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 Boy From The Sea”
By Garrett Carr
Knopf, 336 pages, $29
This debut novel centers on a baby boy found alone on the beach of an Irish fishing village in the 1970s, and the family that takes him into their home. It’s equal parts funny and heartbreaking, like all the best novels.
“The Coin” (Paperback)
By Yasmin Zaher
Catapult, 240 Pages, $16.95
If you’re a sucker for unreliable narrators, this one’s for you. Zaher introduces us to a young woman as her life begins to unravel. Teaching at a New York middle school, she gets caught up in a scheme reselling Birkin Bags.
Nonfiction
“No Sense In Wishing” (Hardcover)
By Lawrence Burney
Atria Books, 256 Pages, $29.99
Burney’s essays cover music, family, friends, race and politics through the lens of someone who lives and breathes Baltimore. This collection takes us from local music to steamed crabs to infamous social security jobs.
“The Maryland Master Naturalist’s Handbook” (Paperback)
Edited by McKay Jenkins and Joy Shindler Rafey
Johns Hopkins University Press, 456 Pages, $49.95
Maryland contains natural multitudes — diverse ecosystems that range from mountain to ocean. In this generous book, a host of experts guide us through the state’s history, its people and the land we call home.
Children
“Where Only Storms Grow” (Middle reader)
By Alyssa Colman
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 256 Pages, $17.99
Set during one of the most dangerous storms in American History, the Stanton twins are weathering their own storm of growing apart. Howie wants to run away, but Joanna isn’t ready to give up on their home and the land that has all but dried up.
“Wish In A Tree” (Picture book)
By Lynda Mullaly Hunt
Nancy Paulsen Books, 32 pages, $18.99
Oliver is a boy whose brain teems with ideas and impulses which can make it hard for him to focus at school. Luckily, his friend helps him see that it’s magical to have a brain overflowing with energy and curiosity.
Filmmaker Justin Schein looks at wealth and inequality through the very real story of his late father.
For 35 years, the late Deborah Brodie, aka Bubbie Cookie, amassed a collection of over 200 Jewish ritual objects, which she used to teach her Hebrew school students with special needs.
Conceived by Columbia resident Benjamin Kintisch, "Life Review: The Hospice Musical" offers a thought-provoking and occasionally amusing perspective on mortality.
Steve Hofstetter, who will perform at Soundstage next week, recently made headlines for his social media post ridiculing some fans' warnings about Charm City's safety.