Jewish Genre Reading Challenge discussion

From developing our own languages wherever we found ourselves in the diaspora, to reviving our long dormant (outside of sacred contexts) ancient tongue for everyday use, words and language have always held a special place in Jewish history and culture. For this challenge you'll read a book either written in another language and translated into yours, or a book that includes another language within.

This list is an important one for readers to contribute to. It's easier to see when books have been translated (though not always), but in order to know if a Sephardic family saga is peppered with Ladino, or if a story about an American Iranian-Jewish family includes the pet names the parents call their kids in Farsi, we need someone who has read the book to let us know!

For books featuring multiple languages, any two languages are acceptable, and they don't have to include a Jewish dialect. This absolutely includes books written in English that contain some Yiddish, though in the spirit of the challenge, the Yiddish should be an integral or ongoing part of the story, not just a book where someone says "schlep" one time in the entire story.

Book List:
Jewish Books in Translation or Featuring Other Language: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Remember you are free to read any book that fits the criteria for this challenge, not just the ones on this list. And, as always, books must have Jewish main characters (or both Jewish author and topic if book has no characters).

I absolutely loved this interview with Yiddish-to-English translator Jessica Kirzane. Check it out! https://bookishlyjewish.com/?p=1579

That blog Bookishly Jewish is a wonderful resource for Jewish books and includes a lot of genre fiction, which isn't necessarily the case for a lot of Jewish book resources, which tend to be primarily focused on literary fiction and nonfiction.

I am having such a hard time with choosing a book for this challenge prompt. What have people enjoyed?

Rebecca wrote: "I am having such a hard time with choosing a book for this challenge prompt. What have people enjoyed?"

Do you like graphic novels? I have enjoyed Rutu Modan's books, which are translated from Hebrew. I haven't read The Rabbi's Cat yet (translated from French, also a graphic novel) but I've heard great things and that's probably what I'll read for this one.

What kinds of books do you most enjoy? For general fiction (one is historical, the other is something of a mystery thriller), The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem and On Her Own both look great and are getting rave reviews. Stockholm also looks pretty funny and is on my own TBR.

If you like sci-fi, I'm currently reading Zion's Fiction: A Treasury of Israeli Speculative Literature and so far it's great. If you like mysteries there are a bunch of translated books in our database, both short story anthologies and full length novels.

The newly published book 18: Jewish Stories Translated from 18 Languages would be the ultimate way to fulfill this prompt. Translated from 18 different languages!

I hope this helps and is not overwhelming!

Rebecca wrote: "I am having such a hard time with choosing a book for this challenge prompt. What have people enjoyed?"

Some other ideas for you!

Anything by Isaac Bashevis Singer - famous for choosing to write in Yiddish. I'm currently reading In My Father's Court for this prompt. It's a memoir of his childhood, beautifully written, capturing Jewish life in Poland in the 1910s and 1920s.

If you wanted to go for "featuring another language" rather than translated, The Familiar is a fantasy novel that uses Ladino in a wonderful way.

I would also argue The Yiddish Policemen's Union should qualify - it's a mystery/literary fiction/alternative history novel, features a lot of Yiddish and Hebrew, and is a fantastic book.

Rebecca wrote: "Rebecca wrote: "I am having such a hard time with choosing a book for this challenge prompt. What have people enjoyed?"

Some other ideas for you!

Anything by Isaac Bashevis Singer ..."

These are such good suggestions! Maybe I'll use The Familiar for my Prompts challenge. I agree that the Ladino really does play an important and (literally) magical part in the story.

Rebecca wrote: "I am having such a hard time with choosing a book for this challenge prompt. What have people enjoyed?"

I read Dr. B. for this prompt and thought it was a good book, the genre was Spy. It was translated from Swedish.

Sophie wrote: "I read Dr. B. for this prompt and thought it was a good book, the genre was Spy. It was translated from Swedish."

I don't think we have that in the database! Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

chysodema wrote: "Sophie wrote: "I read Dr. B. for this prompt and thought it was a good book, the genre was Spy. It was translated from Swedish."

I don't think we have that in the database! Thank you for bringing ..."

No worries :)