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Odyssey Gallery
Pictures of recent events
The Odyssey Bookshop is one of five independent
bookstores participating in WAMC's Roundtable on Tuesday mornings,
just after the 10:00 news. People from the Odyssey will be on about once a
month, talking about our favorite books.
Click
here to see the list of the books we have talked about.
The Odyssey Bookshop
9 College St.
S. Hadley, MA 01075
413-534-7307
800-540-7307
fax 413-532-3654
email odysseybks@aol.com
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Joan's Picks
Click on any title to order
Return to staff
list
 The
Pig Did It by Joseph Caldwell.
This book is part farce, part mystery, part love story and thoroughly
wonderful Irish storytelling. The setting is the lovely countryside of
the west of Ireland, on the coast of County Kerry. Joseph Caldwell has
written some of the funniest dialogue that I have read in a very long
time. Gratefully, there will be two future novels which will continue
the saga.
 Mr.
and Mrs. Prince: How an Extraordinary Eighteenth-Century Family Moved
out of Slavery and into Legend by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina.
Abijah Prince and Lucy Terry Prince spent many decades in western
MA., both as slaves and as free people. This fascinating book
interweaves not only their eventful lives, but it is also the story of
how Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina and her husband spend over seven years
relentlessly digging through documents in town halls, court records,
account books, and other archives to give us a portrait of an
African-American family who lived over 250 years ago in the Pioneer
Valley and western New England.
 Field
Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change by
Elizabeth Kolbert The earth
is now as warm as it has been in the last 420,000 years! New Yorker reporter
Elizabeth Kolbert helps the layperson understand climate change and
global warming. She visits communities that are already being affected
by global warming—Alaska, Greenland, Iceland, the Netherlands and
interviews dedicated scientists who have been working in various
scientific fields for decades. Kolbert also describes the limited
success of the "Put the Chill on Global Warming" campaign in
Burlington, Vt. Required reading for all inhabitants of planet earth.
 The
Light Within the Light: Portraits of Donald Hall, Richard Wilbur, Maxine
Kumin & Stanley Kunitz by
Jeanne Braham with engravings by Barry Moser This
is a wonderful book about four of New England’s most senior and most
eminent poets. Jeanne Braham’s stellar skills of interviewer and
writer shine throughout this volume. She blends together the lives of
the poet, their influences, their landscapes, and their poetry in such a
skillful manner that one immediately goes searching for the poetry,
essays, and other works of these four writers. Barry Moser’s full page
engravings of each poet add artistic beauty to this gem of a book.
 Targeted:
Homeland Security and the Business of Immigration by
Deepa Fernandes Investigative
journalist Deepa Fernandes has researched and written an outstanding
book on the current immigration situation in the U.S. She details the
immigration industrial complex which is getting rich off the backs of
immigrants who are searching for jobs and a better life, as did most of
our ancestors. She exposes the racism behind the far-Right
anti-immigrant agenda. Her interviews with undocumented workers reveal
their desperate plights; situations which are often unseen and
misunderstood by many Americans.
 THE
MEANING OF NIGHT: A CONFESSION by
Michael Cox (Norton $25.95). I loved
every page of this nearly 700-page novel! If you are passionate about
Victorian novels, if you marvel at the details in a well-researched and
superbly-written historical novel, then this is the book for you. Cox,
an editor at Oxford University Press, immerses the reader in 19th
century London and the English countryside—from opium dens and
brothels, to manor houses and law offices. Ruthless obsession, betrayal,
romance, secrecy, and murder—it’s all here. And how can you go wrong
with such fascinating character names as Phoebus Daunt, Edward Charles
Glyver, Edward Glapthorn, Willougby Le Grice, Josiah Pluckrose, or my
favorite Fordyce Jukes.~ Joan
 ENEMY
COMBATANT: My Imprisonment at Guantanamo, Bagram, and Kandahar
by Moazzem Begg (The New Press $26.95).
Who are the prisoners who we have only glimpsed behind barbed wire?
Previously, their voices have been unknown to us. Moazzam Begg is a
second generation British Muslim born and raised in Birmingham, who was
seized in Pakistan in 2002 and detained for three years, including 20
months in solitary at Guantánamo. Finally, he was released, never
having been charged with a crime, and without apology or compensation.
The book – the first eyewitness account of the unlawful jailing of
people around the world by the Bush administration – is a clear
indictment of the U.S. government’s lack of regard for the Geneva
Conventions and other treaties we have signed. I think all Americans
should read this book. ~ Joan
 HOME
GROUND: Language for an American Landscape edited by Barry Lopez
(Trinity University Press $29.95). This amazing book will please
anyone who loves the outdoors, geography, geology, and language. There
are over 850 definitions. Some of my favorites are krummholz, monadnock,
acequia, taiga, sea stack, piedmont, mangrove swamp, drumlin, flume,
flatiron, everglade, palouse, and looking-glass prairie. Forty-five
writers participated in this project, including Gretel Ehrlich, Barbara
Kingsolver, Jon Krakauer, Bill McKibben, Luis Alberto Urrea, and Terry
Tempest Williams. ~ Joan
 THE
BOOK THAT CHANGED MY LIFE: 71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books
That Matter Most to Them
edited by Roxanne J. Coady & Joy Johannessen (Gotham
Books $17.50). This book is a perfect gift for any book lover and
you’ll probably want your own copy as well. The essays are gathered
from a wide range of interesting writers, and the books they discuss
give us new reasons to read or re-read some older treasures. This book
encouraged me to think about which book(s) changed my life and I’m
sure you will come up with a title or two. To give you a sampling:
Dorothy Allison writes about The Bluest Eye, Tomie dePaola
discusses Kristin Lavransdatter, Sebastian Junger’s essay tells
us about the impact, at age fifteen, of reading at Bury My Heart at
Wounded Knee, and Nicholas Basbanes examines the importance
of the works of William Shakespeare. ~ Joan
KING ARTHUR FLOUR WHOLE GRAIN
COOKING (Countryman
Press $35.00). I have almost non-existent baking experience, but with
this book I am giving it a go for two reasons. First, King Arthur Flour
was founded in 1790 and is the oldest flour company in the U.S., located
in Norwich, Vermont. Isn’t that impressive! Second, this huge book of
over 600 pages and more than 400 recipes uses nutritious whole grains.
I’ll be starting with Apple Raspberry Oat Crumble, Indian Pudding (a
favorite of mine), and Morning Glory Muffins. Then as my baking skills
improve, I’ll move on to the numerous bread recipes, and I may even
surprise Jon with whole wheat pretzels! ~ Joan
 THE
REPUBLIC OF POETRY: Poems by Martín Espada (Norton
$23.95). Martín Espada’s poems are powerful, political, and
accessible. The first cycle of poems is about Espada’s trip to Chile
in July of 2004 to take part in the commemoration of Pablo Neruda’s
centenary. He captures the pain and horror of the Sept. 11, 1973, coup
in Chile, the assassination of the democratically elected President,
Salvador Allende, and the 17 year brutal dictatorship of Agosto
Pinochet. He recalls the singer Victor Jarra who was murdered in Estadio
Chile during the early days of the coup. Today the stadium is Estadio
Victor Jarra. The poems are about destruction and redemption. These
beautiful poems about Chile today give me hope. ~ Joan
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