Katy Strulson

JCC MetroWest presents, Heather Cabot, "Level Up: Rise Above the Hid­den Forces Hold­ing Your Busi­ness Back" In-person at the J! By Stacey Abrams and Lara Hodg­son with Heather Cabot – A must-read guide for small busi­ness own­ers nav­i­gat­ing a crit­i­cal turn­ing point: when you either lev­el up or give up. It’s nev­er been eas­i­er to start a busi­ness – and it’s nev­er been hard­er to scale it. Half of new busi­ness­es in Amer­i­ca don’t make it past five years. Stacey Abrams and Lara Hodg­son want to help today’s…

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 mysterious circumstances in a rural Indian village. Traveling there to collect his friend's ashes, Jaryk soon finds himself enmeshed in the chaos of local politics and…

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 roots. In 1970s Chicago, 24-year-old Sarah meets her estranged grandmother Miriam who begs Sarah to find the son she abandoned in Latvia. A magnificent, emotionally…

JCC MetroWest presents, Eleanor Reissa, "The Letters Project"   A sec­ond-gen­er­a­tion Holo­caust mem­oir, The Let­ters Project con­sti­tutes an impor­tant addi­tion to the grow­ing library of works explor­ing inher­it­ed trau­ma. In 1986, upon the death of her moth­er, Eleanor Reis­sa — an acclaimed actress, singer, direc­tor, writer, and con­tem­po­rary Yid­dish per­former — was stunned to dis­cov­er a stash of 56 let­ters writ­ten in Ger­man, hid­den inside an old leather purse she had nev­er seen before. The dis­cov­ery of this cor­re­spon­dence, from her father to her moth­er, dat­ing back to 1949, was a prover­bial…

JCC MetroWest presents, Jen Maxfield, "More After the Break: A Reporter Returns to Ten Unfor­get­table News Stories" In-person at the J! Based on her two-decade career as a local TV news reporter in New York City, Jen Max­field takes read­ers on a dra­mat­ic ride-along with her in the live truck, from the moment she gets the call to head to break­ing news, to arriv­ing at chaot­ic scenes, to knock­ing on doors of fam­i­lies who are griev­ing the loss of a loved one. Max­field revis­its ten…

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, dreams, and desires conflict and intersect as they navigate a series of family crises. Warm, witty, and heartfelt, The Real Mrs. Tobias is a cinematic, fast-paced treat.”…

JCC MetroWest presents, Howard Blum, "The Spy Who Knew Too Much" In-person at the J! This true sto­ry begins on an Autumn morn­ing in 1978. A sail­boat runs aground on the Chesa­peake Bay. The coast guard finds bul­lets scat­tered on the deck, top secret gov­ern­ment doc­u­ments in the gal­ley, and a clas­si­fied trans­mit­ter used to com­mu­ni­cate with satellites. There’s no sign of the boat’s own­er, John Pais­ley, a high-rank­ing CIA offi­cial. Ten days lat­er an unrec­og­niz­able body wrapped in chains floats to the sur­face. The CIA has no fin­ger­print…

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 of the unbreakable bonds between women. "A compelling tale of friendship, class, prejudice, and love.” (Kirkus, starred review) FREE 12:00 Book Group discussion 1:00 Presentation…