🎤︎︎ New Five Books Episode: Judith Viorst on Happiness, Agency, and the Art of Aging — and See Our Digital Literary Time Capsule!

See below for a complete list of our Digital Literary Time Capsule: Jewish Books for the Next 100 Years!

In this episode, celebrated children’s book author, poet and memoirist Judith Viorst brings her irrepressible wit, humor, and insight to every age and stage of life. We talk about growing up, raising children, and living well - including the story of how her family gave up Christmas. She reflects on her lifelong love of “messy” characters, from Max in Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are to her own Lulu.  Her wisdom is especially meaningful as we take stock of the year and set our intentions for the year ahead.

In Making the Best of What’s Left: When We’re Too Old to Get the Chairs Reupholstered, Judith confesses, “I never ever send a text while driving, and not just because I don’t know how to text.” She discusses the afterlife (She doesn’t believe in it, but if it exists, she hopes her sister-in-law isn’t there). She complains to her dead husband (“I need you fixing our damn circuit breakers. I need you! Could you please stop being dead?”). And she explores the late-life meanings of wisdom and happiness and second chances and home. With a wit that defies age, Viorst navigates the terrain of loss. 

Judith Viorst is the author of the beloved Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, which has sold some four million copies; the Lulu books; the New York Times bestseller Necessary Losses; and four musicals. Judith has written books for each decade of life after twenty, including: It's Hard to Be Hip Over 30 & Other Tragedies of Married Life, Forever 50 & Other Negotiations, I'm Too Young to Be 70 & Other Delusions, and Nearing 90 And Other Comedies of Late Life. Now in her nineties, Judith writes about life’s “Final Fifth” in her latest book Making the Best of What’s Left. 

1. ⁠The Assistant by Bernard Malamud

2. ⁠Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

3. ⁠The Odyssey by Homer (Robert Fagles translation)

4. ⁠I’ll Be Right Here by Amy Bloom

5. ⁠Making the Best of What’s Left: When We’re Too Old to Get the Chairs Reupholstered by Judith Viorst

Other Books Mentioned:

• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

• Brundibar by Maurice Sendak and Tony Kushner

• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Other Episodes Featuring Children’s Books and YA Authors:

• Gayle Forman on Judy Blume, Taylor Swift, and the Innate Goodness of Young People

• Dara Horn on Being the Lorax at Her Seder Table

• Jeremy Dauber on Jewish Literature, Pop Culture, and What the Horror Genre Reveals About America

Thank you for celebrating the 100th anniversary of Jewish Book Month with us! We have officially wrapped up our digital literary time capsule asking Jewish thought leaders: What Jewish book do you hope people are reading in 2125? We were thrilled to hear from people across the Jewish world and we are including the complete list here for our subscribers. Thank you to all of our contributors who selected books for the next 100 years and thank you especially to our partners at Jewish Book Council, for championing Jewish books for the last century and helping us to do so for the next 100 years.

All of you who read (and write!) Jewish books are helping to sustain a vibrant, ongoing story, bringing new light to an ancient story. 

(For quotes from each of our contributors as to why they are choosing this book, check out our Instagram @fivebookspod or on Facebook, The Five Books Podcast.)

You might also be interested in my piece published in eJewishPhilanthropy titled 5 things I’ve learned about the role Jewish books play in our lives.

Our Digital Literary Time Capsule: Jewish Books For the Next 100 Years!

The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish
Selected by Naomi Firestone-Teeter, CEO of Jewish Book Council

Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback
Selected by Winnie Sandler Grinspoon, President of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation (creators of PJ Library)

Dirshuni: Contemporary Women’s Midrash, edited by Tamar Biala
Selected by Rabbi Shira Stutman, Host of Chutzpod and Senior Rabbi at Aspen Jewish Congregation

The Albert Memmi Reader edited by Jonathan Judaken and Michael Lejman
Selected by Vlad Khaykin, Executive Vice President, Simon Wiesenthal Center

The Chosen by Chaim Potok
Selected by Yehuda Kurtzer, Host, Identity/ Crisis Podcast, President, Shalom Hartman Institute

People Love Dead Jews by Dara Horn
Selected by Gilly Segal and Elizabeth Berkowitz, Co-Vice Presidents, Artists Against Antisemitism 

Midrash Rabbah
Selected by Sara Wolkenfeld, Chief Learning Officer, Sefaria 

A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz
Selected by Lauren Wein, VP and Editorial Director, Avid Reader Press

Rather Die Fighting: A Memoir of World War II by Frank Blaichman
Selected by Sheri Rosenblum, Director of Operations, Development and Programs, Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation

The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman
Selected by Rachel Bajor, Jewish Bookstagrammer

The Choice by Dr. Edith Eger
Selected by Gila Pfeffer, Author, Humorist, and Breast Cancer Prevention Advocate

The Magician of Lublin by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Selected by David Katznelson, CEO Reboot

The Judgment of Yoyo Gold by Isaac Blum
Selected by Jewish bookstagrammer @kaylareadsbooks  

Last Summer at the Golden Hotel, by Elyssa Friedland
Selected by Dr. Samantha Vinokor-Meinrath, Co-Host of Adapting Podcast, Senior Director of Knowledge, Ideas, and Learning, The Jewish Education Project

Like Dreamers by Yossi Klein Halevi
Selected by Gary Rosenblatt, Journalist, Former Editor and Publisher of NY Jewish Week

The Siddur (Jewish Prayer Book)
Selected by Rabbi Joanna Samuels, CEO, Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan

The Source by James Michener
Selected by Elana Stein Hain, Host TEXTing IRL podcast, Rosh Beit Midrash, Shalom Hartman Institute

On Being Jewish Now edited by Zibby Owens
Selected by Zibby Owens, Host, Totally Booked with Zibby podcast, Author, Bookstore Owner and Publisher

Last Summer at the Golden Hotel, by Elyssa Friedland
Dr. Samantha Vinokor-Meinrath, Co-Host of Adapting Podcast, Senior Director of Knowledge, Ideas, and Learning, The Jewish Education Project

The Midrash Says
Selected by Rabbi Tali Adler, Faculty, Hadar Institute

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Selected by Rabbi Justin Pines, CEO Jewish Broadcasting Service, Host, Jewish Insights with Justin Pines

Life? or Theater? by Charlotte Salomon
Selected by Amelia Merrill, Editorial and Web Support, The Five Books

Working by Studs Terkel
Selected by Odelia Rubin, Producer, The Five Books

100 Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World by Michael Frank
Selected by Tali Rosenblatt-Cohen, Host, The Five Books

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The Five Books is a partner organization of Jewish Book Council, a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying and celebrating Jewish literature and supporting authors and readers. In celebration of 100 years of Jewish Book Month, JBC introduces Nu Reads—a bi-monthly subscription delivering the most compelling new Jewish books straight to your door. For more information on Nu Reads, visit NuReads.org. To stay up to date on ways to celebrate Jewish Book Month, visit www.jewishbookcouncil.org/events/jewish-book-month-100.

The Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity.