“Recent years have seen a number of books published in which an author commits to following the oft-neglected tenets of a religion—think A. J. Jacobs’s The Year of Living Biblically (2007) or Rachel Held Evans’s A Year of Biblical Womanhood (2012). Here, putting her own spin on this formula, Pogrebin charts her own successful and illuminating course through a year of Jewish holidays. This personal but also thoroughly researched book chronicles a year of celebrating 18 Jewish holidays deeply and committedly. Each chapter features background information about the holiday and conversations with experts but also the author’s sometimes funny and sometimes poignant attempts to do them well. The book is a frank reckoning with the author’s own heart, but it’s also about the myriad ways Jews relate to each other. Jewish and non-Jewish readers alike will appreciate this thoughtful and intimate journey through a very Jewish year.”

— Christine Engel for Booklist