#jewish fiction

[bandi-off]

Good jewish literature? Looking for recs 👀

EDIT:

Gosh, thank you EVERYONE for your contributions so far!! I didn't think for a second I'd get so much and so various recommendations, it is lovely to open the app and always have some new notes on this post of mine

As someone who's in his Very very first steps of conversion, I want to refreshen my reading experiences and leave behind the heavily Christian-influenced classics (which is not entirely wrong on its own!, it's just the same old, same old experience for me rn) and get in touch with more recent jewish literature, so I'm very thankful for helping me with this. I might pop up in later edits with my own recommendations!

#jewish books #Jewish literature #Jewish fiction #book recommendations #Thank you lovely people!!

[notaplaceofhonour]

Hey Jumblr, what’s your favorite Jewish story?

could be real or fiction, could be about Jews or just by a Jewish author/creator, could be from the Bible, from the Talmud, from folklore, from wherever, just reblog with your favorite Jewish story whatever it is

I’ll go first: I really love the X-Men, especially the arc of Magneto & Xavier’s relationship, and the story of the golem (I couldn’t pick just one lol)

#runners up were Wolfenstein II: New Colossus Gravity Falls & A Series of Unfortunate Events #jewish #jumblr #jewish folklore #jewish fiction #jewish history #judaism #jewblr #jewish stories

[batboyblog]

I keep having an idea for like a Jewish Percy Jackson book series. Basically the idea that Yiddish/Ashkenazi folklore is/was real and like Percy Jackson's greek gods the dybbuks, Golems, demons and all the rest came west to New York City and they're under the city in the subway tunnels and sewers

And I was thinking of two main characters. There's Josh a very modern teenager, who loves ghost hunters, and super natural podcasts and loves his bubbie's stories of Yiddish folklore. He travels into the subway armed with a camera and ghost hunting equipment and comes face to face with....

Yehudah, AKA Hoodie, a young Hassid from Brooklyn. Hoodie's family from hundreds of years have kept the spirts down, fought monsters, and protected the community, first in the old country and now in New York using folk magic and things

Josh is all about science and trying to understand "okay but how does it work?" and Hoodie is very "it's tradition this how its done, please shut up and stop getting in trouble!" A story of two Bar Mitzvah boys studying Torah, dealing with middle school, each other, and being stuck in the tunnels under NYC in the middle of the night facing the horrors

#Percy Jackson #PJO #jewish fiction #jewish folklore #Jewish #Jumblr #Yiddish #new york city

[arcadialedger]

Jewish SF/F books for Jewish Heritage Month

I highly recommend you check out these novels! This is just the tip of the iceberg.

#jewish #fantasy #judaism #books #novels #sci fi #jewish heritage #jewish american heritage month #sff books #jewish folklore #jewish books #jewish mythology #jewish fiction #the arcadia ledger

[ardatli]

Tales of Jewish Joy!

Saw a bunch of posts go by just today about Jewish joy, and they reminded me that I haven't posted this yet:

Brainchild of a friend of mine, this is an anthology of short stories of Jewish joy, but also Jewish spite, Jewish vengeance, Jewish delight, Jewish spaceships, and Jewish Nazi-punching. A lot of Nazi-punching.

I have a story in here (as Tess Bowery), and the whole anthology is an amazing collection of little bits of us, celebrating us.

The rest of y'all should read it, too. We're a hell of a lot more than tragedy sponges, and sometimes we even save ourselves.

#jumblr #jewish joy #short stories #fiction #jewish fiction #please reblog

[lauralot89]

To go along with the list of Jewish fantasy novels that has been circulating Tumblr, I just read a Jewish horror novel, The Tribe by Bari Wood.

It's a story about golems and it was very good

if you have any other Jewish horror recommendations please let me know

#Jewish fiction #Jewish horror #golem #Judaism #as a warning part of the book is set in a concentration camp

[draganchitsa]

I am super excited to share that my short story, I AM MY BELOVED AND MY BELOVED IS MINE, has been accepted for publication in an upcoming gothic romance anthology from Brigid’s Gate Press.

It is the story of two Jews finding love, trust, and safety as they flee Pogroms in Eastern Europe at the turn of the 20th century. The inspirational kernel is one that came from my own family’s departure from Ukraine.

I am so unbelievably excited, and will share more details when I have them!

#original fiction #ceia self promos #short story #jewish fiction #historical fiction #gothic romance

[crossingwinter]

When Golde is hurriedly betrothed to a man she hasn’t seen since she was a child in exchange for a ticket across the sea, she must come to the bottom of why her uncle insists that a man who seems determined to hide from the law is a good man.

—

my short story i am my beloved's and my beloved is mine, a story about two ashkenazim fleeing the old country together, was published today in the crimson bones gothic romance anthology!

art commissioned from @daniellabatsheva on instagram!

#original fiction #gothic romance #historical fiction #jewish fiction #short story #short story anthology #commissioned art

[thenewsarahjane]

Hi friends! I'm in a bit of a tough spot financially, and I've got kitties to feed! So I'd love to promote my book, THE WALL. It's a queer, Jewish coming of age fantasy with curses and romance and spooky forests!

And look at this pretty cover by Lena Yang!

Purchase links: https://linktr.ee/SarahJaneSinger

#writing #writers on tumblr #my book #fantasy writing #jewish writer #queer fiction #queer writers #jewish fiction

[tired-tales]

Miryam kept her spear pointed at the fallen angel. She knew it wouldn't keep her at bay for long. Alexandriel's grey, shabby wings were splattered with blood, much of it Miryam's. Too much of it. With only the sheer cliff behind her, and the angel in front of her, there was little doubt how this would end. The only thing she could do was talk and pray. She hoped it would buy the children enough time to escape. The angel, golden eyes shocking against skin like midnight, just stared at her as she spoke, and the serenity nearly drove her to madness.

"You're a monster. You know that, don't you?"

She merely inclined her head.

"How can you be so calm? What, this is just one more town's children to add to your pyre? Are you so inured to your own evil that you won't even shed a tear?"

"Would that help?"

Miryam startled, not expecting a response.

"What?"

"Would that help? Would shedding a tear reduce the monstrosity of killing innocent children? Will the parents, if they live, be even slightly comforted by the knowledge that it was shed? Would it make you feel better, if I wail and rend my garments and cover them in ash?" She paused, then somehow focused more intently on Miryam, the golden sclera and dark pupils becoming discomforting from even a dozen feet away. "Would it?"

Surprised by the genuine emotion in the question, she paused, and the creature continued before she could speak.

"I did not think so. However much I may regret what I have done, grieving will not change it. I will not dishonor the dead with my tears."

"I...you...you can't say you regret it! You're still doing it! Right now! You are literally about to kill me so you can hunt down more children."

"I can and I do. If I had known then what I know now, I would not have begun this quest. If I could undo it, I would." The solemnity of Alexandriel's words almost disguised their utter absurdity. Almost.

"THEN WHY ARE YOU STILL DOING IT?!" Half rage and half desperation, she lunged forward, trying to skewer one of the angel's wings. If she could just slow her down-

The angel batted the spear tip aside with one gauntleted hand. The other, moving with blinding speed, hooked up and around. Pulling against the haft in the opposite direction, the spear splintered, leaving Miryam with only a staff. She quickly shifted her stance, but the angel didn't pursue. Miryam hated the look of pity in her eyes when she spoke, more even than the certain knowledge she would soon die.

"How could I not?" the monster said simply.

Miryam was confused for a moment, nearly forgetting what she'd shouted before striking, and then her confusion only grew. Her puzzlement must have shown on her face, because Alexandriel continued,

"All the evils I have committed, every child whose soul burned on that pyre. How could I let them go to waste? I said I would not dishonor the dead with my tears, and I meant it. You asked why I do not cry for your children? Because if I started now, when would I stop? How much worse would I be, if I threw away their sacrifices to ease my guilt? No. I will finish this, and if I cannot say their deaths were not wasteful, I can at least ensure they will not be wasted."

Miryam's head nearly spun with the force of her fury, again overwhelming her grief and terror.

"Sacri-no I cant ev- GAHHH!" she screamed at the sky. The angel had begun to close the distance slowly, gauntlets ready to block any attacks from the impromptu staff, but she paused almost politely to let Miryam yell. When she turned back to face the angel, she felt empty, only the growing dread of knowing exactly what form her death would take. She opened her mouth to argue, to demand by what right the angel called murder a sacrifice by her victims. What came out was,

"That's stupid."

The angel actually paused for a moment, her mouth opening slightly.

"I beg your pardon?"

Never, she thought, but she said, "that's not how any of that works! You cannot change the past. You said it yourself! Grieving won't bring them back, but neither will succeeding in your quest! They'll be just as dead. Their parents will not be any less devastated. Your success will not vindicate you. The only just path is to stop now, and never use their murders as your justification again."

The angel froze as if slapped, and Miryam felt a brief glimmer of hope.

"You are right of course, and I twice the fool for it."

She almost started to lower her staff when the monster's eyes found hers again.

"I cannot change the past. But I can change the future. You are right, success will not change what I did to them. No more than failure would."

With a sudden, feral lunge, the monster batted aside the staff and shoved Miryam, the hand gripping her leathers the only thing keeping her from falling over the edge.

"But that blade cuts both ways. Stopping now will not bring them back. Will undo nothing." The monster's teeth were gritted, tension in every line of her body. The dark voids she had in place of irises and pupils pulled at Miryam's mind, and she noted with a strange detachment that she could make out constellations in the inky black.

"I did not lie. If I could undo my mistakes, if I could tell myself the cost would be too high before I ever began, I would. I would die for it, if I could." The tension left her jaw, her eyes almost soft.

"But I cannot. Compared to what has been paid, how little is left? If I cannot use their deaths as justification to continue, neither can I use them as excuse to stop. I will kill your children, and then four thousand more. I will burn their souls on the pyre and renew the seal, and I will consider the price of a mere 4,000 innocent children well worth a Myriad of peace."

Miryam desperately grabbed for cloth as the monster released her grip. But of course the monster's clothes weren't really there to grab. As she felt the mist-like robe slip between her fingers, she heard her speak.

"There is no justice to be found in this world, not for the likes of me. It will be a relief, I think, to follow them to my eternal rest. Perhaps the year in Gehinnom will be as well."

Alexandriel watched as the woman fell, watched as her body destroyed itself on the rocks. Her eyes stung, but she ignored them, gray wings unfurling. She yet had work to do.

#flash fiction #angels #jewish fiction #vaguely #once again Possessed by a story idea and then writing it in like an hour #sunk costs

[pomegranateandhoney]

I've been greatly enjoying reading historical romance novels. I decided to go on a search for ones with Jewish characters. The list, so far, is small -- and I haven't read many, as they have been a little more difficult to find! But, in case anyone else is interested:

True Pretenses by Rose Lerner

Think of England by KJ Charles (m/m)

The Infiltrating the Ton trilogy by Sara Adrien

The Couriers series by Nita Abrams (5 of these, I think)

The Truitts series by Felicia Grossman (2 so far, I think)

My Fine Fellow by Jennieke Cohen

I've only read the first two on this list so far, and I really enjoyed both of them.

#Jewish books #Jewish fiction #historical romance #book recs #resources #romance novels

[oldshrewsburyian]

I’m so glad to come across someone else who’s read Kavalier and Clay because I read it over the summer and haven’t really stopped thinking about it since. Chabon’s love for old Jewish New York shines through on every page, and Joe is just truly a character™️. Is it weird that reading it made me crave a trip to Prague?

(I do have some issues with how the female characters are written, but that’s another rant)

Oh yes! It's such a tender, hopeful, ambitious book and I love it. About the female characters: you have a point, though I sort of accepted it as part of the narrative stylization inspired by comic books, and I really did love Rosa.

Also, surely not! Prague is such a presence in the book, which I find interesting and poignant as a way of handling the desire of the refugee displaced from a half-remembered, half-mythical homeland. @qqueenofhades and I visited Prague before the plague and it was quite magical (if also heaving with tourists; would recommend going some time other than high summer if possible.)

#asks and answers #the amazing adventures of kavalier and clay #jewish fiction #michael chabon #historical fiction

[trans-kafka]

I just read The Art of Starving by Sam J. Miller. It has a gay Jewish protagonist with an eating disorder. It's amazing and I think I would be a different person if I'd had it as a young person.

SERIOUS HUGE TRIGGER WARNING FOR FOOD RESTRICTION. I'M SERIOUS DON'T EVEN READ THE FIRST PAGE UNTIL YOU ARE IN AN OK PLACE TO DEAL WITH IT.

I found it very triggering BUT the first half was by far the worst and I managed to enjoy the book without reviving some very bad habits by 1. Reading it all the way thru in one day so that if I couldn't eat while reading it, it would just be a short fast, and 2. Having a friend with experience peer counseling others with eating disorders to talk about it with.

I very much recommend this book to anyone, especially boys and young men, who feels at war with their body. It helped me start to work thru stuff I should have done during first puberty.

Again PLEASE make sure you are in a place mentally where you can read triggering content related to disordered eating. It's in diary format, with calorie counts on each day and each chapter begins in second person. But it's so worth the struggle of reading it. The prose is of a quality that makes it feel like a long-form Siken poem in the form of a tortured teen diary. Enjoy and take care of yourself.

#The Art of Starving #YAL #bookblr #gay fiction #jewish fiction #young adult novel #lgbtq youth #lgbt literature #tw eating issues #tw eating disorder #eating disorder #anorexia #anorexia nervosa #bulimia #disordered eating #gender #mental health #nebula awards #gay sci-fi #jewish sci-fi #male thinspi #thinspo #male thinspo #guy thinspi #guy thinspo #male eating disorder

[shesamreads]

These are the covers I remember when I first read The Devil's Arithmetic. The audiobooks on Hoopla is different.

I'm reading this for PopSugar's prompt, "A Book Published the Year You Were Born." I had a few other options in my list as well, but this felt like it was important to reread.

#SheSamReads #The Devil's Arithmetic #Jane Yolen #fiction #Jewish Fiction #Histortical Fiction #Science Fiction #Fantasy

[scones-and-texting-and-murder]

To Fill My Cup

Here's my second published short story with @duckprintspress! If you like sweet, pining Jewish girlfriends and Passover celebrations, I've got 6k of goodness for you right here.

#original fiction #jumblr #jewish fiction #queer fiction #judaism #f/f #wlw #my writing

[sinai-seeker]

do you guys know any like. cute jewish love story books? like contemporary fiction or romance novels? extra bonus points for sapphics in it

#jumblr #reform judaism #jewish #jewish fiction