Features

Fall Reading 2025

Fall is known as the biggest season of the year for books. The titles that release during this latter part of the year often become holiday gifts, and many are blockbusters. In our Fall Reading Contests and Feature, we are spotlighting a number of outstanding books that we know people will be talking about this fall.

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Sharon Kurtzman, author of The Lost Baker of Vienna

In 2018, Zoe Rosenzweig is reeling after the loss of her beloved grandfather, a Holocaust survivor. She becomes obsessed with finding out what really happened to her family during the war. Vienna, 1946: Chana Rosenzweig has endured the horrors of war to find herself, her mother and her younger brother finally free in Vienna. But freedom doesn’t look like they’d imagined it would, as they struggle to make a living and stay safe. Despite the danger, Chana sneaks out most nights to return to the hotel kitchen where she works as a dishwasher, using the quiet nighttime hours to bake her late father’s recipes. Soon, Chana finds herself caught in a dangerous love triangle, torn between the black-market dealer who has offered marriage and protection, and the apprentice baker who shares her passions. How will Chana balance her love of baking against her family’s need for security?

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The Lost Baker of Vienna by Sharon Kurtzman

September 2025

I, like many of you, have read my fair share of fiction about World War II. What my historical education lacks is what happened after the war. I am not naïve. I did not think that people left the concentration camps, bought new clothes, and had a few good meals to celebrate their liberation. But I also was not sure how their stories would unfold. THE LOST BAKER OF VIENNA gave me the chance to see how one fictional family navigated the weeks and months after their release.

The book has its history rooted in stories that Sharon Kurtzman’s mother shared with her of how her family survived after the fighting ended. They lived in Vienna, a city that was controlled by four different countries (I did not know this) and where violence still sprang up, food was scarce, and the black market was in full operation.

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