From Schlub to Stud: How to Embrace Your Inner Mensch and Conquer the Big City by Max Gross: A schlubby Jewish writer (and onetime Jewcy contributer) learns not only to own his schlubbiness--but to overcome it. Be prepared to identify with him in ways you are ashamed to admit.

Winning clip: "Last summer, when the movie Knocked Up came out, I (and all the other schlubs I knew) nearly wept for joy...An impoverished, puffy-haired, chunky Jew suddenly seemed like saint and sex god."

Assisted Loving: True Tales of Double Dating with My Dad by Bob Morris: a middle aged gay man becomes a wingman for his eighty year old widowed father, as the two explore and experience the difficult world of dating together.

Winning clip: "Oh, my God. What am I doing? What is he doing? You hear about helicopter parents who hover over every aspect of the lives of their children. Am I becoming a helicopter son?...What can I say? I'm dying to know what the story is...His reports are so volatile, so unexpected, so hilariously bizarre that they make dating tales of my friends seem banal."

Cool Jew: The Ultimate Guide for Every Member of the Tribe by Lisa Alcalay Klug: A step by step how-to guide to transforming yourself into the ultimate cool Jew, or "Heebster." Includes lots of great graphics.

Winning clip: "Yarmulke, shmarmulke. When it's so jewcy, why only wear it on your head? Sew leather shoelaces on a matching pair to create a sexy string bikini top for your next Jewish singles cruise."

Hyper-Chondriac: One Man's Quest to Hurry Up and Calm Down by Brian Frazer: A man with a whole host of medical ailments discovers that the true source of his problems is stress. Foregoing a permanent reliance on Zoloft, he attempts to calm down via more natural methods, such as Tai Chi and Kabbalah.

Winning clip: "Finally it was time to learn the 'form.' I had to memorize a series of movements that Mr. Chow performed alongside me, nearly all of which I found very confusing. He barked out sequences like 'paint the walls with your fingertips,' 'carry the ball,'...and 'eat the cowboy's hat.' Yeah, I made that last one up. But it was still very confusing."

Moose: a Memoir of Fat Camp by Stephanie Klein: A coming of age story about a girl at fat camp. An honest and funny account of self discovery, linking the trials of adolescence to lifelong emotions.

Winning clip: "While my upbringing didn't make me fat, it played a part in shaping my priorities. And of utmost importance to me was my appearance, not for vanity reasons, but because I wanted to be loved. Poppa thought he was doing me a favor by telling me no man would want me if I was fat. It was his clumsy way of trying to spare me years of frustration in an unjust society."

Hot Mess: Summer in the City by Julie Kraut and Shallon Lester: A rising high school senior decides to give the Sex and the City ladies a run for their money, spending the summer at a hot internship in New York City. Unfortunately, big city life turns out to be less glamorous than she expected.

Winning clip: "You know, if I had seen his dating resume, I would have thought that he was perfect. Good family from New Jersey, wants to be a doctor, loves dogs, not wearing athletic sandals. Generally good in theory, you know? But in person - well, he talked about the summer chem class he was taking in excruciating detail. I thought about forking myself in the eye it was so boring. But then I remembered that I forgot to bring any extra contacts to New York, so I can't really fuck this pair up...Whatever. I have another JDate tonight."

Surprised by God: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Religion by Danya Ruttenberg: A young woman who swore off religion (and God) as a teenager embarks on a not so conventional journey back into the spiritual fold, and finds a way to reconcile twenty-first century life with traditional Judaism -- without doing damage to either.

Winning review: "Danya Ruttenberg marshals beautiful writing and a prodigious intellect, and, leavening it all with a hefty dose of wit, tells a compelling story that has something to teach everyone who picks it up, regardless of how spiritual or religious (or not) they are" - Lisa Jervis.

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink: A German teenager has an affair with an older woman and later realizes she was involved in some of the worst Nazi cruelty. Beautifully and simply written (translated into English by Carol Brown Janeway) it stays away from the detailed descriptions of Jewish suffering, and instead wonders about the complicity of average Germans, and how to make amends.

The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman: A fictionalized account of the true story of Jan and Antonina Zabinisky, who hid more than 300 Jews and Polish resisters in the Warsaw Zoo that they ran. I’m only half way through, but the writing is fantastic, and the subtext and commentary about how people, animals, and the way we treat each other is subtle and fascinating.

The Complete Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman: Spiegelman produced what the Wall Street Journal called “the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust.” He tells the story of his rocky relationship with his father, Vladek Spiegelman, and intersperses the story of his father’s survival in WW II Europe. Winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize.

The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million by Daniel Mendelsohn: Part Memoir part history, the book is the story of Mendelsohn’s journey to find out as much as he could about the six members of his family who died in the Holocaust. Instead of focusing on big numbers and statistics he uses a microscope to look closely at just a few people, and the results are tender and moving. Listen to a Nextbook podcast interview with David Mendelsohn here.

Somewhere in Germany by Stefanie Zweig: Zweig’s family escaped the Nazis by moving to Kenya, but they return to Germany once the war is over, and the novel, translated by Marlies Comjean, looks at postwar Germany, the anti-Semitism that remains, the difficulties of returning home, and the pain of exile. Otto Frank has a memorable cameo appearance. A gorgeous sequel to Nowhere in Africa (see below).

The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen: 12-Year-old Hannah travels back in time from a Passover Seder in 1988 to Poland in World War II. As Chaya she is sent to a concentration camp where she learns about growing up and survival in a harrowing and poignant young adult novel. They made a movie with Kirsten Dunst, but the book is much better, and accessible to middle schoolers and adults alike.

Bent Directed by Sean Mathias: Max, a gay man in Germany at the start of WW II is sent to Dachau, where he pretends to be Jewish, instead of gay, and then falls in love with an openly gay prisoner. An effective look at the way the Holocaust effected other minorities.

The Counterfeiters Directed by Stefan Ruzowitzsky: The story of a German man, Sally Sorowitsch, in a concentration camp where he’s forced to help the Nazis produce fake foreign currency in order to weaken the Allies’ economy. When a friend and fellow counterfeiter refuses to help the Nazis Sorowitsch is faced with a dilemma that could mean life or death. Winner of this year’s Oscar for best foreign film.

Nowhere in Africa Directed by Caroline Link: Based on the book by Stefanie Zweig, the movie tells the story of Zweig’s family’s departure from Germany on the eve of the Holocaust, and their strange and difficult lives in Kenya, where they enjoy relative safety from the Nazis, but must wonder constantly about the rest of their families. Winner of the Oscar for best foreign film in 2003.

Forgiving Dr. Mengele Directed by Bob Hercules and Cheri Pugh: A documentary about Eva Mozes Kor, who, along with her twin sister Miriam, was used as a guinea pig by Dr. Josef Mengele in Auschwitz. In the 80s, Kor persuaded former Nazi doctor, Hans Mnuch, to return to Auschwitz with her to declare that the Holocaust happened. During a press conference at that event Kor said she forgave Munch, and when she was asked if she could forgive Dr. Megele, she said said yes. The movie looks at the ways we forgive, the meaning of forgiveness, and how we look back on a painful history.

The Rape of Europa Directed by Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen and Nicole Newnham: A documentary narrated by Joan Allen, this film looks at the devastating effects of Nazi art theft during World War II, and the heroic efforts of American military personnel, and American art historians who try to recover and return as much of the lost art as they can.

Walk on Water Directed by Eytan Fox: An Israeli film about a contemporary Israeli secret service agent tasked with following around the grandchildren of a Nazi war criminals. A beautiful and provocative movie, it looks at everything from what it means to be an Israeli man, to sexuality, to forgiveness.