Bonus: Chanukah 2022 Releases

Happy Monday! We’re interrupting our regular every-other-week schedule for a mini Chanuka releases roundup. We’ll be back on track next Wednesday with a fascinating interview.

Chanukah releases are organized around gifting. You’ll usually find publishers printing ‘one in each category’, so there’s something to buy for everyone without too many choices. Want a more specific recommendation? Drop your question in the comments, or reply to this email.

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For the Family

• The Kichel Collection #3, Bracha Stein and Chani Judowitz - more laughter and insight with added bonus content and behind-the-scenes material

• Best of Kosher - collected recipes from all Artscroll-published cookbooks with interviews and backstories and a beautiful visual experience

• The Malach on 23 Rashbam Street, R’ Shai Graucher - a beautiful coffee table book featuring photos and snippets of R’ Chaim

• Shadow Pirates: The Wheel is in Your Hands, Boruch Chait - finally, an addition to the Bad Middos series published 20 years ago - a comic hybrid with layers of meaning and humor approachable to the whole family

For the Kids

• Bubby Karp #3, Miriam Walfish - Bubby and her grandkids fight crime together in a sweet and fast-paced mystery for boys and girls 3rd-4th grade. Can read series out of order

• Black Ice, M. Jakubowitz - family mystery set in the extreme survival setting of Antarctica, for boys and girls 4th-7th grade

• Rebbe Mendel #13: The Fake Horseradish Escapade, Nathan Sternfeld - fantastical adventures for boys 4th-7th grade. Can read series out of order

• Truth or Dare, Chavi Singer - candid and humorous novel for girls 6th-8th grade. When the popular and outgoing school actress moves to the city, she is shocked to be ignored by her new class. When she accidentally becomes the heroine, she learns to break the rules to overcome her helplessness and find her place.

For the Adults - Fiction

• See You, Riva Pomerantz - A layered drama that pulses and turns until its satisfying conclusion. Esther’s life has always been about achieving and promoting perfection. When everything comes undone and she reevaluates, her newfound ideals push her to the edge and she struggles to find sustainable peace. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, can she sacrifice without surrendering herself?

• Though Poppies Grow in Flanders Fields, Hannah Ludzer - a sprawling and touching story of a WWI vet, the unexplained trauma that affects his family for years, and finding relevance in the past while moving forward

• Wall of Fire, Meir Uri Gottesman - when he can no longer see the letters of his gemara, an endearing elderly protagonist’s search for a cure takes him to the edge of believable on an escapade of malachim, antagonistic birds, and love of Eretz Yisroel

• The Thirteenth Gate, Ester Zirkind - A divided family has each coped with their pain differently, but it ultimately must be dealt with. A typical story of an estranged son is couched in a creative multi-dimensional structure. Everything changes in anti-semitic France, giving the story a current and specific feel, and opinionated modern-day themes weave introspection into steady action.

For the Adults - Non-Fiction

• Reb Dovid: The Life and Legacy of R’ Dovid Feinstein, Yisroel Besser - biography

• The Grandeur of the Maggid, Rabbi Paysach Krohn - short story collection

• Greatness, Eytan Kobre - collected profiles of famous and lesser-known Torah personalities

• Be a Blessing: A Guide to Living One’s Mission to the Fullest, Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis - gentle and matter-of-fact inspiration

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Find more recent releases in our Sukkos 2022 roundup -

Best of the Season: Sukkos 2022 Releases