The end of the year provides an opportunity to reflect. This year had many highs and lows, including social and humanitarian tragedies throughout the world. For many of us, books offer shelter, a place to search for answers to the complex challenges of our time, and a forum for reflection and analysis.
We are grateful to our authors who work on truly relevant and important volumes—both fiction and nonfiction. We are also happy to collaborate with incredible professionals and experts in their fields who help our authors find their readers.
Of course, we would also like to say a huge thank you to our readers who are able to distinguish the temporary from the eternal, the propagandistic from the analytical, and the unambiguous from the multilayered. We wish you a happy transition to the year 2025 with hopes of peace and harmony.
Here are some of our 2024 highlights:
Awards
We are proud to announce that Jewish Studies is our most awarded genre this year.
Responsa in a Historical Context: A View of Post-Expulsion Spanish-Portuguese Jewish Communities through Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Responsa by Deborah Koren won the 2024 Association for Jewish Studies’ Jordan Schnitzer First Book Publication Award
18 Jewish Stories Translated from 18 Languages by Nora Gold was named a Foreword Indies Finalist (in the Anthologies category)
The 7 Deadly Myths by Alex Ryvchin Ryvchin – Foreword Indies Finalist (in the Religion category)
The Population History of German Jewry 1815–1939 by Steven Mark Lowenstein was given honorable mention by the Association of Jewish Libraries 2024 Judaica Reference and Bibliography Awards
Hate Speech and Academic Freedom: The Antisemitic Assault on Basic Principles by Cary Nelson earned a 2024 Bernard Lewis Prize
Mstyslav Chernov, the author of the novel The Dreamtime received an Oscar® for Best Documentary Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards®
Faith and Trust: An Introduction to Judeo-Arabic Thought by Diana Lobel received CHOICE Outstanding Academic Titles, 2024
Also, CHOICE Outstanding Academic Titles, 2024 was given to our title The History of Turkey: Grandeur and Grievance by Maurus Reinkowski in the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Series.
Fiction
ASP’s 2024 fiction titles reflect on war and peace while immersing readers in varied times and worldwide cultures.
Daur Nachkebia’s “The Shore of the Night” and Guram Odisharia’s “The President’s Cat”
“Readers of this powerful volume will be compelled by the mystery of the ‘Possibility of Impossible,’ a literarily crafted belief that proves even more effective than any political slogan in gaining inner victory over war.”
— Salome Lapachishvili, Ilia State University
by Talila Kosh Wollner
“Marta’s Notebooks is not your usual Holocaust story. It is a combination of fact and fiction, based on the story of the author’s mother, Marta Kraus, who survived Auschwitz as a young girl. But it is not solely about the horrors that she endured. It is about the life that she and others led before, during, and after the war and what those experiences did to the survivors. A fascinating read!”
— Prof. Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz, Director, Finkler Institute of Holocaust Research, Bar-Ilan University
Ukrainian-Language Open Access Series
ASP collaborates with Ukrainian scholars who work in a state of war and displacement. We publish Ukrainian-language titles to support scholars and to express solidarity and hope for better times in the region.
Women and War: Letters from Ukraine to the Free World
Edited by Aurélie Bros
“This book is the story of 38 Ukrainian women who have decided to choose what they want to become, and it will grip and inspire you from first page to last.”
— Stephen Fry
Between past and present
In addition to scholarly titles on history, ASP presented a novelty about the history of culinary art, which includes plentiful, delicious recipes as well as important context on food’s integral role in culture.
by Hélène Jawhara Piñer
“Hélène’s ability to teach me about the history of Jewish food-ways always has me at the edge of my seat, the fact that I want to make every recipe in this book is just a bonus!”
— Jake Cohen, New York Times bestselling author of Jew-ish and I Could Nosh
These titles draw readers into stories that span challenges and time periods.
The Nansen Factor: Refugee Stories
by Alexandra Grabbe
“A compassionate rendering of acclimation and its many challenges.”
— Booklist
by Emanuela Barasch Rubinstein
“Barasch Rubinstein… does a marvelous job of bringing to vivid life the political and cultural landscape of Israel during terribly turbulent years.” — Kirkus
A few titles were dedicated to the history of remembrance that combined both Slavic and Jewish Studies. History feels so relevant right now that these academic publications are also great material for dialogue in many settings outside of academia.
The Destruction of Jewish Cemeteries in Poland
by Krzysztof Bielawski
by Jennifer Stark-Blumenthal
Visionaries from Lviv: The Story of a Jewish Hospital
by Ewa Herbst
A moving book with contributions from leading historians, scholars, and medical professionals, Visionaries from Lviv is an ode to the once-thriving Jewish community in Lviv and a testament to how one person’s dream and commitment can impact many lives.
We were fortunate to introduce new memoirs this year.
Here is one that appeared in Los Angeles Magazine:
An Urban Odyssey: A Critic’s Search for the Soul of Cities and Self
by Sam Hall Kaplan
“Sam Hall Kaplan was one of the first critics to pay attention to the urban landscape of Los Angeles starting in 1978. He explored neighborhoods off the beaten path and his dispatches on quirky corners and classic and emerging architecture going up in the go-go 1980s and 90s inspired readers to take the city more seriously and get beyond some of the criticism of earlier generations. In his memoir An Urban Odyssey: A Critic’s Search for the Soul of Cities and Self, Kaplan looks back at his almost half-century of writing about Southern California.”
This title was featured in an impactful podcast on New Books Network:
Thank you for being a part of our community this year. We look forward to bringing you many more exciting books in 2025!
Looking Ahead…
We have some exciting titles coming up in 2023, so as always, be sure to check out our social media and subscribe to our newsletters!
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