Post­ed by Nao­mi Firestone-Teeter

We were over­whelmed with amaz­ing Jew­ish books and authors in 2014, and, con­sid­er­ing the pile of 2015 books already tow­er­ing on our desks, it looks like 2015 will bring the same punch. With Saul Bel­low​’s 100th birth­day approach­ing in June, be on the look­out for three new Bel­low-themed books com­ing out over the next few months, list­ed below. Addi­tion­al­ly, two of our Unpack­ing the Book authors have debut nov­els com­ing out in March: Daniel Tor­day (The Last Flight of Poxl West) and Alex­is Lan­dau (The Empire of the Sens­es). 

Look­ing for some great new cook­books? Well, we already have six mouth-water­ing options on the hori­zon. And if you’re look­ing to hear from some crowd favorites we have new books by Jonathan D. Sar­na, Steve Stern, and Elisa Albert com­ing your way as well. 

You’ll also have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to hear from twelve of the below authors on our Vis­it­ing Scribe series — includ­ing Shulem Deen, author of the forth­com­ing mem­oir All Who Do Not Return—where they’ll share more about their work, the back­sto­ry, read­ing lists, and more. Plus, there are some great book club reads that you’ll be hear­ing more about over the com­ing months (The Nightin­gale and A Reunion of Ghosts, to name just two). 

We’re real­ly excit­ed about the year ahead and hope that you’ll con­tin­ue to check back here to learn more about these titles and their cre­ators — and per­haps even win a book or two!

Jan­u­ary

• The Dis­ap­pear­ance of Daniel Klein — Cyn­thia Hagan (Pre­ston Pub­lish­ing House)
• Saul Bel­low: Nov­els 1984 – 2000 — Saul Bel­low (Library of Amer­i­ca) — Start your Bel­low read­ing with our read­ing list.
• Jew­ish Mad Men: Adver­tis­ing and the Design of the Amer­i­can Jew­ish Expe­ri­ence — Ker­ri P. Stein­berg (Rut­gers Uni­ver­si­ty Press) — Vis­it­ing Scribe the week of Jan­u­ary 26th

Feb­ru­ary

• The Nightin­gale — Kristin Han­nah (St. Mar­t­in’s Press) — Vis­it­ing Scribe the week of Feb­ru­ary 2nd
• After Birth — Elisa Albert (Houghton Mif­flin Har­court) — Vis­it­ing Scribe the week of Feb­ru­ary 16th, plus come hear Elisa Albert speak on March 24th at JBC’s brand new lit­er­ary series Unpack­ing the Book and read her pre­vi­ous work here.
• The New Passover Menu — Paula Shoy­er (Ster­ling Epicure)
• Pru­dence: A Nov­el — David Treuer (River­head)
• Bewil­der­ments: Reflec­tions on the Book of Num­bers — Avi­vah Got­tlieb Zorn­berg (Schock­en)
• Lies, First Per­son — Gail Hareven; Dalya Bilu, trans. (Open Let­ter) — while you’re wait­ing for her new book, check out Gail Hareven’s The Con­fes­sions of Noa Weber.
• The Myth of the Cul­tur­al Jew — Rober­ta Rosen­thal Kwall (Oxford Uni­ver­si­ty Press) — Vis­it­ing Scribe the week of March 16th

March

• The Empire of the Sens­es: A Nov­el — Alex­is Lan­dau (Pan­theon) — Vis­it­ing Scribe the week of Feb­ru­ary 23rd, plus come hear Alex­is Lan­dau speak on Feb­ru­ary 24th at JBC’s brand new lit­er­ary series Unpack­ing the Book
• The Last Flight of Poxl West: A Nov­el — Daniel Tor­day (St. Mar­t­in’s Press) — Vis­it­ing Scribe the week of March 9th, plus come hear Daniel Tor­day speak on Feb­ru­ary 24th at JBC’s brand new lit­er­ary series Unpack­ing the Book
• Lin­coln and the Jews: A His­to­ry — Jonathan Sar­na and Ben­jamin Shapell (Thomas Dunne Books) — check out our Jonathan Sar­na Read­ing List here.
• There Is Sim­ply Too Much to Think About: Col­lect­ed Non­fic­tion — Saul Bel­low; Ben­jamin Tay­lor, ed. (Viking Adult)
• Mod­ern Jew­ish Cook­ing: Recipes & Cus­toms for Today’s Kitchen — Leah Koenig (Chron­i­cle Books) — while you’re wait­ing for her lat­est cook­book, check out Leah Koenig’s The Hadas­sah Ever­day Cook­book: Dai­ly Meals for the Con­tem­po­rary Jew­ish Kitchen.
• Me Being Me Is Exact­ly as Insane as You Being You — Todd Hasak-Lowy (Simon Pulse) — Todd Hasak-Lowy has trans­lat­ed sev­er­al books on our site from Hebrew (A Pos­si­bil­i­ty of Vio­lence, Mot­ti (one of my per­son­al 2011 favorites), and Netanya), but you should also check out his own nov­el Cap­tives.
• A Dan­ger­ous Place: A Maisie Dobbs Nov­el — Jacque­line Win­spear (Harp­er)
• Mark Rothko: Toward the Light in the Chapel — Annie Cohen-Solal (Yale Uni­ver­si­ty Press) — a title from Yale’s Jew­ish Lives series. Find the rest of the books here.
• A Reunion of Ghosts: A Nov­el Hard­cov­er — Judith Claire Mitchell (Harp­er)
• Amer­i­can Ghost: A Fam­i­ly’s Haunt­ed Past in the Desert South­west- Han­nah Nord­haus (Harp­er)
• Terms of Ser­vice: Social Media and the Price of Con­stant Con­nec­tion — Jacob Sil­ver­man (Harp­er)
• All Who Go Do Not Return — Shulem Deen (Gray­wolf Press) — Vis­it­ing Scribe the week March 2nd
• The Covenant Kitchen — Jeff Mor­gan (Schock­en)
• The Com­mu­ni­ty Table: Recipes and Sto­ries from the Jew­ish Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­ter in Man­hat­tan and Beyond — JCC Man­hat­tan (Grand Cen­tral Life & Style) — Vis­it­ing Scribe the week of March 23rd
• Where the Bird Sings Best - Ale­jan­dro Jodor­owsky; Alfred MacAdam, trans. (Rest­less Books)
• Prayers for the Liv­ing: A Nov­el — Alan Cheuse (Fig Tree Books)

April

• After Abel and Oth­er Sto­ries — Michal Lem­berg­er (Prospect Park Books) — Vis­it­ing Scribe the week of April 20th
• The Sound of Our Steps: A Nov­el — Ronit Mat­alon; Dalya Bilu, trans. (Met­ro­pol­i­tan Books)
• KL: A His­to­ry of the Nazi Con­cen­tra­tion Camps — Niko­laus Wachs­mann (Far­rar, Straus and Giroux)
• The Big Green Tent: A Nov­el — Lud­mi­la Ulit­skaya; Bela Shayevich, trans. (Far­rar, Straus and Giroux)
• Even in Dark­ness: A Nov­el — Bar­bara Stark-Nemon (She Writes Press) — Vis­it­ing Scribe the week of April 13th
• Jew­ish Fes­ti­val Food: Eat­ing for Spe­cial Occa­sions: 75 Deli­cious Dish­es For Every Hol­i­day And Cel­e­bra­tion — Mar­lena Spiel­er (Lorenz Books)
• Hus­tling Hitler: The Jew­ish Vaude­vil­lian Who Fooled the Führer — Wal­ter Shapiro (Blue Rid­er Press)
• Wash­ing the Dead — Michelle Braf­man (Prospect Park Books) — Vis­it­ing Scribe the week of April 27th

May

• The Death’s Head Chess Club: A Nov­el — John Donoghue (Far­rar, Straus and Giroux)
• The Life of Saul Bel­low: To Fame and For­tune, 1915 – 1964 — Zachary Leader (Knopf)
• The Vil­na Veg­e­tar­i­an Cook­book: Gar­den-Fresh Recipes Redis­cov­ered and Adapt­ed for Today’s Kitchen — Fania Lewan­do; Eve Jochnowitz, trans. (Schock­en)
• Alexan­dri­an Sum­mer — Yitzhak Gormezano Goren; Yardenne Greenspan, trans. (New Ves­sel Press) — read more about New Ves­sel Press here.
• The Book of Aron: A Nov­el — Jim Shep­ard (Knopf)
• Léon Blum: Prime Min­is­ter, Social­ist, Zion­ist — Pierre Birn­baum (Yale Uni­ver­si­ty Press) — find all of the titles in Yale’s Jew­ish Lives series here.
• My Gen­er­a­tion: Col­lect­ed Non­fic­tion — William Sty­ron; James L.W. I West II, ed. (Ran­dom House)
• The Book of Stone — Jonathan Paper­nick (Fig Tree Books)

June

• Hotel Moscow: A Nov­el — Talia Carn­er (William Mor­row) — Vis­it­ing Scribe the week of June 2nd, plus read more of Talia Carn­er’s work here.
• Saint Mazie: A Nov­el — Jami Atten­berg (Grand Cen­tral Pub­lish­ing) — while you’re wait­ing, check out Jami Atten­berg’s The Mid­dlesteins.
• The Pinch: A Nov­el - Steve Stern (Gray­wolf Press) — find a Steve Stern read­ing list here.
• Jour­ney to My Father, Isaac Bashe­vis Singer: A Mem­oir — Israel Zamir; Bar­bara Har­shav, trans. (Arcade Publishing)
• Hen­ry Mor­gen­thau, Jr.: The Remark­able Life of FDR’s Sec­re­tary of the Trea­sury — Her­bert Levy (Sky­horse Publishing) 
• Leo Strauss on the Bor­ders of Judaism, Phi­los­o­phy, and His­to­ry — Jef­frey A. Bern­stein (SUNY Press)
• The Bible on Loca­tion: Off the Beat­en Path in Ancient and Mod­ern Israel — Julie Baretz (The Jew­ish Pub­li­ca­tion Society)
• Safe­keep­ing — Jes­samyn Hope (Fig Tree Books)

Relat­ed Content:

• Unpack­ing the Book: Jew­ish Writ­ers in Conversation
• Nation­al Jew­ish Book Club
• Browse Vis­it­ing Scribes