Sisterhood Torah Fund Book Club

Join us to discuss these fabulous new books! Copies of the books are available in the Maxwell Abbell Library and from public libraries, as well as from local and online booksellers. For more information, email Rachel Kamin, Director of Lifelong Learning, or call her at 847/926-7902.

Participants are encouraged to make a minimum donation of $54 to the Torah Fund Campaign. If you donate $180 or more you will receive the beautiful 5786 “Oseh Shalom” (Maker of Peace) Torah Fund pin. Click here for more information on how to make your Torah Fund donation online, by mail, or by phone.

Torah Fund Book Club Calendar 2025-2026 coming soon!

Fagin the Thief by Allison Epstein
Saturday, October 25, 2025, 12:30 pm
Long before Oliver Twist, Jacob Fagin carves out a life in 19th-century London’s underworld, forming a found family of thieves, including Bill Sikes and the Artful Dodger, until a botched heist forces him to confront his morals. Meet the author in person at Beth El on Tuesday evening, October 28!

By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult
Saturday, December 6, 2025, 12:30 pm
Across centuries two women – one a modern playwright and the other her Elizabethan ancestor – each fight societal expectations to have their voices heard on the stage in a world that silences female playwrights.

The Book Club will continue in February, March & May 2026 – stay tuned for more details.

Past Selections

Click on each title for a link to read-a-likes and suggested reading.  All books are available in the Maxwell Abbell Library.

• After Abel and Other Stories by Michal Lemberger
• All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor
• All Other Nights by Dara Horn
• The Amen Effect by Sharon Brous
• American Ghost by Janis Owens
• And After the Fire by Lauren Belfer
• Arrogant Years: One Girl’s Search for Her Lost Youth, from Cairo to Brooklyn by Lucette Lagnado
• Ask for a Convertible by Danit Brown
• Atomic Anna by Rachel Barenbaum
• A Backpack, A Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka by Lev Golinkin
• The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem by Sarit Yishai-Levi
• A Bend in the Stars by Rachel Barenbaum
• Bertrand Court by Michelle Brafman
• The Betrayers by David Bezmozgis
• The Book of V. by Anna Solomon
• By Fire, By Water by Mitchell James Kaplan
• The Children Act by Ian McEwan
• The Cloister by James Carroll
• The Color of Love: A Story of a Mixed-Race Jewish Girl by Marra B. Gad
• Cyclorama by Adam Langer
• Day for Night by Frederick Reiken
• The Day of Atonement by David Liss
• A Day of Small Beginnings by Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum
• The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
• The Dream by Harry Bernstein
• Empire Settings by David Schmahmann
• Enchanted Islands by Allison Amend
• The Family by David Laskin
• The First Love Story by Bruce Feiler
• Florence Adler Swims Forever by Rachel Beanland
• The Fourth Corner of the World: Stories by Scott Nadelson
• From Miniskirt to Hijab: A Girl in Revolutionary Iran by Jacqueline Saper
• Fugitive Colors by Lisa Barr
• The Glass Room by Simon Mawer
• The Glass Wives by Amy Sue Nathan
• The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
• Golem Girl: A Memoir by Riva Lehrer
• Have You Seen Luis Velez? by Catherine Ryan Hyde
• The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
• The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz
• The Hours Count by Jillian Cantor
• House of Gold by Natasha Solomons
• House on Endless Waters by Emuna Elon
• The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street by Susan Jane Gilman
• The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
• The Imperial Wife by Irina Reyn
• The Imperfects by Amy Meyerson
• Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro
• The Innocents by Francesca Segal
• The Inquisitor’s Tale by Adam Gidwitz
• Jacob’s Oath by Martin Fletcher
• Jumping Over Shadows: A Memoir by Annette Gendler
• Kantika by Elizabeth Graver
• The Last Watchman of Old Cairo by Michael David Lukas
• The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz
• Leaving Eastern Parkway by Matthew Daub
• The Liar by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
• Linked by Gordon Korman
• The List: A Novel by Martin Fletcher
• The Little Liar by Mitch Albom
• The Lost Shtetl by Max Gross
• The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit by Lucette Lagnado
• The Marriage Artist by Andrew Winer
• The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman
• Memento Park by Mark Sarvas
• The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg
• Moonglow by Michael Chabon
• Morningside Heights by Joshua Henkin
• My Jewish Year by Abigail Pogrebin
• My Russian Grandmother and Her American Vacuum Cleaner by Meir Shalev
• An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris
• On Division by Goldie Goldbloom
• On Her Own by Lihi Lapid
• One More River by Mary Glickman
• The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure
• Putting God Second by Rabbi Donniel Hartman
• Rebel Daughter by Lori Banov Kaufmann
• The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
• Refugee by Alan Gratz
• Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
• Second Person Singular by Sayed Kashua
• Sinners and the Sea: The Untold Story of Noah’s Wife by Rebecca Kanner
• The Six-Day Hero by Tammar Stein
• The Slaughterman’s Daughter by Yaniv Iczkovits; translated by Orr Scharf
• Songs for the Brokenhearted by Ayelet Tsabari
• Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter by Peter Manseau
• Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster  by Jonathan Auxier
• Swimming with Ghosts by Michelle Brafman
• The Third Daughter by Talia Carner
• This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper
• The Thread Collectors by Shaunna J. Edwards and Alyson Richman
• Three Floors Up by Eshkol Nevo
• Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
• Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots by Jessica Soffer
• Turtle Boy by M. Evan Wolkenstein
• The Two-Family House by Lynda Cohen Loigman
• The UnAmericans: Stories by Molly Antopol
• Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
• Washing the Dead by Michelle Brafman
• We Would Never by Tova Mirvis
• The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish
• What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander
• When I Grow Up: The Lost Autobiographies of Six Yiddish Teenagers by Ken Krimstein
• Wherever You Go by Joan Leegant
• White Bird by R.J. Palacio
• Windy City Blues by Renee Rosen
• Your Presence Is Mandatory by Sasha Vasilyuk