There’s something special about reading on public transport. In today’s day and age, it’s one of the only places in the world that you can just sit, without any distraction, and inhale a good novel. There’s also a sort of camaraderie that one shares with the other passengers that are reading. And when you spot someone reading the same book as you? Well, that’s bookish magic! In fact, we think that reading on the train, tram or bus is so special, that we’ve partnered with Books on the Rail to leave our festival books, past and present, on Sydney’s public transport. They’re placed there for people to find, read and then return for someone else to enjoy. We’ve also rounded up a handful of books authored by the talented writers who’ll be speaking at this year’s Sydney Jewish Writers Festival, for you read on your daily commute. So, without further ado, here they are: 

1. ‘Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom’ by Ariel Burger — a profound memoir about the author’s own international teaching career.
2. ‘The Collaborator’ by Diane Armstrong — a fictional novel exploring one of the greatest moral dilemmas of the Holocaust.
3. ‘Split: True stories of leaving, loss and new beginning’ by Lee Kofman — an anthology of memoir featuring prominent Australian authors.
4. ‘Women, Men and the Whole Damn Thing’ by David Leser’ — a deconstruction of patriarchy, misogyny and ‘toxic masculinity’ in the age of the #MeToo movement.
5. ‘Driving to Treblinka: A Long Search for a Lost Father’ by Diana Wichtel — a story about the impact of the Holocaust on her own family.