ODY New Books Collection

An Oral History of Atlantis

"In 'Machine City,' a college student's role in a friend's movie causes lines to blur between his character and his true self. In 'Slide to Unlock,' a man comes to terms with his life, via the passwords he struggles to remember in a moment of extremis. And in 'Weird Menace,' a director and faded movie star discuss science fiction, memory, and lost loves on a commentary track for a film from the '80s that neither seems to remember all that well. In Ed Park's utterly original collection, An Oral History of Atlantis, characters question the fleetingness of youth and art, reckon with the consequences of the everyday, and find solace in the absurd, the beautiful, and the sublime. Throughout, Park deploys his trademark wit to create a world both strikingly recognizable and delightfully other. All together, these fifteen stories have much to say about the meaning -- and transitory nature -- of our lives. And they are proof positive that Ed Park is one of the most insightful and imaginative writers working today." -- Provided by publisher

Indian Country

"Following an Indian couple, newly wed, that moves to Montana for his job, as they navigate the small-town politics and inherent racism, interspersed with flashbacks to 1800s Ganges River and Cotton River."-- Provided by publisher

The Grand Paloma Resort

"The Grand Paloma Resort is a lush paradise in the Dominican Republic where the guests enjoy incredible luxury, and the staff is always eager to please-that is, until they are pushed to the brink"-- Provided by publisher

Good and Evil and Other Stories

"Sculpted and lucid, strange and uncanny, here is a masterpiece of suggestiveness. Step by step these seven stories lure us into the shadows to confront the monsters of everyday life - ourselves. Guilt, grief, and relationships severed permeate this collection - but so do unspeakable bonds of family, love, and longing, each sinister and beautiful. When something seismic happens in our lives, the waves keep coming for years after, with warning or without. Sometimes, all we can do is wait around the corner, ear pressed to the phone receiver, for them to arrive. Fantastical and subtly terrifying, these stories draw on magical realism, psychological fiction, and the dark side of fairy tales, inherited from literary predecessors like the Brothers Grimm and Jorge Luis Borges. Yet, far from antiquated or closed off, Schweblin's worlds invite us in, like quicksand or a strong river's current. These stories will insinuate themselves into your heart, and your bloodstream."-- Provided by publisher

Fonseca

"In the winter of 1952, twenty years before she publishes her first novel, just on the brink of a precipitous decline into poverty, and pregnant with her third child, the not-yet-renowned British author Penelope Fitzgerald goes to Fonseca, Mexico, with her young son Valpy at the invitation of two widowed sisters whose silver mine she hopes will be her family's saving grace. Her husband struggles with alcoholism, their literary journal is on the brink, and this is Penelope's last-ditch effort to secure material support. Financial desperation is a moral quandary for Penelope, who reveres the religious and scholarly ascetics that populate her family tree. But she longs to begin her own writing life."-- Provided by publisher

Dusk

"In the distant highlands, a puma named Dusk is killing shepherds and twins Iris and Floyd -- out of work, money and friends -- decide to join the hunt in pursuit of the bounty."-- Provided by publisher

Cryptic

"An absorbing history of Europe's nine most puzzling texts, including the biggest mystery of all: the Voynich Manuscript. Books can change the world. They can influence, entertain, transport, and enlighten. But across the centuries, authors have disguised their work with codes and ciphers, secret scripts and magical signs. What made these authors decide to keep their writings secret? What were they trying to hide? Garry J. Shaw tells the stories of nine puzzling European texts. Shaw explores the unknown alphabet of the nun Hildegard of Bingen; the enciphered manuscripts of the prank-loving physician Giovanni Fontana; and the angel communications of the polymath John Dee. Along the way, we discover how the pioneers of science and medicine concealed their work, encounter demon magic and secret societies, and delve into the intricate symbolism of alchemists searching for the Philosopher's Stone. This highly enjoyable account takes readers on a fascinating journey through Europe's most cryptic writings--and attempts to shed new light on the biggest mystery of all: the Voynich Manuscript."-- Publisher's description

Coming up Short

"From political economist, cabinet member, beloved professor, media presence, and bestselling author of Saving Capitalism and The Common Good, a deeply-felt, compelling memoir of growing up in a baby-boom America that made progress in certain areas, fell short in so many important ways, and still has lots of work to do. A thought-provoking, principled, clear-eyed chronicle of the culture, politics, and economic choices that have landed us where we are today-with irresponsible economic bullies and corporations with immense wealth and lobbying power on top, demagogues on the rise, and increasing inequality fueling anger and hatred across the country. Nine months after World War II, Robert Reich was born into a united America with a bright future-that went unrealized for so many as big money took over our democracy. His encounter with school bullies on account of his height-4'11" as an adult-set him on a determined path to spend his life fighting American bullies of every sort. He recounts the death of a friend in the civil rights movement; his political coming of age witnessing the Berkeley free speech movement; working for Bobby Kennedy and Senator Eugene McCarthy; experiencing a country torn apart by the Vietnam War; meeting Hillary Rodham in college, Bill Clinton at Oxford, and Clarence Thomas at Yale Law. He details his friendship with John Kenneth Galbraith during his time teaching at Harvard, and subsequent friendships with Bernie Sanders and Ted Kennedy; his efforts as labor secretary for Clinton and economic advisor to Barack Obama. Ultimately, Reich asks: What did his generation accomplish? Did they make America better, more inclusive, more tolerant? Did they strengthen democracy? Or, did they come up short? In the end, though, Reich hardly abandons us to despair over a doomed democracy. With his characteristic spirit, humor, and inherent decency, he lays out how we can reclaim a sense of community and a democratic capitalism based on the American ideals we still have the power to salvage." -- Provided by publisher

Boy From the North Country

"When Evan, twenty-six, is suddenly called home from his life abroad to the secluded farmhouse where he was raised by his mother, June, there is so much he does not yet know. He doesn't know his mother is dying. He still doesn't know the identity of his biological father or the elusive story of his mother's creatively intense, emotionally turbulent romance with Bob Dylan, whom Evan reveres as an artist and whom strangers have long insisted he resembles. He doesn't know the secrets of his mother's life before he was born or what drove her to leave New York City for a completely different existence."-- Provided by publisher

Beings

From the celebrated author of All My Mother's Lovers, a new novel based on true events asks whether extraterrestrial life might be what ties us to one another, to history, and to reality itself.

Baldwin

"Baldwin: A Love Story tells the overlapping stories of Baldwin's most sustaining intimate and artistic relationships: with his mentor, the Black American painter Beauford Delaney; with his lover and muse, the Swiss painter Lucien Happersberger; and with his collaborators, the famed Turkish actor Engin Cezzar and the iconoclastic French artist Yoran Cazac."-- Provided by publisher

The Arrogant Ape

"Darwin considered humans one part of the web of life, not the apex of a natural hierarchy. Yet today many maintain that we are the most intelligent, virtuous, successful species that ever lived. This flawed thinking enables us to exploit the earth towards our own exclusive ends, throwing us into a perilous planetary imbalance. But is this view and way of life inevitable? The Arrogant Ape shows that human exceptionalism is an ideology that relies more on human culture than our biology, more on delusion and faith than on evidence. Harvard primatologist Christine Webb has spent years researching the rich social, emotional, and cognitive lives of our closest living relatives. She exposes the ways that many scientific studies are biased against other species and reveals underappreciated complexities of nonhuman life-from the language of songbirds and prairie dogs, to the cultures of chimpanzees and reef fishes, to the acumen of plants and fungi. With compelling stories and fresh research she gives us a paradigm-shifting way of looking at other organisms on their own terms, one that is revolutionizing our perception both of them and of ourselves. Critiques of human exceptionalism tend to focus on our moral obligation towards other species. They overlook what humanity also stands to gain by dismantling its illusions of uniqueness and superiority. This shift in perspective fills us with a sense of awe and satisfies one of our oldest and deepest desires to belong to the larger whole we inhabit. What's at stake is a better, sustainable way of life with the potential to heal and rejuvenate our shared planet." -- Provided by publisher

All the Way to the River

"An essential, universally resonant new memoir from the #1 bestselling author of Eat Pray Love and Big Magic."-- Provided by publisher

The Best American Essays 2025

"A collection of the year's best essays, selected by critically acclaimed author and essayist, Jia Tolentino. The Best American series, launched in 1915, is the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction, and it is the most respected--and most popular--of its kind. Jia Tolentino, critically acclaimed essayist, editor, and New Yorker staff writer, selects twenty essays out of thousands that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year."-- Provided by publisher

The Best American Short Stories, 2025

"A collection of the year's best American short stories, selected by celebrated bestselling author Celeste Ng, author of Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere, and series editor Nicole A. Lamy. 'Short stories can act like little tuning forks, helping us to clarify our own values,' writes guest editor Celeste Ng. 'In a time when our values are being tested daily, it's hard to think of anything more important.' The twenty pieces in The Best American Short Stories 2025 upend expectations and test the foundation of our beliefs. From a bereaved medical actress obsessed with a student in her rotation to a mysterious sickness that ignites a lethal running mania in its victims, and from the grounds of a wild animal estate to a celebrity look-alike mother for hire, these stories transport readers to the impossible edges of our world and vivify characters who reflect the spectrum of human experience. The pieces in this collection helped series editor Nicole A. Lamy 'make more sense of the world than real life was able to provide.' Within the wild and varied universes that grow from the constraints of the story form, ordinary life seems beguiled and enchanted spaces hold unshakable truths. Bold, urgent, and ultimately hopeful, The Best American Short Stories 2025, through reflections and refractions, offers readers new ways of seeing the world."-- Front cover flap

The Great Holocene Transformation

"During the Holocene (the last 10,000 years), human societies have been transformed utterly: from small groups of nomadic foragers to our current interconnected world of large-scale societies organized as states. Population numbers, agricultural productivity, technological development, political and social complexity have all seen spectacular growth. This shift--the Great Holocene Transformation--deserves to be seen as a "Major Evolutionary Transition," as momentous as the appearance of multicellular life, or the emergence of complex cognition in humans during the Paleolithic era.Why and how did this transformation take place? Past thinkers and modern social scientists have developed myriad theories, and new ones continue to be proposed. Yet we still don't have a widely accepted answer to the puzzle. The Great Holocene Transformation argues that we are now in a unique position: the tools of complexity science (computational models and big data analytics) coupled with more abundant evidence spanning world history and prehistory now allow us to adjudicate successfully between rival hypotheses, rejecting those that lack empirical and theoretical support. The book provides extensive support for a theory known as Cultural Multilevel Selection (CMLS). CMLS proposes that it was competition between societies that pushed them to scale up and evolve more sophisticated institutions, increasing our capacity to cooperate within ever larger groups of people. This process led both to oppression and inequality within societies, and to the development of institutions and ideologies that promote prosociality and enhance welfare: in short, to the large-scale, complex societies that now dominate the globe." --Back cover

Microcosms

"Follow world-renowned expert Steven F. White into the transformative world of sacred plants, as he brings anthropology, art, spirituality, and ancient wisdom together with the mesmerising detail of Jill Pflugheber's cutting-edge confocal plant microscopy. From the secrets of ayahuasca to the mystical experiences of psilocybin mushrooms, the ceremonial use of tobacco, and the roots of corn and potatoes, Microcosms reveals the inner lives of plants and fungi revered by Indigenous communities as healers, storytellers, and spirit-guides. Illustrating over 50 culturally-significant plants, Microcosms opens a portal into a world where ancestral knowledge and contemporary science converge to offer a truly visionary experience." -- Back cover

Palatine

"14 CE: The first Roman emperor is dead. A second is about to succeed. The Forum of Rome, once fought over so fiercely, has become hardly more than a museum. The house of all power is up above on the Palatine Hill, about to become the birthplace of Western bureaucracy, a warren of banqueting and bedrooms, a treacherous household where it takes special talents to survive. This is a history of ancient Rome's first imperial dynasty—the Julio-Claudians--with a cast of new men and newly dominant women, those reviled too often in the past as flatterers and gluttons, audacious slaves and former slaves, lawyers-for-hire, chancer arrivistes, and unhinged party animals. Palatine uncovers the lives of the Vitellii, perhaps Rome's least admired imperial clan, of Publius, an old-fashioned soldier snared in the politics of the new age, of Lucius, an exceptionally skilled and sycophantic courtier, and of Aulus a genial sluggard whose prowess at the table carries him all the way to the throne before collapsing his family's reputation forever. Few now remember them. Yet in their creeping ascent to the very summit of the imperial hierarchy lie neglected truths about a lasting legacy of Rome." -- taken from publisher's website

Human Nature

"Scientist Kate Marvel has seen the world end before, sometimes several times a day. In the computer models she uses to study climate change, it's easy to simulate rising temperatures, catastrophic outcomes, and bleak futures. But climate change isn't just happening in those models. It's happening here, to the only good planet in the universe. It's happening to us. And she has feelings about that. Human Nature is a deeply felt inquiry into our rapidly changing Earth. In each chapter, Marvel uses a different emotion to explore the science and stories behind climate change. As expected, there is anger, fear, and grief--but also wonder, hope, and love. With her singular voice, Marvel takes us on a soaring journey, one filled with mythology, physics, witchcraft, bad movies, volcanoes, Roman emperors, sequoia groves, and the many small miracles of nature we usually take for granted. Hopeful, heartbreaking, and surprisingly funny, Human Nature is a vital, wondrous exploration of how it feels to live in a changing world." -- Front sleeve

It Girl

"Jane Birkin was synonymous with chic. Her effortless style and artistic legacy have been immortalized through her music and film career. And, of course, she was the inspiration behind one of the world's most coveted bags, the Hermès Birkin. But who was the real woman behind the it girl? Now, New York Times bestselling author Marisa Meltzer sheds new light on Birkin's enigmatic life and explores her profound influence on generations in a rigorously reported biography unlike any other. It Girl paints a vivid portrait of Birkin and her profound legacy, from her early years in 1960s London to her rise as a beloved celebrity in France, detailing personal challenges, her relationships with creative powerhouses, and the duality of her public and private selves. Based on interviews and deep archival research, Meltzer reveals the nuances of Birkin's character: her famously tempestuous romantic relationships, life with her three famous daughters, and the creative energy that drove her. It Girl tells the story of her indelible impact on femininity and style, and how what we think of as French girl style grew from her. Far from being just a muse, Birkin is at last given her well-deserved due." -- book jacket