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The Odyssey Bookshop
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Event Archives, 2008

2008  January February March April

January

Both the Odyssey Bookshop’s Daytime AND Open Fiction Book Groups will discuss Thomas Mullen’s The Last Town on Earth. The year is 1918. America is fighting a war on foreign soil that has divided the nation. Meanwhile, rumors of the spread of the deadliest epidemic ever are causing panic on the home front. The uninfected town of Commonwealth, Washington, votes to quarantine itself, and two young friends are asked to guard the town entrance and keep strangers out. One day, a starving, cold—and seemingly ill—soldier comes out of the woods begging for sanctuary, and the two guards are confronted with an agonizing moral dilemma. So begins The Last Town on Earth . . .The month’s selection is 20% off.

The Odyssey Crime Club will discuss A Confidential Source by Jan Brogan. It started as a quiet night at the local convenience store until Hallie witnessed the brutal shooting of the owner. Determined to prove she can still get the big scoop, Hallie investigates the crime…and soon realizes it was more than a stickup gone bad. Aided by a roguish prosecutor and a talk-show radio host, she follows a trail that begins with petty gambling and ends with a dark conspiracy in dangerously high places. Now Hallie is on the hunt for a crucial piece of evidence-one that any reporter would die for…and desperate criminals will kill for. The month’s selection is 20% off.

“Kristin . . . is in full bloom with her latest book, Kristin Knits, which explodes with her signature bold color ways. Kristin Nicholas is multifaceted, bright-hued, on the move, and simple in her complexity — a true kaleidoscope of talents.” — Interweave Knits, Winter 2007

Cosponsored by the Mount Holyoke College

English Department

It is 1959 when Haruko, a young woman of good family, marries the Crown Prince of Japan, the heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne. She is the first non-aristocratic woman to enter the longest-running, almost hermetically sealed, and mysterious monarchy in the world. Met with cruelty and suspicion by the Empress and her minions, Haruko is controlled at every turn. The only interest the court has in her is her ability to produce an heir. After finally giving birth to a son, Haruko suffers a nervous breakdown and loses her voice. However, determined not to be crushed by the imperial bureaucrats, she perseveres. Thirty years later, now Empress herself, she plays a crucial role in persuading another young woman—a rising star in the foreign ministry—to accept the marriage proposal of her son, the Crown Prince. The consequences are tragic and dramatic. “Schwartz pulls off a grand feat in giving readers a moving dramatization of a cloistered world.” – Publishers Weekly (starred  review) Cosponsored by the Mount Holyoke College English Department

Kyra is an architect, involved in a project to design a new city. Andreas, a theater director, is staging an innovative production of the opera Tosca. Both have come through political upheaval and personal loss. Neither wants to fall in love. Yet when she asks him, “What is the opposite of losing?” and he says, “Finding,” it galvanizes a powerful attraction, and they risk opening themselves to love once again. When their love affair leads to a shocking betrayal, Kyra’s fierce determination to see under the surface, to know what was true and real, brings her to Greta, a remarkable therapist. As the therapy itself repeats the themes of love and loss, Kyra challenges its structure, and the struggle that ensues between the two women opens the way to a larger understanding. Passionate and revolutionary, Kyra is an exquisitely written love story, imbued with gentle humor. This is an extraordinary first novel by one of the most brilliant writers of our time. “A triumph. Carol Gilligan has always dazzled and moved us with her brilliant mind, visionary wisdom, and compassionate heart. Now she gives us, as well, an irresistible novel about the power of history to hurt us, but the power of love to heal these wounds and redeem us. She is amazing.” –Catharine R. Stimpson, author of The Culture Wars Continue Cosponsored by the Mount Holyoke College Psychology and Education Department

February

Set against the backdrop of the Bangladesh War of Independence, A Golden Age is a story of passion and revolution, of hope, faith and unexpected heroism. In the chaos of this era, everyone—from student protesters to the country’s leaders, from rickshaw’wallahs to the army’s soldiers—must make choices. And as she struggles to keep her family safe, Rehana, a young widowed mother of two, will be forced to face a heartbreaking dilemma.

“Compelling…Anam is cracking open secrets, personal and political, to let the healing begin.” — O Magazine 

Cosponsored by the Mount Holyoke College Alumni Association

Part love story, part murder mystery, set on the cusp of the Second World War, Russell Banks’s sharp-witted and deeply engaging new novel raises dangerous questions about class, politics, art, love, and madness—and explores what happens when two powerful personalities, trapped at opposite ends of a social divide, begin to break the rules. Moving from the secluded beauty of the Adirondack wilderness to the skies above war-torn Spain and Fascist Germany, The Reserve is a clever, incisive, and passionately romantic novel of suspense that adds a new dimension to this acclaimed author’s extraordinary repertoire. 

“This is a vividly imagined book. It has the romantic atmosphere of those great 1930s tales in film and prose. The Reserve is a pleasure well worth savoring.” - Scott Turow, Publisher’s Weekly

COME MAKE YOUR OWN VALENTINES!

Valentine’s Day is a week away, and Lily wants to surprise Mommy with the perfect heart-shaped Valentine. As the days go by and Valentine’s Day approaches, Lily has made seven different hearts—one for each day of the week—but which one will be just right for Mommy? Young readers will enjoy learning the days of the week, as well as the special tradition of creating handmade Valentines. The sweet, simple text and adorable illustrations celebrate the special mother-daughter bond.

“[Lily] is a salute to creativity, ingenuity and thinking outside the box; it will have all parents cheering her efforts and hoping that their own child takes a page from her book.” – Kirkus Reviews

The Odyssey Open Fiction Book Group welcomes Geraldine Brooks to a discussion of her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, March. From Louisa May Alcott’s beloved classic Little Women, Geraldine Brooks has animated the character of the absent father, Mr. March, and crafted a story “filled with the ache of love and marriage and with the power of war upon the mind and heart of one unforgettable man” (Sue Monk Kidd). The month’s selection is discounted 20%.

In 1996, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, which has been rescued from Serb shelling during the Bosnian war. Priceless and beautiful, the book is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images. When Hanna, discovers a series of tiny artifacts in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—she begins to unlock the book’s mysteries.

“[The book’s] heart is clearly in the right place…rich in stirring and meaningful detail.” – The New York Times Book Review.

Cosponsored by the Mount Holyoke College English Dept.

The Odyssey Crime Club will discuss The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos. It’s been 20 years since three teenagers were killed and their abused bodies were left in public parks. The case was never solved, but the two lead detectives in the investigation have pursued very different paths during the last two decades. Now they are reunited by a new murder. The month’s selection is discounted 20%.

The Odyssey Bookshop’s NEW Daytime Fiction Book Group will discuss Geraldine Brook’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, March. From Louisa May Alcott’s beloved classic Little Women, Geraldine Brooks has animated the character of the absent father, Mr. March, and crafted a story “filled with the ache of love and marriage and with the power of war upon the mind and heart of one unforgettable man” (Sue Monk Kidd). The month’s selection is discounted 20%.

Odyssey Bookseller and children’s buyer, Rebecca Fabian, reads from her favorite children’s picture books.

The Vermont hill country is the stark, vivid setting for this entertaining and gripping tale of bold determination. Lillian, a young woman, refuses to back down in the face of threats from a potentially lethal local villain. Her boyfriend has fled the state in fear, and local law enforcement can do nothing to protect her: Lillian resolved not only to stand her ground, but also to fight back. A pair of unlikely allies – Lester, a crafty old-timer, and Nate, a powerful but naïve youth – join her cause, understanding that there’s no point in taking up the challenge unless you’re willing to “go through.” In Go With Me, a kind of Greek chorus, - wry, witty, digressive: obsessively, amusingly reminiscent; skeptical, opinionated, and not always entirely sober – immeasurably enriches the telling of the story as they follow the threesome’s progress on their dangerous, suspenseful quest.

“Go With Me is a terrifying and darkly funny mystery ride through the cold and foreboding New England woods. In prose as sharp and cold as winter stars, Castle Freeman has rendered an unforgettable place and people carried on a story that won’t let you go, first word to last. His D. B., Coop, and Whizzer are characters I don't think I will ever forget.” — Bret Lott

For any homeowner who enjoys decorating the inside of the home, this book teaches outdoor landscaping using the same principles of open sight lines, flow, color, space, light, imagination, and a bit of whimsy.  Illustrated throughout in full color, Inside Out features lush photos, landscape design schematics, line drawings, and paintings to fully explore how to create outdoor beauty and harmony around your home.

“Flipping through this beautifully photographed book is enough to motivate readers to rethink their walkways, plantings, decks, patios, walls and fences. What's more, his down-to-earth writing style makes this a guide that can be read cover to cover, instead of merely referenced.” – Jessica Damiano, Newsday

Women’s Experimental Cinema provides lively introductions to the work of fifteen avant-garde women filmmakers, some of whom worked as early as the 1950s and many of whom are still working today. In each essay in this collection, a leading film scholar considers a single filmmaker, supplying biographical information, analyzing various influences on her work, examining the development of her corpus, and interpreting a significant number of individual films. The essays rescue the work of critically neglected but influential women filmmakers for teaching, further study, and, hopefully, restoration and preservation. Just as importantly, they enrich the understanding of feminism in cinema and expand the terrain of film history, particularly the history of the American avant-garde.

“Women’s Experimental Cinema is an invaluable resource for students and devotees of experimental cinema and feminist film, fields defined by remarkable films and a dearth of critical attention. It brings to light the social and political roots and cultural impact of women’s experimental film, and the specific female, feminine, and feminist practices of an exceptional group of women artists.”—Alexandra Juhasz, editor of Women of Vision: Histories in Feminist Film and Video

Cosponsored by the Mount Holyoke College Film Studies and Gender Studies Department

More than ninety years after his death, Jacob Riis maintains a stubbornly persistent hold on the American imagination. Remembered as a pioneering photographer, he was the first to document the state of New York’s slums, publicizing in haunting photographs the plight of the urban poor at the height of European immigration to the city. But Riis confessed to being “no good at all as a photographer” and in recent years has been disparaged for racist views and political opportunism.
In Rediscovering Jacob Riis, Bonnie Yochelson and Daniel Czitrom address the complex legacy of the pioneering social reformer. In a work of highly original scholarship, they reclaim Riis from the art camp, relocating him in the field of social and cultural history. Their provocative new book reveals Riis to be an inspired self-promoter who, although neither an original thinker nor a serious photographer, nevertheless framed the discussion of urban poverty in terms still relevant today. Extensively illustrated with Riis’s images, Rediscovering Jacob Riis is revisionist history at its best, as appealing to photographers, journalists, and social historians as it is to the general reader

Cosponsored by the Mount Holyoke College

History Department

From the bestselling author of She’s Not There comes another buoyant, unforgettable memoir—I’m Looking Through You is about growing up in a haunted house...and making peace with the ghosts that dwell in our hearts. For Jennifer Boylan, creaking stairs, fleeting images in the mirror, and the remote whisper of human voices were everyday events in the Pennsylvania house in which she grew up in the 1970s. But these weren’t the only specters beneath the roof of the mansion known as the “Coffin House.” Jenny herself—born James—lived in a haunted body, and both her mysterious, diffident father and her wild, unpredictable sister would soon become ghosts to Jenny as well. With wit and eloquence, Boylan shows us how love, forgiveness, and humor help us find peace—with our ghosts, with our loved ones, and with the uncanny boundaries, real and imagined, between men and women.

“Jenny Boylan’s I’m Looking Through You ranks right up there with Mary Karr’s The Liar’s Club and Tobias Wolff’s This Boy’s Life as one of the finest literary memoirs of the last several decades. Like these, it’s a haunting revelation of the human heart...—Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Empire Falls

Cosponsored by the Five College Women’s Studies Research Center

While researching Alexander Graham Bell at MIT’s Dibner Institute, Seth Shulman scrutinized Bell’s journals and within them he found the smoking gun, a hint of deeply buried historical intrigue. Delving further, Shulman unearthed the surprising story behind the invention of the telephone: a tale of romance, corruption, and unchecked ambition. Bell furtively—and illegally—copied part of Elisha Gray’s invention in the race to secure what would become the most valuable U.S. patent ever issued. And afterward, as Bell’s device led to the world’s largest monopoly, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, he hid his invention’s illicit beginnings. In The Telephone Gambit, Shulman challenges the reputation of an icon of invention, rocks the foundation of a corporate behemoth, and offers a probing meditation on how little we know about our own history. “Following a trail of clues discovered in Alexander Graham Bell's journals, Seth Shulman’s The Telephone Gambit masterfully breathes life into a long-forgotten controversy: Who really invented the telephone?” – Entertainment Weekly

In the wake of a wildly disastrous affair with her married archaeology professor, Willie Upton arrives on the doorstep of her ancestral home in Templeton, New York, where her hippie-turned-born-again-Baptist mom, Vi, still lives. Willie expects to be able to hide in the place that has been home to her family for generations, but the monster’s death changes the fabric of the quiet, picture-perfect town her ancestors founded. Even further, Willie learns that the story her mother had always told her about her father has all been a lie: he wasn’t the random man from a free-love commune that Vi had led her to imagine, but someone else entirely. Someone from this very town.  As Willie puts her archaeological skills to work digging for the truth about her lineage, she discovers that the secrets of her family run deep. Through letters, editorials, and journal entries, the dead rise up to tell their sides of the story as dark mysteries come to light, past and present blur, old stories are finally put to rest, and the shocking truth about more than one monster is revealed. “The Monsters of Templeton is a bold and beautiful hybrid of a book . . . Lauren Groff is an exciting young novelist, gifted with an elegant prose style and a narrative ambition as deep and as serious as the human mysteries she sets out to explore.”—Lorrie Moore

In Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara, artist and author James Gurney escorts readers— adults and children alike— to the wondrous lost island of Dinotopia, an enthralling world of art, science, exploration, and invention in which humans and dinosaurs live peacefully together. In the spirit of Marco Polo and Gulliver's Travels, Journey to Chandara recounts the adventures of explorer Arthur Denison and dinosaur Bix through the exotic eastern realm of Dinotopia. “With lush settings reminiscent of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, colorful characters cast from Norman Rockwell, and vivacious dinosaurs conjured from the spirit of Charles Knight, Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara is a window into this modern master’s mind.” —Tony DiTerlizzi, Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide

A Plausible Light is the final achievement of poet, Paul Smyth, whose writing fuses a strong melodic line with intense feeling, experience and insight. In the words of Richard Wilbur, “Paul Smyth had an easy mastery of verse forms, a vivid narrative gift, a good acquaintance with fact and natural process, and a rare capacity for confronting what is painful in life.” This collection, published in February by El Léon Literary Arts Press, consists of fifty-eight poems gathered by their author, with Barry Moser’s portrait of the poet as a frontispiece. Smyth died in 2006 just after completing the edits to this masterful collection. “I have known Paul Smyth’s poems for thirty years. They have always filled my mind ‘With roses, with the hush of a million crisp petals,’ to use his own words. His poetry is, by turns, of the earth, of human frailty and beauty, and of the Empyrean. It is also accessible—the sort of poetry that folks who think they don’t like poetry will.” —Barry Moser, Illustrator

From the bestselling author of She’s Not There comes another buoyant, unforgettable memoir—I’m Looking Through You is about growing up in a haunted house...and making peace with the ghosts that dwell in our hearts. For Jennifer Boylan, creaking stairs, fleeting images in the mirror, and the remote whisper of human voices were everyday events in the Pennsylvania house in which she grew up in the 1970s. But these weren’t the only specters beneath the roof of the mansion known as the “Coffin House.” Jenny herself—born James—lived in a haunted body, and both her mysterious, diffident father and her wild, unpredictable sister would soon become ghosts to Jenny as well. With wit and eloquence, Boylan shows us how love, forgiveness, and humor help us find peace—with our ghosts, with our loved ones, and with the uncanny boundaries, real and imagined, between men and women. “Jenny Boylan’s I’m Looking Through You ranks right up there with Mary Karr’s The Liar’s Club and Tobias Wolff’s This Boy’s Life as one of the finest literary memoirs of the last several decades. Like these, it’s a haunting revelation of the human heart...—Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Empire Falls Cosponsored by the Five College Women’s Studies Research Center

The Vermont hill country is the stark, vivid setting for this entertaining and gripping tale of bold determination. Lillian, a young woman, refuses to back down in the face of threats from a potentially lethal local villain. Her boyfriend has fled the state in fear, and local law enforcement can do nothing to protect her. Lillian resolves not only to stand her ground, but also to fight back. A pair of unlikely allies – Lester, a crafty old-timer, and Nate, a powerful but naïve youth – join her cause, understanding that there’s no point in taking up the challenge unless you’re willing to “go through.” In Go With Me, a kind of Greek chorus, - wry, witty, digressive: obsessively, amusingly reminiscent; skeptical, opinionated, and not always entirely sober – immeasurably enriches the telling of the story as they follow the threesome’s progress on their dangerous, suspenseful quest. “Go With Me is a terrifying and darkly funny mystery ride through the cold and foreboding New England woods. In prose as sharp and cold as winter stars, Castle Freeman has rendered an unforgettable place carried on a story that won’t let you go, first word to last. His D. B., Coop, and Whizzer are characters I don’t think I will ever forget.” — Bret Lott

March 11 • Tuesday • 7 pm

What’s That Job is a directory of more than fifty cool careers that explains, in detail, what each job really entails -- and then tells you what you need to do to actually get it. Each chapter is based on insider knowledge gleaned from interviews with the cream of the crop in their fields--experts like Kate Spade on fashion design; Nicola Kraus, The Nanny Diaries, on being an author; Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, Little Miss Sunshine, and Eli Roth, Hostel, on directing films… and many more. By the end of each chapter, you’ll know exactly what each career is, whether you want to pursue it, and exactly what it’s going to take to get it.

“My 20-and-30-something career coaching clients will love this guide. David Rosen concisely summarizes the key elements of these fascinating jobs in a fun and useful style.” – Julie Jansen, author of I Don’t Know What I Want, but I Know It’s Not This

March 12 • Wednesday • 7:30 pm

The New York Times best-selling author and America’s funniest activist gives the lowdown on how to put up--not shut up--in the fight for our future. Hightower, the country’s #1 populist, has picked up some useful advice over the years, from “never eat at a café featuring ‘bargain kebobs’” to “never hit a man with glasses; hit him with something much heavier.” As he and his longtime co-conspirator Susan DeMarco have rambled through grassroots America, however, they’ve also come up with more serious words of wisdom to share here, namely: question authority, trust your values, seek alternatives, break away, stand up for your beliefs, and swim against the current!

“Thank God for Jim Hightower. Instead of leaving us stewing in anger and despair, he rallies us with stories of our own history and of our own neighbors, inspiring us to take charge of our own democratice destiny. And he leaves us laughing and thinking at the same time.” - Studs Terkel

Cosponsored by the Weissman Center at Mount Holyoke College, the Pioneer Valley AFL-CIO and Massachusetts Jobs with Justice

In the tradition of towering biographies that tell us as much about America as they do about their subject, Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching by educator/historian Paula J. Giddings is a sweeping narrative about a country and a crusader - Ida B. Wells - embroiled in the struggle against lynching: a practice that not only imperiled the lives of black men and women--but also a nation based on law and driven by race. “Long after we close this text, it will not be easy to dismiss or forget what we saw. Giddings’ carefully crafted portrait of Wells is likely to stay with us even longer, perhaps for a lifetime.” – Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Ms. Magazine. Cosponsored by the Mount Holyoke College African –American and African Studies Department

March 17 • Monday • 7 pm

The Odyssey Open Fiction Book Group will discuss Martyrs’ Crossing by Amy Wilentz. From an award-winning journalist, a gripping first novel follows a Palestinian mother and a young Israeli guard through the very heart of the world's most volatile conflict--the crisis in the Middle East. The month’s selection is discounted 20%.

Help Your Child or Teen Get Back on Track: What Parents and Professionals Can Do for Childhood Emotional and Behavioral Problems.

Help Your Child or Teen Get Back on Track offers specific self-help interventions and a wide-ranging, practical discussion of the types of professional help available for a child or adolescent with emotional and behavioral problems. Essential reading for parents who are worried about a child or adolescent with emotional and behavioral problems, this book is also a useful resource for social workers, psychologists, school counselors, pediatricians, and adult psychiatrists.  “Written by a gifted therapist in a jargon-free, reader-friendly, non-judgmental style, it is easy to envision this work as an invaluable tool, treasured by parents, teachers and coaches who aspire to instill mental as well as physical health in the children they care for and about.” – Madeleine Blais, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle

From the critically acclaimed author of The Book of Samson, Monster, 1959 is an extraordinary tale of 1950s America--flawed, conflicted, and poised to enter the most culturally upended decade of the century. The United States government has been testing the long-term effects of high-level radiation on a few select islands in the South Pacific. Their efforts have produced killer plants, mole people, and a forty-foot creature named K. “Maine’s achievement is to revisit an American myth with fresh eyes, creating an affecting parable for troubled times.” – O Magazine

April

April 3 • Thursday • 4:15 pm

Dwight Hall, Room 101, Mount Holyoke College

Atina Grossman

Jews, Germans, and Allies: Close Encounters in Occupied Europe

In the immediate aftermath of World War II, more than a quarter million Jewish survivors of the Holocaust lived among their defeated persecutors in the chaotic society of Allied-occupied Germany. Jews, Germans, and Allies draws upon the wealth of diary and memoir literature by the people who lived through postwar reconstruction to trace the conflicting ways Jews and Germans defined their own victimization and survival, comprehended the trauma of war and genocide, and struggled to rebuild their lives.

April 3 • Thursday • 7 pm

Lauren Groff

The Monsters of Templeton

In the wake of a wildly disastrous affair with her married archaeology professor, Willie Upton arrives on the doorstep of her ancestral home in Templeton, New York, where her hippie-turned-born-again-Baptist mom, Vi, still lives. Willie learns that the story her mother had always told her about her father has all been a lie: he wasn’t the random man from a free-love commune that Vi had led her to imagine, but someone else entirely. Someone from this very town.  As Willie puts her archaeological skills to work digging for the truth about her lineage, she discovers that the secrets of her family run deep. Through letters, editorials, and journal entries, the dead rise up to tell their sides of the story as dark mysteries come to light, past and present blur, old stories are finally put to rest, and the shocking truth about more than one monster is revealed. “The Monsters of Templeton is a bold and beautiful hybrid of a book . . . Lauren Groff is an exciting young novelist, gifted with an elegant prose style and a narrative ambition as deep and as serious as the human mysteries she sets out to explore.”—Lorrie Moore

April 4 • Friday • 7 pm

Women and Writing: Women Who Take Risks and Break the Rules

Novelists Margaret Cezair-Thompson (The Pirate’s Daughter), Deborah Noyes (Angel and Apostle), and Pamela Thompson (Every Past Thing), discuss their latest novels and the female characters they’ve created – women who break the rules.

Children’s Story Time

April 5 • Saturday • 10:30 AM

April 9 • Wednesday • 10:30 AM

April 19 • Saturday • 10:30 AM

April 23 • Wednesday • 10:30 AM

Odyssey Bookseller and children’s buyer, Rebecca Fabian, reads from her favorite children’s picture books.

April 8 • Tuesday • 11 am

April 21 • Monday • 7 pm

The Odyssey Bookshop’s Daytime Fiction Book Group and Open Fiction Book Group will discuss Like Trees, Walking by Ravi Howard. Based on the true story of one of the last recorded lynchings in America, this haunting debut novel will resonate among readers for its perfectly etched characters and its brilliant portrayal of the South. The month’s selection is discounted 20%.

April 8 • Tuesday • 7 pm

Suzanne Strempek Shea

Sundays in America: A Yearlong Road Trip in Search of Christian Faith

When Pope John Paul II died, Shea recognized in his mourners a faith-filled passion that she wanted to recapture. She set out on a yearlong road trip to visit a different church every Sunday for a year--a journey that would take her through the broad spectrum of contemporary Christianity lived in this country, from her New England home to the West Coast. “I can think of no better companion on a spiritual journey than Strempek Shea. In Sundays in America, with her trademark humor and grace, she shows us churches across the United States, pointing out the subtleties and details that we would otherwise have missed.” —Ann Hood, author of The Knitting Circle: A Novel

April 9 • Wednesday • 7 pm

Rebecca Flowers

Nice to Come Home To

A funny, entertaining novel of love and family for our times: a single woman who fears she’s lost her chance at a family of her own, begins to accumulate an ad hoc one around her. In the tradition of Elinor Lipman or Marisa de los Santos (Love Walked In), Flowers delivers a smart, witty, appealing story of love, family, and community that breaks the mold of the conventional love story—and will have readers cheering. “Rebecca Flowers’ novel is a lovely, funny story about the saving graces of surrogate families and unexpected love. The narrator, Pru, has such a self-effacing, irreverent sense of humor that I couldn’t help but root for her all the way.” –Lolly Winston, best-selling author of Good Grief and Happiness Sold Separately

April 10 • Thursday • 7 pm

Mary Jo Salter

A Phone Call to the Future: New and Selected Poems

Here are some superb new poems from one of the major poets of her generation, along with a selection of the best from Mary Jo Salter’s previous award-winning collections. In Mary Jo Salter’s poetry we have a unique blend of domestic drama and the grittier wider world. A Phone Call to the Future is a powerful reminder and a ringing confirmation of Mary Jo Salter’s remarkable gifts. “The best of Salter’s elegant formalist poems are driven by a compulsion to confront the inexplicable.” – Editor’s Choice, New York Times Book Review. Cosponsored by the Mount Holyoke College English Department

April 12 • Saturday • 2 pm

Fancy Nancy Tea Party

Odyssey Kids! welcomes children of all ages to a Fancy Nancy tea party celebrating Jane O’Connor’s high-spirited Fancy Nancy. Games, crafts, a story-time, and snacks will be provided to all youngsters. Children are encouraged to dress in their fanciest clothes and sashay in!

April 14 • Monday • 7 pm

The Odyssey Crime Club will discuss Blindfold Game by Dana Stabenow. A CIA analyst traces the sale of black market plutonium, realizing that a terrorist attack is under way on a valuable American target. He also sees that the Coast Guard cutter his estranged wife serves on is sailing right into the attack and the heart of an international crisis in this nail-biting New York Times bestseller. The month’s selection is discounted 20%.

April 15 • Tuesday • 7 pm

Brian Hall

Fall of Frost

A fascinating and exquisitely written novel about the art and life of Robert Frost, arguably America’s most well-known poet. Frost, as both man and artist, was toughened by a hard life. Told in short chapters, each of which presents an emblematic incident with intensity and immediacy, Hall’s novel deftly weaves together the earlier parts of Frost’s life with his final year, 1962, when, at age 88, he made a visit to Russia and met with Khrushchev. “Hall gets deep into Frost’s head, an approach that brings a startling immediacy to a complex figure many know only as the author of classics like The Road Not Taken.” – Publisher’s Weekly

April 16 • Wednesday • 7 pm

Jack O’Connell

The Resurrectionist

Part classic noir thriller, part mind-bending fantasy, The Resurrectionist is a wild ride into a territory where nothing is as it appears. It is the story of Sweeney, a druggist by trade, and his son, Danny, the victim of an accident that has left him in a persistent coma. Hoping for a miracle, they have come to the fortress-like Peck Clinic, whose doctors claim to have "resurrected" two patients who were lost in the void. What Sweeney comes to realize, though, is that the real cure to his son’s condition may lie in Limbo, a fantasy comic book world into which his son had been drawn at the time of his accident.  “This will be the novel that garners Jack O’Connell widespread sales and critical acclaim. The Resurrectionist—a brilliantly tuned, mesmerizing labyrinth of a quasi-real world as only a master artist could draw it—will jazz you, floor you, grab you, and shake you and leave you hung out to dry in that world. A brilliant break-through novel.” —James Ellroy

April 17 • Thursday • 7 pm

John Marks

Reasons to Believe: One Man’s Journey Among the Evangelicals and the Faith He Left Behind

From a veteran journalist and former 60 Minutes producer comes an intimate portrait of evangelicals, one of the most influential forces in America today, and the story of how this lapsed believer came to terms with his faith. Born again at age sixteen, John Marks later abandoned his faith. In Reasons to Believe he attempts to cross a deep cultural barrier to understand those who now condemn his way of life. He grapples with the message that millions of evangelicals attempt to deliver to their fellow citizens every day and speaks at length with missionaries, political activists, theologians, Christian musicians, and filmmakers—the rich and powerful, the poor and broken, and the pastors who have turned small congregations into mega-churches. “What makes this book most compelling are the ways in which Marks allows his interviewees to engage him as a potential convert. He is so sympathetic to them that until the very last page it is uncertain whether he will decide to abandon his secular life.” – Publisher’s Weekly

April 19 • Saturday• 2-5 pm

The Odyssey Bookshop’s New “Crafternoon”

featuring Amanda Blake Soule at 3 pm

The Odyssey Bookshop’s introduces its new monthly “crafternoon,” an afternoon in which adults are invited to bring their current projects and share ideas. Each month The Odyssey Bookshop will either feature a new author in the field or focus on an upcoming craft within the industry. The store will also introduce its new “Bag Share” program, which began in March 2007 as an experiment in sustainability at The Old Creamery Grocery in Cummington, MA. Volunteers sew and donate reusable bags for shoppers to borrow and return to either The Odyssey or other Bag Share locations. Customers who do not have a current project at hand are encouraged to come and make bags for the program. Materials for Bag Share will be available at the Odyssey.

Amanda Blake Soule is the author of The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections. Her talk at the Odyssey will focus on bringing families closer together through projects and crafts.

The monthly Shakespeare discussion group, led by UMASS English professor Arthur F. Kinney, will discuss Measure for Measure. The month’s selection is discounted 20%.

April 22 • Tuesday • 7 pm

Rosalie Winard

Wild Birds of the American Wetlands

For over a decade, photographer Rosalie Winard has traveled the country by foot, canoe, airboat, and ATV, taking pictures of large birds of the wetlands from Florida to California, Louisiana to North Dakota. Her intimate portraits—tethered to an ethereal palette of white, gray, and black—are alight with Winard’s passion for the avian world and its endangered terrain. Alternately meditative and exhilarating, abstract and literal, they capture the birds’ remarkable habits and prehistoric forms, as well as their ineffable elegance and humor. Wild Birds of the American Wetlands is a monumental and breathtaking study of some of the country’s most beautiful birds. “Rosalie Winard cares about what she photographs. She understands the relationship between habitat and human encroachment and what we stand to lose if we don’t stop and marvel at these avian primitives. She has captured something ancient and time-sensitive in her stunning black-and-white photography.” --Sebastio and Lelia Salgado, Founders, Instituto Terra

April 26• Saturday • 11 am

James Gurney

Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara

In Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara, artist and author James Gurney escorts readers— adults and children alike— to the wondrous lost island of Dinotopia, an enthralling world of art, science, exploration, and invention in which humans and dinosaurs live peacefully together. In the spirit of Marco Polo and Gulliver’s Travels, Journey to Chandara recounts the adventures of explorer Arthur Denison and dinosaur Bix through the exotic eastern realm of Dinotopia. “With lush settings reminiscent of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, colorful characters cast from Norman Rockwell, and vivacious dinosaurs conjured from the spirit of Charles Knight, Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara is a window into this modern master’s mind.” —Tony DiTerlizzi, Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide

April 29• Tuesday • 7 pm

Barbara Zurer Pearson

Raising a Bilingual Child

If you would like your children to experience the benefits of becoming bilingual, but you aren’t sure how to teach them a second language, then Raising a Bilingual Child is the perfect step-by-step guide for you. Raising a Bilingual Child provides parents with information, encouragement, and practical advice for creating a positive bilingual environment. It offers both an overview of why parents should raise their children to speak more than one language and detailed steps parents can take to integrate two languages into their child’s daily routine. “A timely and well-written book! . . . [It] helps parents prepare their children for the future [. . .].” —J. Kevin Nugent, Professor, Child and Family Studies, University of Massachusetts–Amherst

April 30 • Wednesday • 7 pm

Meredith Hall

Without a Map: A Memoir

Meredith Hall’s moving memoir begins in 1965, when she becomes pregnant at sixteen. Shunned by her insular New Hampshire community, she is then kicked out of the house by her mother. Her father and stepmother reluctantly take her in, hiding her before they finally banish her altogether. After giving her baby up for adoption, Hall wanders recklessly through the Middle East, where she survives by selling her possessions and finally her blood. She returns to New England and stitches together a life that encircles her silenced and invisible grief. “Nostalgic for the good old days of Norman Rockwell America? Without a Map may forever change the way you look at small-town life. Meredith Hall’s memoir is a sobering portrayal of how punitive her close-knit New Hampshire community was in 1965 when, at the age of 16, she became pregnant in the course of a casual summer romance…”– Francine Prose, O Magazine