Happy first day of summer, pals! It’s that special time of year for hanging out in the park with friends, eating unfathomable amounts of popsicles and catching up on your reading while schvitzing at the beach. On that latter point, if you’re thinking of choosing a book from your never-ending reading list or picking up your hold at the library, pause! (No disrespect to the library, of course.)
Allow us here at Hey Alma to tempt you.
Every season there are new Jewish books coming out, and summer 2025 boasts some heavy hitters. There are memoirs from celebrities and public figures; debut novels about marriage plots within the Syrian Jewish community and learning what it means to be a Jewish dyke in ’90s San Francisco; essay collections on our worst habits and the righteous anger of a perpetual rule-follower; and accounts of the history of Jews in Texas and erasure poetry about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
We’ve curated all of these (and more) into a list of the most exciting Jewish books coming out this summer. So be a little bad this summer — eschew your previous reading plans and pick up one of these works instead.
Everything we recommend below is independently selected by Hey Alma’s editors. If you buy a product through our links, Hey Alma may earn an affiliate commission, which goes to support our nonprofit media organization.
This family memoir tells the story of a long-lost plan to create a Jewish state in... Texas. On June 7, 1907, a ship packed with Russian Jews sets sail not to Jerusalem or New York, as many on board have dreamed, but to Texas. The man who persuades the passengers to go is David Jochelmann, the author's great-grandfather. What follows is a story that asks what it means to belong, and what can be salvaged from the past. (Out now.)
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Evie Bloom and Theo Cohen are lifelong best friends who spend all their free time together. When one of them faces eviction, a loophole emerges: They can get married for convenience, trading vows for a financial safety net and benefits. What happens next is the stuff of delightful romance novels. (Out now.)
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This stunning memoir from Jewish "13 Reasons Why" actress Tommy Dorfman explores her gender identity, years of drugs and alcohol use, her rise to fame and her path to sobriety. (Out now.)
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By the daughter of famed Jewish writer Erica Jong (known best for her 1973 novel "Fear of Flying"), a compulsively readable memoir about an intense mother–daughter relationship, a sometimes chaotic upbringing with a fame-hungry parent and the upheavals that challenge our hard-won adulthood. (Out now.)
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Have we recommended this queer Jewish coming-of-age novel on three other lists? Yes, because "Girls Girls Girls" is just that good good good. (Out now.)
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This urgent new work transforms the world's most influential antisemitic document, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, into an erasure poem exploring essential questions of power, history and language. Yes, please. (June 24)
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The road wasn't always easy for a 12-year-old Argentinian Jew trying to make it big in Orange County. The disappointment of giving up her childhood career as a performer makes for a rather tumultuous coming of age. But through grit, hustle and a series of creative endeavors like joining a girl band, Tam has made it through, and she's ready to spill some shit — figuratively and literally. (July 1)
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Maris Kreizman is a Jewish feminist cultural critic, and in her debut collection of essays, she opens up about her lived experiences in the United States, a country full of flaws, that made her realize it’s never too late to become radicalized. (July 1)
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A virtuosic, laugh-out-loud collection of stories that explore the fraught and fantastic nature of human connection — featuring women, men, a French Orthodox rabbi, various couples and one terribly precocious baby enmeshed in tangled romances of all shapes and sizes. (July 8)
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The Bradford-Shmulkin family is falling apart. A very modern blend of Russian, Jewish, Korean and New England WASP, they love one another deeply but the pressures of life in an unstable America are fraying their bonds. The latest novel from the bestselling author of "Super Sad True Love Story" and "Our Country Friends" is a boldly imagined story of family and country told through the clear and tender eyes of a child. (July 8)
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In this heart-warming and witty debut novel, three sisters chase love and grapple with the growing pains of young womanhood as they seek their place within and beyond their Syrian Jewish Brooklyn community. (July 22)
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The story of an untethered, sardonic young woman falling for an older radio host... and then for his daughter. (July 22)
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"Sloppy" by Rax King
With Rax King's trademark blend of irreverent humor and heartfelt honesty comes a new collection of personal essays unpacking bad behavior. Sloppy explores sobriety, begrudging self-improvement and the habits we cling to with clenched fists. (July 29)
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The cold case of a young Hollywood starlet's death sets a contemporary writer on an epic and comic quest to uncover the truth, and its connection to his own family. (Aug. 12)
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Cammy will do whatever she can to make it through seven turbulent days of mourning while sitting shiva for her father in her childhood home in New Jersey. Amid getting stoned, reconnecting with her best friend and her high school crush, evading the rabbi and spending a debauched night in Atlantic City, Cammy must reckon with her roots. (Aug. 26)
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