Our Book Club
Our next books:
| Title | Author | Meeting date and time |
| Madam | Debbie Applegate | May 1 , 2024, 7:30 pm |
| The Storyteller | Jodi Picoult | May 22, 2024, 7:30 pm |
| Nightingale | Kristin Hannah | June 26, 2024, 7:30 pm |
Scheduled every month on the Fourth Wed, until Jun 26, 2024 at 7:30: Dec 27, 2023, Jan. 24, 2024, Feb. 28, 2024, Mar. 27, 2024, Apr. 24, 2024, May 22, 2024, Jun. 26, 2024,
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 |
Book Club Meeting
The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives
of Christine Granville
by Clare Mulley
Meeting will be held on December 27, 2023, 7:30 pm
The Spy Who Loved presents the untold story of Britain’s first female Special Agent of World War II. In June 1952, a woman was murdered by an obsessed colleague in a hotel in the South Kensington district of London. Her name was Christine Granville. That she died young was perhaps unsurprising, but that she had survived the Second World War was remarkable. The daughter of a feckless Polish aristocratic and his wealthy Jewish wife, she would become one of Britain’s most daring and highly decorated special agents. Having fled to Britain on the outbreak of war, she was recruited by the intelligence services and took on mission after mission. She skied over the hazardous High Tatras into Poland, served in Egypt and North Africa, and was later parachuted into Occupied France, where an agent’s life expectancy was only six weeks. Her courage, quick wit, and determination won her release from arrest more than once, and saved the lives of several fellow officers, including one of her many lovers, just hours before their execution by the Gestapo. More importantly, the intelligence she gathered was a significant contribution to the Allied war effort, and she was awarded the George Medal, the OBE and the Croix de Guerre. Granville exercised a mesmeric power on those who knew her. The Spy Who Loved tells the extraordinary story of this charismatic, difficult, fearless, and altogether extraordinary woman.
The Matchmakers Gift
by Lynda Cohen Loigman
Meeting will be held on December 27th, 2023, 7:30 pm
“Loigman’s latest is a gem. A scrappy Jewish teenager newly arrived in 1920s New York struggles to follow her calling as a matchmaker––seventy years later, her cynical divorce-attorney granddaughter realizes she has very inconveniently inherited the family gift for matching soulmates. Both funny and moving, The Matchmaker’s Gift made me smile from start to finish.”
––Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Rose Code Is finding true love a calling or a curse?
Even as a child in 1910, Sara Glikman knows her gift: she is a maker of matches and a seeker of soulmates. But among the pushcart-crowded streets of New York’s Lower East Side, Sara’s vocation is dominated by devout older men―men who see a talented female matchmaker as a dangerous threat to their traditions and livelihood. After making matches in secret for more than a decade, Sara must fight to take her rightful place among her peers, and to demand the recognition she deserves. Two generations later, Sara’s granddaughter, Abby, is a successful Manhattan divorce attorney, representing the city’s wealthiest clients. When her beloved Grandma Sara dies, Abby inherits her collection of handwritten journals recording the details of Sara’s matches. But among the faded volumes, Abby finds more questions than answers. Why did Abby’s grandmother leave this library to her and what did she hope Abby would discover within its pages? Why does the work Abby once found so compelling suddenly feel inconsequential and flawed? Is Abby willing to sacrifice the career she’s worked so hard for in order to keep her grandmother’s mysterious promise to a stranger? And is there really such a thing as love at first sight?
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.