Post­ed by Nao­mi Firestone-Teeter

It’s been two years since a Valen­tine’s Day edi­tion of JBC Book­shelf. In 2011, we high­light­ed six titles. Today, we high­light a wide-range of titles from JBC past. Whether your love is a city, a meal, an indi­vid­ual, an ani­mal, or an idea, we’re con­fi­dent that you’ll find at least one title below to warm your heart this Valen­tine’s Day:


Heart of the City: Nine Sto­ries of Love and Serendip­i­ty on the Streets of New York, Ariel Sabar (2011, Da Capo Press)
Ariel Sabar explores nine real-life urban romances, each set against the back­drop of an icon­ic New York City pub­lic space

Paris: A Love Sto­ry, Kati Mar­ton (2012, Simon & Schus­ter)
Kati Marton’s newest mem­oir is a can­did explo­ration of many kinds of love, as well as a love let­ter to the city of Paris itself

Until Our Last Breath: A Holo­caust Sto­ry of Love and Par­ti­san Resis­tance, Michael Bart and Lau­rel Coro­na (2008, St. Mar­t­in’s Press)
A love sto­ry that flour­ished despite the pri­va­tions of the Ghet­to and the part­ners’ dis­parate ages and social status

Cross­ing the Bor­ders of Time: A True Sto­ry of War, Exile, and Love Reclaimed, Leslie Mait­land (2012, Oth­er Press)
Leslie Mait­land traces the love sto­ry of two young peo­ple caught up in war-torn France

Some Girls, Some Hats and Hitler: A True Love Sto­ry Redis­cov­ered, Trudy Kan­ter (2012, Scrib­n­er)
Tru­di Kan­ter relates the emo­tion­al roller coast­er she was on in attempt­ing to get to Eng­land with her par­ents and the love of her life

A Titan­ic Love Sto­ry: Ida and Isidor Straus, June Hall McCash (2012, Mer­cer Uni­ver­si­ty Press)
June Hall McCash tells the sto­ry of Ida and Isidor Straus, who went to their deaths togeth­er on the maid­en voy­age of the Titanic

If You Awak­en Love, Emu­na Elon (2007, Toby Press)
A sto­ry of unre­quit­ed love set in Israel

The Mak­ing of Hen­ry, Howard Jacob­son (2004, Anchor Books)
A sur­pris­ing love sto­ry involv­ing a sym­pa­thet­ic shik­sa and a Hen­ry Nagel’s dog

The Lost Wife, Alyson Rich­man (2011, Berkley)
A pow­er­ful love sto­ry set in Prague as World War II begins

Shosha: A Nov­el, Isaac Bashe­vis Singer (1978, Far­rar, Straus and Giroux)
Shosha is a haunt­ing­ly lyri­cal love sto­ry set in Jew­ish War­saw on the eve of its annihilation

All Oth­er Nights, Dara Horn (2009, W. W. Nor­ton & Com­pa­ny)
An intel­li­gent love sto­ry set dur­ing the Civ­il War

Aimée & Jaguar: A Love Sto­ry, Berlin 1943, Eri­ca Fis­ch­er (1998, Alyson Books)
A unique and trag­ic love sto­ry between two women, set against the Holo­caust

Din­ner: A Love Sto­ry, Jen­ny Rosen­stra­ch (2012, Harper­Collins)
This is a love sto­ry about one woman, a fam­i­ly and a ritual

The Brisket Book: A Love Sto­ry with Recipes, Stephanie Pier­son (2011, Andrews McMeel Pub­lish­ing)
More than just” a cook­book, The Brisket Book, includes sto­ries, jokes, car­toons, and photographs


 

Orig­i­nal­ly from Lan­cast­er, Penn­syl­va­nia, Nao­mi is the CEO of Jew­ish Book Coun­cil. She grad­u­at­ed from Emory Uni­ver­si­ty with degrees in Eng­lish and Art His­to­ry and, in addi­tion, stud­ied at Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege Lon­don. Pri­or to her role as exec­u­tive direc­tor, Nao­mi served as the found­ing edi­tor of the JBC web­site and blog and man­ag­ing edi­tor of Jew­ish Book World. In addi­tion, she has over­seen JBC’s dig­i­tal ini­tia­tives, and also devel­oped the JBC’s Vis­it­ing Scribe series and Unpack­ing the Book: Jew­ish Writ­ers in Conversation.