Ten Outstanding Author Events at the Jewish Book Festival’s Tenth Season

This year, we are celebrating our 10th Jewish Book Festival. When the festival first began — as the Jewish Book Festival of Collier County — we never would have anticipated how very successful it would be!

Under the direction of four dedicated lay leaders over its 10-year span, and with the assistance of energetic volunteer Jewish Book Festival Committees and the administrative of Program Director Reneé Bialek, book festival events have become the “cultural highlights” of each season. Not only have attendees heard a wide array of outstanding authors, but the events have also provided a welcomed opportunity to socialize with one another, strengthening our sense of community.

This year’s festival, ably chaired by Robin Mintz, will bring both entertainment and enlightenment to its scores of delighted patrons.

It is not too late to purchase tickets and calendar your favorites. Here is a lineup of the authors and their books for the 10th year of the Greater Naples Jewish Book Festival.

“The Most Human” by Adam Nimoy

Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, 7 p.m. $25

When your father is Leonard Nimoy, Trek,” the larger-than-life Spock of "Star Trek" you are likely to grow up knowing more about his screen presence than about him as a dad. In his memoir, Adam Nimoy explains how the awkwardness that initially defined his relationship with his father grew into conflict, “sometimes smoldering, sometimes open and intense.” Arguments and hurt feelings, on both sides, did not bode well for closeness, no matter how fervent the desire for it.

The book is your chance to learn how to overcome the bitterness that made Adam blind to his own contribution to the problem … from Adam himself.

“The Art of Diplomacy” by Stuart E. Eizenstat

Friday, Jan. 10, 1 p.m. $25

A nonfiction book about the major episodes of American diplomacy over the last 50 years or so — from the opening of China to the invasion of Gaza — how timely can you get?

Eizenstat tells his readers how unhappy he becomes “when diplomacy is politicized.” He would much prefer a “vision of bipartisan U.S. leadership.” Here’s the rub: if ever there existed a time when it was possible to imagine a nonpoliticized diplomacy, that time “is surely long gone.” Do we give up hope? Of course not.

Eizenstat, former ambassador to the European Union, has served half a dozen U.S. presidents and, in the course of events, made many friends. In this book, he lays out some of their “teachable moments.” Now, it’s our turn to learn.

“The Goddess of Warsaw” by Lisa Barr

Tuesday, Jan. 21, 1 p.m. $25

When a beautiful woman rises in popularity as a famous movie star, she gains power she never had before. If the star has kept secret that she was once a victim of the Nazi horrors in her native Warsaw, she might expand that secret and find ways to use her power to avenge the Nazis — say, by becoming a spy and an assassin. In this spinetingling novel, full of feats of bravery as well as sacrifice, readers immerse themselves in the myriad ways retribution can be delivered. Clear your calendar, because this one is a page-turner that will keep you up nights.

“When Women Ran Fifth Avenue” by Julie Satow

Wednesday, Jan. 29, 1 p.m. $25

This non-fiction book by eminent journalist Julie Satow takes readers to the golden age of the American department store. Whether shoppers or salesclerks, women were just beginning to find their way independent of male mentors. Men may have owned the buildings, but inside them, women ruled.

The story unfolds through the life stories of three women who took their respective stores to the top in the highly competitive atmosphere of New York City: Bonwit Teller, Lord & Taylor, and Henri Bendel. Each woman had her own path to success — some bumpier than others — but all of them carved their indelible signatures on the fashionable world epitomized by Fifth Avenue.

“The Sequel” by Jean Hanff Korelitz

Thursday, Feb. 13, 1 p.m. $25

OK, so you have finally arrived at a place of comfort as a “literary widow.” You took care of your husband, a bestselling novelist, and helped him beat back rumors of plagiarism. Now that you are a widow, all you want to do is bask in the sunshine of his reputation and his perpetual royalties. Then, unexpectedly, you produce a novel of your own.

What happens next is both humorous — told with sardonic wit that will keep you smiling — and suspenseful. Why suspense? Maybe the author will reveal something in her presentation. Come and find out.

“Food, Hope & Resilience” by June Hersh

Tuesday, Feb. 25, 10:30 a.m. $25

We have all read unbelievable but true stories of the Holocaust. The tales in this book have a dual purpose: to uplift and inspire us as they form connections with the past. Recipes included remind us that for Holocaust survivors, food formed the bridge between their lives before the war and the homes they created afterward. Familiar foods like brisket and chicken soup graced their kitchens along with newly adopted foods such as arroz con pollo and gnocchi. These recipes will connect us to them.

A portion of the proceeds from sales of this book will benefit organizations committed to Holocaust education.

“The Boy with the Star Tattoo” by Talia Carner

Monday, March 10, 3:30 p.m. $25

Vichy France, 1942: A young woman has a desperate love affair with a Jewish man who must flee, leaving her alone and pregnant. She is also forced to escape from the Nazis and entrusts her child to his nursemaid for safe keeping. When she returns many years later, her son has vanished. She does not know what the readers know: he had been rescued by a Youth Aliyah agent searching France for orphaned Jewish children.

1968: An Israeli man hires a young woman for a secret naval operation. She becomes obsessed and won’t be satisfied until she traces his extraordinary journey from being an orphan in a French village all the way to Israel.

Care to guess who has a tattoo?

“The Money Kings” by Daniel Schulman

Friday, March 21, 1 p.m. $25

The subtitle says it all: The Epic Story of the Jewish Immigrants Who Transformed Wall Street and Shaped Modern America. Author Daniel Schulman’s sweeping narrative traces the interconnected origin stories of multiple financial dynasties — think Goldman, Sachs, Loeb, Lehman, Seligman. He chronicles how they rose to Wall Street dominance while navigating the deeply antisemitic upper class of the Gilded Age, as well as the complexities of the Civil War, World War I, and the Zionist movement. They would shape the destiny of the millions of Eastern European Jews who emigrated to New York in the early 1900s, including Schulman’s own paternal grandparents.

“We Must Not Think of Ourselves” by Lauren Grodstein

Thursday, March 27, 10:30 a.m. $25

This book tells you right on the cover that it’s a novel. It sure seems like a true story to me!

Warsaw ghetto, 1940. A secret story-collecting project by archivists intent on preserving the truth of what happens behind the ghetto walls. Some participants fall in love but must test that love when escape might be possible. The unbearable choice: whom to save and at what cost? Is the title a clue to that answer? Maybe the author will tell you.

“The Joy of Costco” by David & Susan Schwartz

Wednesday, April 2, 1 p.m. $25

A Treasure Hunt from A to Z — so says the sub-title of this compendium of everything you ever wanted to know about Costco. Big fans, the authors have visited 225 of the company’s 850+ warehouses in 46 U.S. states and 13 other countries. They also tell us about depots, packaging facilities, vendors, meat-packing plants, and even a preopening party.

You will learn that Costco is the largest importer of olive oil and cashews in the world. And it sells seven times more hot dogs than all MLB baseball stadiums combined. You’ll also learn that when Costco changed its source of salmon from Chile to Norway, the switch impacted the economies of both countries. And there’s more to learn that you’ll just have to discover by coming to the presentation.