Seeking your next good read? Emma Snyder, owner of The Ivy Bookshop at 5928 Falls Road in Baltimore, offers recommendations for must-read titles for adults and children.
Fiction
“Jack” (Hardcover)
By Marilynne Robinson
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 320 pages, $27
We will read anything Marilynne Robinson writes! Jack is the fourth of her novels set in Gilead, Iowa, and tells the story of the son of the town’s Presbyterian minister, and his interracial romance with a high school teacher.
“Must I Go” (Hardcover)
By Yiyun Li
Random House, 368 pages, $28
Li’s newest novel tells the story of Lilia Liska, a nonagenarian and grandmother of 17, who has taken on the project of annotating the diary left behind by an old flame.
Nonfiction
“The Dragons, The Giant, The Women” (Hardcover)
By Wayetu Moore
Graywolf Press, 272 pages, $26
Moore, a dazzling novelist, offers a memoir of her own escape from the first Liberian Civil War, migration to Texas and eventual return to Liberia.
“Unique: The New Science of Human Individuality” (Hardcover)
By David Linden
Basic Books, 336 pages, $30
Hopkins neuroscientist, David Linden, was browsing OKCupid a few years ago and got to wondering: What is the scientific reason for human difference? This book — which investigates everything from sexuality to food preferences — illustrates how our unique qualities allow us to live together in groups.
Young Adult
“Dear Justyce”
By Nic Stone
Crown Books, 288 pages, $18.99
In this sequel to Nic Stone’s bestselling, “Dear Martin,” an incarcerated teen named Quan writes letters to Justyce, his childhood friend and the protagonist of “Dear Martin,” about his experiences in the American juvenile justice system.
Children
“Wild Symphony” (Hardcover)
By Dan Brown
Rodale Kids, 44 pages, $18.99
New York Times bestselling author Dan Brown makes his picture book debut with this delightful celebration of music and animals. All proceeds go to support music education initiatives for kids in all corners of the world. (Ages 3 – 7)
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.