The Marsha Razin Book and Film Club is excited to share with you our plans for the 2025 – 2026 season.
Our meetings take place at 7:30 PM at the Benjamin Library, usually on the second Monday of each month. The specific dates for September through December 2025 are listed. The exact dates for the 2026 meetings will be announced in a couple of months.
As always, the Library will have copies of these books, available for Library members to borrow for one week. Many of our members prefer to get their own copies, either hardcover or electronic.
Our Book and Film Club is open to all interested adults in the area. All meetings and materials are in English. The meetings will be held on the second Monday of each month, unless otherwise indicated. When are discussing a book, the meeting will start at 7:30 p.m. When we watch a film, the meeting will start at 7:15 p.m.
We hope you will enjoy reading these interesting books, watching the thought-provoking Netflix selections and then joining us for stimulating and enjoyable discussions.
A 10 NIS donation is requested when films are shown.
2025-2026 season lineup:
Monday, September 8, Discussion of a Netflix movie or Miniseries, to be announced
Monday, September 29, Fagin the Thief by Allison Epstein
A thrilling re-imagining of the world of Charles Dickens, as seen through the eyes of the infamous Jacob Fagin, London’s most gifted pickpocket, liar, and rogue.
Long before Oliver Twist stumbled onto the scene, Jacob Fagin was scratching out a life for himself in the dark alleys of nineteenth-century London. Born in the Jewish enclave of Stepney, shortly after his father was executed as a thief, Jacob’s whole world is his open-minded mother, Leah. But Jacob’s prospects are forever altered when a light-fingered pickpocket takes Jacob under his wing and teaches him a trade that pays far better than the neighborhood boys could possibly dream. Striking out on his own, Jacob familiarizes himself with London’s highest value neighborhoods while forging his own path in the shadows. But everything changes when he adopts an aspiring teenage thief named Bill Sikes, whose mercurial temper poses a danger to himself and anyone foolish enough to cross him. Along the way, Jacob’s found family expands to include his closest friend, Nancy, and his greatest protégé, the Artful Dodger. But as Bill’s ambition soars and a major robbery goes awry, Jacob is forced to decide what he really stands for—and what a life is worth.
As the New York Times reported, “Fagin the Thief takes one of literature’s greatest rogues and gives him a soul, a backstory, and a spotlight. Layered and clever, Epstein’s story is as ambitious as it is deeply satisfying”.
October – Break for the Chagim (no meeting)
Monday, November 10, The Good Daughter by Jasmin Darznik
Jasmin Darznik came to America from Iran when she was only three years old, and she grew up knowing very little about her family’s history. When she was in her early twenties, on a day shortly following her father’s death, Jasmin was helping her mother move a photograph fell from a stack of old letters. The girl pictured was her mother. She was wearing a wedding veil, and at her side stood a man whom Jasmin had never seen before. At first, Jasmin’s mother, Lili, refused to speak about the photograph, and Jasmin returned to her own home frustrated and confused. But a few months later, she received from her mother the first of ten cassette tapes that would bring to light the wrenching hidden story of her family’s true origins in Iran: Lili’s marriage at thirteen, her troubled history of abuse and neglect, and a daughter she was forced to abandon in order to escape that life. The final tape revealed that Jasmin’s sister, Sara – The Good Daughter – was still living in Iran. In this sweeping, poignant, and beautifully written memoir, Jasmin weaves the stories of three generations of Iranian women into a unique tale of one family’s struggle for freedom and understanding. The result is an enchanting and unforgettable story of secrets, betrayal, and the unbreakable mother-daughter bond.
Monday, December 8, The Bird Hotel by Joyce Maynard
After a childhood filled with heartbreak, Irene, a talented artist, finds herself in a small Central American village where she checks into a beautiful but decaying lakefront hotel called La Llorona at the base of a volcano.
The Bird Hotel tells the story of this young American who, after suffering tragedy, restores and runs La Llorona. Along the way we meet a rich assortment of characters who live in the village or come to stay at the hotel. With a mystery at its center and filled with warmth, drama, romance, humor, pop culture, and a little magical realism, The Bird Hotel has all the hallmarks of a Joyce Maynard novel that have made her a leading voice of her generation.
The Bird Hotel is a big, sweeping story, spanning four decades, offering lyricism as well as whimsy. New York Times bestselling author Joyce Maynard brings to life a world informed by the significant time she spent in a small Mayan indigenous village in Guatemala over more than twenty years. As the New York Times said, “Maynard has an unswerving eye, a sharply perked ear, and the ability to keep her readers hanging on her words.”
2026 Selections –
Exact Dates to Be Announced in the Future:
January 2026 – All the Broken Places by John Boyne
Ninety-one-year-old Gretel Fernsby has lived in the same well-to-do mansion block in London for decades. She lives a quiet, comfortable life, despite her deeply disturbing, dark past. She doesn’t talk about her escape from Nazi Germany at age twelve. She doesn’t talk about the grim postwar years in France with her mother. Most of all, she doesn’t talk about her father, who was the commandant of one of the Reich’s most notorious extermination camps.
Then, a new family moves into the apartment below her. In spite of herself, Gretel can’t help but begin a friendship with the little boy, Henry, though his presence brings back memories she would rather forget. One night, she witnesses a disturbing, violent argument between Henry’s beautiful mother and his arrogant father, one that threatens Gretel’s hard-won, self-contained existence.
Immersive, chilling, unputdownable, All the Broken Places moves back and forth in time between Gretel’s girlhood in Germany and present-day London. Here, Gretel is at a similar crossroads to the one she encountered long ago. Then, she denied her own complicity, but now, faced with a chance to interrogate her guilt, grief, and remorse, she can choose to save a young boy. If she does, she will be forced to reveal the secrets she has spent a lifetime protecting. This time, she can make a different choice than before.
As author John Irving commented, “You can’t prepare yourself for the magnitude and emotional impact of this powerful novel.”
February 2026 – The World Played Chess by Robert Dugoni
In 1979, Vincent Bianco has just graduated high school. His only desire: collect a little beer money and enjoy his final summer before college. So, he lands a job as a laborer on a construction crew. Working alongside two Vietnam vets, one suffering from PTSD, Vincent gets the education of a lifetime. Now, forty years later, with his own son leaving for college, the lessons of that summer―Vincent’s last taste of innocence and first taste of real life―dramatically unfold in a novel about breaking away, shaping a life, and seeking one’s own destiny.
The World Played Chess is from the same author as the much-loved book, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell.
March 2026 – Strangers in Time by David Baldacci
Set in London in 1944, Strangers in Time is about a bereaved bookshop owner and two teenagers scarred by the Second World War, and the healing and hope they find in one another.
Fourteen-year-old Charlie Matters is up to no good, but for a very good reason. Without parents, peerage, or merit, he steals what he needs, living day-to-day until he’s old enough to enlist to fight the Germans. After barely surviving the Blitz, Charlie knows there’s no telling when a falling bomb might end his life.
Fifteen-year-old Molly Wakefield has just returned to a nearly unrecognizable London. One of the millions of children to have been evacuated to the countryside, Molly has been away from her home for nearly five years. Her return, however, is not the homecoming she’d hoped for as she’s confronted by a devastating reality: neither of her parents are there. Without guardians and stability, Charlie and Molly find an unexpected ally and protector in Ignatius Oliver, and solace at his bookshop, The Book Keep. Mourning the recent loss of his wife, Ignatius forms a kinship with both children, and in each other they rediscover the spirit of family each has lost.
But Charlie’s escapades in the city have not gone unnoticed, and someone’s been following Molly since she returned to London. And Ignatius is harboring his own secrets, which could have terrible consequences for all of them.
As bombs continue to bear down on the city, Charlie, Molly, and Ignatius learn that while the perils of war rage on, their coming together and trusting one another may be the only way for them to survive.
April 2026 – Pesach/Yom Haatzmaut Break – no meetings
May 2026 – book to be announced
June 2026 – Discussion of a Netflix movie or Miniseries, to be announced
Our Book and Film Club is open to all interested adults in the area. All meetings and materials are in English. The meetings will be held on the second Monday of each month, unless otherwise indicated. When are discussing a book, the meeting will start at 7:30 p.m. When we watch a film, the meeting will start at 7:15 p.m.
A 10 NIS donation is requested when films are shown.
The selections for the 2025-2026 book club will be announced soon.
See the full 2025-26 lineup here.