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James McBride’s novel Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, set in 1972, opens with the mysterious finding of a skeleton in a well. The story quickly flashes back to the 1920s and 1930s in a small section of the rural town of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, known as Chicken Hill. The story focuses on the lives of Moshe Ludlow, a Jewish immigrant and theater owner, his wife Chona Flohr Ludlow, their Black neighbors and friends Nate and Addie Timblin, and Dodo, the Timblin’s orphaned nephew.

Mark your calendars! On Thursday, June 18 at 1 p.m., the Dorothy Kaplan Book Discussion Group will gather for its monthly meeting at the Staenberg Omaha Jewish Community Center. We will discuss The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro. The book offers an intriguing look at the fine line between art reproduction copies vs. art forgeries.

Sometimes the people who have known you the longest aren’t the ones who know you the best. There is something to be said about stepping back and gaining perspective through a new set of eyes. In Abbi Waxman’s novel Adult Assembly Required, Laura Costello comes to discover how true this can be as she begins to start her life anew. Laura moved from New York to Los Angeles to attend graduate school for Physical Therapy.