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
“The Land in Winter”
By Andrew Miller
Europa Editions, 360 pages, $27 (hardcover)
Set in rural England in 1962, this is the story of two young couples during a frigid winter when both women are pregnant and their country is on the verge of a seismic cultural liberation.
“Crucible”
By John Sayles
Melville House, 496 pages, $32.99
Reaching from Detroit to Brazil, and the 1920s to the 1940s, this sprawling novel provides a window into the human dramas lived out in the shadow of Ford Motor Company when Henry Ford was at the height of his powers and his reach seemed infinite.
Nonfiction
“Things That Disappear: Reflections and Memories”
By Jenny Erpenbeck, Translated by Kurt Beals
New Directions, 96 pages, $15.95 (paperback)
This slim gem of a book gathers 31 tiny pieces of prose that were originally written by Erpenbeck, one of the most brilliant German writers working today, for a newspaper in the 2000s.
“Fear Less: Poetry in Perilous Times”
By Tracy K. Smith
Norton, 192 pages, $24. (hardcover)
Former Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith seeks to demystify an art form that can feel rarified and impenetrable. Breaking down the form, she provides close readings of remarkable works by classic and contemporary poets and uses her own story and creative process to demonstrate the capacity poetry has to guide us toward our best selves.
Children
“The Wizard’s Guide to Magical Experiments”
By A.J. Wood, illustrated by Jo Rioux
Abrams, 26 pages, $24.99 (picture book)
Is it science? Is it magic? Can science feel like magic? Questions you get to explore when you jump into this delightfully interactive book, which walks kids through scientific concepts — and provides easily implementable experiments — under the guise of wizardry.
“Pocket Bear”
By Katherine Applegate
Macmillan, 272 pages, $17.99
Narrated by a trash-diving cat, this book tells the story of Pocket, a small bear who was originally sewn during WW1, designed to fit into the pocket of a uniform, who a century later is a presence of authority in the Second Chances Home for the Tossed and Treasured, where a young Ukrainian refugee refurbishes discarded stuffed animals. (Middle grade)
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