July 2022 Jewish Book Carnival

The Rachack Revew is proud to serve as the July 2022 host for the Jewish Book Carnival, “a monthly event where bloggers who blog about Jewish books can meet, read, and comment on each others’ posts.” The posts are hosted on a participant’s site on the 15th of each month.

By the way, the Association of Jewish Libraries -- which started the blog carnival -- held a very successful conference in Philadelphia at the end of June. You can read about it in ALA's American Libraries magazine.

Without further ado, here's my round-up of some new book reviews and author interviews over the past few weeks:

Book Reviews:

Chava Pinchuck reviews Leaving Eastern Parkway by Matthew Daub.

Ben Rothke talks about a new Mosaica Press book about suffering, Pain is a Reality, Suffering is a Choice: Grappling with Divine Justice.

Heidi Slowinski recently reviewed The Book of V by Anna Solomon that presents a contrarian version of the Book of Esther by casting Vashti as a hero.

Alan Rosenbaum (the former VP of Davka Corporation) writes a positive review of Mitchell First's work, Links to Our Legacy.

Steven Gotlib presents us with a review of the book Strauss, Spinoza, and Sinai: Orthodox Judaism and Modern Questions of Faith (Kodesh Press, 2022) edited by Jeffrey Bloom, Alec Goldstein, and Gil Student. I haven't actually read his review yet, because I'm hoping to read the book first!

Author interviews:

David Bashkevkin interviews scholar and author Dr. Malka Simkovich about the mystery of Jewish continuity.

Melissa Stoller offers an interview with author Ann D. Kofsky about her newest children's book. 

Deborah Kalb interviewed Scott Lenga about his new book, The Watchmakers - a Holocaust book about brotherhood and survival.

Talia Carner was recently interviewed about her work of historical fiction that explores the shameful story of Jewish girls who were trafficked from Russia to South America. 

Over at Seforim Chatter, Professor Kenneth Stow talks about the Diary of Anna of Rome and his book about the diary, Anna and Tranquillo: Catholic Anxiety and Jewish Protest in the Age of Revolutions.

Barbara Beitz interviews author Emi Watanabe Cohen about her new kids' book, The Lost Ryu about a dragon that disappeared.

Gila Green interviews author Eileen Brill about her debut novel that began with finding a letter in the wall of her very own home. 

Heidi Rabinowitz talks with two very smart Jewish kids about their lives as readers.

In case you didn't know, Erika Dreifus's My Machberet blog curates links from the world of Jewish books and writing each week. Here's one recent example.