LJ’s Jewish Book Month Picks

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Library Journal recently featured a roundup of titles perfect for Jewish Book Month (November 24–December 24), including these five Macmillan titles:

GAME OF QUEENS: A Novel of Vashti and Esther by India Edghill
Reference librarian Edghill reimagines the life of Vashti, one of the most beautiful women in the Persian empire, who lost her crown when she defied her husband, King Ahasuerus. Vashti was also instrumental in choosing her successor, Esther.

THE SECRET BOOK OF KINGS by Yochi Brandes
Filled with intrigue, romance, and rebellion, this biblical epic recounts the story of Michal, daughter of King Saul and discarded wife of King David. Brandes, a biblical scholar, is a best-selling and award-winning Israeli novelist and essayist. This is her first book to be translated into English.

THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF JERUSALEM by Sarit Yishai-Levi
This international best seller and Israeli award winner presents a sweeping family saga that follows four generations of Ladino-speaking Sephardic women in Jerusalem who all fear that the family curse—that the husbands don’t love their wives—will continue with future descendants. This novel is currently being adapted into a feature film in Israel.

THE DEBT OF TAMAR by Nicole Dweck
A rare self-publishing success, Dweck’s debut won the Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Award in 2013. The novel’s first half chronicles a Jewish family’s flight from Iberia during the 16th-­century Inquisition to Istanbul. The second part is set in 2002, when a young man descended from the Ottoman sultans meets the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. Of course, the reader knows that these separate story lines will intersect, but the result is a compelling and enjoyable read.

THE TWO-FAMILY HOUSE by Lynda Cohen Loigman
In the middle of a snowstorm in 1950s Brooklyn, two sisters-in-law go into labor at the same time. Their husbands are both stuck in the city on business. Two babies are born, a girl and a boy, and a fateful decision is made that will change the course of both families forever. Beginning in 1947 and ending in 1970, the narrative alternates between the two brothers, Mort and Abe, their wives, Rose and Helen, and two of their daughters, Judith and Natalie.

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