Some fam­i­lies pass down recipes and pho­tographs. Dena’s fam­i­ly pass­es down sto­ries. Sto­ries Car­ry is a mul­ti-gen­er­a­tional mem­oir span­ning under­ground yeshiv­as in Stalin’s Rus­sia, an 80-foot meno­rah in San Francisco’s Union Square, and Dena’s own jour­ney build­ing a vibrant Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty in Atlanta. She writes with the insight of some­one com­fort­able doing deep per­son­al work, dis­cov­er­ing that free­dom isn’t in reject­ing or embrac­ing what we inher­it — it’s in under­stand­ing it so well you get to choose what to keep. Think Edu­cat­ed meets Cry­ing in H Mart. You don’t need to be Jew­ish to con­nect — you just need to have a fam­i­ly. Sto­ries Car­ry is for any­one who’s ever felt the cre­ative ten­sion between inher­i­tance and individuality.