An Unexpected Surprise

 In fact, there are two unexpected surprises:

#1

Crooked Lines: A Single Mom's Jewish Journey received the Nautilus Book Silver Award for Spiritual Memoirs. Honored to see a number of previous Nautilus Book Award winners includes Judy Collins, Louis Erdrich, Barbara Kingsolver, Deepak Chopra, Barbara Kingsolver, Desmond Tutu and his Holiness the Daiai Lama. Of course I got most excited about Judy Collins being a previous winner since I'm a huge fan of hers. She writes beautifully, too.

Nautilus Book Awards are named for the mollusk, whose beautiful pearl-lined shell contains chambers of increasing size, which the sea creature constructs for itself as it grows. The nautilus symbolizes both ancient wisdom and expanding horizons, the elegance of nature and a continual growth of understanding and awareness. 

One of the goals of Nautilus Book Awards is to energize the interconnections between books, authors, publishers, readers, and communities -- and to be responsive to the world through words.

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#2  

Crooked Lines also received an Honorable Mention in the Spiritual Category of the Eric Hoffer Book Awards. The Spiritual category involves the mind and spirit, including religion, metaphysical, and mystical. The Eric Hoffer judges' review of Crooked Lines is as follows:

Crooked Lines: A Single Mom's Jewish Journey, Jenna Zark, Koehler Books - The protagonist, Jenna Zark, gives the reader of any faith a glimpse into many Jewish traditions, including the Torah, a get / Sefer k'ritut, mezuzahs, the menorah during Hanukah, Yom HaShoah, a Tu B'Shevat meal, and challah at Shabbat. Shame arises during many universal events: a single parent journey, divorce from a respected cantor, anti-Semitic bullying, failure to immerse her child in traditional cultural traditions, and other experiences. 

However, these decisions and traumas help her navigate the culture: Jenna's only son becoming a cantor, circumcision for boys, impurity during one's period, snippets of friendship. It is a Judaism Chicken Soup for the Soul with bittersweet memories, new love, and wit.

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Thank you, Nautilus and Eric Hoffer judges!

I'm truly very grateful for the support and recognition and most of all, the readers/reviewers who took the time to read Crooked Lines and think about it. I'm also hoping the award brings more attention to the holidays and rituals in the Jewish calendar.

To learn more about Nautilus and the 2023 award winners, visit www.nautilusbookawards.com.

To learn more about the Eric Hoffer award winners, visit the US Review of Books.

And to learn more about my amazing publisher, please visit the Koehler Books website.