""If I know why they are the way they are, then maybe I can learn why I am the way I am," says Alex Tuchman of her parents. Now that her father is on his deathbed, Alex--a strong-headed lawyer, devoted mother, and loving sister--feels she can finally unearth the secrets of who Victor is and what he did over the course of his life and career. (A power-hungry real estate developer, he is, by all accounts, a bad man.) She travels to New Orleans to be...

Second-grader Lola has a wonderful family, a great teacher, and the best friend ever, Josh, and they all help her feel better after she is teased and forbidden to play team sports at recess for having accidentally hurt classmate Juan during a soccer game.

The New York Times–bestselling novel that follows the life and career of a rabbi as he journeys through America: “A rewarding reading experience.” —Los Angeles Times

Michael Kind is raised in the Jewish cauldron of 1920s New York, familiar with the stresses and materialism of metropolitan life. Turning to the ancient set of ethics of his Orthodox grandfather, with a modern twist,

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Enjoying summertime weeks of freedom at a popular Jewish beach with their children, beautiful Ada thrives away from her strict husband, while chef Vivie develops diplomatic skills, and unmarried Bec is forced to choose between family beliefs and her passion for a married man.

Fanny Herself (1917) is a novel by Edna Ferber. Inspired by her experience as a young Jewish woman from the Midwest, Fanny Herself is the story of a young woman who recognizes the unhappiness in her life and decides to risk it all for something better. Lighthearted in nature, yet serious in its ideals, Ferber's novel recalls the best of Fitzgerald in its unswerving commitment to humanity in all its beauty and heartbreak. "You could not have lived...

Bloom's is a world-famous gourmet food emporium on Manhattan's Upper West Side. It's also the Bloom family's business. Founded by Grandma Ida Bloom and her late husband Isaac, the store was until recently run by their older son, Ben. His untimely death compelled Grandma Ida to name a new president to run the business: Ben's daughter Julia. Julia Bloom has no interest in running a deli. She's a lawyer. Her widowed mother, who worked at the store throughout...

Upon the death of their art-loving parents, two young Jewish adolescents are kidnapped by a family friend and taken to a brothel. There they are held captive by their shared shame and by the younger sister's forced addiction to morphine. Love and psychodrama gives them the courage to finally escape Vienna. Once in England, however, Hedy discovers her younger sister Susannah longs to be independent- and in Italy. But in 1938, despite the safety they...

When a blizzard leaves a family housebound one Hanukkah, they share what little food they have with some starving animals who later return the favor.

Marcy is old enough to ask four questions during her family's Passover Seder, but does not understand that there are four specific questions she is to read from the Haggadah.

"Magda Ritter is pressed into service for her country and, now, every meal could be her last. She is one of a handful of young women given the dubious honor of tasting Adolf Hitler's food, protecting the paranoid dictator from death by poisoning. Pampered compared to most in wartime Germany, the girls live on a knife's edge of fear and suspicion."--