ODY New Books Collection

Nothing More of This Land

"From award-winning journalist Joseph Lee, a sweeping, personal exploration of Indigenous identity and the challenges facing Indigenous people around the world." -- Provided by publisher

Make It Ours

"Virgil Abloh's appointment as head of menswear for Louis Vuitton in 2018 shocked the fashion industry, as he became the first Black designer to serve as artistic director in the brand's 164-year history. But as Pulitzer Prize-winning culture critic Robin Givhan reveals, Abloh's story encompasses so much more than his own journey. Using Abloh's surprising path to the top of the luxury establishment, Givhan unfolds the larger story of how the cloistered, exclusive fashion world faced a revolution from below in the form of streetwear and designers unafraid to storm the gates--how their notions of what was luxury simultaneously anticipated and upended consumer preferences, and how a simple T-shirt held as much cultural power as a haute couture gown. As Givhan relays, Abloh rose during a time of existential angst for a fashion industry trying to make sense of its responsibilities to a diverse audience and the challenges of selling status to a generation of consumers who fetishized sneakers and prioritized comfort. The story of how that moment came to be, and how someone like Abloh--who had no formal training in pattern-making or tailoring--could come to symbolize and embody the industry's way forward, is the story at the heart of this book. Make It Ours is at once a remarkable biography of a singular creative force and a powerful meditation on fashion and race, taste and exclusivity, genius and luxury. With access to Abloh's family, friends, collaborators, and contemporaries, and featuring a cast of fascinating characters ranging from visionary Black designers like Ozwald Boateng to Abloh's mercurial but critical employer and mentor Kanye West, Givhan weaves a spellbinding tale of a young man's rise amid a cultural moment that would upend a century's worth of ideas about luxury and taste."-- Provided by publisher

Lawless

A Crooked Media podcast host shines a light on what she sees as the unabashed lawlessness embraced by conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices and shows Americans how to fight back.

The Jailhouse Lawyer

"A searing and ultimately hopeful account of Calvin Duncan, "the most extraordinary jailhouse lawyer of our time" (Sister Helen Prejean), and his thirty-year path through Angola after a wrongful murder conviction, his coming-of-age as a legal mind while imprisoned, and his continued advocacy for those on the inside Calvin Duncan was nineteen when he was incarcerated for a 1981 New Orleans murder he didn't commit. The victim of wildly incompetent public defenders and a badly compromised witness, Duncan was left to rot in the waking nightmare of confinement. Armed with little education, he took matters into his own hands. At twenty, he filed his first motion from jail: "Motion for a Law Book," which launched his highly successful, self-taught, legal career. Trapped within this wholly corrupted system, Calvin became a legal advocate for himself and his fellow prisoners as an Inmate Counsel Substitute at the infamous Louisiana State Penitentiary known as Angola. During his decades of incarceration, Calvin helped hundreds of other inmates navigate their cases, offering support to individuals the state had long since written off. Despite his tremendous work, his own case remained stalled. A defense lawyer once responded to his request for documents with a response regarding his legal status: "You are not a person." Prison reform advocate Sophie Cull met Duncan after he was released from prison and began working at her firm; Calvin began to tell her his story. Together, they've written a bracing condemnation of the criminal legal system, and an intimate portrait of a heroic and brilliant man and of his resilience in the face of injustice."-- Provided by publisher

I'll
Be Right Here

"Immigrating alone from Paris to New York after the crucible of World War II, Gazala Benamar, still a teenager, becomes fast friends with two spirited sisters, Anne and Alma. When Gazala's lost, beloved brother, Samir, finally joins her in Manhattan, this contentious, inseparable foursome, will last into the twenty-first century, becoming the beating heart of a multigenerational found family. These decades are marked by the business of everyday life and the inevitable surprises of erupting passions, great and small waves of joy and despair, from the beginning of life, to its end. Gazala and Samir make a home together, Alma loses a baby, Anne leaves her husband for his sister, and Anne's restless daughter grows up to raise a child on her own and join a throuple, becoming who she wanted to be. Through it all, and the history of the these decades, the four friends, and their best beloveds, stand by one another, protecting, annoying and celebrating each other, steadfastly unapologetic about their authentic desires and the unorthodox family they have created. As the next generation falls in and out of love, experiencing life's triumphs, mistakes and disappointments, the central pillars of their lives are the indomitable, hilarious people they call "the Greats". In I'll Be Right Here, Amy Bloom embraces the complexity and richness of humanity, the lawlessness of love, bringing her trademark voice, wry humor, and compassionate eye to the many, often mysterious ways we evolve as we love--and as we hope to be loved in return."-- Provided by publisher

The Fox Wife

"Manchuria, 1908. In the last years of the dying Qing Empire, a courtesan is found frozen in a doorway. Her death is clouded by rumors of foxes, which are believed to lure people by transforming themselves into beautiful women and handsome men. Bao, a detective with an uncanny ability to sniff out the truth, is hired to uncover the dead woman's identity. Since childhood, Bao has been intrigued by the fox gods, yet they've remained tantalizingly out of reach until, perhaps, now. Meanwhile, a family who owns a famous Chinese medicine shop can cure ailments but can't escape the curse that afflicts them--their eldest sons die before their twenty-fourth birthdays. When a disruptively winsome servant named Snow enters their household, the family's luck seems to change--or does it? Snow is a creature of many secrets, but most of all she's a mother seeking vengeance for her lost child. Hunting a murderer, she will follow the trail from northern China to Japan, while Bao follows doggedly behind. Navigating the myths and misconceptions of fox spirits, both Snow and Bao will encounter old friends and new foes, even as more deaths occur."-- Provided by publisher

Exophony

"How perfect that Yoko Tawada's first essay collection in English dives deep into her lifelong fascination with the possibilities opened up by cross-hybrid- izing languages. Tawada famously writes in both Japanese and German, but her interest in language reaches beyond any mere dichotomy. The term "exo- phonic," which she first heard in Senegal, has a special allure for the author: "I was already familiar with similar terms, 'immigrant literature,' or 'creole lit- erature,' but 'exophonic' had a much broader meaning, referring to the general experience of existing outside of one's mother tongue." Tawada revels in explorations of cross-cultural and intra-language possibilities (and along the way deals several nice sharp raps to the global primacy of English). The accent here, as in her fiction, is the art of drawing closer to the world through defamiliarization. Never entertaining a received thought, Tawada seeks the still-to-be-discovered truths, as well as what might possibly be invented entirely whole cloth. Exophony opens a new vista into Yoko Tawada's world, and delivers more of her signature erudite wit-at once cross-grained and generous, laser-focused and multidimensional, slyly ironic and warmly companionable." -- Provided by publisher

Empire of the Elite

"From a New York Times media correspondent, a dishy history of the Condé Nast magazine empire, home of Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and more, focusing on its glitzy heyday from the 1980s through the 2000s." -- Provided by publisher

The Dry Season

"A wise and transformative look at relationships and self-knowledge In the wake of a disastrous two-year relationship, Melissa Febos decided to take a break--for three months she would abstain from dating, from relationships, even from casual sex. Her friends were amused. Did she really think three months was a long time? But to Febos, it was. Ever since her teens, she had been in one relationship or another. As she puts it, she could trace a "daisy chain of romances" from then to now, in her mid-thirties. It was time to focus on herself and examine the lifelong patterns that had produced her midlife disaster. When those three months ended, she feared relapsing into old habits and decided to extend her celibate period. She knew she was taking on a challenge, but had no idea that this year would become the most fulfilling and sensual of her life. No longer defined by her romantic pursuits, she learned to relish the delights of solitude, the thrill of living on her own terms, the sensual pleasures unmediated by lovers, and the freedom to pursue her ideals without distraction or guilt. Bringing her own celibate experiences into conversation with those of women throughout history--from Hildegard von Bingen to the radical feminist group Cell 16--Febos explores how women's decisions to forego sexual intimacy with others (and particularly with men) became a route to freedoms that would otherwise have been inaccessible. The Dry Season is a memoir of celibacy, but it is ultimately a profound exploration of independence, sexuality, and deep self-knowledge. By abstaining from all forms of romantic entanglement, Febos began to see her life and her self-worth in a radical new way. Her year of divestment transformed her relationships with friends and peers, her spirituality, her creative practice, and most of all her relationship to herself." --Provided by publisher

Destroyer of Worlds

"The thrilling and terrifying seventy-year story of the physics that deciphered the atom and created the hydrogen bomb. Although Henri Becquerel didn't know it at the time, he changed history in 1895 when he left photographic plates and some uranium rocks in a drawer. The rocks emitted something that exposed the plates: it was the first documented evidence of spontaneous radioactivity. So began one of the most exciting and consequential efforts humans have ever undertaken. As Frank Close recounts in Destroyer of Worlds, scientists confronting Becquerel's discovery had three questions: What was this phenomenon? Could it be a source of unlimited power? And (alas), could it be a weapon? Answering them was an epic journey of discovery, with Ernest Rutherford, Enrico Fermi, Irene Joliot-Curie, and many others jockeying to decipher the dance of particles in a decaying atom. And it was a terrifying journey as well, as Edward Teller and others pressed on from creating atom bombs to hydrogen bombs so powerful that they could destroy all life on Earth. The deep history of the nuclear age has never before been recounted so vividly. Centered on an extraordinary cast of characters, Destroyer of Worlds charts the course of nuclear physics from simple curiosity to potential Armageddon." -- Provided by publisher

Misbehaving at the Crossroads

"Honorée Fanonne Jeffers is at a crossroads. Traditional African/Black American cultures present the crossroads as a place of simultaneous difficulty and possibility. In contemporary times, Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the phrase "intersectionality" to explain the unique position of Black women in America. In many ways, they are at a third crossroads: attempting to fit into notions of femininity and respectability primarily assigned to White women, while inventing improvisational strategies to combat oppression. In Misbehaving at the Crossroads, Jeffers explores the emotional and historical tensions in Black women's public lives and her own private life. She charts voyages of Black girlhood to womanhood and the currents buffeting these journeys, including the difficulties of racially gendered oppression, the challenges of documenting Black women's ancestry; the adultification of Black girls; the irony of Black female respectability politics; the origins of Womanism/Black feminism; and resistance to White supremacy and patriarchy. As Jeffers shows with empathy and wisdom, naming difficult historical truths represents both Blues and transcendence, a crossroads that speaks." -- Provided by publisher

In This Economy?

"An illustrated guide to the mad math and terrible terminology of economics, from one of the internet's favorite financial educators. The stuff you really need to know about how the economy works? It's pretty simple. Yes, even if you were bored to tears in economics class, or if you're cross-eyed from reading painfully convoluted--or straight-up misguided--financial commentary. In this particularly disorienting era, many have turned to a young economic analyst named Kyla Scanlon for answers. Now, Scanlon is writing a definitive, approachable guide to the key concepts and mechanics of economics and the most common myths and fallacies to steer clear of. Through her trademark blend of creative analogies, clever illustrations, refreshingly lucid language--and even quotes from poetry, literature, and philosophy--she answers questions such as: What is Fed cred, Fed flexing, and Fedspeak? Is our national debt really a threat? What is a "mild" recession, exactly? What's really happening in the labor market, and how do we improve it for workers? At a time when experts overcomplicate simple things loudly, choosing to generate smoke rather than clearing the air, In This Economy? shows that understanding the markets--and the systems they operate in--is easier than you think. Whether you're worried about your mortgage rate, job security, bank account balance, or the health of the broader economy, this concise and witty guide will give you the confidence to make smarter financial decisions--no matter what the headlines say."-- Provided by publisher

Caravaggio

[Volume 1] "Caravaggio: The Palette and the Sword Book 1 is the first half of Milo Manara's two-volume epic biography of the hot-tempered Italian master painter. It depicts Caravaggio's early years in Rome as he struggles to capture truth on canvas, only to have his art condemned to be burned by the Church. He then is forced to flee the city when he kills a man in righteous fury over the death of a prostitute. Discover the bawdy, swashbuckling life of one of the greatest painters in history through Manara's passionate, personal tribute to his artistic idol, Michelangelo Merisi, whom the world would come to know as Caravaggio."-- from publisher's website.

Together in Manzanar

"On a late March morning in the spring of 1942, Elaine Yoneda awoke to a series of terrible choices: between her family and freedom, her country and conscience, and her son and daughter. She was the child of Russian Jewish immigrants and the wife of a Japanese American man. On this war-torn morning, she was also a mother desperate to keep her young mixed-race son from being sent to a US concentration camp. Manzanar, near Death Valley, was one of ten detention centers where our government would eventually imprison every person of Japanese descent along the West Coast--alien and citizen, old and young, healthy and sick--or, in the words of one official, anyone with even "one drop" of Japanese blood. Elaine's husband Karl was already in Manzanar, but he planned to enlist as soon as the US Army would take him. The Yonedas were prominent labor and antifascist activists, and Karl was committed to fighting for what they had long cherished: equality, freedom, and democracy. Yet when Karl went to war, their son Tommy, three years old and chronically ill, would be left alone in Manzanar--unless Elaine convinced the US government to imprison her as well. The consequences of Elaine's choice did not end there: if she somehow found a way to force herself behind barbed wire with her husband and son, she would leave behind her white daughter from a previous marriage. Together in Manzanar tells the story of these painful choices and conflicting loyalties, the upheaval and violence that followed, and the Yonedas' quest to survive with their children's lives intact and their family safe and whole."-- Provided by publisher

Is a River Alive?

"Hailed in the New York Times as 'a naturalist who can unfurl a sentence with the breathless ease of a master angler,' Robert Macfarlane brings his glittering style to a profound work of travel writing, reportage, and natural history. Is a River Alive? is a joyful, mind-expanding exploration of an ancient, urgent idea: that rivers are living beings who should be recognized as such in imagination and law. Macfarlane takes readers on three unforgettable journeys teeming with extraordinary people, stories, and places: to the miraculous cloud-forests and mountain streams of Ecuador, to the wounded creeks and lagoons of India, and to the spectacular wild rivers of Canada -- imperiled respectively by mining, pollution, and dams. Braiding these journeys is the life story of the fragile chalk stream a mile from Macfarlane's house, a stream who flows through his own years and days. Powered by dazzling prose and lit throughout by other minds and voices, Is a River Alive? will open hearts, challenge perspectives, and remind us that our fate flows with that of rivers -- and always has." -- Provided by publisher

Goddess of the River

"Ganga, joyful goddess of the river, serves as caretaker to the mischievous godlings who roam her banks. But when their antics incur the wrath of a powerful sage, Ganga is cursed to become mortal, bound to her human form until she fulfills the obligations of the curse. Though she knows nothing of mortal life, Ganga weds King Shantanu and becomes a queen, determined to regain her freedom no matter the cost. But in a cruel turn of fate, just as she is freed of her binding, she is forced to leave her infant son behind. Her son, prince Devavrata, unwittingly carries the legacy of Ganga's curse. And when he makes an oath that he will never claim his father's throne, he sets in motion a chain of events that will end in a terrible and tragic war. As the years unfold, Ganga and Devavrata are drawn together again and again, each confluence another step on a path that has been written in the stars, in this deeply moving and masterful tale of duty, destiny, and the unwavering bond between mother and son."-- Provided by publisher

Faces

"Mohamed Choukri (1935-2003) is one of the most important writers of modern Moroccan literature. Illiterate until the age of 20, he grew up speaking darijah, the spoken dialect of Moroccan Arabic, and spent his childhood in extreme poverty in Tangiers. After learning to read, he wrote works that changed modern Arab literature. His works include characters based on people he knew who lived in worlds rarely featured in literature. At the same time, he connected with the writers Paul Bowles (an early translator), Tennessee Williams, and Jean Genet, among many others. Faces, published in Arabic in 1996 and never before translated into English, is the third in his most famous trilogy, weaving together autobiography and fiction. His novel invites the reader to experience the places and events of his life through the eyes of a local, and paints a picture of daily life for all kinds of people. Like in life, he describes gritty events; abject poverty, prostitution, violence, sexual revelry, deprivation, and abuse almost casually. It is through these topics and his storytelling style that Choukri reflects on human nature, love, and kindness. He elevates and humanizes those undergoing poverty, places the blame for the violence they undergo squarely on colonial forces and then the resulting postcolonial government, and emphasizes the importance of community and collaboration. "I saw that writing could also be a way to expose, to protest against those who have stolen my childhood, my teenage-hood and a piece of my youthfulness," said Choukri. "At that moment, my writing became committed." His vivid portrayals of marginalized people, considered a taboo, led to censorship from 1983 to 2000 and a cultural backlash in the Arab world, which resulted in Faces being published late and not being translated before his death. Elbousty's elegant translation stays faithful to Choukri's writing and promises to remind readers of his importance and to bring him attention not just in Morocco but in discussions of contemporary Arab literature around the globe."-- Provided by publisher

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

"From V. E. Schwab, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue: a new genre-defying novel about immortality and hunger. Santo Domingo de la Calzada, 1532. London, 1827. Boston, 2019. Three young women, their bodies planted in the same soil, their stories tangling like roots. One grows high, and one grows deep, and one grows wild. And all of them grow teeth."-- Provided by publisher

Claire McCardell

"Claire McCardell forever changed fashion-and most importantly, the lives of women. She shattered cultural norms around women's clothes, and today much of what we wear traces back to her ingenious, rebellious mind. McCardell invented ballet flats and mix-and-match separates, and she introduced wrap dresses, hoodies, leggings, denim, and more into womenswear. She tossed out corsets in favor of a comfortably elegant look and insisted on pockets, even as male designers didn't see a need for them. She made zippers easy to reach because a woman "may live alone and like it," McCardell once wrote, "but you may regret it if you wrench your arm trying to zip a back zipper into place." After World War II, McCardell fought the severe, hyper-feminized silhouette championed by male designers, like Christian Dior. Dior claimed that he wanted to "save women from nature." McCardell, by contrast, wanted to set women free. Claire McCardell became, as the young journalist Betty Friedan called her in 1955, "The Gal Who Defied Dior." Filled with personal drama and industry secrets, this story reveals how Claire McCardell built an empire at a time when women rarely made the upper echelons of business. At its core, hers is a story about our right to choose how we dress-and our right to choose how we live."-- Provided by publisher

10 to 25

"Acclaimed developmental psychologist David Yeager reveals the new science of motivating young people aged ten through twenty-five in an illuminating and practical book that is a must-read for managers, parents, educators, coaches, and mentors everywhere."-- Provided by publisher