Seeking your next good read? Emma Snyder, owner of The Ivy Bookshop
at 6080 Falls Road in Mount Washington, offers recommendations
for must-read titles for adults and children.
FICTION
“The Revisioners” (Hardcover)
By Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, Counterpoint LLC, 288 pages, $25
“The Revisioners” explores the depths of women’s relationships — powerful women and marginalized women, healers and survivors. At its core, it ponders generational legacies, the endurance of hope, and the undying promise of freedom.
“The Golden State” (Paperback)
By Lydia Kiesling, Picador, 304 pages, $17
Keenly observed, bristling with humor, and set against the beauty of a little-known part of California, “The Golden State” is about class and cultural breakdowns, and desperate attempts to bridge old and new worlds. More than anything, it is about motherhood: its voracious worry, frequent tedium, and enthralling, wondrous love. Newly out in paperback.
NONFICTION
“A Life of My Own” (paperback)
By Claire Tomalin, Penguin Books,
352 pages, $17
The renowned biographer of Charles Dickens, Samuel Pepys, and Thomas Hardy, and former literary editor for the Sunday Times, reflects on a remarkable life surrounded by writers and books. Newly out in paperback.
“Poisoner in Chief” (hardcover)
By Stephen Kinzer, Henry Holt and Co, 368 pages, $30
The astonishing story of the visionary chemist Sidney Gottlieb, who oversaw the CIA’s secret drug and mind-control experiments of the 1950s and ’60s.
CHILDREN’S
“Knights Vs. Dinosaurs”
(paperback)
By Matt Phelan, Greenwillow Books,
176 pages, $6.99
A highly illustrated, fast-paced adventure full of uproarious knightly hijinks, surprising secrets, and terrifying dinosaurs. A great choice for reluctant readers. Recommended by Ivy Children’s Book Specialist Rona London. Ages 8-12
“To Night Owl from Dogfish” (hardcover)
By Holly Goldberg Sloan and Meg Wolitzer, Dial Books, 304 pages, $17.99
From two extraordinary authors comes a moving, exuberant, laugh-out-loud novel about friendship and family, told entirely in emails and letters. A personal favorite of Ivy Bookseller Hannah. Ages 10 +
The BCO, founded in 1984, will perform the works of Frank Zappa, Beethoven, Mason Bates and Karena Ingram.
Led by local Israel-American cellist Amit Peled, the Mount Vernon Virtuosi aims to inspire people beyond musical enjoyment.
Container vegetable gardening is a terrific option for people with limited space and/or time. Rebecca Brown and Norman Cohen share some tips.
Filmmaker Justin Schein looks at wealth and inequality through the very real story of his late father.