ODY New Books Collection

Murder Takes a Vacation

"Highly acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman returns with an irresistible mystery featuring Muriel Blossom, a former private investigator and middle-aged widow whose vacation on a Parisian river cruise turns into a deadly international mystery...that only she can solve."-- Provided by publisher

The Last Supper

"The origins of our postsecular present, revealed in an account of the moment when popular culture became the site of religious conflict."-- Provided by publisher

Apple in China

"After struggling to build its products on three continents, Apple was lured by China's seemingly inexhaustible supply of cheap labor. Soon it was sending thousands of engineers across the Pacific, training millions of workers, and spending hundreds of billions of dollars to create the world's most sophisticated supply chain. These capabilities enabled Apple to build the 21st century's most iconic products--in staggering volume and for enormous profit. Without explicitly intending to, Apple built an advanced electronics industry within China, only to discover that its massive investments in technology upgrades had inadvertently given Beijing a power that could be weaponized. In Apple in China, journalist Patrick McGee draws on more than two hundred interviews with former executives and engineers, supplementing their stories with unreported meetings held by Steve Jobs, emails between top executives, and internal memos regarding threats from Chinese competition. The book highlights the unknown characters who were instrumental in Apple's ascent and who tried to forge a different path, including the Mormon missionary who established the Apple Store in China; the "Gang of Eight" executives tasked with placating Beijing; and an idealistic veteran whose hopes of improving the lives of factory workers were crushed by both Cupertino's operational demands and Xi Jinping's war on civil society. Apple in China is the sometimes disturbing and always revelatory story of how an outspoken, proud company that once praised "rebels" and "troublemakers"--the company that encouraged us all to "Think Different"--devolved into passively cooperating with a belligerent regime that increasingly controls its fate." -- Provided by publisher

Gray Mirror. Fascicle I, Disturbance

"There is no current narrative, in or out of power, that tells our complete story. Should this disturb you? It should." Curtis Yarvin and Passage Press proudly present Yarvin's first original work exclusive to print with Gray Mirror: Fascicle I, Disturbance. Disturbance is the first in a series of four fascicles--novella-length volumes that compose the full book Gray Mirror. The purpose of Disturbance is to disrupt our sense of where we are. Our historical, political, and philosophical narratives are not infallible, Yarvin tells us, nor are our institutions of public and private power inevitable. Both are the results of contingent historical events. Different stories could be told. Different structures could hold power. In his trademark style of historical and cultural analysis, Yarvin asks: are these systems working out for us? If not, what can we do about it? How can we start living in the truth?" -- Amazon

The Words of Dr. L

"Grounded in both the contemporary United States and a variety of dystopias, the new stories in Karen E. Bender's third collection examine the evolving dynamics of the nuclear family in adolescence, motherhood, the empty nest, and caring for the aging parent. From a young woman who wants to learn secret words to terminate a pregnancy to a mother who discovers an extra child in her home she had forgotten about, to a couple separated from their son in globes orbiting the Earth, to society's terrible plan to leave the burning planet for a life on Mars, the stories honor the emotional force of these situations by grappling with themes of freedom, self-definition, youth, aging, control, and power. Bender's work explores the ordinary in the extraordinary, using settings both familiar and fantastic to discover new truths in the lifelong connection between parents and their children."-- Provided by publisher

Unforgiving Places

"What if everything we knew about gun violence was wrong? In 2007, economist Jens Ludwig moved to the South Side of Chicago in the hope of answering a big question: why do US cities have so much gun violence, and is there anything to be done about it? Almost two decades later, his answers are nothing he ever expected. Unforgiving Places is the sweeping account of a multi-decade mission to identify the real drivers of violent crime in the American City. Ludwig's data show that America's stock explanations for its violent-crime problem -- factors like guns, gangs, race, poverty, the economy, and premeditated malice -- fall dramatically short in explaining the actual incidence and scale of the country's violent crime. Instead, Ludwig shows that the incidence of violent crime can be traced to something far more innocuous: to momentary disagreements that escalate differently based on the very different environments that characterize contemporary American society today. By framing American gun violence as a situational response to different kinds of stress in different kinds of places, Ludwig presents this longstanding problem in starkly solvable terms. Progress on gun violence needn't require America to solve every other social problem first; it only requires that we find ways to intervene on the ten-minute windows when behaviors predictably go haywire. Blending the original work of a renowned social scientist with first-person dispatches from a largely caricaturized place, Unforgiving Places is a book of uncharacteristic rigor and humanity. Ludwig expands our understanding of what economics can teach us -- and in the process, redefines this quintessentially American challenge."-- Provided by publisher

Total Defense

"In the 1930s, amid rising fascism, FDR and the New Dealers invented the doctrine of national security, which obligated the state to guard against not just territorial invasion but also remote threats to the "American way of life." Total Defense explores how the new idea of national security transformed the United States and its place in the world."-- Provided by publisher

To Smithereens

"When Rosa, a depressed and drifting twenty-something, meets Paul, a middling art critic, an off-kilter romance commences. Paul longs to be dominated by physically powerful women and convinces Rosa to fulfill one of his fantasies: that she become a wrestler. Soon, Rosa joins a women's wrestling team and embarks on a tour of the South, befriends her horny teammates and their jealous boyfriends, and learns to hold her own among a crew of seedy coaches and greedy promoters. To Smithereens offers a light satire of art world personalities, a glimpse into Manhattan of the 1970s--with its seedy theatres, beguiling characters, and beloved freaks--and a riotous foray into mid-century women's wrestling. Inspired by Drexler's own career in the ring (immortalized in Andy Warhol's lithograph "Album of a Mat Queen"), and first published in 1972, To Smithereens is an antic and indelible portrait of its time. -- Provided by publisher

Thrilled to Death

Curated by the author, Thrilled to Death is the definitive entry point for both established fans and new readers alike. These stories collect a bold, playful, and eclectic ensemble of Tillman's Borgesian fictions that span decades and traverse themes of sex, death, memory, and anxiety. With argumentative wit, Tillman's meditations and reflections on art, politics, and culture are animated by deliciously paradoxical characters who desire and fret in turn, and who are imbued with searing intelligence and dolorous ambivalence. -- Provided by publisher

Surreal

"From the author of Charles James: Portrait of an Unreasonable Man, the long-awaited biography of Gala Dalí, whose face is known been many and whose story is known by few, until now. Surreal presents the riveting life story of Gala, Salvador Dalí's wife, partner, and muse. A charismatic, uninhibited, very human woman, she was a force majeure in pre-war Paris' legendary Surrealist circles where she was idolized as 'the mother of Surrealism.' As Dalí's great love, artistic collaborator, and the genius behind his vast fortune, Gala inflected the cultural history of the twentieth century. But despite her influence on Western art and literature, very little is known about her life. Gala was a paradoxical figure, with a charisma that drew people to her but a reserved nature that kept her secrets hidden. She was a survivor of two World Wars, the Russian Revolution, and the Spanish Civil War. She was miserly, but also a brilliant promoter and marketing virtuoso who made millions for herself, her husband, and their entourage. Despite her notoriety, Gala was never properly acknowledged or understood, and records of her life story and accomplishments remain fragmented. Surreal brings her life into focus and assembles the full picture of this fascinating and powerful woman."-- Provided by publisher

State Champ

"A high-school state champion runner turned college dropout, Angela is working as a receptionist at an abortion clinic when a 'heartbeat law' criminalizes most abortions statewide. In the ensuing upheaval, her boss is arrested for providing illegal procedures and the clinic is shut down. Angela has never been either an activist or a model employee. But she gets why her boss didn't follow the rules. She decides to go on a hunger strike in the boarded-up clinic, to protest her boss's arrest and everything that's been lost. She'll draw on her skillset: the masochistic discipline of a runner, a history of self-destructive behavior, and a willingness to sleep on exam room tables (whose hygienic paper she uses as her diary). Angela's protest is solitary, enraged, and a little messy, but it mobilizes a group of people around her-an ex who's a local journalist looking for a good story, the everyday people the clinic once served, and most especially a formidable anti-abortion activist named Janine."-- Amazon

Spent

"In Alison Bechdel's hilariously skewering and gloriously cast new comic novel confection, a cartoonist named Alison Bechdel, running a pygmy goat sanctuary in Vermont, is existentially irked by a climate-challenged world and a citizenry on the brink of civil war. She wonders: Can she pull humanity out of its death spiral by writing a scathingly self-critical memoir about her own greed and privilege? Meanwhile, Alison's first graphic memoir about growing up with her father, a taxidermist who specialized in replicas of Victorian animal displays, has been adapted into a highly successful TV series. It's a phenomenon that makes Alison, formerly on the cultural margins, the envy of her friend group (recognizable as characters, now middle-aged and living communally in Vermont, from Bechdel's beloved comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For). As the TV show Death and Taxidermy racks up Emmy after Emmy--and when Alison's Pauline Bunyanesque partner Holly posts an instructional wood-chopping video that goes viral--Alison's own envy spirals. Why couldn't she be the writer for a critically lauded and wildly popular reality TV show...like Queer Eye...showing people how to free themselves from consumer capitalism and live a more ethical life?!! Spent's rollicking and masterful denouement--making the case for seizing what's true about life in the world at this moment, before it's too late--once again proves that 'nobody does it better' (New York Times Book Review) than the real Alison Bechdel."-- Provided by publisher

Speaking in Tongues

"In this provocative dialogue, a Nobel laureate novelist and a leading translator investigate the nature of language and the challenges of translation. Language, historically speaking, has always been slippery. Two dictionaries provide two different maps of the universe: which one is true, or are both false? Speaking in Tongues--taking the form of a dialogue between Nobel laureate novelist J. M. Coetzee and eminent translator Mariana Dimópulos--examines some of the most pressing linguistic issues that plague writers and translators well into the twenty-first century. The authors address questions that we must answer in order to understand contemporary society. They inquire if one can truly love an acquired language, and they question why certain languages, like Spanish, have gender differences built into them. They examine the threat of monolingualism and ask how we can counter, if at all, the global spread of the English language, which seems to maraud like a colonial power. They question whether it should be the duty of the translator to remove morally objectionable, misogynistic, or racist language. And in the conclusion, Coetzee even speculates whether it's only mathematics that can tell the truth about everything. Drawing from decades of experience in the craft of language, both Dimópulos and Coetzee face the reality, as did Walter Benjamin over a century ago in his seminal essay 'The Task of the Translator,' that when it comes to self-expression, some things will always get lost in translation. Speaking in Tongues finally emerges as an engaging and accessible work of philosophy, shining a light on some of the most important linguistic and philological issues of our time."-- Provided by publisher

The South

"A radiant, intimate novel of the longing that blooms between two boys over the course of one summer-about family, desire, and what we inherit."-- Provided by publisher

The Second Coming

"As a college student, award-winning journalist Carter Sherman, along with several members of her sorority, was interviewed by a writer looking for salacious details about their sex lives. But the sex the girls were having -- or the lack thereof -- seemed disappointing, and their stories didn't make the book's final cut. A decade later, young Americans are having less sex than past generations, and the sex they are having is infinitely more complicated. Sherman, who has spent years traveling the country reporting on gender and sexuality, wanted to find out why. Based on more than one hundred interviews with teenagers and young adults, activists, and experts, The Second Coming reveals how (mis)education, the internet, and politics have not only reshaped relationships but also unleashed a nationwide power struggle over the future of sex. From abortion clinics crowded with young patients, to 'Dating with Dignity' seminars at the National Pro-Life Summit, to school board battles over what students should read, think, and feel, we meet folks from both sides of the aisle who are well-informed, empowered, and active (even if not always sexually). And as measures are taken to limit Americans' access to rights and resources, they are fighting back." -- Provided by publisher

The River Is Waiting

"From the New York Times bestselling author of Oprah Bookclub Picks I Know This Much Is True and She's Come Undone comes the heart wrenching story of a young father who, after an unbearable tragedy, reckons with the possibility of atonement for the unforgivable."-- Provided by publisher

The Rebel Romanov

"From the New York Times bestselling author of The Romanov Sisters comes the story of a courageous young Imperial Grand Duchess who scandalized Europe in search of freedom. In 1795, Catherine the Great of Russia was in search of a bride for her grandson Constantine, who stood third in line to her throne. In an eerie echo of her own story, Catherine selected an innocent young German princess, Julie of Saxe-Coburg, aunt of the future Queen Victoria. Though Julie had everything a young bride could wish for, she was alone in a court dominated by an aging empress and riven with rivalries, plotting, and gossip-not to mention her brute of a husband, who was tender one moment and violent the next. She longed to leave Russia and her disastrous marriage, but her family in Germany refused to allow her to do so. Desperate for love, Julie allegedly sought consolation in the arms of others. Finally, Tsar Alexander granted her permission to leave in 1801, even though her husband was now heir to the throne. Rootless in Europe, Julie gave birth to two-possibly three-illegitimate children, all of whom she was forced to give up for adoption. Despite entreaties from Constantine to return and provide an heir, she refused, eventually finding love with her own married physician. At a time when many royal brides meekly submitted to disastrous marriages, Julie proved to be a woman ahead of her time, sacrificing her reputation and a life of luxury in exchange for the freedom to live as she wished. The Rebel Romanov is the inspiring tale of a bold woman who, until now, has been ignored by history." -- Provided by publisher

Putin's
Sledgehammer

"In July 2023 the Wagner Group assembled an armed convoy that included tanks and rocket launchers and set out on what seemed like a journey to take control of Moscow. The last person to attempt such a venture was Adolf Hitler. Wagner's power began from patronage, then grew from international theft and extortion, until it was so great it exposed the weakness of Russia's conventional military and became a threat to the Russian state, one that was not demonstrably eliminated until a private jet containing Wagner's core commanders was blown up in midair. That Yevgeny Prigozhin, a local criminal thug, was able to build a private army that was on the threshold of overwhelming the world's second largest country seems incredible. In fact, it was inevitable following the hollowing out of the Russian military, the creeping use of contract groups for murky foreign missions, power struggles inside the Kremlin, and the ability of the new militias to corner and exploit the black economy. Told with unique inside sourcing and expertise, Putin's Sledgehammer is a gripping and terrifying account of a superpower that contracted its soul to a pitiless militia."-- Provided by publisher

The Philosophy of Translation

"Avoiding theoretical debates and clichéd metaphors, award-winning translator Damion Searls has written a fresh, approachable, and convincing account of what translation really is and what translators actually do. As the translator of sixty books from multiple languages, Searls has spent decades grappling with words on the most granular level: nouns and verbs, accents on people's names, rhymes, rhythm, untranslatable cultural nuances. Here, he connects a wealth of specific examples to larger philosophical issues of reading and perception. Translation, he argues, is fundamentally a way of reading -- but reading is much more than taking in information, and translating is far from a mechanical process of converting one word to another. This sharp and inviting exploration of the theory and practice of translation is for anyone who has ever marveled at the beauty, force, and movement of language." -- Provided by publisher

The Original Daughter

"Before Arin, Genevieve Yang was an only child. Living with her parents and grandmother in a single-room flat in working-class Singapore, Genevieve is saddled with an unexpected sibling when Arin appears, the shameful legacy of a grandfather long believed to be dead. As the girls grow closer, they must navigate the intensity of life in a brutally competitive place where the insistence on achievement demands constant sacrifice. The sisters become inextricably bound as they spurn outside friendships, leisure, and any semblance of a social life in pursuit of academic perfection and passage to a better future. When a stinging betrayal violently estranges the sisters, Genevieve must weight the value of ambition versus familial love, home versus the outside world, and allegiance to herself versus allegiance to the people who made her who she is. In this story of a family and its contention with the roiling changes of our rapidly modernizing, winner-take-all world, The Original Daughter is a major literary debut, imbued with equal parts emotional clarity and searing social insight." -- Front jacket flap