We at Algonquin process, well, everything by reading books. We look to them for comfort and understanding in difficult times so we’re sharing three reading lists in the hope that these books might help you, too. Sending peace, hope, and strength to readers everywhere. The books listed here offer insight about war from people who’veContinue reading

Warmer weather is on its way, and with it, a set of incredible new books from Algonquin! Meet your next favorite in this lineup, all hitting the shelves in the coming months.   Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel by Matti Friedman This is the true story of four outsiders whoContinue reading

Matti Friedman‘s book Pumpkinflowers recounts an unnamed war on a small hilltop in Lebanon in the 1990s, a hill guarded by a band of young Israeli soldiers. Though the war has nearly been lost to history, Friedman relates the ways in which it changed these soldiers and their county, and he documents the birth of a new, modern styleContinue reading

More than just a day for grilling outside in the summer-is-almost-here weather, Memorial Day is a time to remember fallen soldiers and their stories. Here are three books — a memoir, a novel and a history — that take us inside soldiers’ experiences, each in a different way, each completely memorable: Pumpkinflowers by Matti Friedman: ItContinue reading

Congratulations, Matti Friedman! His book, The Aleppo Codex, was named a finalist for the 2014 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature. The award “recognizes the unique role of contemporary writers in the transmission and examination of the Jewish experience. It is intended to encourage and promote outstanding writing of Jewish interest,” as the Jewish BookContinue reading

In an age when the importance of physical books is debated, here is a thrilling story about a book that meant everything. A thousand years ago, the most perfect copy of the Hebrew Bible was written. It was kept safe through one upheaval after another in the Middle East, and by the 1940s it wasContinue reading