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
“Leaving”
By Roxana Robinson
Norton, 344 pages, $28.99
“Leaving” follows the story of former college sweethearts who casually encounter each other at 60 and fall into an intense affair. The resulting novel is surprising, complicated, and fraught: a delicate depiction of the constellation of relationships that are the result of long lives deeply lived.
“Until August”
By Gabriel García Marquez
Knopf, 144 pages, $22
This slim book by Marquez — unfinished at the time of his death in 2014 — is cause for celebration and curiosity. At the time of the book’s writing, Marquez was struggling with his memory, and his sons set it aside. Ten years later, they decided its gifts should be shared.
Nonfiction
“Reading Genesis”
By Marilynne Robinson
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 352 pages, $29
Marilynne Robinson is an artist and a believer, and this book presents her exploratory and appreciative interpretation of the first book of the Torah: the human and the divine, art and spirit, brokenness and hope.
“The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness”
By Jonathan Haidt
Penguin, 400 pages, $30
This book is equal parts assessment and call to action. Haidt, a prominent social psychologist, provides a compelling argument that between the 1980s and 2010s, childhood transitioned from being play-based to phone-based, and that this shift has had devastating mental health consequences.
Children
“The Met’s 5000 Years of Awesome Objects: A History of Art for Children”
By Susie Brooks, Susie Hodges, Dr. Sarah Richter, Mary Richards, and Dr. Aaron Rosen
DK Children, 256 pages, $29.99
Artfully curated and beautifully designed, this book is like bringing an art museum into your home. From ancient Egypt to medieval Europe to modern day America (baseball cards as art!) it offers a wonderful way to inspire questions and find answers about art with your kids.
“Addie Ant Goes on an Adventure”
By Maren Morris and Karina Argow
Chronicle Chroma, 40 pages, $18.99
This book is sweet, charming, and a celebration of the natural world. Addie is an ant setting off on a solo-adventure, who discovers that sometimes, even though we’re independent, it’s ok to ask for help from our friends. Plus, the illustrations are a buoyant delight!
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.