Plenty of book clubs are lighting the menorah this December, either instead of or alongside decking the halls. Hanukkah books for adults take more digging to find than Christmas reads, since so much of the Hanukkah shelf is picture books.
Here are the Hanukkah books Bookclubs members read and shelve most: romances, two YA favorites, short story collections you can spread across the eight nights, and a cookbook for the potluck. Celebrating both holidays? Our list of Christmas book club books has plenty more ideas.
Bookworm Pulitzer members get 20% off books bought through our Buy the Book buttons. Just make sure you're logged in to Bookclubs first.
Hanukkah Romance Novels
Most adult Hanukkah fiction is romance, and these are the ones our members come back to. Expect latkes, festival committees and at least one couple who can't stand each other on the first night.
 |
The Matzah Ball Rachel Rubenstein-Goldblatt is a nice Jewish girl with a secret: she writes bestselling Christmas romances. When her publisher demands a Hanukkah romance instead, she goes looking for inspiration at a Jewish music festival run by her childhood summer-camp nemesis. Buy the Book Add to Shelf |
 |
Love You a Latke As the only Jew on her Vermont town's tourism board, café owner Abby Cohen gets stuck planning its first Hanukkah festival for vendors who think light-up plastic dreidels tell the story. Meanwhile, her sunniest and most annoying regular won't stop trying to win her over. Buy the Book Add to Shelf |
 |
The Eight Heartbreaks of Hanukkah TV producer Evelyn Schwartz plans to spend all eight nights of Hanukkah staging a live musical of A Christmas Carol, until a migraine lands her in the set's medical bay and the doctor on call is her ex-husband. Buy the Book Add to Shelf |
 |
Eight Nights to Win Her Heart Andie is dreading her first Chanukah alone since her father's death. Leo, the hard-of-hearing neighbor who has had a crush on her for years, finally works up the courage to keep her company before she moves across the country. Buy the Book Add to Shelf |
 |
Miracles and Menorahs Sarah wants a giant metal menorah to save her town's struggling Hanukkah festival. The sculptor who could build it thinks the holiday belongs at home with family, not in an advertising campaign. Can she change his mind? Buy the Book Add to Shelf |
 |
One Night, Two Holidays A snowstorm strands two Chicago neighbors: Jack, who wanted a big family Christmas, and Nessa, who had no Hanukkah plans at all. At 142 pages, it's an easy read the week of your meeting. Buy the Book Add to Shelf |
 |
Three Holidays and a Wedding Seatmates Maryam Aziz and Anna Gibson are flying to Toronto for the holidays, Maryam to her sister's impromptu wedding and Anna to meet her boyfriend's wealthy family, when a storm strands them in a small Ontario town where Christmas, Hanukkah and Eid all fall in the same week. Buy the Book Add to Shelf |
YA Hanukkah Books
Plenty of adults read YA, and these two are lighter, cozy picks for a busy December. They also work well for a parent-teen book club.
 |
Eight Nights of Flirting Sixteen-year-old Shira Barbanel is determined to get a boyfriend this Hanukkah, and she has the perfect candidate picked out: her great-uncle's brilliant assistant. But when she strikes a deal with her nemesis-slash-former-crush. for flirting lessons, things don't go according to plan. Buy the Book Add to Shelf |
 |
Eight Dates and Nights Snowed in at her grandmother's house in small-town Texas, New Yorker Hannah Levin meets Noah, the only other Jewish teen around. Together they try to save the last trace of Jewish life in town. Buy the Book Add to Shelf |
Hanukkah Short Stories and Anthologies
Short stories are easy to fit into a hectic month. These range from Yiddish classics to crime fiction to two thousand years of Hanukkah writing.
 |
One for Each Night Stories, poems and essays about Chanukah by Sholom Aleichem, Nobel laureates S. Y. Agnon and Elie Wiesel, Chaim Potok, Emma Lazarus and more, set everywhere from the shtetls of the Old Country to Manhattan's Upper West Side. At 140 pages, you can read a piece a night. Buy the Book Add to Shelf |
 |
Eight Very Bad Nights Eleven twisted Hanukkah crime stories, including an ITW Thriller Award finalist about a pharmaceutical rep trying not to kill anyone at her family's last-night-of-Hanukkah dinner. Add to Shelf |
 |
The Hanukkah Anthology Two thousand years of Hanukkah in Jewish literature, from biblical hints and the Talmud to medieval texts, home liturgy and modern stories. A deep dive for a club that wants the history behind the holiday. Buy the Book Add to Shelf |
A Jewish Cookbook for Your Hanukkah Meeting
Not a typical book club read, but a good one to pass around if your Hanukkah meeting is a potluck.
 |
The Jewish Cookbook More than 400 recipes for everyday and holiday Jewish food from the Middle East, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, with contributions from chefs including Yotam Ottolenghi and Michael Solomonov. Buy the Book Add to Shelf |