A Year in Reading: Looking back at 2024

It’s been a year of so much going on: in the world at large, in the frum world, and undoubtedly in each of our lives. Looking back at a year of reading captures it all. Between timely titles (Angels in Orange), fiction that reflects the trends and language of moment in time (Today, Canceled), stories that address the hot-button issues of our day (Fault Lines, Take 2, The Stars are Fire) and most of all, engaging reads that will always retain the memory of a specific day in your life. Whether it’s the moment that gifted you an indulging read, or the moments that followed in which your mind let itself be changed, our reading nestles itself in and refuses to move.

Coming next week: your 2024 favorites! The results are surprising, and say a lot about this year’s reading trends. Last call to vote here.

A Year of The Frum Books Newsletter

We’ve continued bringing you the interviews, reviews, and news you love, and debuted two new formats: Reqs and Recs (personalized book recommendations) and the roundtable book club format.

New Releases: Pesach, Shavuos, Sukkos, Chanukah
Interviews with: A. Yarden, Joan Zlotnick, Bracha Rosman, Mini-Interviews about Pesach releases, Riva Pomerantz, Sara Miriam Gross, Leah Gebber (+ a roundtable discussion about Within My Walls), Rochel Newton, Shuli Mensh
Reqs and Recs: 1, 2, 3, 4, Gift Recs
Review Collections: Take It Slow, Drama at Work, Flash Fiction, Thrill Ride, Passport to Drama
Most Read this Year: Reqs & Recs + Looking Ahead to Sukkos ‘24
Most Clicked this Year: A short story by Ora Mcarthy, Seven Blessings and a Murder by Barbara Bensoussan, Dying to be Me by Batya Sherizon, Yonah Klein’s breakdown of the business of publishing

A Year of Writing

We asked some of your favorite people in frum publishing: What was your favorite/most memorable piece that you wrote in 2024?

Adina Edelman, Editor

The first one that comes to mind is Within My Walls by Leah Gebber. She created such a rich story with vibrant characters, but even more than that, she turned a historical novel into a relevant, heartfelt, and timely narrative we all needed. And the second—this just came out!!—is It's All Hers! by Penina Neiman. This personally was such a zechus to work on. Hearing about the wives of our gedolim and the little-known stories that we can try to relate to on our own levels was really inspiring.

Ariella Schiller

Wow, 2024 has been a whirlwind of words, writings, and more words. Baruch Hashem, it's really special to spend my days doing something I love, but sometimes, I wonder if it all fades into a blur of titles and paragraphs. And then I remember my day at One Family Fund, an organization created for those orphaned by terror attacks. I spent a Sunday there and didn't want to leave. The people I'd met, the things I'd heard, the caring I'd witnessed, it was all percolating until finally, I was able to get it down on paper for a feature in Mishpacha’s main mag. The feedback was phenomenal, mainly because every single person who read it said the exact same thing: Mi Kiamcha, Yisrael?

Barbara Benoussan

I'm excited that low-tech me managed to self-publish two books this year on Amazon and other platforms! I had to find a cover artist, learn how to format and upload, and then the rest was surprisingly easy! I published an updated version of my cooking memoir, The Well-Spiced Life, as A Well-Spiced Life: A Exuberant Discovery of Sephardic Food and Faith. Then I published an Agatha Christie-style whodunit with a Sephardi cast entitled Seven Blessings and a Murder, which was just a tad too edgy for frum publishers (but clean and not violent!).
Article-wise, I'm getting tons of letters from an article I did about a psychologist who treats ADHD patients, because he himself has ADHD. I had fun going to a balloon exhibit in Manhattan and hanging around Penn Station with Nachi Gordon asking people how they changed after October 7th. I learned a lot of history writing up Reb Volf Greenglass z"l (mashgiach of the Chabad yeshiva in Montreal) and Michael Rotenfeld's new translation of a 19th century biography entitled The Shochet.

Esther Kurtz

My short story Fumble, published in Pesach’s Calligraphy collection, was the best and most fun thing I wrote this year. First, I finally finally finally wrote a story in epistolary form, something I’ve been wanting to do since I read “Last Days of Summer” as a kid. It was a fun challenge figuring out all the ways to feed the reader information without ever writing a live scene. I also got to play with character development in a different way, highlighting voices and thought processes and actions through a documentation lens. Kinda makes you turn that on yourself and wonder what people would conclude if they read through your texts and emails and the memes and videos and articles you share. And then there’s the theme of the story, something I’ve been exploring for a while in my writing… just a joy all around. Hope my readers enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Esty Heller

Over the past year, I finished writing one serial (Power Tools, The Boro Park/Monsey View), started another (To Rock the Cradle, Family First), and released Long Story Short, a fiction collection. I also ran several short stories, with the story Hidden Assets standing out as a particularly fun experience that readers greatly enjoyed. Interestingly, from all the intense writing work I've done, it was one short essay that garnered the most and feistiest feedback. This was the article entitled This Is Crazy which described the current ridiculous chassan-kallah gifting trends. This article circled around town, and I'm still getting feedback almost daily. It caused a bit of an uproar among readers, from two opposing angles. The heimish community nodded along knowingly, saying that every single word is true, plus plus plus. The less heimish world was astounded, crying, "Please tell me this is fiction!" It's not - and the truth? There's very little fiction in fiction when it comes to contemporary stories. A plot may be the product of a writer's imagination, but the conflicts almost always reflect an undeniable reality.

Gila Arnold

Writing each of my serials was a journey, but my recent Family First serial, For Granted, which ended this past summer, was a real deep dive for me into character development and character-driven storytelling. In general, my stories tend to be more character than plot-driven, but with this serial, I created characters, developed a setting, a basic conflict (two different personalities both very invested in their chesed organization but disagreeing about how to run it) and plot outline, and then let the characters loose.
It was fascinating to watch the personalities unfold (for example, Bracha turned out to be a different type of personality than I’d originally intended). Most interesting to me was how Dini became the more sympathetic character, when I’d originally assumed it would be Ayala. Of course, my favorite was Shuki, and my favorite scenes to write were the ones with the fun banter between Shuki and Dini.

Libby Lazewnik

The work I'm most excited about right now is my Starlight Sisters series for young adults. It's about a group of girls who attend an unusual kind of Bais Yaakov: one where every student has a major talent and where the whole school puts on stunning performances for tzedakah organizations throughout the year. Each book is told from the point of view of one of our heroines. The stories are filled with friendship and fun, but also with the girls helping each other through the problems that come up in their lives. Three Starlight Sisters books have already been published, with hopefully two more to go. It's been a joy for me to create these amazing girls and and I hope my readers will take in equal joy in getting to know them!

Nachman Seltzer

Most meaningful would have to be Angels in Orange. This book, about the first day of the war that began on Simchas Torah, was something that made a tremendous impression on Jewish people all around the globe. I was especially moved by the many teenagers and even younger children who thanked me for writing the story of that day in a way that allowed them to really understand and appreciate the magnitude of everything that took place.
Another favorite book would be Truth Meets Fiction, a collection of fiction stories about the kind of complex situations that come up in our lives. This book is less a window into another world and more like a mirror - reflecting the challenges and circumstances that happen to us and the people we know and how they deal with them. There are many life lessons interwoven into the book and it made for reflective and interesting writing.

Riva Pomerantz

I think I would designate my feature interview with social worker and coach Tzipora Grodko as my favorite and most meaningful piece this year. While I had the privilege of interviewing many phenomenal, inspiring people this year, including Dr. Mark Rutenberg who is on the cutting-edge of medical research that could turn the tables on pancreatic cancer, and Nati Lahav, a private investigator who is dedicated to reuniting families and fighting for justice, there was something about Tzipora Grodko of the Meaningful People podcast and her passionate message that touched me to my very core. Tzipora speaks to all of us, the singles and the married, the individual and the community. She invites us to journey inside ourselves and examine our beliefs, our core values, what is propelling us forward, and what may be holding us back. Without judgment or rancor, she encourages us to re-examine our views on dating, marriage, and singlehood and to envision a new reality where everyone belongs. I also love the way she reimagines shidduchim, bringing the most beautiful stories of couples who have stepped out of what society might expect and have found true love and connection.

Rivka Lewis, Graphic Designer

Maybe Within My Walls. With Leah Gebber's books, it's always a big challenge to sum up so much meaning on one cover. Her books are masterpieces and they are complex - so it takes some work to figure out what to portray. My first ideas didn't cut it until Leah explained more about the feeling she wanted to convey... after which I think we nailed the contrast between the galus and geulah - and the hope we hold onto. (I actually was super busy when Israel Bookshop asked me to take this on, but I can't say no to the honor of designing Leah Gebber's covers!)
I also enjoyed working on That's Just the Think. It went through a number of incarnations and after the final design, they realized they had given me the wrong title name! But I re-worked the typography and it was good to go.

Rachel Newton

The Burning Question was a really fun write for me - I was dreaming of doing a whodunnit without making it YA. Add to that dabbling with a kind-of unreliable narrator without lying or mental illness, and it turned into a challenge that I really enjoyed. And the main character, what a crusty, crabby old woman! I tried to make her almost unlikable so that the reader would only stay with her out of curiosity for the mystery, and then discover her heart under all those layers of sarcasm...

Rochel Samet

This year was super exciting in that 2 of my serials - one for the boys, one for the girls - finally came out as books. While serials are amazing for motivation (you just can't stop writing.... the print deadlines wait for no one!), there is nothing like the sheer joy of holding a real hardback book in your hands :)
The feedback I've received on Shades of Normal and Danger in the Woods has been a real gift. And it's reminded me that as fun and exciting as serials are, there's nothing that compares to holding a real book in your hands, both as a writer and as a reader.