5 Books to Read After Watching ‘Nobody Wants This’

There’s a long history in Hollywood of cross-cultural rom-coms — films and TV shows such as “Keeping the Faith,” “Bend It Like Beckham” and “The Nanny” that mine clashing traditions to find hilarity and heart. Colliding heritages naturally lend themselves to moments of comedic gold: Just think of a nonplused Andrea Martin in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” reassuring John Corbett’s vegetarian leading man, “That’s OK: I make lamb.”

The series “Nobody Wants This,” which premieres on Netflix on Sept. 26, is the latest entry into this oeuvre. Joanne (Kristen Bell) is an agnostic, sex-positive podcast host with a history of toxic relationships; Noah (Adam Brody — Mr. Chrismukkah himself, no stranger to interfaith high jinks) is a pot-smoking rabbi with a fiercely protective mother who spends his free time playing basketball with the Matzah Ballers. Their story is as much about the universal awkwardness and hilarity of a budding romance as it is about the complex differences in their worldviews.

Interfaith and cross-cultural romances are nothing new in the literary sense, either. If you’re craving more stories about clever people drawn together by chemistry and circumstance who also face the difficult work of navigating disparate backgrounds, these romance novels have got you covered.

I think hot rabbis may be the new hot priests

The Intimacy Experiment

By Rosie Danan

Naomi Grant is a bisexual adult film actress with a master’s degree who runs a successful online sex-ed platform; she wants to expand into live seminars, but she’s having trouble finding an institution to support her. Enter Ethan Cohen, an unconventional (and very attractive) straight rabbi who invites Naomi to teach a course on human sexuality and relationships at his synagogue — a gamble aimed at reaching more young Jewish people and saving his dwindling congregation.