Sisters of Fortune by Esther Chehebar

August 1, 2025

Sisters of Fortune by Esther Chehebar

Nina, Fortune, and Lucy Cohen are sisters. They live in an insular community of Syrian Sephardic Jews in Brooklyn. Fortune is engaged to be married and while Saul isn't the man of her dreams, she knows he will provide a stable comfortable life for her. Youngest sister Lucy is a high school senior dating a man in his 30s (which her parents don't think is inappropriate - go figure), while oldest sister Nina, still single at 26 and considered to be past her "sell-by" date, is trying to break out of her restrictive life.

I'm not usually a fan of women's fiction but this was an interesting look at a community I knew nothing about, a group of Sephardic Jews originally from Syria who all settled in the same Brooklyn neighborhood, which is what I enjoyed a lot more than the constant family drama. The ending felt rushed: there is no resolution to Fortune's flirtation with the grocer's son, and Nina does a 180 as soon as a potential husband appears on the horizon, falling back instantly into all the stuff she hated. Plus, Lucy's perfect marriage is already starting to show cracks, as she notices how her much older husband enjoys talking with her college educated sister and her friends, and her high school friends who attend college have already moved past her. Lots of discussion about the importance of food in their culture and traditions. If you like women's fiction, this will probably appeal to you.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Old School Indian by Aaron John Curtis

July 12, 2025

Old School Indian by Aaron John Curtis

Suffering from a rare autoimmune disease that will kill him within two years, Abe Jacobs returns to his family home on the reservation where he grew up. Abe dreamed of becoming a poet, but after his work was rejected by a number of publishers, he quit writing. He hasn't lived on the reservation since he left for college 25 years earlier, but now, desperate for a cure or at least something that will send the disease into remission, Abe agrees to allow his great uncle Budge to try to heal him, who teaches him that healing is not possible without hope and knowing yourself. 

There is a lot to unpack here. It's not a light read or a happy book, although many of the characters handle their situations through humor. Themes include family, cultural identity, tradition, mortality, various kinds of loss, and survival. Food plays a large role, in the ceremony of preparation, as an offering or tribute, and the act of gathering for meals. Lovely language and writing. In addition to telling a story, the author also describes trauma inflicted on indigenous peoples: forced sterilization, relocation and segregation, loss of culture, sexual violence. There are graphic descriptions of violence and sex, so more sensitive readers should be warned.

You should be aware of an organization called Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women that publicizes the violence committed against Native American women and girls, and tracks their cases. In North America, about 16% of all missing or murdered women and girls are Native American, while they make up only 4% of the population.

A Native American healing ceremony

The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by

December 17, 2019

The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by Balli Kaur Jaswal

The three Shergill sisters were all born in England, and only the oldest sister has ever visited India.  The sisters weren’t close growing up and have grown even further apart as adults.  They are shocked when their widowed mother makes a last request on her deathbed:  that her three daughters make a pilgrimage to India to visit the holy sites and spread her ashes.  Each of the sisters feels responsible for their mother’s lifelong unhappiness, and their stories unfold along their travels, bringing them closer together as their mother wished.

I was interested enough in the sisters to continue reading, but disappointed in the repetitiveness of their thoughts and the slow pacing made the story drag. 

(I’m sorry, but the India described in the book sounds like a horrible place:  very hot and humid, crowded, dirty, and dangerous for women.  There are 15% more men than women in India, due to the cultural preference for sons, and the Indian men in the story break into violence very quickly.)