Month: March 2025

Magical Meet Cute

Posted on by Wendy Kennar

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know I’m a big Jean Meltzer fan. (If you haven’t been reading my blog for a while, don’t worry. Click here to read my post about Ms. Meltzer’s debut novel, The Matzah Ball. Click here to read my thoughts about her second novel, Mr. Perfect on Paper. And click here to read some of my favorite passages from her third novel, Kissing Kosher.)

And if you have been reading my blog for a while, you also know I don’t usually read books right when they’re published, simply because everyone else is. I like to wait a bit, until the hoopla has settled down. Then, I select the book from the large number of to-be-read-books I currently own. I read the book and post about it here on my blog and on my Instagram. (If you’re not already following me there, why not?)

My system allows me to show the author some love and attention when they’re in-between books and perhaps aren’t being discussed and celebrated like they were immediately upon publication. 

Ms. Meltzer’s fourth novel, Magical Meet Cute (published in August 2024), was not your standard rom-com. The book’s main character is Faiga Kaplan (Faye to her friends), a Jewitch potter living in Woodstock, New York. And while there most definitely is a romance aspect to the story, the book also confronts the ugliness and the reality of blatant anti-Semitism. 

There is so much to say about this book, about Faye and Greg. Allow me to share some of my favorite passages:

“Greg caught on the word. ‘Home.’
“ ‘The place where you belong. The place where people love you.’
“Home felt like Faye.”  (I love this definition of home!)

“Greg didn’t see her broken bits as flaws. If anything, it was the opposite. She was like that one vase in the store she had hidden behind the fancier and more elaborate-looking Seder plate. She saw herself as warped and damaged, undeserving of love and attention. Yet it was all the bubbles in her clay memory, the scratches and scars … that made her unique.”

“And, at the end of the day, none of that making herself smaller mattered. Because nothing about what these people had done to her, chosen for her, was fair. Or right.
“Just like it had never, ever been her fault.
“But she was exhausted from a lifetime of making other people feel comfortable. And suddenly, she was done. Straight-up finished with all these less than deserving people arriving to her shoreline. Damn the silence. Damn the consequences. She was ready to live her life without constantly interrupting herself to say that she was sorry.”

“She gave others what she had always needed from them — love and affection, security and protection, a place to land when things got bad — while never demanding the same for herself.”

“We can hold on to memory, bear the things that shape us, but also … write our own story going forward.”

“ ‘You want the truth about settling down, Greg?’ Tom asked. ‘About spending the rest of your life with one woman, raising a family … about giving up the adventure sometimes, just for a quiet boredom?’ “
“ ‘Yeah.’
“ ‘It’s awesome,’ Tom said.
“Greg laughed.
“ ‘I’m serious,’ Tom said, his whole face turning red as he spoke. ‘Every single day, I wake up and go to bed with my best friend in the world. When i’m having a hard day — shit, when I needed neck surgery — she’s there for me. When I’m having a good day, when I want to watch a game or a movie on Netflix with the kids, there’s no one I would rather spend time with more than her. It’s not just that she busts my chops, or has fun with me, or makes me better … it’s that I can’t imagine how there was ever a me without her’.” 

“It was the most remarkable type of magic — falling in love, finding your person, crafting your own life, writing a story where you deserved to be valued.”

FYI – Ms. Meltzer’s fifth novel, The Eight Heartbreaks of Hanukkah, will be available on October 21st. You can pre-order a signed copy now.  

Please note: I am including a link to buy the book that I’m highlighting this week. If you use my link, I do make a small commission on your purchase at no additional cost to you. I am working with Bookshop.org which also sends a portion of the profit to support local, independent bookstores.



I Believe

Posted on by Wendy Kennar
My reusable coffee tumbler is decorated with stickers designed by Katherine Center.

I am in the middle of a three-month online program called The Creative Shift Mastermind with Dan Blank. (I have taken several webinars with Dan and always come away having learned something new to apply to my writing and how I share my writing.)

Each week throughout The Mastermind, we focus on a different aspect of our creative life. Recently, our activities centered on our “Creative Identity.” 

Taken from our syllabus:

“Define Your Creative Identity. Have confidence in your creative identity, and know how to talk about what you create and why. The result of this is your ability to share more frequently and authentically, and greater ability to engage others.” 

During one of my daily five-minute writing exercises, I wrote a series of “I believe…” statements that all had something to do with what I write, why I write, and why I share what I write. 

My dear readers, you are an important part of my writing. Therefore, for this week’s blog post, I would like to share my “I believe” statements with you. Thank you for your support and being with me on my writing journey.

I believe… (as it pertains to my writing):

I believe everyone is walking around with pain of some sort.

I believe everyone has scars, whether we can see them or not.

I believe writing is another way of teaching.

I believe writing is one way to help make the invisible visible.

I believe chronic illness can be lonely and isolating.

I believe writing is one way to find connection with others who “get it.”

I believe writing is a way to share our stories and our hearts and realize that we’re not alone.

I believe my story is worthy of sharing.

I believe I continue to teach through my writing.

I believe I have much to learn and writing helps me make sense of things.

I believe one way I sort things out, one way I figure out how I feel about things is by writing about it.

I believe my book is a book I would have loved to read when I first became ill.

I believe I don’t talk about my writing enough.

I believe kindness and compassion and patience are so very important.

I believe I have always been a writer.

I believe I will always be a writer.

Your True Self Is Enough

Posted on by Wendy Kennar

I met author Susanna Peace Lovell at the 2024 Culver City Book Festival. We chatted — about her book and my teaching years. I was curious about her memoir and her experiences in the Los Angeles Unified School District as the parent of a child with Autism. 

During my twelve-year teaching career, I taught several students with Autism. If you don’t know much about Autism, this is what you should know — there is a wide-range of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Each child’s experiences living with Autism may be different. 

Ms. Lovell’s memoir Your True Self Is Enough: Lessons Learned on My Journey Parenting a Child with Autism is the book I wish I had read while I was still teaching. Simply because as a teacher, I was only given snapshots into the experiences of my students and their families. I didn’t always know what their educational journey had been like before they reached my classroom. (This is true for all my students and not just those living with Autism.) 

Your True Self Is Enough is honest and thought-provoking, and I imagine it is a comfort and useful resource for families who may be experiencing some of the same situations Ms. Lovell and her daughter A. experienced. 

Furthermore, you don’t have to be the parent of a child with Autism to read this book. You don’t have to be a teacher (or former teacher) to read this book. Because this memoir does what books are meant to do — provide comfort and insight, show us our shared humanity, and shine a light on a situation a reader may not have firsthand knowledge of. 

While I love the title, my favorite part of the whole book is the Forward. The Forward is a list of advice A. wanted to share with readers of this book. This list is powerful because it applies to everyone. 

So many parts of this book touched me. Because at its core, this memoir is the story of a parent who wants the best for their child. This is the story of a parent who doesn’t have all the answers (because no parent does). And, even if you’re not a parent and don’t work with children, this book is important to read. Because reading about other people’s lives helps readers develop empathy and compassion — two traits that are absolutely essential in our world. 

Here are a few of the passages that stood out to me:

“I tried to remind myself to keep my intention to enjoy all of my life — even the imperfections and hard parts. I knew that in some ways this might be the end of the world as I knew it, and I wanted to be ready to face that change with joy and peace. I wanted my journey with A. to be one where my ears and eyes would remain open and I would stay present. I knew that too often I was just focused on the future, and then I would have intense regret for not living in the moment.”  

“I was so fed up and frustrated, but I also felt guilty for feeling that way. I didn’t want to sound like a broken record, complaining and depressed all the time. I wanted to focus more on the positive things in my life. I wanted to relish all of my blessings.”

“It’s such a spiritual lesson for all of us: we all need to get to know and understand our whole selves before we can embark on meaningful relationships with others. But when our babies are little, we have to steer that ship for them, and make sure we are providing them with the time and space they need to learn about themselves. We have to make sure that, whatever their schooling path is, they are being honored and encouraged to find out who they truly are.”

“And finally, something clicked for me. The sky really was the limit for both of us as long as we could accept and love ourselves. I thought about all the years I’d spent trying to fix everything. Trying to fix A. Trying to fix myself. As I watched A. play with her doll, I realized that neither of us needed to be fixed. We were both whole and complete individuals, both on our own journeys in this life.”

Please note: I am including a link to buy the book that I’m highlighting this week. If you use my link, I do make a small commission on your purchase at no additional cost to you. I am working with Bookshop.org which also sends a portion of the profit to support local, independent bookstores.

March

Posted on by Wendy Kennar
(Me on my 17th Birthday. This year I'll be celebrating my 49th Birthday.)

I always focus my blog posts on one of the three big B’s in my life: Books, Boys, and Bodies. (Books – because I’m a reader and a writer. Boys – because I’m the mother of a son and a former elementary school teacher. Bodies – because I live with an invisible disability.) 

This week’s post is slightly different. Because I realized those big B’s in my life, those central ideas that are so important to who I am and what I do and how I go about my days, can actually all be represented with an M — the month of March.

You could almost summarize my life just by taking a look at our current month. 

Let me explain.

March is the month of birthdays — my mom’s and my son’s (on the same day!) and mine.

It’s the month of anniversaries — my parents’ wedding anniversary, the anniversary of my first date with my husband as well as the anniversary of my last day of teaching (both of these life-changing events happened on the same date, just 16 years apart!)

It’s the month of special days — including Read Across America and the First Day of Spring.

It’s the month of important days — International Women’s Day and César Chávez Day.

It’s the month of awareness — Women’s History Month and Autoimmune Disease Awareness Month.

Of course I know I am more than the sum of these days. The first day I became a mother, the last day I worked as a teacher. 

But it’s quite a coincidence to have all these days happen within one particular month. 

And each year, I find I am becoming increasingly reflective, more emotional, and more surprised by how these days touch me. 

Dear Readers, do any of you have a month that means to you what March means to me? If you’re comfortable sharing, I’d love to know.