TBT Reads

We have an active book discussion group at Temple Beth Torah.  We read a variety of books, both fiction and non-fiction, either written by Jewish authors or with Jewish content. We enthusiastically welcome all new participants.  Currently we meet around six times a year, on Monday evenings at 7 pm via Zoom.

Contact Mary Ann Oppenheimer or Seth Novick to join the mailing list for one or more of the book discussions.

 

TBT Reads Books for 2026-27

August 10, 2026

Don’t Forget to Write: A Novel by Sara Goodman Confino

After 20-year-old Marilyn Kleinman is caught making out with the rabbi’s son, her reputation is ruined. Given an ultimatum by her father, she is sent to live in Philadelphia for the summer with her great-aunt Ada. Expected to be a humorless punishment, the summer turns into a season of self-discovery, where Marilyn learns about independence, watches Ada work as a premier matchmaker, and dreams of becoming a writer.

October 5, 2026

It All Comes Down to This by Therese Anne Fowler

Meet the Geller sisters: Beck, Claire, and Sophie, a trio of strong-minded women whose pragmatic mother, Marti, will be dying soon.  Beck, a freelance journalist, suspects her husband is hiding something. Claire, an accomplished pediatric cardiologist, nurses an unrequited love that’s slowly destroying her. And Sophie’s Instagram-perfect life is really a cash-strapped house of cards on the verge of collapse. Marti’s will surprises them with its provision that the family’s summer cottage in Maine must be sold, the proceeds split equally between the sisters. While there’s a ready buyer in C.J. Reynolds, he’s an ex-con with a complicated past and a tangled history with one of the women.

December 14, 2026

All Other Nights: A Novel by Dara Horn

Jacob Rappaport, a Jewish Union soldier, is ordered on Passover 1862 to kill his own uncle in New Orleans for conspiring to assassinate Lincoln.  Following this mission, Rappaport is tasked with marrying a suspected spy to track her, exploring deep divisions regarding loyalty and tradition.  The novel, incorporating historical figures like Judah Benjamin, is described as a suspenseful story of moral dilemmas, focusing on the tension between family duty and justice.

February 1, 2027

The Lost Baker of Vienna: A Novel by Sharon Kurtzman

In 2018, Zoe Rosenzweig is reeling after the loss of her beloved grandfather, a Holocaust survivor.  She becomes obsessed with finding out what really happened to her family during the war.Vienna, 1946: Chana Rosenzweig has endured the horrors of war to find herself, her mother, and her younger brother finally free in Vienna.  But freedom doesn’t look like they’d imagined it would, as they struggle to make a living and stay safe.  Despite the danger, Chana sneaks out at night to return to the hotel kitchen where she works as a dishwasher, using the quiet nighttime hours to bake her late father’s recipes.  Soon, Chana finds herself caught in a dangerous love triangle, torn between the black-market dealer who has offered marriage and protection, and the apprentice baker who shares her passions.  How will Chana balance her love of baking against her family’s need for security?

April 5, 2027

The Dinner Party: A Novel by Brenda Janowitz

This Passover Seder is not just any Passover Seder.  This will be the night the Golds of Greenwich meet the legendary (and ultrarich) Rothschilds of New York City.  When Sylvia Gold finds out that her youngest of three is going to bring her new boyfriend to the Seder, she’s giddy. When she finds out that his parents are coming, too, she darn near faints.  Making a good impression is all she thinks about.  Well, almost. She still has to consider her other daughter with her less than appropriate beau and his overly dramatic Italian mother. But the drama won’t stop there.  Because despite the food and the wine, despite the new linen and the fresh flowers, the holidays are about family.

June 7, 2027

In the Shadow of the Greenbrier: A Novel by Emily Matchar

Nestled in the hills of West Virginia lies White Sulphur Springs, home to the Greenbrier Resort.  Long a playground for presidents and film stars, the Greenbrier has its own gravitational pull. Over ten decades, four generations of the Zelner family must grapple with their place in its shadow… and within their own family.  In 1942, young mother Sylvia is desperate to escape her stifling marriage.  When the Greenbrier is commandeered for use as a luxury prison, Sylvia finds her fidelity strained and her heart on the line.  Seventeen years later, Sylvia’s daughter, Doree, struggles to fit in, eagerly awaiting the day she’ll leave for college and meet a nice Jewish boy.  But when a handsome stranger comes to town and her brother Alan’s curiosity puts him and Sylvia at risk, Doree is torn between loyalty and desire.

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