Judaism Is About Love: Recovering the Heart of Jewish Life
by Shai Held (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

One of the most highly regarded voices in the American Jewish community, Rabbi Shai Held frames the teachings of Judaism not only around issues of justice and law, but also around love, compassion and emotion. In this original, provocative work, he writes about God, theology and faith in ways that are deep yet also accessible. Engaging with a wide range of thinkers both sacred and secular, Held shows the potential of love to transform individuals—and the world—for the better.

 

All That Happiness Is: Some Words on What Matters
by Adam Gopnik (Liveright)

In graceful style, New Yorker cultural critic and author Adam Gopnik draws on personal experience, societal values and the insight of philosophers, scientists and other creative souls to refine the notion of happiness and distinguish between achievement and accomplishment. For him, the latter is the higher goal, entailing the engagement in activity for its own sake, resulting, at its best, in a kind of flow, or loss of self. Expanding his definition to the public sphere, he writes of the pursuit of communal pleasures and believes that the more open a society is, the more space there is for accomplishment.

Your Presence Is Mandatory
by Sasha Vasilyuk (Bloomsbury Publishing)

Sasha Vasilyuk’s impressive debut novel spans 70 years between World War II and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014. At its center is a Jewish Ukrainian soldier whose experience of survival is laced with secrecy. It’s a story of love and trauma, memory and forgiveness. The author, who spent her childhood moving between Ukraine and Russia, came to the United States as a teenager. The novel, inspired by revelations of a buried history in Vasilyuk’s family, sheds needed light on the situation in Ukraine today.

 

Victory Parade
by Leela Corman (Schocken)

This graphic novel opens in Brooklyn in 1942, where a woman and her young daughter await the return of their husband and father from fighting in World War ll. As they wait, they take in a young Jewish refugee from Germany. Both tender and brutal, the beautifully drawn, richly colored frames tell of wrestlers and riveters on the homefront and atrocities abroad that become deeply rooted in those who witness them. Author and illustrator Leela Corman’s focus on antisemitism makes this work particularly timely.

 

Mother Doll
by Katya Apekina (The Overlook Press)

Stories exist inside of other stories in this inventive novel, much like the vibrantly colorful nesting dolls that are a Russian tradition. Spanning Petrograd, Boston and Los Angeles, Katya Apekina spins a tale of four generations of mothers and daughters, in the process investigating their secrets, souls, burdens and passions. Apekina’s sentences are richly layered with Russian history and culture. The author escaped from Moscow in 1986 as a young child. While the novel isn’t autobiographical, it draws on her life experience.

 

---

Sandee Brawarsky is a longtime columnist in the Jewish book world as well as an award-winning journalist, editor and author of several books, including 212 Views of Central Park: Experiencing New York City’s Jewel From Every Angle.