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JCC MetroWest Book Group presents, Rachel Barenbaum, "Atomic Anna" Artist Molly names her superhero character Atomic Anna after her birth mother.  Molly learns from her Soviet refusenik adoptive parents that Anna’s research was key to the development of the atomic bomb. Later she will learn about Anna’s other research into riding ripples of time, as […]

JCC MetroWest Book Group presents, Alyson Richman and Shaunna J. Edwards, "The Thread Collectors" An ingenious young Black woman embroiders intricate maps on repurposed cloth to help enslaved men flee and join the Union Army. A Jewish woman in NYC attends abolitionist meetings and stitches quilts for Union soldiers. As these two women risk everything for […]

JCC MetroWest Book Group presents, Jai Chakrabartis, "A Play for the End of the World" New York City, 1972. Jaryk Smith, a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto, and Lucy Gardner, a Southerner newly arrived in the city, are in the first bloom of love when they receive word that Jaryk's oldest friend has died under […]

JCC MetroWest Book Group presents, Shelly Sanders, "Daughters of the Occupation" In 1940, the Soviets invade Latvia and occupy Riga, Miriam's home, just as she gives birth to her son Monya. Then the Nazis arrive, killing Miriam's husband and rounding up Jews. Miriam asks her loyal housekeeper to hide her children and conceal their Jewish […]

JCC MetroWest Book Group presents, Sally Koslow, "The Real Mrs. Tobias" A funny and big-hearted story about the deeply complicated relationships between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law, told through three generations of women who marry into the same family. “With a shrewd eye and a light touch, Sally Koslow weaves a story about three strong women whose memories, […]

JCC MetroWest Book Group presents, Kitty Zeldis, "The Dressmakers of Prospect Heights" Moving from the bustling streets of 1920s New York City to late nineteenth-century Russia and the lively quarters of New Orleans in the 1910s, The Dressmakers of Prospect Heights is a story of the families we are born into and the families we choose, and […]

JCC MetroWest Book Group presents, Adam Langer, "Cycloramas" The deeply moving, propulsive story of ten teenagers brought together by a high school production of The Diary of Anne Frank that will shape and influence the rest of their lives. A series of events that unfolds in Evanston, Illinois in 1982 haunts the cast for years to come. […]

JCC MetroWest presents, Laura Zigman, "Small World" From bestselling author Laura Zigman comes a heartfelt novel about two offbeat and newly divorced sisters who move in together as adults and finally reckon with their childhood. A heartfelt novel about two offbeat and newly divorced sisters who move in together as adults hoping to forge the […]

JCC MetroWest presents, Elizabeth Graver, "Kantika" A dazzling, Sephardic, multigenerational saga that moves from Istanbul to Barcelona, Havana, and New York, exploring displacement, endurance, and family as home. Kantika—“song” in Ladino—follows the joys and losses of Rebecca Cohen, feisty daughter of the Sephardic elite of early 20th-century Istanbul. When the Cohens lose their wealth and are […]

JCC MetroWest presents, Rachel Beanland, "The House Is On Fire" Told from the perspectives of four people whose actions changed the course of history, this masterful work of historical fiction takes readers back to 1811 Richmond, Virginia, where, on the night after Christmas, the city's only theater burned to the ground in the middle of […]

JCC MetroWest presents, Cathleen Schine, "Kunstlers in Paradise" For years, clever and glamorous Mamie Künstler, 93, has lived happily in her bungalow in Venice, California with her housekeeper and gigantic St. Bernard dog. Their tranquility is upended when Mamie’s twenty-something grandson, Julian, arrives from New York City to seek his fortune in Hollywood. But it […]

JCC MetroWest presents, Buzzy Jackson, "To Die Beautiful" Based on the true story of Hannie Schaft, known to the Nazis as the Girl with Red Hair. It’s 1940 and Hannie Schaft is a shy nineteen-year-old law student living in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands. The timid, studious university student who once dreamed of becoming a League of Nations lawyer […]

JCC MetroWest presents, Andrew Ridker, "Hope" Ridker’s slashing satire of upper-middle-class life turns on the foibles of a seemingly charmed Jewish family in Brookline, Mass. Scott Greenspan is a well-respected cardiac surgeon. His wife, Deb, is known for her good work on various school and synagogue activities. Their daughter, Maya, works at a prestigious New […]

JCC MetroWest presents, Jennifer Rosner, "Once We Were Home" Among the tragedies of WWII were the Jewish children separated from their families, given new names, and instructed to follow new religions. Rosner follows The Yellow Bird Sings (2020), with this complex tale about fear, survival, and what it means to be a family, as four children grapple […]

JCC MetroWest presents, Daisy Alpert Florin, "My Last Innocent Year" It’s 1998 and Isabel Rosen, the only daughter of a Lower East Side appetizing store owner, has one semester left at Wilder College, a prestigious school in New Hampshire. Desperate to shed her working-class roots and still mourning the death of her mother four years […]

JCC MetroWest presents, Lauren Grodstein, "We Must Not Think of Ourselves" In time for Yom Hashoah comes this heart-wrenching story of love and defiance set in the Warsaw Ghetto, based on the actual archives kept by those determined to have their stories survive World War II. Inspired by the testimony-gathering project with the code name […]