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 in the Field”
By Margot Livesey, HarperCollins
272 pages, $26
Margot Livesey provides a tender, reflective family novel set in a British village. Three siblings find a wounded boy on their walk home from school one day, and this brush with violence and vulnerability ripples through their lives.
“Transcendent Kingdom”
By Yaa Gyasi, Knopf
288 pages, $27.99
A layered novel about a Ghanian family in Alabama grappling with addiction, grief, and religion. This beautifully written follow-up to 2017’s “Homegoing” will make you feel. And think.
Nonfiction
“The Antiracist: How to Start the Conversation about Race and Take Action”
By Kondwani Fidel, Hot Books
192 pages, $22.99
Everyone should read this new book by Baltimore’s own Kondwani Fidel. Weaving personal experience with thorough research, he powerfully describes systemic oppression and speaks to real, human-oriented ways we can move beyond.
“The Power of Human: How Our Shared Humanity Can Help Us Create A Better World”
By Adam Waytz, Norton
272 pages, $17.95
We’re living in a world that is less human- driven all of the time, which has only been exacerbated by the pandemic. That makes this smart book by an organizational psychologist very timely reading as he makes a compelling case for how we can rehumanize many aspects of our work and lives.
Young Adult
“The Black Kids”
Christina Hammonds Reed, Simon & Schuster
368 pages; $18.99 (Ages 14 and up)
Ashley Bennett is about to graduate from high school In 1992 Los Angeles. But when Rodney King is beaten by the police and protests erupt across the city, Ashley’s identity, her family, her friendships are all changed. A story about young, black identity, which feels incredibly important right now.
Children
“I Talk Like a River” (Picture Book)
By Jordan Scott and Sydney Smith, Neal Porter Books
40 pages, $18.99 (For 4-8 years old)
The beautiful story of a young boy with a stutter, and a compassionate father who helps him see that his voice moves with its own rhythms.
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