ODY New Books Collection

Taiwan Travelogue

"May 1938. The young novelist Aoyama Chizuko has sailed from her home in Nagasaki, Japan, and arrived in Taiwan. She's been invited there by the Japanese government ruling the island, though she has no interest in their official banquets or imperialist agenda. Instead, Chizuko longs to experience real island life and to taste as much of its authentic cuisine as her famously monstrous appetite can bear. Soon a Taiwanese woman -- who is younger even than she is, and who shares the characters of her name -- is hired as her interpreter and makes her dreams come true. The charming, erudite, meticulous Chizuru arranges Chizuko's travels all over the Land of the South and also proves to be an exceptional cook. Over scenic train rides and braised pork rice, lively banter and winter melon tea, Chizuko grows infatuated with her companion and intent on drawing her closer. But something causes Chizuru to keep her distance. It's only after a heartbreaking separation that Chizuko begins to grasp what the "something" is. Disguised as a translation of a rediscovered text by a Japanese writer, this novel was a sensation on its first publication in Mandarin Chinese in 2020 and won Taiwan's highest literary honor, the Golden Tripod Award. Taiwan Travelogue unburies lost colonial histories and deftly reveals how power dynamics inflect our most intimate relationships."-- Provided by publisher

Out of Her Mind

"For centuries so called 'difficult women' have been labelled as 'hysterical' and 'out of their minds'. Today they wait longer for health diagnoses, often being told it's 'all in their heads'. Although healthcare systems are overburdened, why are women the first to feel the effects of this? Why is it so hard for women to find the kind of help they need? Why is no one listening to them? And why have so many lost faith in mental health care? Drawing on the lived experiences of women, alongside expert commentators, recent history, current events, and her own personal and professional experience, Dr Linda Gask explores women's mental healthcare today. In doing so she confronts her role as a psychiatrist, recalling experiences treating women and as a woman who has received mental healthcare, illustrating the dire need for more change, faster. Women can't all be out of their minds." -- Jacket

The New India

"Since Narendra Modi's election in May 2014, India has become more dysfunctional and dangerous than ever. The "world's largest democracy" has seen a cascade of events ushered in by a nationalistic and religious government that have threatened the freedoms and identities of its citizens. If you support Modi, you are a bhakt, among the devoted. If you do not, you are an urban naxal, an unpatriotic traitor, and enemy of the Hindu faith. There is, increasingly, no room in between. In The New India, journalist Rahul Bhatia investigates this slow burn of democracy in India, connecting past and present to offer the first thorough account of how the country is sliding towards autocracy. He describes the religious, societal, and technological changes that have brought India to a point at which a nationalist mindset that despises democracy and human rights is spreading fast, all in an effort to bind the multiethnic, multilingual, and multicultural country into a single identity. Through a character-driven narrative informed by on the ground reporting, he investigates the disinformation machine at the heart of the Modi government, the corrupt lawmakers whose work targets religious minorities, the police force bent on raiding every public newsroom, and the CEO behind the largest data collecting agency in the world whose invention has forever altered Indian elections. At the same time, Bhatia shows us the consequences of these efforts on everyday citizens--from Muslims attempting to hold on to their property to students protesting the government's overreach of their education to journalists being threatened for uttering a single word against the BJP party. What emerges is a timely, urgent and at times shocking portrait of a country that has turned on itself." -- Amazon

Mood Machine

"An unsparing investigation into Spotify's origins and influence on music, weaving unprecedented reporting with incisive cultural criticism, illuminating how streaming is reshaping music for listeners and artists alike. Drawing on over one hundred interviews with industry insiders, former Spotify employees, and musicians, Mood Machine takes us to the inner workings of today's highly consolidated record business, showing what has changed as music has become increasingly playlisted, personalized, and autoplayed. Building on her years of wide-ranging reporting on streaming, music journalist Liz Pelly details the consequences of the Spotify model by examining both sides of what the company calls its two-sided marketplace: the listeners who pay with their dollars and data, and the musicians who provide the material powering it all. The music business is notoriously opaque, but here Pelly lifts the veil on major stories like streaming services filling popular playlists with low-cost stock music and the rise of new payola-like practices. For all of the inequities exacerbated by streaming, Pelly also finds hope in chronicling the artist-led fight for better models, pointing toward what must be done collectively to revalue music and create sustainable systems. A timely exploration of a company that has become synonymous with music, Mood Machine will change the way you think about and listen to music."-- Publisher's website

Lazarus Man

"East Harlem, 2008. In an instant, a five-story tenement collapses into a fuming hill of rubble ... As the city's rescue services and media outlets respond, the surrounding neighborhood descends into chaos. By day's end, six bodies have been recovered but many of the other tenants are missing. In Lazarus Man, Richard Price ... creates intertwining portraits of a group of compelling and singular characters whose lives are permanently affected by the disaster."-- Dust jacket flap

Kingdom of No Tomorrow

"The story of a young Haitian woman in California who becomes involved with the Black Panthers and discovers that being part of the revolution may not always mean equal justice for women."-- Provided by publisher

How Sondheim Can Change Your Life

How Sondheim Can Change Your Life makes the case that Sondheim's greatness--beyond the clever lyrics and adventurous music--rests in his ability to tell stories that relate to us all. From Louise's desire for freedom as Gypsy Rose Lee to Sweeney Todd's thirst for revenge, we as an audience relate easily to Sondheim's characters. His works understand us as much as we understand them.

A History of the Big House

"This vibrant family saga chronicles the rise and fall of the Nassar clan, as they navigate the great events of the 20th century in Lebanon, from the Ottoman Empire to the French Mandate. At the end of the 19th century, a man is forced to flee his village after a quarrel. Starting over with nothing, the banished, audacious Wakim Nassar will create orange plantations on the outskirts of Beirut and become the head of a large clan, feared and respected. The great house he builds at their center will become a powerful symbol of the Nassars' glory, admired from afar. But this decadence is short-lived, battered by the First World War, illness, family tragedy, and the shifting regimes that control Lebanon. As circumstances compel Wakim's descendants, one by one, to leave the house, it falls into ruin. A rich, sweeping tale full of unforgettable characters and anchored in historical fact, A History of the Big House captures the unique experience of the Lebanese people through this family's triumphs and struggles."-- Provided by publisher

Her Lotus Year

"New York Times bestselling author Paul French examines a controversial and revealing period in the early life of the legendary Wallis, Duchess of Windsor--her one year in China. Before she was the Duchess of Windsor, Bessie Wallis Warfield was Mrs. Wallis Spencer, wife of Earl "Win" Spencer, a US Navy aviator. From humble beginnings in Baltimore, she rose to marry a man who gave up his throne for her. But what made Wallis Spencer, Navy Wife, the woman who could become the Duchess of Windsor? The answers lie in her one-year sojourn in China. In her memoirs, Wallis described her time in China as her "Lotus Year," referring to Homer's Lotus Eaters, a group living in a state of dreamy forgetfulness, never to return home. Though faced with challenges, Wallis came to appreciate traditional Chinese aesthetics. China molded her in terms of her style and provided her with friendships that lasted a lifetime. But that "Lotus Year" would also later be used to damn her in the eyes of the British Establishment. The British government's supposed "China Dossier" of Wallis's rumored amorous and immoral activities in the Far East was a damning concoction, portraying her as sordid, debauched, influenced by foreign agents, and unfit to marry a king. Instead, French, an award-winning China historian, reveals Wallis Warfield Spencer as a woman of tremendous courage who may have acted as a courier for the US government, undertaking dangerous undercover diplomatic missions in a China torn by civil war. Her Lotus Year is an untold story in the colorful life of a woman too often maligned by history."-- Provided by publisher

Gabriel's
Moon

"From the internationally bestselling author twice recognized by the Booker Prize, William Boyd's most exhilarating novel yet travels from the vibrant streets of sixties London to the sun-soaked cobbles of Cadiz and the frosty squares of Warsaw, as a reluctant spy is drawn into the shadows of espionage and obsession." --Provided by publisher

Eating and Being

"Eating and Being is a book about what we eat and who we are, and how the two are intertwined. Why do we eat what we do, and what do we think about what we eat? A genealogy of thinking about food, eating, knowledge, and ourselves, it draws attention to how people in the West have thought and felt about food and eating over the centuries. How has food been represented and what have been the consequences? The book begins by taking up what Steven Shapin calls traditional dietetics, which was intended to counsel people about how to live to maintain their health. Traditional dietetics-from Antiquity through the early modern period-occupied much the same terrain as moral culture and it took some of its authority from the way in which advice on health and advice on a virtuous life coincided. Its ideas were challenged throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as nutrition scientists, chemists, and physiologists attempted to replace the language of traditional dietetics with the concepts coming out of their labs-namely, a language of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. Shapin's tour then takes us through the twentieth century to show how a new vernacular for thinking about food came to shape our present-day relationship to it. Eating and Being is a sympathetic story about the relationship between the objective and the subjective, about human beings as natural objects and sensing subjects, and about what is good for you and what is good."-- Provided by publisher

The Divine Comedy

"When Michael Palma’s translation of the Inferno appeared in 2002, it defied the conventional wisdom of literary commentators who had long argued that Dante’s intricate terza rima form simply could not be rendered in 'rhyme-poor' English. But Palma’s achievement in rhyming tercets was quickly received as a spectacular feat of poetic artistry that was 'accurate... admirably clear, and readable” (Richard Wilbur) and that, “in capturing the sense, sound, and spirit of the original... comes close to perfection' (X. J. Kennedy). Now, more than two decades later, Palma has applied the same virtuosic attention to the form and flow of the Purgatorio and Paradiso, attending to both the tiniest details and the grand design of the entire Commedia and offering a fluid and readable English version that reveals to contemporary readers the sound, sense, and awe-inspiring beauty of Italian literature’s greatest poem." -- Amazon

Blue

"New motherhood is often seen as a joyful moment in a woman's life; for some women, it is also their lowest moment. For much of the twentieth century, popular and medical voices blamed women who had emotional and mental distress after childbirth for their own suffering. By the end of the century, though, women with postpartum mental illnesses sought to take charge of this narrative. In Blue: A History of Postpartum Depression in America, Rachel Louise Moran explores the history of the naming and mainstreaming of postpartum depression. Coalitions of maverick psychiatrists, psychologists, and women who themselves had survived substantial postpartum distress fought to legitimize and normalize women's experiences. They argued that postpartum depression is an objective and real illness and fought to avoid it being politicized alongside other fraught medical and political battles over women's health. Based on insightful oral histories and in-depth archival research, Blue reveals a secret history of American motherhood, women's political activism, and the rise of postpartum depression advocacy amid an often-censorious conservative culture. By breaking new ground with the first book-length history of postpartum mental illness in the twentieth century, Moran brings mothers' battles with postpartum depression out of the shadows and into the light." -- Publisher's website

Apartment Women

"When Yojin moves with her husband and daughter into the Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments, she's ready for a fresh start. Located on the outskirts of Seoul, the experimental community is a government initiative designed to boost the national birth rate. Like her neighbors, Yojin has agreed to have at least two more children over the next ten years. Yet, from the day she arrives, Yojin feels uneasy about the community spirit thrust upon her. Her concerns grow as communal child care begins and the other parents show their true colors. Apartment Women traces the lives of four women in the apartments, all with different aspirations and beliefs. Will they find a way to live peacefully? Or are the cultural expectations around parenthood stacked against them from the start? A trenchant social novel from an award-winning author, Apartment Women incisively illuminates the unspoken imbalance of women's parenting labor, challenging the age-old assumption that "it takes a village" to raise a child."-- Provided by publisher

Anima

"In Anima, Kapka Kassabova introduces us to the 'pastiri' people-the shepherds struggling to hold on to an ancient way of life in which humans and animals exist in profound interdependence. Following her three previous books set in the Balkans, and with an increasing interest in the degraded state of our planet and culture, Kassabova reaches further into the spirit of place than she ever has before. In this extraordinary portrayal of pastoral life, she investigates the heroic efforts to sustain the oldest surviving breeds of our domesticated animals, and she shows us the epic, orchestrated activity of transhumance-the seasonal movement, on foot, of a vast herd of sheep, working in tandem with dogs. She also becomes more and more attuned to the isolation and sacrifices inherent in the lives shaped by this work. Weaving together lyrical writing about place with a sweeping sense of the traumatic histories that have shaped this mountainous region of Bulgaria, Kassabova shows how environmental change and industrial capitalism are endangering older, sustainable ways of living, and by extension she reveals the limited nature of so much of modern life. But shining through Kassabova's passionate, intimate response to the monoculture that is 'Anthropos' is her indelible portrait of a circulating interdependence of people and animals that might point to a healthier way to live."-- Provided by publisher

Always a Sibling

"A practical, compassionate guide to sibling loss, with research, stories, and strategies for 'forgotten mourners' as they move through the stages of grief towards finding meaning. After her brother was killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan, Annie Sklaver Orenstein was heartbroken and unmoored. Standing in the grief section of her local bookstore, she searched for guides on how to work through her grief as a mourning sibling--and found nothing. More than 4 million American adults each year will lose a sibling, yet there isn't a modern resource guide available that speaks directly to this type of grief that at times can be overshadowed by grieving parents and spouses and made even more difficult by the complexities of sibling dynamics. In Always a Sibling, Annie uses her own story and those of others to create the empathic, thoughtful, practical resource that she sought. Divided into three sections: With, Without, and Within, it creates a framework that enables the reader to ground themselves in order to process and validate this often overlooked grief. Annie guides readers to capture the memories and emotions of life with their now deceased sibling, then moves to addressing the grieving process in detail as they navigate life without them. Ultimately, readers will find ways to experience their sibling's presence within themselves and acknowledge their legacy. With practical strategies rooted in proven grief processing techniques, trauma recovery, and psychoanalysis, Always A Sibling truly supports mourners through the unique experience of sibling loss." -- Publisher's description

Cher

"There is only one Cher... And for seven decades she has been showing us why. With a life too big for one volume, Cher holds the attention of the world with her voice, her acting, her style, her wit, and her unstoppable spirit. Now, for the first time, she tells her story in her own voice -- a voice that is as honest as it is hilarious, as powerful as it is perceptive. Cher: The Memoir, Part One recounts Cher's origin, backtracking through her mother's childhood to trace how the choices Georgia made influenced Cher's personality. Chasing fame, love, and stability for her children, with movie-star looks and a knockout voice, Georgia married and moved over and over again. Surrounded by artists, actors, and glamorous women, Cher's childhood was anything but normal. When her mom told her not to worry about her trouble in school, that she was going to become somebody when she grew up, she believed her, practicing her autograph for future stardom. Whether on her tricycle, a train, or behind the wheel on the streets of Los Angeles, Cher had a powerful desire to keep moving, eventually landing her in the arms of Sonny Bono. The duo became famous beyond their wildest dreams. Cher: The Memoir, Part One charts her career -- from singing backup in Phil Spector's studio to pop stardom with Sonny and Cher, to the Vegas lounge act that gave birth to the television show that brought them into America's living room and made her a fashion icon and household name. As time passed, fame changed the dynamic of their relationship and Cher evolved from a wide-eyed teenager into a woman. She started fighting for herself, breaking away from his control and realizing things were not as they seemed. Taking risks, making headlines, falling in love -- first with David Geffen, who showed her the truth and then took care of her and her entire family, and then with Gregg Allman -- Cher struggled and stumbled while trying to become her own woman, charting her own path, and taking her own place in the world. Cher: The Memoir, Part One brings us to the brink of her next chapter, a remarkable acting and recording career that cemented her legacy for the ages." -- Jacket flap

Playworld

"A big and bighearted novel-one enthralling, transformative year in the life of a child actor coming of age in a bygone Manhattan. Griffin Hurt is in over his head. His role as Peter Proton on the hit TV show The Nuclear Family and high school at Boyd Prep on New York's Upper West Side-along with the increasingly compromising demands of his wrestling coach-have him teetering on the edge of collapse. Then comes Naomi Shah, twenty-two years Griffin's senior. Unwilling to lay his burdens on his shrink-whom he shares with his father, mother, and younger brother, Oren-Griffin soon finds himself in the back of Naomi's Mercedes sedan, again and again, confessing all to the one person who might do him the most harm. Less a bildungsroman than a story of miseducation, Playworld is a novel of epic proportions, bursting with laughter and heartache. Adam Ross immerses us in the life of Griffin and his loving (yet disintegrating) family while seeming to evoke the entirety of Manhattan and the ethos of an era-with Jimmy Carter on his way out and a B-list celebrity named Ronald Reagan on his way in. Surrounded by adults who embody the age's excesses-and who seem to care little about what their children are up to-Griffin is left to himself to find the line between youth and maturity, dependence and love, acting and truly grappling with life."-- Provided by publisher

The Rest Is Memory

"First glimpsed riding on the back of a boy's motorcycle, fourteen-year-old Czeslawa comes to life in this mesmerizing novel by Lily Tuck, who imagines her upbringing in a small Polish village before her world imploded in late 1942. Stripped of her modest belongings, shorn, and tattooed number 26947 on arriving at Auschwitz, Czeslawa is then photographed. Three months later, she is dead. How did this happen to an ordinary Polish citizen? This is the question that Tuck grapples with in this haunting novel, which frames Czeslawa's story within the epic tragedy of six million Poles who perished during the German occupation. A decade prior to writing The Rest Is Memory, Tuck read an obituary of the photographer Wilhelm Brasse, who took more than 40,000 pictures of the Auschwitz prisoners. Included were three of Czeslawa Kwoka, a Catholic girl from rural southeastern Poland. Tuck cut out the photos and kept them, determined to learn more about Czeslawa, but she was only able to glean the barest facts: the village she came from, the transport she was on, that she was accompanied by her mother and her neighbors, her tattoo number, and the date of her death. From this scant evidence, Tuck's novel becomes a remarkable kaleidoscopic feat of imagination, something only our greatest novelists can do."-- Provided by publisher

The World with Its Mouth Open

"In eleven stories, The World With Its Mouth Open follows the inner lives of people in Kashmir as they navigate the uncertain terrain of their days, fractured from years of war. From a shopkeeper's encounter with a mannequin, to an expectant mother walking on a precarious road, to a young boy wavering between dreams and reality, to two dogs wandering the city, these stories weave in larger, devastating themes of loss, grief, violence, longing, and injustice with the threads of smaller realities that confront the characters' lives in profound ways. Although the stories circle the darker aspects of everyday living, they are-at the same time-an attempt to run into life, into humor, into beauty, into another person who can offer refuge, if momentarily. Zahid Rafiq's The World With Its Mouth Open is an original and powerful debut collection announcing the arrival of an important voice that bears witness to the human condition with nuance, heart, and incredible insight."-- Provided by publisher