Book Smarts – September 2021

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

Vixen

“The Vixen: A Novel” (Hardcover)

By Francine Prose, Harper Books
336 pages, $25.99

At once domestic and political, contemporary and historic, ”The Vixen” tells the story of an aspiring young editor in 1950s N.Y. grappling with the moral and practical implications of publishing a trashy novel that fictionalizes Ethel Rosenberg.

Netanyahus

“The Netanyahus” (Paperback)

By Joshua Cohen, New York Review Books
248 pages, $16.95

It’s 1959 in upstate N.Y., and an Israeli scholar specializing in the Spanish Inquisition, Benzion Netanyahu shows up for a campus interview with his family unexpectedly in tow. Mixing fiction with nonfiction, the campus novel with the lecture, The Netanyahus is a genre-bending comedy of identity and politics.

Nonfiction

Religion

“Religion and the Rise of Capitalism” (Hardcover)

By Benjamin M. Friedman, Knopf Books
560 pages, $37.50

From an expert on economic policy, comes a major reassessment of the foundations of modern economic thinking. It centers the influence that religion has held centers on the maturation of economic thought.

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The Light of Days

“The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos” (Hardcover)

By Judy Batalion, William Morrow Books
576 pages, $28.99

This is the story of young Jewish women who became resistance fighters while living in Nazi-era ghettos. Batalion tells a story full of brutality, bravery, and female friendship.

Children

Renegade

“The Renegade Reporters” (Hardcover)

By Elissa Brent Weissman, Dial Books
240 pages, $16.99

Elissa Brent Weissman (until recently, a Baltimorean!) delivers the story of Ash and her friends. Reporters at their school’s news show, they get kicked off when a misreported story goes viral. Starting their own renegade show in response, they stumble upon a huge story. (Ages 8-12)

Oympics

“The Great Book of Olympic Games” (Hardcover)

By Veruska Motta, White Star Kids
80 pages, $16.95

Do you have a child who couldn’t stop watching the Olympics? From the origins to heroes of the past and present, and full of the records across all sports, this will satisfy them with everything they need to know about the Games. (Ages 7+)

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Emma Snyder, owner of The Ivy Bookshop, offers recommendations for must-read titles for adults and children.