Post­ed by Nao­mi Firestone-Teeter

In case you haven’t been fol­low­ing us on Twit­ter (or FB), we post­ed the 2012 Nation­al Jew­ish Book Award guide­lines ear­li­er this week. They can be found here. This year’s dead­line is Octo­ber 5th. Any ques­tions? Let us know.

And, here’s a date you can look for­ward to soon­er: June 27th. If you haven’t already RSVPed to our event with Rich Cohen and Vol. 1 Brook­lyn, you bet­ter click here right away.

Over the last sev­er­al weeks, JBCers have not only been soak­ing up (lots of) sun, but also this year’s crop of Net­work books (full list­ing will be made pub­lic in August). We’re read­ing furi­ous­ly to decide who will blog, who will be reviewed, and who will find them­selves as a book cov­er of the week. But, even while we’re enjoy­ing our sum­mer reads, we can’t help but look around the cor­ner to fall, a sea­son which brings Jew­ish book fairs, and plen­ty of oth­er rea­sons to curl up with a book (think: fall day in the park). Need more con­vinc­ing? We have six good rea­sons right here:

Can­vas, Ben­jamin Stein; Bri­an Zumha­gen, trans. (Sep­tem­ber 2012, Open Let­ter Books)
Read more about this title over at the Three Pere­cent blog (includes a video)

Cook­ing from the Heart, Gaye Wee­den and Hay­ley Smor­gon (Sep­tem­ber 2012, Hardie Grant Books)
Find sam­ple recipes here

Am I a Jew?: Lost Tribes, Lapsed Jews, and One Man’s Search for Him­self, Theodore Ross (Sep­tem­ber 2012, Hud­son Street Press)
Read an excerpt from the book here and stay tuned for guest blog posts from Theodore for the Vis­it­ing Scribe the week of Sep­tem­ber 24th

Block 11, Piero degli Antoni (Octo­ber 2012, St. Mar­t­in’s Press)
High-con­cept noir set in Auschwitz deal­ing with secre­cy and betray­al, guilt and for­give­ness, and self­ish­ness and sacrifice

Jew­ish Fairy Tale Feasts: A Lit­er­ary Cook­book, Jane Yolen and Hei­di E. Y. Stem­ple; Sima Eliz­a­beth She­frin, illus. (Octo­ber 2012, Inter­link Pub­lish­ing)
Whet your appetite this sum­mer with Fairy Tale Feasts: A Lit­er­ary Cook­book for Young Read­ers and Eaters

Kin, Dror Burstein; Dalya Bilu, trans. (Novem­ber 2012, Dalkey Archive Press)
Check out oth­er titles from Dalkey Archive Press’s Hebrew Lit­er­a­ture series here


Orig­i­nal­ly from Lan­cast­er, Penn­syl­va­nia, Nao­mi is the CEO of Jew­ish Book Coun­cil. She grad­u­at­ed from Emory Uni­ver­si­ty with degrees in Eng­lish and Art His­to­ry and, in addi­tion, stud­ied at Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege Lon­don. Pri­or to her role as exec­u­tive direc­tor and now CEO, Nao­mi served as the found­ing edi­tor of the JBC web­site and blog and man­ag­ing edi­tor of Jew­ish Book World. In addi­tion, she has over­seen JBC’s dig­i­tal ini­tia­tives, and also devel­oped the JBC’s Vis­it­ing Scribe series and Unpack­ing the Book: Jew­ish Writ­ers in Conversation.