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
“Daughters of the New Year”
By E.M. Tran
Hanover Square Press, 320 pages, $18.99
Haunting and haunted, this magical-realist family saga follows the women of the Trung family — a mother and three daughters — as they explore and grapple with their collective history. Starting in present-day New Orleans and moving backwards in time and across the globe, Daughters of the New Year weaves Vietnamese zodiac legends, familial expectation, and tendrils of magic.
“Day”
By Michael Cunningham
Random House, 288 pages, $28
Day is an intimate window into the lives of a Brooklyn-based family through the pandemic, as the novel offers a portrait of the same day lived in 2019, 2020, and 2021. Cunningham’s elegant prose, and his attention to the emotional constellation of a family, leaves you mulling how we have all been altered and expanded, by the events of the past few years.
Nonfiction
“Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life”
By Dacher Keltner
Penguin Books, 336 pages, $18
In Awe, psychologist Dacher Keltner investigates how it is that we experience wonder, with its profound capacity to enrich and motivate us. Balancing science, history and personal reflection, this book will remind you to actively open yourself to awe.
“November 1942: An Intimate History of the Turning Point of World War II”
By Peter Englund
Knopf, 496 pages, $32
In November 1942, historian Englund takes us through the most pivotal month of World War II through the eyes and experiences of a Belorrusian partisan, an American pilot, a twelve-year-old girl in Shanghai, and more.
Children
“Violet & Jobie in the Wild”
By Lynne Rae Perkins
Greenwillow Books, 240 pages, $9.99
Early reader (paperback)
Violet and Jobie are mice who find their comfortable lives turned upside down when they are caught in a trap and released into the wild. In this sweet tale packed with action and humor, siblings will learn about courage, perseverance, and all that it takes to not just survive — but to live.
“Take Me to Laolao”
Written by Kelly Zhang and Illustrated by Evie Zhu
Quill Tree Books, 32 pages, $19.99
Picture book (hardcover)
Brimming with Chinese mythology, this delightful picture book joins Lilli as she drifts off to sleep the night of the Spring Lantern Festival. Lili’s dreamworld takes her on a magical adventure to find her Laolao (grandmother).
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