Meetings on Sundays at 9:30am * Live at Temple Shalom and on Zoom * Contact us at ten.molahselpmet@bulckooB
Temple Shalom Book Club 2024-25
Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth by Noa Tishby
September 15, 2024
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Fascinating and very moving” (Aaron Sorkin).
Through bite-sized chunks of history and deeply personal stories, Tishby chronicles her homeland’s evolution, beginning in Biblical times and moving forward to cover everything from WWI to Israel’s creation to the disputes today. Tishby provides context around headline controversies and offers a clear, intimate account of the richly cultured Israel.
The Golem of Brooklyn: A Novel by Adam Mansbach
November 10, 2024
The dazzlingly imaginative, ferociously funny story of an art teacher, a bodega clerk, and a five-thousand-year-old clay crisis monster
In Ashkenazi Jewish folklore, a golem is a humanoid being created out of mud or clay and animated through secret prayers. Its sole purpose is to defend the Jewish people against the immediate threat of violence.
The Golem of Brooklyn is an epic romp through Jewish history and the American present.
My Broken Language: A Memoir by Quiara Alegria Hudes
January 5, 2025
The Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright and co-writer of In the Heights-- tells her lyrical story against the backdrop of an ailing Philadelphia barrio, and her Puerto Rican, multi-religion, multi-language family. “How lucky we are to have her telling our stories.”—Lin-Manuel Miranda This is a dive into home, memory, and belonging —narrated by an obsessed girl who fought to become an artist so she could capture the world she loved in all its wild and delicate beauty.
Leaving Eastern Parkway by Matthew Daub
March 23, 2025
Brooklyn’s Hasidic community of Lubavitchers is turned upside down when family tragedy strikes and everyday life changes forever in the life of Zev Altshul. He is first placed into the care of the closed and close-knit community where he grew up, but soon realizes he can’t stay. Forced out of his second home, Zev plays handball to support himself in the goyische world, but obligations he doesn’t fully understand still tie him to Crown Heights and follow him to Chicago and New Mexico threatening always to return Zev to life among the Lubavitchers.
The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening by Ari Shapiro
May 18, 2025
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the host of NPR's All Things Considered
Broadcaster Ari Shapiro takes us around the globe to reveal the stories behind narratives that are sometimes heartwarming, sometimes heartbreaking, but always poignant. He details his time traveling on Air Force One with President Obama, or following the path of Syrian refugees fleeing war, or learning from those fighting for social justice.
More Than I Love My Life by David Grossman
June 8, 2025
INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE NOMINEE • A remarkable novel of suffering, love, and healing—the story of three generations of women on an unlikely journey to a Croatian island and a secret that needs to be told
More Than I Love My Life was inspired by the true story of one of David Grossman’s longtime confidantes, a woman who, in the early 1950s, was held on the notorious Goli Otok. With flashbacks to the stalwart Vera protecting what was most precious and Grossman’s fearless examination of the human heart, this swift novel is a thrilling addition for one of our greatest living novelists