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Books or beach? In a coastal town, the decision is easy, thanks to artwork by the author of “Blueberries for Sal” and “Make Way for Ducklings.”

A new biography of Anna May Wong, “Daughter of the Dragon,” is intended as a form of reclamation and subversion.

Books or beach? In a coastal town, the decision is easy, thanks to artwork by the author of “Blueberries for Sal” and “Make Way for Ducklings.”

Rather than treading on sacred ground, Luca Debus and Francesco Matteuzzi’s “Peanuts”-style biography brings Charles M. Schulz and the strip together as one.

A new biography of Anna May Wong, “Daughter of the Dragon,” is intended as a form of reclamation and subversion.

Ilene Cooper’s “This Boy” shows how the grayness of John’s and Paul’s childhoods fed into the explosion that was just around the corner.

His book about the patriarch of the Kennedy political dynasty was a best seller. He later worked, briefly and not happily, for Richard M. Nixon.

Barbara Kingsolver, whose Pulitzer-winning “Demon Copperhead” offered a variegated portrait of the region, guides readers through a literary landscape “as bracing and complex as a tumbling mountain creek.”

Hanoi, long a city of storytellers, has been devastated and reborn time and time again. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai guides readers through the literature that has played a part in that renewal.

Reading and writing are deeply valued in Maine. The novelist Lily King recommends fiction, nature writing, memoirs, children’s books and inspiration for writers.