian fiction, but I’d heard lots of good things about Benjamin Resnick’s debut novel, in which a black hole swallows the State of Israel and Jews in America are left to fend for themselves in an increasingly antisemitic atmosphere. Amid restrictions and violence, Ella, raised in a traditional Jewish home, and Ethan, raised in a secular Jewish home, meet and fall in love in an unnamed American city. Though many Jews are escaping to an underground subway system, Ella, Ethan, and Ella’s young son Michael try to stick it out aboveground, even as the city’s Jews are forced to relocate to a neighborhood called the Pale, where they form a new community under the watchful eye of border guards, drones, and robotic dogs. To quote one reviewer on Amazon, the book was “unexpected and brilliant.” Upon finishing it, I immediately went in search of an interview with the author (who also happens to be the rabbi of the Pelham Jewish Center in New York). I love GP Gottlieb’s podcasts for the New Books Network, so I was delighted to find this interview with Benjamin Resnick. This blurb from Dennis B. Miller, captures my feelings perfectly: “Next Stop is either prophetic—with its depiction of flailing morality, administrative cowardice, and fact-resistant discourse—or it is timeless, in that there is really no moment Benjamin Resnick couldn't have written the book. I'm reminded of…that feeling of gently and easily reading something of crushing horror. What you will find here is what we all hope to find as readers: a good story about people up against the odds; people who are, ultimately, us." Join me to hear Ben speak about his book at Literary Modiin’s January event on January 19.
Absolution by Alice McDermott: My local book club discussed Alice McDermott’s latest, a novel about American wives in Vietnam in the early 1960s. Patricia is a shy newlywed, married to young attorney in navy intelligence, both devout Catholics. Charlene, a corporate spouse and mother of three, sees Patricia as an ally as they attempt to serve as “helpmeets” to their ambitious husbands while trying to “do good” for the people of Vietnam. But Charlene is something of a bulldozer, and Patricia doesn’t always understand the schemes Charlene is getting her into. From the distance of 60 years, Patricia and Charlene’s daughter look back at their time in Vietnam, trying to understand how they were “shaped and burdened by the same sort of unintended consequences that followed America’s tragic interference in Southeast Asia.” We had a good discussion about this, another recommendation for book clubs!
Events
I’m super excited for the next several Literary Modiin events. All-star lineups!
Sunday, January 19 at 20:00 Israel time / 1 pm Eastern, featuring Benjamin Resnick (NEXT STOP), Galina Vromen (HILL OF SECRETS) and Judy Gruen (BYLINES AND BLESSINGS). Register here.
Sunday, February 16 at 20:00 Israel time / 1 pm Eastern, featuring Zeeva Bukai (THE ANATOMY OF EXILE), Lihi Lapid (ON HER OWN), and Ruth Franklin (THE MANY LIVES OF ANNE FRANK). Register here.
Sunday, March 23 - in person and on Zoom - featuring Avner Landes (THE DELEGATION), Ayelet Tsabari (SONGS FOR THE BROKENHEARTED) and Joan Leegant (DISPLACED PERSONS). Register here.
Save the date for the April event - Sunday, April 27. More details to follow.
Story of the Month - Collateral Damage
Collateral Damage by Meg Richman (Judith Magazine): This just-published short story about friendships had me from the first paragraph with the reference to White Lotus. Later, of course I enjoyed the reference to Barnard and the protagonist’s mother urging her daughter and friends to “Look at a baby!” to offset the fear that love is a construct. The story has a terrific voice, even as it veers into territory that - sadly - many of us must contend with today.
Resource of the Month: Melt With Me
I first encountered Paul Crenshaw over on Twitter, and I enjoyed his essay collection This One Will Hurt You when it came out in 2019. His Substack, called Melt With Me (the same name of his newly-released collection about coming of age in the 1980s), offers “essays on kindness, pop culture, and small ways to make the world a better place.” I always appreciate getting these essays in my inbox, such as this one, just now, on libraries.
Recipe of the Month: Brazilian Black Bean Soup
Welcome to the near-end of the newsletter, where you’re rewarded with a yummy recipe. The other week I had a hankering for black bean soup. My go-to recipe for this comes from the Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen, which came out back in 1977. Though it had been many years since I’ve made it, it came out delish. Here is my slightly adjusted version:
Ingredients
3 cans of black beans (original recipe calls for 2 cups dry black beans, soaked and cooked with 4 cups of water for about 1 1/4 hours)
2-3 cups of water (if using canned beans)
Olive oil
3 cups chopped onion
4-5 garlic cloves, crushed (original recipe calls for 10)
2 tsp. cumin
2 1/2 tsp. salt
2 medium carrots (original recipe calls for 1), diced
1 medium red pepper, diced
1 1/2 cups of orange juice. I used fresh-squeezed - yum
2 medium tomatoes, diced
Sour cream for topping (optional)
Sauté the onion, garlic, cumin, carrot until tender. Add the red pepper and sauté until tender. Add the beans and simmer for a while, add water as necessary, and the orange juice, and tomatoes. Puree with an immersion blender and adjust seasonings. Top with a dollop of sour cream. Enjoy!
Israel Update
If I was slightly optimistic about a hostage deal a few weeks ago, I’m feeling a bit less hopeful now. Once again the negotiations seem stalled and the hostages have been replaced in the news by other matters. We’ve been praying that somehow - Chanukah, the end of the year, the “Trump effect,” the ceasefire in Lebanon - would be a catalyst for a deal, but so far that has not happened.
Israelis - and Jews around the world - have been celebrating Chanukah this week. Different from last year, when we were still gutted and shell-shocked from October 7th, but, for obvious reasons, not quite with the same unbridled good feelings with which we’d celebrated in previous years.
Plus, of course, we’re awakened - at the rate of three or four times a week - by the sirens that go off when the Houthis send ballistic missiles our way. The other night they were “kind” enough to send it at 11:10 pm instead of 3:30 am.
My own holiday had many ups but also one terrible tragedy.
I attended the wedding of the son of very close friends, which was fantastic. So moving to see watch the groom (whom I’ve known since he was one day old). I definitely “had a moment” watching the dancing, being grateful that these kids were intact to celebrate. (Mazal tov Noam and Tova and Jo and Jonny)! I attended a few parties, including one given by other close friends, their son recovering from his second injury in Gaza, a party to thank God for his recovery and to recognize the contributions of everyone who has served. For the Hebrew speakers here, you can watch this interview with Avichai, which brought a huge smile to my face. We spent time with other friends, some visiting from the States and others whom we see regularly.
Alas, the war does not stop for the holiday, and on Sunday night we learned of the death of 22-year-old Yuval Shoham in Gaza. I don’t know the family well, but my husband and son do, as do many of our friends in Jerusalem. You can read more about Yuval and his incredible parents in these posts from Daniel Gordis and Jessica Steinberg. As Jessica writes: “To the Shoham family, your sorrow is ours.” May his memory be a blessing.
If you don’t already follow the Israeli artist Shoshke Engelmayer, he’s been drawing daily postcards since October 7th. Here was yesterday’s. May 2025 be a better year.
I’ll leave you with a few happy pictures from my month. Until next time, b’sorot tovot. Am Yisrael Chai.
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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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Such rich resources. Thank you and Happy New Year.
Nancy Shiffrin https://www.NancyShiffrin.net
Very happy to be a runner-up in such great company!