Jewish Book Carnival - September 2020

 

Welcome to the Jewish Book Carnival, a monthly event where bloggers who blog about Jewish books can meet, read and comment on each others’ posts.

The purposes of the Jewish Book Carnival are to build community among bloggers who feature Jewish books on their blogs, and to promote Jewish reading, and fields supporting this reading such as publishing and library services.

Life Is Like a Library was privileged to host the September 2019 Jewish Book Carnival, and it's unbelievable how much the world has changed in a year. This time last year meant back to school, back to a "regular" schedule, and time to think about the upcoming Jewish holidays.  Now nothing is "regular," whether it is school or schedules. Here's what our bloggers have been reading:

Each week, Erika Dreifus's My Machberet blog curates links from the world of Jewish books and writing. Here's one recent example.

The Book of Life Podcast has a joint interview with Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan about their new middle grade novel A Place at the Table. It's the story of Jewish and Muslim girls who bond over food - delicious!

The Sydney Taylor Shmooze is a mock award blog for the Association of Jewish Libraries’ children’s literature prize.   Here's a review of a new nonfiction title for young adults, The New Queer Conscience by Adam Eli.

This month at Gila Green Writes, author Shana Ritter shares her thoughts on what's on the minds of many of us -- writing during COVID-19. 

Howard Lovy talked to Dr. Ruth about sexuality and the Hebrew Scriptures, and their conversation ("PG-Rated") appears in Publishers Weekly. 

On her blog, Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb, Deborah interviewed Rabbis Kerry and Jesse Olitzky about their new children's picture book, The Littlest Candle (Kalaniot, 2020).

At Book Marketing Buzz Blog, Brian Feinblum interviews Talia Carner about The Third Daughter (HarperCollins, 2019), a 2020 Finalist in the Jewish Book Council Book Club category.

Reuven Chaim Klein reviews Tara Burton's book about contemporary religion, Strange Rights: New Religions for a Godless World (Public Affairs, 2020) at the Rachack Review.

At Books and Blintzes, Rabbi Deborah Miller reviews the soon to be published Jerusalem as a Second Languarge (Aubade Publishing, 2020) by the late Rochelle Distenheiim. 

Barbara Krasner at The Whole Megillah interviews author Leslie Kimmelman and illustrator Galia Bernstein about their new tongue-in-cheek holiday picture book, The Eight Knights of Hanukkah,  published by Holiday House and debuting September 15, 2020.

Another great book list from Marjorie Ingall at Tablet Magazine, "Books for Kids with Anxiety" includes several Jewish books, including one of our favorites from this year, M. Evan Wolkenstein's Turtle Boy (Delacorte Press, 2020). 

And finally, at Life Is Like a Library, it's the annual "Elul Review" of books with important lessons for the coming year.

May it be healthy and happy New Year and may all the desired of our hearts be fulfilled for good.

Kesiva V'Chasima Tova! A Good Writing and a A Good Sealing (in the Book of Life)!