Sue's Bookshelf

Charlotte Jewish News, June/July 2022

If you’re looking for some good books to read this summer, I highly recommend our Center for Jewish Education Book Club selections for June, July, and August: “The Personal Librarian,” “Last Summer at The Golden Hotel,” and “An Observant Wife.”

“The Personal Librarian,” a novel of historical fiction by Heather Terrell (writing as Marie Benedict) and Victoria Christopher Murray, is the story of Belle Da Costa Greene, one of the most prominent career women of her time. She was the personal librarian to financier J. P. Morgan, who was a known antisemite and racist. According to “Gentlemen Bankers: The World of J. P. Morgan” by Susie Pak, “J. P. Morgan made antisemitic comments in his private correspondence. He even made the hyperbolic claim that his bank and Barings were the only “white” (that is, non-Jewish) banks in New York City.”

Throughout the novel, we see Belle in a constant state of unease and anxiety because, unbeknownst to J. P. Morgan, she was a Black woman passing for white, and as the novel unfolds, she has an affair with famed Jewish art historian Bernard Berenson. Both circumstances threatened Belle’s status as a trusted adviser and friend to J. P. Morgan and “as a powerful figure in the art world, courted by art dealers, embraced by the socially powerful and profiled as an elegant careerist at a time when working women were rare.” (NPR Book Reviews)

“Last Summer at the Golden Hotel” by Elyssa Friedland, author of “The Floating Feldmans,” is a family story that recalls the golden age of grand vacations in the Catskill Mountains of New York and exposes the reality of the upkeep leading to the eventual failings of these resorts. The drama unfolds as the three generations of the two founding families of the Golden Hotel meet to consider an offer to sell. According to Kirkus Reviews, “Secrets and scandals come to light as the last family-owned Catskills resort teeters on the brink of extinction . . . A high-spirited party of a book. BYOB. Bring your own borscht.”

“An Observant Wife” by Naomi Ragen continues the love story of newly observant Leah and ultra-Orthodox widower Yaakov from a previous novel, “An Unorthodox Match.” Leah shows

true devotion and love to her husband, stepchildren, and religious practices. However, she faces undue criticism from the seemingly well-intentioned community that does not accept her. As she and Yaakov face the reality of their situation and make decisions based on their devotion to their way of life, we grow to love these characters who are skillfully brought to life by master storyteller Naomi Ragen.

All three of these books are available at the Levine-Sklut Judaic Library and can be found in the general collection and as eBooks. All book club meetings are held at Shalom Park in Rooms A110-111 at 10:30 a.m. on the following dates:

Wednesday, June 8 — “The Personal Librarian”

Wednesday, July 13 — “Last Summer at the Golden Hotel”

Wednesday, August 10 — “An Observant Wife”

For more information, please email sue.littauer@jewishcharlotte.org.