Library Corner

Empathy Diaries

August 2, 2021

By Robin Jacobson.  If you catch yourself or see your child obsessively checking digital devices for messages, or living much of life online, M.I.T. Professor Sherry Turkle has some advice. …

Unlikely Allies: Historical Fiction for Middle Grade Readers

June 18, 2021

By Robin Jacobson.  Historical fiction inhabits the sweet spot between history and fiction. It invites us to journey to the past and then return to our own time with new …

Anyone Out There?

April 15, 2021

By Robin Jacobson. The bestselling new science memoir, Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth by Avi Loeb, probes a thrilling possibility – that a mysterious object that …

Shtetl Stories of Danger and Suspense

April 14, 2021

By Robin Jacobson. Tevye the Dairyman would fit right in among the rabbis, matchmakers, candlemakers, tailors, and other shtetl types who populate two recent prize-winning novels: The Lost Shtetl by …

Reading Geraldine Brooks in 2021

March 9, 2021

By Robin Jacobson. Like many, I’m a longtime fan of the historical novels of Geraldine Brooks – Year of Wonders, March, Caleb’s Crossing, People of the Book, and The Secret …

The House We Inherit

February 1, 2021

By Robin Jacobson.  As a child, learning in school about the American Civil War, I felt relieved that my family bore no guilt for American slavery. During the sad centuries …

Out of Egypt

January 12, 2021

By Robin Jacobson.  To many Jewish families with memories of hard times, Meyerland in the 1970s was the Promised Land. This Jewish neighborhood in Houston, Texas, was home to big …

Israel in Translation

December 13, 2020

By Robin Jacobson. Here’s literary news to celebrate: new novels from two of Israel’s best-known authors – A.B. Yehoshua and Eshkol Nevo – have arrived in American bookstores and libraries …

The Jewish Dynasties of Shanghai

December 1, 2020

By Robin Jacobson. The intertwined history of two Baghdadi Jewish families in China – the Sassoon and Kadoorie families – is the stuff of epic novels. The Last Kings of …

Mystery, Suspense & Troublesome Texts

November 2, 2020

By Robin Jacobson. A fun suspense novel topped with a generous scoop of Jewish history is a winning combination, even if the history relates to the origins of dark anti-Jewish …