Reading

Many writers share lists of the books they read, and it’s one of the main reasons I visit their websites.
Below is my own list, with the most recent books on top. Books with two asterisks mean I listened to them in audio format (and recommend it.) Books in bold are my top reads (or re-reads) of the year.

2025

Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson **

The Age of Diagnosis, Dr. Suzanne O’Sullivan

Don’t Say Umm — How to Communicate Effectively to Live a Better Life, by Michael Chad Hoeppner

The Stages of Memory, by James E Young

The Explorer’s Gene, by Alex Hutchinson **

Mothers and Other Fictional Characters: A Memoir in Essays, by Nicole Graev Lipson

Some Remarks: Essays and Other Writing, by Neal Stephenson

The Running Ground, by Nicholas Thompson **

Lab Girl, by Hope Jahren **

The Madwoman in the Rabbi's Attic: Rereading the Women of the Talmud, by Gila Fine

The World Between, by Zeeva Bukai

Ruptured: Jewish Women in Australia Reflect on Life Post-October 7. Edited by Lee Kofman and Tamar Paluch (link to my review of the book.)

The Correspondent, by Virginia Evans **

Talmudic Images, by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

Bethlehem Road: Stories of Immigration and Exile, by Judy Lev (Labensohn) (Link to my review of the book in Hadassah Magazine.)

The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions, by Jonathan Rosen

The Body: A Guide for Occupants, by Bill Bryson

Atmosphere, by Taylor Jenkins Reid **

Trauma Room Two, by Dr. Phillip Allen Green

The Intern Blues: The Timeless Classic About the Making of a Doctor, by Dr. Robert Marion

Designing Your Work Life, by Bill Burnett

Operation Bethlehem, by Yariv Inbar

Slow Medicine, by Dr. Victoria Sweet **

Saving Time, by Jenny Odell **

Songs for the Brokenhearted, by Ayelet Tsabari **

God’s Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine, by Dr. Victoria Sweet **

And Finally: Matters of Life and Death, by Dr. Henry Marsh

The Red House, by Marry Morris (link to my review of the book)

All of Us We Were Arameans, by Eileen Pollack

Torah Shel Ha Nefesh, by Rabbi Ilay Ofran

2024

We all Want Impossible Things, by Catherine Newman **

Wayfarers, by Jane Medved

The Aleppo Codex, by Matti Friedman

Addicted by Busy, by Oliver Burkeman**

Subversive Sequels in the Bible, by Judy Klitsner

Meditations for Mortals, by Oliver Burkeman. **

Green World, A Tragicomic Memoir of Love and Shakespeare, by Michelle Ephraim (link to my review of the book)

The Body Keeps the Score, by Dr. Bessel van del Kolk

Reflections of the Question of Antisemitism, by Rabbi Delphine Horveilleur

The Story of the Lost Child, by Elena Ferrante

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, by Elena Ferrante

The Story of a New Name, by Elena Ferrante

My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante

Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, by Salman Rushdie **

In Eve’s Attire, by Rabbi Delphine Horveilleur

Living With Our Dead: On Loss and Consolation, by Rabbi Delphine Horveilleur

Nearly Departed: Adventures on Cancer, Loss and Other Inconveniences, by Gila Pfeffer

A Passion for a People: Lessons from the life of a Jewish Educator, by Avraham Infeld

A Horse Walks Into a Bar, by David Grossman **

The Book of Noah, by Yoni Hammer-Kossoy

The Netanyahus, by Joshua Cohen **

Care for the Carer: An Alzheimer’s Memoir, by Jeff Camhi

Displaced Persons: Stories, by Joan Leegant (link to my review of the book)

If All the Seas Were Ink: A Memoir, by Ilana Kurshan

To the End of the Land, by David Grossman **

Apeirogon, by Colum McCann **

My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel, by Ari Shavit

The Vulnerables, by Sigrid Nunez

The Friend, by Sigrid Nunez

What Are You Going Through, by Sigrid Nunez **

The Hebrew Teacher, by Maya Arad

Why Are We So Angry?, by Oliver Burkeman

The Blessing and the Curse, by Adam Kirsch

2023

The Argonauts, by Maggie Nelson

Real Estate, by Deborah Levy

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, by Oliver Burkeman **

Things I Don’t Want to Know, by Deborah Levy

Happily: A Personal History with Fairy Tales, by Sabrina Orah Mark

The Business of Being a Writer, by Jane Friedman

Leopoldstadt, by Tom Stoppard

The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri

Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science, by Dr. Atul Gawande

Three Floors Up, by Eshkol Nevo

Austerlitz, by W.G. Sebald

To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf

Plunder: A Memoir of Family Property and Nazi Treasure, by Meir Menachem Kaiser

Light Fell, by Evan Fallenberg

Sea of Tranquility, by Emily St. John Mandel **

The Candy House, by Jennifer Egan **

Stay True, by Hua Hsu **

Places We Left Behind, a memoir-in-miniature by Jennifer Lang

A Visit From the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan **

Manhattan Beach, by Jennifer Egan **

How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, by Jenny Odell

Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri

Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Return of Martin Guerre, by Natalie Zemon Davis

Hello Beautiful, by Ann Napolitano **

Bewilderment, by Richard Powers

A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles

Seveneves, by Neal Stephenson **

Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr **

Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt **

Trust, by Hernan Diaz **

The Glass Hotel, by Emily St. John Mandel

The Terminal Beach, by J.G .Ballard

The Voyager Record: A Transmission, by Anthony Michael Morena

Mr. Salary, by Sally Rooney

Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel **

2022

Today a Woman Went Mad in Supermarket: Stories, by Hilma Wolitzer

Story of Your Life: Ted Chiang

Dune, by Frank Herbert **

Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson **

The Gate to Women’s Country, by Sherri Tepper

Anathem, by Neal Stephenson **

Akira, Vol. 1, by Katsuhiro Otomo

Novelist as Vocation, by Haruki Murakami

The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells

Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley

Lost & Found: A Memoir, by Kathryn Schulz **

The Invisible Kingdom, by Meghan O’Rourke

I am, I am, I am: Seventeen Brushes With Death, by Maggie O’Farrel

The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion

Lives Other Than My Own, Emanuel Carrere

Having and Being Had, Eula Biss

People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present, by Dara Horn

Victorious, by Yishai Sarid & translated from the Hebrew by Yardenne Greenspan (link my review of the book)

Four Seasons in Rome, by Anthony Doerr

My Father’s Paradise: A Son’s Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq, by Ariel Sabar

Houses of Study: A Jewish Woman Among Books, by Ilana Blumberg

Speak, Silence, by Kim Echlin

The Anomaly, by Herve Le Tellier

The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, by Maxine Hong Kingston

Open Minded Torah, by William Kolbrenner

The Disappeared, by Kim Echlin

Monasterio, by Eduardo Halfon

Duelo, by Eduardo Halfon

The Happiness Hypothesis, by Jonathan Haidt **

What Comes Next and How to Like It, by Abigail Thomas

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty Patrick Radden Keefe **

The Lincoln Highway, by Amor Towles

The Visit, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, by Marjane Satrapi