Skip to main content

Tablet Magazine's List of 101 Great Jewish Books

Description: Tablet Magazine's list, at http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/145840/101-great-jewish-books. Note: This list is heavily -- if not disproportionately -- male, Ashkenazi (European), and New York-centric. It includes few books by or about women or Sephardic (Spanish/Portuguese) or Mizrahi (Middle Eastern) Jews.

1 2

Rank Title Author Added

1

7,079 members

101 reviews

4.1

6 Members: thecoroner, Dilara86, MilkenLibrary, ahef1963, mspixieears, ChristopherDempsey
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Authenticity & Experimentation" category

2

27,390 members

375 reviews

4

5 Members: aulsmith, thecoroner, MilkenLibrary, ahef1963, mspixieears
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "The Jew in the World" category

3

All-of-a-Kind Family

by Sydney Taylor

3,824 members

63 reviews

4.2

5 Members: aulsmith, Dilara86, cej1027, MilkenLibrary, ManWithAnAgenda
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "The Jew in the World" category

4

by Joseph Heller

44,242 members

578 reviews

4.1

4 Members: aulsmith, thecoroner, MilkenLibrary, ahef1963
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Laughing & Complaining" category

5

Where the Wild Things Are

by Maurice Sendak

30,804 members

1,512 reviews

½ 4.3

4 Members: Dilara86, cej1027, MilkenLibrary, ahef1963
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Appetites" category

6

22,836 members

267 reviews

4

4 Members: thecoroner, MilkenLibrary, mspixieears, ManWithAnAgenda
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Suffering & Loss" category

7

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

13,530 members

245 reviews

4.1

4 Members: thecoroner, cej1027, MilkenLibrary, ahef1963
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Authenticity & Experimentation" category

8

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret

8,861 members

260 reviews

3.8

4 Members: MilkenLibrary, ahef1963, mspixieears, ManWithAnAgenda
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "The Jew in the World" category

9

by Isaac Asimov

23,298 members

441 reviews

4

3 Members: MilkenLibrary, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: Foundation Series, Isaac Asimov (1951): "The Jew in the World" category

10

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

by Michael Chabon

20,350 members

428 reviews

4.2

3 Members: aulsmith, MilkenLibrary, ahef1963
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Authenticity & Experimentation" category

11

12,901 members

240 reviews

½ 4.3

3 Members: MilkenLibrary, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Suffering & Loss" category

12

by Marcel Proust

12,891 members

207 reviews

4.2

3 Members: thecoroner, Dilara86, MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "The Jew in the World" category

13

The Complete Maus

by Art Spiegelman

10,690 members

286 reviews

½ 4.5

3 Members: cej1027, MilkenLibrary, mspixieears
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Suffering & Loss" category

14

Portnoy's Complaint

8,026 members

162 reviews

½ 3.6

3 Members: thecoroner, MilkenLibrary, ahef1963
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Appetites" category

15

The Interpretation of Dreams

by Sigmund Freud

6,238 members

55 reviews

½ 3.5

3 Members: thecoroner, MilkenLibrary, ahef1963
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "The Jew in the World" category

16

The Feminine Mystique

by Betty Friedan

5,133 members

55 reviews

3.8

3 Members: aulsmith, Dilara86, MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Laughing & Complaining" category

17

by Isaac Bashevis Singer

678 members

7 reviews

3.8

3 Members: thecoroner, Dilara86, MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Appetites" category

18

The Foundation Novels [seven-book bundle]

by Isaac Asimov

250 members

4 reviews

½ 4.5

3 Members: aulsmith, MilkenLibrary, ahef1963
Explanations: aulsmith: The series as a whole says more about Jewish humanism than the first book by itself.
MilkenLibrary: Foundation Series, Isaac Asimov (1951): "The Jew in the World" category

19

The New Oxford Annotated Bible, New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha

by Michael D. Coogan

4,620 members

12 reviews

½ 4.3

2 Members: cej1027, MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: The Bible: "What is Judaism?" category

20

by George Eliot

4,184 members

61 reviews

3.9

2 Members: thecoroner, MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "The Jew in the World" category

21

by Vasily Grossman

4,121 members

100 reviews

½ 4.4

2 Members: thecoroner, MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Suffering & Loss" category

22

Capital, Vol. 1: A Critique of Political Economy

3,222 members

30 reviews

4.2

2 Members: thecoroner, MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: Das Kapital, Karl Marx (1867): "Laughing & Complaining" category

23

by Lawrence Durrell

2,988 members

64 reviews

3.8

2 Members: thecoroner, MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Appetites" category

24

by Elias Canetti

2,638 members

31 reviews

4

2 Members: thecoroner, MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Appetites" category

25

A Tale of Love and Darkness

2,608 members

70 reviews

4.2

2 Members: thecoroner, MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Suffering & Loss" category

26

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

by Giorgio Bassani

2,336 members

59 reviews

3.8

2 Members: thecoroner, MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Suffering & Loss" category

27

2,317 members

43 reviews

3.8

2 Members: thecoroner, MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Authenticity & Experimentation" category

28

Without Feathers

2,074 members

27 reviews

3.8

2 Members: thecoroner, MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Laughing & Complaining" category

29

The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution

by Shulamith Firestone

986 members

10 reviews

½ 3.7

2 Members: aulsmith, MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Appetites" category

30

902 members

31 reviews

3.9

2 Members: thecoroner, MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "The Jew in the World" category

31

Two Concepts of Liberty: An Inaugural Lecture Delivered Before the University of Oxford on 31 October 1958

1 member

2 Members: aulsmith, MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: Two Concepts of Liberty, Isaiah Berlin (1958): "Authenticity & Experimentation" category

32

Man's Search for Meaning

by Viktor Frankl

19,359 members

369 reviews

4.2

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Suffering & Loss" category

33

If This Is a Man

6,634 members

102 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: Survival in Auschwitz, Primo Levi (1947): "Suffering & Loss" category

34

Darkness at Noon

by Arthur Koestler

5,963 members

120 reviews

4

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Suffering & Loss" category

35

5,693 members

68 reviews

½ 3.7

2 Members: thecoroner, MilkenLibrary,aulsmith
Explanations: aulsmith : Too much complaining, not enough laughing
MilkenLibrary: "Laughing & Complaining" category

36

Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil

by Hannah Arendt

4,987 members

65 reviews

4.2

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "The Jew in the World" category

37

4,556 members

69 reviews

4.1

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Authenticity & Experimentation" category

38

by Susan Sontag

3,919 members

48 reviews

4

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "The Jew in the World" category

39

Philosophical Investigations

by Ludwig Wittgenstein

3,827 members

25 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Laughing & Complaining" category

40

3,739 members

89 reviews

½ 3.4

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Appetites" category

41

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York

by Robert A. Caro

3,724 members

66 reviews

½ 4.5

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Appetites" category

42

by Baruch Spinoza

3,545 members

52 reviews

4.1

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Laughing & Complaining" category

43

by Bernard Malamud

2,490 members

40 reviews

3.9

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "The Old Country" category

44

by Flavius Josephus

2,408 members

28 reviews

3.9

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Suffering & Loss" category

45

Writing and Difference

by Jacques Derrida

1,874 members

5 reviews

3.9

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "The Jew in the World" category

46

The Passion According to G.H.

by Clarice Lispector

1,584 members

29 reviews

4

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Appetites" category

47

The Counterlife

1,526 members

23 reviews

3.9

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Authenticity & Experimentation" category

48

Marjorie Morningstar

1,414 members

31 reviews

3.8

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Authenticity & Experimentation" category

49

The Armies of the Night

by Norman Mailer

1,371 members

14 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Appetites" category

50

The Guide for the Perplexed

by Moses Maimonides

1,348 members

10 reviews

4

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "What is Judaism?" category

51

The Boys of Summer

1,334 members

23 reviews

4.1

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "The Jew in the World" category

52

The Savage Mind

by Claude Lévi-Strauss

1,240 members

9 reviews

3.9

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Appetites" category

53

The Street of Crocodiles

by Bruno Schulz

1,210 members

37 reviews

4.2

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Laughing & Complaining" category

54

Adventures in the Screen Trade

by William Goldman

1,207 members

18 reviews

4

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Authenticity & Experimentation" category

55

World of Our Fathers

932 members

13 reviews

4

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "The Old Country" category

56

The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry

by Harold Bloom

866 members

3 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Laughing & Complaining" category

57

The Puttermesser Papers

by Cynthia Ozick

818 members

18 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "The Jew in the World" category

58

What Makes Sammy Run?

by Budd Schulberg

658 members

12 reviews

3.8

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Appetites" category

59

Man Is Not Alone : A Philosophy of Religion

by Abraham Joshua Heschel

622 members

3 reviews

½ 4.6

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "What is Judaism?" category

60

Tevye the Dairyman / The Railroad Stories

by Sholom Aleichem

548 members

9 reviews

4

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: Tevye, Sholem Aleichem (1914): "The Old Country" category

61

Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number

by Jacobo Timerman

527 members

7 reviews

3.9

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Suffering & Loss" category

62

The Rise of David Levinsky

by Abraham Cahan

492 members

7 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Authenticity & Experimentation" category

63

The Memoirs of Glückel of Hameln

by Glückel of Hameln

474 members

7 reviews

4

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Authenticity & Experimentation" category

64

The Mind-Body Problem

by Rebecca Goldstein

457 members

10 reviews

3.9

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Appetites" category

65

by Leon Wieseltier

449 members

4 reviews

4.1

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "What is Judaism?" category

66

A Walker in the City

by Alfred Kazin

406 members

6 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "The Jew in the World" category

67

Later the Same Day (Contemporary American Fiction Series)

374 members

5 reviews

½ 3.4

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "The Jew in the World" category

68

In Dreams Begin Responsibilities and Other Stories

by Delmore Schwartz

344 members

4 reviews

3.9

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Authenticity & Experimentation" category

69

Really the Blues

by Mezz Mezzrow

295 members

6 reviews

4

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Authenticity & Experimentation" category

70

The Family Mashber

288 members

7 reviews

3.9

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "The Old Country" category

71

Nahman of Bratslav: The Tales

by Nahman of Bratslav

210 members

½ 4.5

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: Sipurei Masiyos by Rebbe Nachman of Breslov: "What is Judaism?" category

72

by Anzia Yezierska

210 members

5 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Laughing & Complaining" category

73

King of the Jews

by Leslie Epstein

208 members

1 review

3

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Suffering & Loss" category

74

185 members

2 reviews

4

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Authenticity & Experimentation" category

75

Daily Prayer Book: Ha-Siddur Ha-Shalem

by Philip Birnbaum

180 members

½ 4.3

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: Birnbaum Siddur, Philip Birnbaum (1977): "What is Judaism?" category

76

The Iron Tracks

by Aharon Appelfeld

178 members

2 reviews

4

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Suffering & Loss" category

77

by Theodor Herzl

176 members

2 reviews

½ 3.4

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Authenticity & Experimentation" category

78

The Destruction of the European Jews (Student One Volume Edition)

by Raul Hilberg

175 members

½ 4.6

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Suffering & Loss" category

79

168 members

2 reviews

½ 3.5

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "The Old Country" category

80

The Norton Anthology of English Literature

by M. H. Abrams

162 members

1 review

½ 4.5

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: The Norton Anthology of English Literature, edited by M.H. Abrams (1962): "The Jew in the World" category

81

The I. L. Peretz Reader

by Isaac Leib Peretz

152 members

1 review

½ 4.5

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: Folk-Style Stories, I.L. Peretz (1908): "The Old Country" category

82

History of the Jews

by Heinrich Graetz

146 members

1 review

½ 3.7

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "The Jew in the World" category

83

by Orly Castel-Bloom

139 members

3 reviews

3.2

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Suffering & Loss" category

84

Making It (NYRB Classics)

by Norman Podhoretz

137 members

1 review

3.8

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Authenticity & Experimentation" category

85

Adam Resurrected: A Novel

by Yoram Kaniuk

132 members

7 reviews

3

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Laughing & Complaining" category

86

The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem, 1932-1940

by Walter Benjamin

103 members

1 review

4.2

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Authenticity & Experimentation" category

87

The Babylonian Talmud: A Translation and Commentary

by Jacob Neusner

94 members

1 review

½ 3.5

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: Babylonian Talmud (770): "What is Judaism?" category

88

The Adventures of K'TonTon: A Little Jewish Tom Thumb

by Sadie Rose Weilerstein

88 members

1 review

4

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Authenticity & Experimentation" category

89

Beginning to See the Light: Sex, Hope, and Rock-and-Roll

by Ellen Willis

83 members

½ 3.6

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "The Jew in the World" category

90

77 members

2 reviews

4.2

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "The Old Country" category

91

The Ghetto Fights: Warsaw, 1941-43

by Marek Edelman

75 members

2 reviews

½ 4.6

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Suffering & Loss" category

92

68 members

1 review

4

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: Commentary, Rashi (11th c.): "What is Judaism?" category

93

Breakdown & Bereavement

by Yosef Haim Brenner

53 members

½ 4.5

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Laughing & Complaining" category

94

Dr. Ruth's Guide to Good Sex

by Ruth Westheimer

51 members

4

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "Appetites" category

95

Tzenah Urenah: Bamidbar-Devarim With Haftoros

by Yaakov Ben Yitzchak Ashkenazi

51 members

3

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: Tsene-Rene (1590s): "What is Judaism?" category

96

And from There You Shall Seek (Meotzar Horav)

by Joseph B. Soloveitchik

31 members

1 review

3

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "What is Judaism?" category

97

by Vladimir Jabotinsky

17 members

3.9

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: Samson the Nazerite, Ze’ev Jabotinsky (1927): "The Jew in the World" category

98

The Jewish government and other stories

by Lamed Shapiro

8 members

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: "The Old Country" category

99

Ocalone z Warszawskiego Getta Archiwum Ringelbluma - Salvaged From the Warsaw Ghetto the Archives of E. Ringelblum

by Emanuel Ringelblum

8 members

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: Ringelblum Archive (1944): "Suffering & Loss" category. See also the Oneg Shabbat Archives online.

100

Autoemancipation!

by Leon Pinsker

8 members

Member: MilkenLibrary
Explanations: MilkenLibrary: Auto-Emancipation, Leo Pinsker (1882): "Laughing & Complaining" category

1 2

About This List

Started: MilkenLibrary
June 2014
Type: Unnumbered, Adding restricted

Related Lists

Current Discussions

None

Related Tags

20th century (3,128) American literature (1,700) biography (2,168) classic (3,150) classics (3,412) fantasy (1,467) fiction (25,175) historical fiction (1,791) history (4,170) Holocaust (5,016) humor (1,595) Jewish (1,937) Judaism (1,558) literature (4,584) memoir (2,499) non-fiction (5,712) novel (5,253) philosophy (4,320) picture book (1,674) psychology (2,390) read (3,190) science fiction (4,164) to-read (17,496) war (1,987) WWII (5,389)

Verdana Standard Verdana Small The Lorax System Standard System Large Georgia Large Text Atkinson