We’ve spent all day discussing them at work and now we’re sharing them with you! Our Tu B’av 5773 JBC staff picks:
“Two intertwined love stories make up Meir Shalev’s novel A Pigeon and a Boy, one story set in modern Israel, the other in 1948, during Israel’s war of independence. The war-time tale of tender, doomed young love is particularly poignant and brings this period to life from an unusual perspective.” —CK
“Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels is more about the love between a father and his adopted son than about romantic love, although there’s certainly that, too. At times reading more like a poem than a novel, Fugitive Pieces is about how we grow to love the people dropped on our doorstep, the people who accidentally enter our lives.” —EM
“The History of Love renewed my long-abandoned faith in magical realism and lifelong love stories. A young girl’s search for the author of an obscure, discarded book and an old man’s struggle with utter lonesomeness circle each other through reality and breathtaking distortion, only to end as you realize their stories could end no other way.” —NB
“The Mind-Body Problem, Rebecca Goldstein’s classic novel published thirty years ago, tells the story of a young graduate student, Renee, navigating her marriage to a legendary mathematical genius at Princeton. As Reneee struggles with the tension between emotion and intelligence, she is forced to examine her marriage, love life, and Jewish identity.” —NF‑T
“Peter Cole’s exquisite translations prove that no one wrote love poetry like the great (and the obscure) Sepharadic lyricists. No one.” —NB
“I’ve had If You Awaken Love on my shelf for years; I always have it around to share with anyone looking for a wonderful read.” —CH
“The Golem and the Jinni: magical realism at its best. Helene Wecker’s literary debut has born two of the most heartbreaking creatures ever written.” —NB
“Song of Songs: among the most beautiful and the most desperate expressions of love and longing in verse.” —NB