Judy Blume
Are You There, Twitter? It's Me, Judy
Book Recommendations:
Recommended by Judy Blume
“I love @MegWolitzer’s first picture book Millions of Maxes. Reading it was a treat I needed today. Sharing it with kids will be an even bigger treat. Funny and unique, just like Max.” (from X)
Max discovers that uniqueness is more than just a name, in this funny, lively picture book debut by the bestselling author of The Interestings. Max's room has his name all over it--on his blanket and night light and wall. His parents call him The One and Only Max. And so, he is in for a big surprise at the playground one day, when he hears "Max, time to go home!" and two other kids come running. He's not the one and only after all! How many Maxes are in the world?! Millions of Maxes? But when he decides to help one of the other Maxes find her missing toy, he discovers that there are other ways to be special, and that he can appreciate the specialness of his new Max friends just as much as his own. That night he dreams of the future adventures he'll have with all of the Maxes he has yet to meet.
Recommended by Judy Blume
“A new illustrated book, The Tale of a Niggun, by Elie Wiesel, is a powerful, heartbreaking story. The art by Mark Podwal is gorgeous. I’m giving it as a Hanukkah gift to our local synagogues. It will also be available @booksandbookskw.” (from X)
Elie Wiesel’s heartbreaking narrative poem about history, immortality, and the power of song, accompanied by magnificent full-color illustrations by award-winning artist Mark Podwal. Based on an actual event that occurred during World War II. It is the evening before the holiday of Purim, and the Nazis have given the ghetto’s leaders twenty-four hours to turn over ten Jews to be hanged to “avenge” the deaths of the ten sons of Haman, the villain of the Purim story, which celebrates the triumph of the Jews of Persia over potential genocide some 2,400 years ago. If the leaders refuse, the entire ghetto will be liquidated. Terrified, they go to the ghetto’s rabbi for advice; he tells them to return the next morning. Over the course of the night the rabbi calls up the spirits of legendary rabbis from centuries past for advice on what to do, but no one can give him a satisfactory answer. The eighteenth-century mystic and founder of Hasidism, the Baal Shem Tov, tries to intercede with God by singing a niggun—a wordless, joyful melody with the power to break the chains of evil. The next evening, when no volunteers step forward, the ghetto’s residents are informed that in an hour they will all be killed. As the minutes tick by, the ghetto’s rabbi teaches his assembled community the song that the Baal Shem Tov had sung the night before. And then the voices of these men, women, and children soar to the heavens. How can the heavens not hear?
Recommended by Judy Blume
“What a great night @booksandbookskw with @jamiattenberg, George, and manager Emily. Jami’s new book AllThis Could Be Yours is so good I’m reading it again. Thank you Jami and come back soon. https://t.co/y4s52aiVe8” (from X)
“All hail Jami Attenberg, the queen of dysfunctional families.” —Refinery29 “Big Little Lies meets Succession in the scorching heat of the Big Easy . . . Money, power and family are touched upon through Attenberg’s emotional, humorous and sharply written accounts.” —Parade “This is how you write a very good novel about a very bad man.” —New York Times From critically acclaimed New York Times best-selling author Jami Attenberg comes a novel of family secrets: think the drama of Big Little Lies set in the heat of a New Orleans summer “If I know why they are the way they are, then maybe I can learn why I am the way I am,” says Alex Tuchman of her parents. Now that her father is on his deathbed, Alex—a strong-headed lawyer, devoted mother, and loving sister--feels she can finally unearth the secrets of who Victor is and what he did over the course of his life and career. (A power-hungry real estate developer, he is, by all accounts, a bad man.) She travels to New Orleans to be with her family, but mostly to interrogate her tightlipped mother, Barbra. As Barbra fends off Alex’s unrelenting questions, she reflects on her tumultuous life with Victor. Meanwhile Gary, Alex’s brother, is incommunicado, trying to get his movie career off the ground in Los Angeles. And Gary’s wife, Twyla, is having a nervous breakdown, buying up all the lipstick in drug stores around New Orleans and bursting into crying fits. Dysfunction is at its peak. As each family member grapples with Victor’s history, they must figure out a way to move forward—with one another, for themselves, and for the sake of their children. ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS is a timely, piercing exploration of what it means to be caught in the web of a toxic man who abused his power; it shows how those webs can tangle a family for generations and what it takes to—maybe, hopefully—break free. With her signature “sparkling prose” (Marie Claire) and incisive wit, Jami Attenberg deftly explores one of the most important subjects of our age.