Our Book Club
Our next books:
| Title | Author | Meeting date and time |
| Lilli de Jong | Janet Benton | Feb. 25, 2026, 7:30 pm |
| Opening Doors : The Unlikely Alliance Between The Irish And The Jews In America | Hasia R. Diner | March 25, 2026, 7:30 pm |
| The Cost of Free Land | Rebecca Clarren | April 29, 2026, 7:30 pm |
| On Her Own | Lihi Lapid | May 27, 2026, 7:30 pm |
| The Little Liar | Mitch Albom | June 24, 2026, 7:30 pm |
| The Invisible Harry Gold: The Man Who Gave the Soviets the Atom Bomb | Alan Hornblum | July 22, 2026, 7:30 pm |
| Please note that the dates are either the 3rd or 4th Wednesday of the month. Dates were adjusted to accommodate for holidays. |
Books that we already read:
| Title | Author | Meeting date |
| The Art Forger |
Barbara A. Shapiro | April 26, 2023 |
| All About Me | Mel Brooks | May 24, 2023 |
| We Were the Lucky Ones | Georgia Hunter | June 28, 2023 |
| The Weight of Ink | Rachel Kadish | September 27, 2023 |
| Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow | Gabrielle Zevin | October 25, 2023 |
| The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville |
Clare Mulley | December 27, 2023 |
| The Matchmakers Gift | Lynda Cohen Loigman | January 24, 2024 |
| The Dressmakers of Auschwitz | Lucy Adlington | February 28, 2024 |
| Madam | Debbie Applegate | May 1 , 2024, 7:30 pm |
| The Storyteller | Jodi Picoult | May 22, 2024, 7:30 pm |
| This Magnificent Dappled Sea | David Biro | June 26, 2024, 7:30 pm |
| Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother: Memoirs of a Neurotic Filmmaker | Barry Sonnenfeld | September 25, 2024, 7:30 pm |
| Song Yet Sung | James McBride | October 23, 2024, 7:30 pm |
| Moonflower Murders: A Novel | Anthony Horowitz | December 4, 2024, 7:30 pm |
| The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store | James McBride | January 22, 2025, 7:30 pm |
| Nightingale | Kristin Hannah | February 26, 2025, 7:30 pm |
| Mazel | Rebecca Goldstein | April 23, 2025 7:30 pm |
| The Book Spy | Alan Hlad | May 28, 2025 7:30 pm |
| Florence Adler Swims Forever | Rachel Beanland | June 25, 2025, 7:30 pm |
| The House is on Fire | Rachel Beanland | Oct. 22, 2025 7:30 pm |
| The Family: Three Journeys into the Heart of the Twentieth Century | David Laskin | Nov. 17, 2025, 7:30 pm |
| Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity and Love | Dani Shapiro | Jan 14, 2026, 7:30 pm |
Book Club Meeting
Opening doors : The Unlikely Alliance Between The Irish And The Jews In America
by Hasia R. Diner
Wednesday, March 25, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Popular belief holds that the various ethnic groups that emigrated to the United States at the turn of the twentieth century regarded one another with open hostility, fiercely competing for limited resources and even coming to blows in the crowded neighborhoods of major cities. One of the most enduring stereotypes is that of rabidly anti-Semitic Irish Catholics, like Father Charles Coughlin of Boston and the sensationalized Gangs of New York trope of Irish street thugs attacking defenseless Jewish immigrants.
In Opening Doors, Hasia R. Diner, one of the world’s preeminent historians of immigration, tells a very different story; far from confrontational, the prevailing relationships between Jewish and Irish Americans were overwhelmingly cooperative, and the two groups were dependent upon one another to secure stable and upwardly mobile lives in their new home. The Irish had emigrated to American cities en masse a generation before the first major wave of Jewish immigrants arrived and had already entrenched themselves in positions of influence in urban governments, public education, and the labor movement. Jewish newcomers recognized the value of aligning themselves with another group of religious outsiders who were able to stand up and demand rights and respect despite widespread discrimination from the Protestant establishment, and the Irish realized that they could protect their political influence by mentoring their new neighbors in the intricacies of American life.
Opening Doors draws from a deep well of historical sources to show how Irish and Jewish Americans became steadfast allies in classrooms, picket lines, and political machines, and ultimately helped one another become key power players in shaping America’s future. In the wake of rising anti-Semitism and xenophobia today, this informative and accessible work offers an inspiring look at a time when two very different groups were able to find common ground and work together to overcome bigotry, gain representation, and move the country in a more inclusive direction.
The extraordinary untold story of how Irish and Jewish immigrants worked together to secure legitimacy in America .
The Cost of Free Land
by Rebecca Clarren
Wednesday, April 29, 2026 at 7:30 PM
An award-winning author investigates the entangled history of her Jewish ancestors’ land in South Dakota and the Lakota, who were forced off that land by the United States government
Growing up, Rebecca Clarren only knew the major plot points of her tenacious immigrant family’s origins. Her great-great-grandparents,the Sinykins, and their six children fled antisemitism in Russia and arrived in the United States at the turn of the 20th century, ultimately settling on a 160-acre homestead in South Dakota. Over the next few decades, despite tough years on a merciless prairie and multiple setbacks, the Sinykins became an American immigrant success story.
What none of Clarren’s ancestors ever mentioned was that their land, the foundation for much of their wealth, had been cruelly taken from the Lakota by the United States government. By the time the Sinykins moved to South Dakota, America had broken hundreds of treaties with hundreds of Indigenous nations across the continent, and the land that had once been reserved for the seven bands of the Lakota had been diminished, splintered, and handed for free, or practically free, to white settlers. In The Cost of Free Land, Clarren melds investigative reporting with personal family history to reveal the intertwined stories of her family and the Lakota, and the devastating cycle of loss of Indigenous land, culture, and resources that continues today.
With deep empathy and clarity of purpose, Clarren grapples with the personal and national consequences of this legacy of violence and dispossession. What does it mean to survive oppression only to perpetuate and benefit from the oppression of others? By shining a light on the people and families tangled up in this country’s difficult history, The Cost of Free Land invites readers to consider their own culpability.
On Her Own
by Lihi Lapid
Wednesday, May 27, 2026 at 7:30 PM
A moving, page-turning story of two families in crisis and the unexpected places from which love can grow.
Nina, a teenage runaway, wakes up in the unfamiliar stairwell of a Tel Aviv apartment in a torn minidress. As her memory starts to resurface—the abusive older man she’s running away from, the crime she witnessed—she knows one thing: she needs to find a place to hide.
When one of the building’s tenants, Carmela, a lonely old widow suffering from memory loss, mistakes Nina for her granddaughter she hasn’t seen in years, Nina jumps at the opportunity for a safe haven. Soon, the two strangers become each other’s lifeline as Nina settles into the apartment with sweet, reassuring Carmela.
Meanwhile, Irina, a Russian immigrant, is living a parent’s worst nightmare: her only daughter has gone missing. She knows Nina got involved with the wrong men and will do anything to find her. Across the ocean, Itamar feels that something is happening to his mom, Carmela. The guilt over having left Israel for his pursuit of the American dream stirs childhood memories in him and a longing for the family that once was complete.
Set between the eve of Passover and Israel’s Independence Day, On Her Own is a tense and immersive psychological read about two families looking for redemption and the transformative bonds between strangers. Translated from the Hebrew by Sondra Silverston.
The Little Liar
by Mitch Albom
Wednesday, June 24, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Beloved bestselling author Mitch Albom returns with his most important novel to date, an unforgettable work of World War II historical fiction about truth and lies set during the Holocaust.
Eleven-year-old Nico Krispis has never told a lie. When the Nazis invade his home in Salonika, Greece, the trustworthy boy is discovered by a German officer, who offers him a chance to save his family. All Nico has to do is persuade his fellow Jewish residents to board trains heading “north,” where new jobs and safety await. Unaware that this is all a cruel ruse, the innocent boy reassures passengers on the station platform every day.
But when the final train is loaded, Nico sees his family being herded into a boxcar. Only then does he discover that he has helped send them—and everyone he knows and loves—to their doom at Auschwitz.
Nico escapes—but he never tells the truth again.
In The Little Liar, a gripping family saga, Mitch Albom examines the human repercussions of deception by interweaving the stories of Nico, who yearns for forgiveness; his older brother, Sebastian, who vows revenge against him; Fannie, the girl who must choose between them; and Udo Graf, the Nazi officer who forever changed their lives with his lies.
Through the war years, the concentration camps, and the decades that follow, Albom reveals the consequences of each person’s honesty and dishonesty in this powerful story of survival, bringing them back to where it all started in a staggering climax worthy of the best of Albom’s internationally embraced stories.
The Invisible Harry Gold: The Man Who Gave the Soviets the Atom Bomb
by Alan Hornblum
Wednesday, July 22, 2026 at 7:30 PM
In the history of Soviet espionage in America, few people figure more crucially than Harry Gold. A Russian Jewish immigrant who spied for the Soviets from 1935 until 1950, Gold was an accomplished industrial and military espionage agent. He was assigned to be physicist Klaus Fuchs’s “handler” and ultimately conveyed sheaves of stolen information about the Manhattan Project from Los Alamos to Russian agents. He is literally the man who gave the USSR the plans for the atom bomb. The subject of the most intensive public manhunt in the history of the FBI, Gold was arrested in May 1950. His confession revealed scores of contacts, and his testimony in the trial of the Rosenbergs proved pivotal. Yet among his coworkers, fellow prisoners at Lewisburg Penitentiary, and even those in the FBI, Gold earned respect, admiration, and affection.
In The Invisible Harry Gold, journalist and historian Allen Hornblum paints a surprising portrait
of this notorious yet unknown figure. Through interviews with many individuals who knew
Gold and years of research into primary documents, Hornblum has produced a gripping account
of how a fundamentally decent and well-intentioned man helped commit the greatest
scientific theft of the twentieth century.
Let us know if you have other titles to recommend written by Jewish authors or are about Jewish content.
Books are available in the public library, and on Amazon, eBay, etc. Check our website for the comprehensive list of future book club titles.
Please RSVP to membership@jgasgp.org if you want to be on our book club list.