The Odyssey Bookshop Independent Bookselling Since 1963 The Village Commons South Hadley

Book Club Recommendations
from the Odyssey Bookshop

These are our recommendations of some recent books which would be great for book clubs. Enjoy.

Fiction

All the Finest Girls - Alexandra Styron

The intersection of two lives - a fierce child of privilege and her Caribbean nanny - under the cloud of an epically unhappy marriage.

All We Know of Heaven - Rémy Rougeau

Human folly nestles cheek by jowl with the divine in this humorous account of life inside the walls of a Cistercian monastery.

Clay’s Quilt - Silas House

An orphan at four, Clay Sizemore slowly finds a family among the residents of his Appalachian mining town.

The Death of Vishnu - Manil Suri

As the lives of its tenants unfold around him, an apartment house’s odd-job man lies dying on a staircase, feverishly recalling a past love affair.

Ella in Bloom - Shelby Hearon

A single mother barely eking out a living, Ella finally finds her chance to bloom in the space created by a family tragedy.

Empire Falls - Richard Russo

What keeps Miles Roby slinging burgers at the Empire Grill after 20 years? This Pulitzer Prize winner overflows with hilarity and heartache.

An Empire of Women - Karen Shepard

Three generations of feuding French women must unite to decide the fate of their temporary charge, a displaced six-year-old Chinese girl.

The Far Field - Edie Meidav

An ambitious novel of utopianism and intrigue - Meidav grapples with the consequences of the West’s fascination with the East.

The Fourth Hand - John Irving

What if the donor’s widow demanded visitation rights with a transplanted hand? Irving’s novel is, as usual, both comic and moving.

Gabriel’s Story - David Anthony Durham

Chary of the drudgery of farm life, Gabriel Lynch lights out for adventure in Texas but finds himself sucked into a world of wandering and mindless violence.

The Gardens of Kyoto - Kate Walbert

Forty years on, a woman explores her relationship with her favorite cousin, killed on Iwo Jima. A mesmerizing exploration of love and loss.

The Glass Palace - Amitav Ghosh

The struggles of Burma, India, and Malaya told through the life of a poor boy lifted high on the tides of political and social chaos.

A Good House - Bonnie Burnard

The possibilities of the post-WWII boom seem limitless for the Chambers family. Over time, in this intricate and rewarding book, those possibilities narrow.

In the Fall - Jeffrey Lent

At the close of the Civil War, a wounded soldier and an escaped slave journey north to Vermont. A family epic of secrets and sorrows.

John Henry Days - Colson Whitehead

A challenge to our contemporary myths about race and class, and a high velocity thrill ride through American pop culture.

Longing - J.D. Landis

A penetrating fictional biography of the Schumanns, their musical life, and the Romantic era. As passionate and flamboyant as its subjects.

Lying Awake - Mark Salzman

If one’s spiritual visions are symptoms of illness rather than grace, will a "cure" mean the end of those visions and a soul unstrung?

The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint - Brady Udall

Half-Apache and mostly orphaned, Edgar Mint survives head trauma and life trauma through innate goodness and the redeeming power of language.

The Root Worker - Rainelle Burton

A child tormented by family and by superstition works through her haunted past to arrive at a hopeful future.

Salt and Saffron - Kamila Shamsie

A novel about a Pakistani clan with stories to tell and secrets to hide, and about the shapes stories can form - through myth, history, and our own lives.

True History of the Kelly Gang - Peter Carey

Ned Kelly is the Bonnie & Clyde and Butch Cassidy of the Australian imagination. In this Booker Prize winner, Carey crafts an empathetic and poetic outlaw tale.

Non-Fiction

Augusta, Gone: A True Story - Martha Tod Dudman

The Battle for God - Karen Armstrong

The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World - Michael Pollan

Crossing the Water: Eighteen Months on an Island Working with Troubled Boys - A Teacher’s Memoir - Daniel Robb

Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper - Nicholson Baker

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal - Eric Schlosser

The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America - Louis Menand

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America - Barbara Ehrenreich

Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict - Michael T. Klare

The Scarlet Professor - Newton Arvin: A Literary Life Shattered by Scandal - Barry Werth

Uphill Walkers: Portrait of a Family - Madeleine Blais

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