Memorial Day Weekend marks the unofficial summer kickoff, and for observant Jews, the long weekend is made even longer with the two-day holiday of Shavuot, starting Thursday evening, which commemorates the day the Jews received the Torah at Mount Sinai. 

Jews mark the day by studying at all-night learning sessions at synagogues and JCCs around the country. We know that many will also use the occasion to jump-start summer reading goals, so the Jewish Insider team has compiled our summer reading list — beginning with some banner new releases from this spring, and looking towards books coming out this summer.

RECENT RELEASES:

Allegra Goodman, This Is Not About Us (February)

The author of several novels with heavily Jewish themes, Goodman returns to Jewish characters in this novel about a decades-long feud between two Jewish sisters that started with a misunderstanding about apple cake.

Mark Oppenheimer, Judy Blume: A Life (March) 

The journalist published the definitive biography of beloved YA author Judy Blume, based on more than 100 interviews with Blume and her inner circle — though she disapproved of the finished product.  

Nicholas Lemann, Returning: A Search for Home Across Three Centuries (March)

 The longtime New Yorker staff writer traces his family’s history from Germany to New Orleans, recounting the ways they reckoned with religion, race and belonging.

Matti Friedman, Out of the Sky: Heroism and Rebirth in Nazi Europe (March) 

One of Israel’s most celebrated English-language writers tells the story of the young Jews who had made it to Mandate Palestine but chose to parachute into Nazi Europe to try to rescue their Jewish brethren — ultimately failing in their mission — and examines what motivated them. 

Daniela Gerson, The Wanderers: A Story of Exile, Survival, and Unexpected Love in the Shadow of World War II (March)

The journalist recounts the story of how she and her wife discovered that decades before the two of them met, their grandparents had escaped the Nazis through Soviet Russia on the same route.

Judy Batalion, The Last Woman of Warsaw: A Novel (April) 

Better known for her nonfiction work, including a 2021 bestseller about Jewish female resistance fighters in the ghettos of Poland, Judy Batalion released her debut novel about the intersecting lives of Jewish women in Warsaw in the late 1930s. 

Rachel Goldberg-Polin, When We See You Again (April)

The world got to know Goldberg-Polin when she became a tireless advocate on the global stage for her son, Hersh, who was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, and killed almost a year later. Her book chronicling her grief, which was published last month, soared to the top of the best-seller list. 

Theo Baker, How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University (May)

The Stanford student, who chronicled the campus chaos of 2023-2024 with a crucial article in The Atlantic, investigates the ways that Stanford undergrads, located just miles from the tech billionaires of Silicon Valley, are seeking out power, influence and money in place of an education.

UPCOMING RELEASES:

Rabbi Eli Schlanger and Nikki Goldstein, Conversations With My Rabbi: Timeless Teachings for a Fractured World (May 26)

Three years before the rabbi was murdered in the Hanukkah terror attack at Bondi Beach in Australia last year, he got to know Goldstein after praying by her bedside as she recovered from a near-death experience that brought her to the ICU three years earlier. Goldstein, a secular Jew, and Schlanger, a Chabad rabbi, recorded their conversations about faith in the hope of writing a book together. She finished the project after Schlanger’s death. 

Batya Ungar-Sargon, The Jews and the Left (June 2)

The conservative journalist examines American Jews’ historic ties to liberal politics and argues that their alliance has been fundamentally broken in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks and the war in Gaza. 

Marc David Baer, Children of Abraham: The 1,400-Year History of Jewish–Muslim Relations (June 9)

The  professor of history at the London School of Economics and Political Science looks at the centuries of cooperation and coexistence between Jews and Muslims in the Middle East that predated the current regional conflicts. 

Stephan Talty, The American School of Spies: The Archaeologists Who Fought the Nazis and Saved the Treasures of Ancient Greece (June 9) 

The journalist and novelist recounts the true story of a group of American archaeologists who trained as spies during World War II in order to go undercover and protect Greek artifacts that were at risk during the war. 

JD Vance, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith (June 16)

The vice president’s forthcoming book — his second memoir, to be published nine years and a political lifetime after the release of Hillbilly Elegy, about his childhood growing up poor in Appalachia — will discuss his connection to Christianity and his decision to convert to Catholicism. 

Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump (June 23) 

Two of America’s top White House reporters tell the story of the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, and how he learned to use political power more effectively than in his first term. 

Dara Horn, The Final Solution to the Jewish Question: A Love Story for the Living (Sept. 1)

Her 2021 book of essays reckoning with the curiosities of modern antisemitism, People Love Dead Jews, went about as viral as a book possibly could. She published a children’s book in 2025, but this will be her first book for adults in years. Aside from announcing its scheduled release, her publisher has not shared any information about the project.

Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East (Sept. 8)

The British historian presents a history of the last 125 years of the modern Middle Eastern, surveying the key events and narratives — both accurate and misguided — that led to the current state of the region.

Barney Frank, The Hard Path to Unity: Why We Must Reform the Left to Rescue Democracy (Sept. 15)

The trailblazing politician served in Congress for 32 years, representing suburban Boston. The Jewish Democratic lawmaker, who was also the first openly gay member of Congress, died this week at 86. His upcoming book argues that the political left must reform itself so it does not cater to its most extreme adherents. 

Evan Gershkovich, This Cursed Beautiful Land: A Russian-American Story (Sept. 29)

The Wall Street Journal journalist who spent over a year wrongly imprisoned in Russia details his harrowing experience in the Russian carceral system against the backdrop of the country’s history and culture.