From left to right: Mariette Hummel, Elyssa Friedland, Sharyn Vane. Credit: Allison Teegardin

By Allison Teegardin

On September 14, 2022, two of the same women who banded together to form ATXKind, a grassroots group of six Jewish women, to stand up against rising antisemitism in the Austin area, came together once again as they launched the Greater Austin Area Jewish Book Club.

Mariette Hummel says the book club grew from a post she made on the Greater Austin Jewish Parents Facebook page. “I posted asking if anyone wanted to start a book club with me and there was a lot of interest. I created a Facebook group and we went from there,” Hummel said. By the first meeting, the group had more than 100 members and now it currently has 245 members and is growing. Several members said they learned about the book club when they attended Mosaic, Shalom Austin’s women’s philanthropy luncheon.

Sharyn Vane, who co-founded the book club and helps run it with Hummel, said, “We are focused on reading books that are engaging and offer a relaxed reading experience.” Once the first book was picked, NSFW by Jewish author Isabel Kaplan, Hummel reached out to Kaplan. “I contacted her to tell her about the Jewish book club and how we are excited to read her book. I asked if she had time to answer some questions if we have them. I figured by email or maybe, if we were lucky, on Zoom! But she immediately offered to fly to Austin and meet with us in person,” Hummel said.

Kaplan delivered an authentic look into her path as a writer, her time working as a woman in a male-dominated field, at a large TV network in Los Angeles, as well as details about her novel. She broached the topic of the struggles many women face in the workplace and discussed how she artfully injected humor into the story to provide some relief at times when the reader was presented with a difficult or uncomfortable topic. Although the conversation was about very real issues, Kaplan assured the crowd her book was a work of fiction.

Thinking the first meeting, live with the author, would be hard to beat, Hummel and Vane underestimated their collective excellence.

On November 15, 2022, the book club held its second meeting, this time at the Shalom Austin Epstein Family Community Hall / Gloria and Harvey Evans Performance Center. And once again, the author of the selected book attended in person to interact with the readers. Elyssa Friedland, author of The Most Likely Club, flew in from New York City to attend the meeting. Raised Jewish, Friedland didn’t set out to write novels that paid homage to Jewish living, it happened organically. Sharing what it means for her to be recognized as a Jewish author, Friedland said that in her first book, her main character was Jewish because it was familiar and comforting to write about. Then, Friedland became involved with The Jewish Book Council, traveled to JCCs for book events and fell in love with Jewish readers. “Leaning into my Jewish identity, I make sure every book has at least some Jewishness in it,” Friedland said. “It’s just as easy to make a large family gathering scene take place at a Bat Mitzvah as it is a wedding.”

Hummel says the book club plans to continue meeting every few months. To join the Greater Austin Jewish Book Club and see what they are reading, visit: facebook.com/groups/1418668705226484/