ODY New Books Collection
New Books
Liars
A Novel
Authored by: Sarah Manguso
"A nuclear family can destroy a woman artist. I'd always known that. But I'd never suspected how easily I'd fall into one anyway. When Jane, an aspiring writer, meets filmmaker John Bridges, they both want the same things: to be in love, to live a successful creative life, and to be happy. When they marry, Jane believes she has found everything she was looking for, including--a few years later--all the attendant joy and labor of motherhood. But it's not long until Jane finds herself subsumed by John's ambitions, whims, and ego; in short, she becomes a wife. As Jane's career flourishes, their marriage starts to falter. Throughout five house moves, two failed businesses, and a steady draining of the family finances, Jane tries to hold it all together. That is until John leaves her."-- Provided by publisher
The Heart in Winter
A Novel
Authored by: Kevin Barry
"A love story about outlaws in a community of Irish workers in Montana."-- Provided by publisher
Double Exposure
Resurveying the West with Timothy O'Sullivan, America's
Most Mysterious War Photographer
Most Mysterious War Photographer
Authored by: Robert Sullivan
"A personal exploration of the history of the American West through the work of the nineteenth-century photographer Timothy O'Sullivan."-- Provided by publisher
Autocracy, Inc.
The Dictators Who Want to Run the World
Authored by: Anne Applebaum
"From the Pulitzer-prize winning, New York Times bestselling author, an alarming account of how autocracies work together to undermine the democratic world, and how we should organize to defeat them. We think we know what an autocratic state looks like: There is an all-powerful leader at the top. He controls the police. The police threaten the people with violence. There are evil collaborators, and maybe some brave dissidents. But in the 21st century, that bears little resemblance to reality. Nowadays, autocracies are underpinned not by one dictator, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, surveillance technologies, and professional propagandists, all of which operate across multiple regimes, from China to Russia to Iran. Corrupt companies in one country do business with corrupt companies in another. The police in one country can arm and train the police in another, and propagandists share resources and themes, pounding home the same messages about the weakness of democracy and the evil of America. International condemnation and economic sanctions cannot move the autocrats. Even popular opposition movements, from Venezuela to Hong Kong to Moscow, don't stand a chance. The members of Autocracy, Inc, aren't linked by a unifying ideology, like communism, but rather a common desire for power, wealth, and impunity. In this urgent treatise, which evokes George Kennan's essay calling for "containment" of the Soviet Union, Anne Applebaum calls for the democracies to fundamentally reorient their policies to fight a new kind of threat."-- Provided by publisher
Government Gangsters
The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy
Authored by: Kash Pramod Patel
"Russia Gate. The Mueller investigation. Damaging intelligence leaks. The Deep State used every tactic possible to take down Donald Trump. When President Trump needed a trusted lieutenant to take the fight back to the unelected government officials trying to undermine America's constituionally elected government, he chose the best man he had for the job: Kash Patel. As the chief House investigator on Russia Gate, Patel exposed the truth about the Russia collusion fraud. In the Trump White House, he overcame the Deep State's plots to undermine the president's agenda. Patel is one of the few men in the world who knows how the Deep State in America works in intimate detail. Now, Kash is showing America how we can turn the tables on the Deep State--and take them down." -- Dust jacket flap
Enlightenment
A Novel
Authored by: Sarah Perry
"Thomas Hart and Grace Macaulay have lived all their lives in the small Essex town of Aldleigh. Though separated in age by three decades, the pair are kindred spirits--torn between their commitment to religion and their desire to explore the world beyond their small Baptist community. It is two romantic relationships that will rend their friendship, and in the wake of this rupture, Thomas develops an obsession with a vanished nineteenth-century astronomer said to haunt a nearby manor, and Grace flees Aldleigh entirely for London. Over the course of twenty years, by coincidence and design, Thomas and Grace will find their lives brought back into orbit as the mystery of the vanished astronomer unfolds into a devastating tale of love and scientific pursuit. Thomas and Grace will ask themselves what it means to love and be loved, what is fixed and what is mutable, how much of our fate is predestined and written in the stars, and whether they can find their way back to each other."-- Provided by publisher
Enemies of All
The Rise and Fall of the Golden Age of Piracy
Authored by: Richard Blakemore
"The pirates that exist in our imagination are not just any pirates. Violent sea-raiding has occurred in most parts of the world throughout history, but our popular stereotype of pirates has been defined by one historical moment: the period from the 1660s to the 1730s, the so-called 'golden age of piracy.' A groundbreaking history of pirates, Enemies of all combines narrative adventure with deeply researched analysis, engrossing readers in the rise of piracy in the later seventeenth century, the debates about piracy in contemporary law and popular media, as well as the imperial efforts to suppress piracy in the early eighteenth century. The Caribbean and American colonies of Britain, France, Spain, and the Netherlands-where piracy surged across these decades-are the main theater for Enemies of all, but this is a global story. Evoking London, Paris, and Amsterdam, Curȧao, Port Royal, Tortuga, and Charleston, the narrative takes readers, too, from Ireland and the Mediterranean to Madagascar and India, from the Arabian Gulf to the Pacific Ocean. Familiar characters like Drake, Morgan, Blackbeard, Bonny and Read, Henry Every, and Captain Kidd all feature here, but so too will the less well-known figures from the history of piracy, their crew-members, shipmates, and their confederates ashore; the men and women whose transatlantic lives were bound up with the rise and fall of piracy." -- Publisher's website
The Bluestockings
A History of the First Women's
Movement
Movement
Authored by: Susannah Gibson
This illuminating group portrait delves into the lives of a circle of 18th-century women called the Bluestockings, who came together in glittering salons to discuss and debate as intellectual equals with men, fighting for women to be educated and have a public role in society.
Wild Life
Finding My Purpose in an Untamed World
Authored by: Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant
"Growing up in the diverse and bustling California Bay Area, renowned wildlife ecologist Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant always felt worlds away from the white male adventurers she watched explore the wilderness on TV. She dreamed of a future where she could spend sleepless nights under the crowded canopies of the Amazon and the starry skies of the savanna. But as Rae set off on her own expeditions in the wild, she saw nature's delicate balance in a new light. Wild Life follows Rae on her adventures and explorations in some of the world's most remote locales. Hers is a story about a nearly twenty-year career in the wild -- carving a niche as one of very few Black female scientists -- and the challenges she had to overcome, expectations she had to leave behind, and the many lessons she learned along the way. An incredible journey spanning the Great Plains of North America to the rainforests of Madagascar, Wild Life sheds light on our pivotal relationship and responsibility to the natural world and the relatives -- both human and otherwise -- that we share it with."-- Provided by publisher
We Were Illegal
Uncovering a Texas Family's
Mythmaking and Migration
Mythmaking and Migration
Authored by: Jessica Goudeau
"An award-winning author's deep exploration of pivotal moments in Texas history through multiple generations of her own family, and a ruthless reexamination of our national and personal myths. Over seven generations, Jessica Goudeau's family members were church elders, preachers, Sunday school teachers and potluck organizers. Her great-grandfather helped establish a Christian university in Abilene, Texas, which she attended along with her grandparents, parents, siblings, and cousins. Her family's legacy--a word she heard often growing up--was rooted in faithfulness, righteousness, and the hard work that built the great state of Texas. It wasn't until she began to dig more deeply into the story of the land she lives on today in suburban Austin, that she discovered her family's far more complicated role in Texas history, from early illegal settlements on Mexican land, bringing slavery to the state, up through the redlining policies her great-grandfather signed into place that have ramifications even now. Tracking her ancestors' involvement in pivotal moments from before the Texas Revolution to the Civil War to the rise of the Texas Rangers, up through today, We Were Illegal is at once an intimate and character-driven narrative and an insider's revisionist look at a state that prides itself on its history. It is an act of reckoning and recovery on a personal scale, as well as a reflection of the work we must do as a nation to dismantle the whitewashed narratives that are passed down through families, communities, and textbooks. It is only through facing these hypocrisies and long-buried histories that we will be able to move past this fractured time in our country, take accountability for our legacy, and learn to be better, more honest ancestors."-- Provided by publisher
We Refuse
A Forceful History of Black Resistance
Authored by: Kellie Carter Jackson
"Black resistance to white supremacy is often reduced to a simple binary, between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s nonviolence and Malcolm X's "by any means necessary." In We Refuse, historian Kellie Carter Jackson urges us to move past this false choice, offering an unflinching examination of the breadth of Black responses to white oppression, particularly those pioneered by Black women. The dismissal of "Black violence" as an illegitimate form of resistance is itself a manifestation of white supremacy, a distraction from the insidious, unrelenting violence of structural racism. Force--from work stoppages and property destruction to armed revolt--has played a pivotal part in securing freedom and justice for Black people since the days of the American and Haitian Revolutions. But violence is only one tool among many. Carter Jackson examines other, no less vital tactics that have shaped the Black struggle, from the restorative power of finding joy in the face of suffering to the quiet strength of simply walking away. Clear-eyed, impassioned, and ultimately hopeful, We Refuse offers a fundamental corrective to the historical record, a love letter to Black resilience, and a path toward liberation."-- Provided by publisher
True Gretch
What I've Learned about Life, Leadership, and Everything in between
Authored by: Gretchen Whitmer, with Lisa Dickey
"When Gretchen Whitmer was growing up, her beloved grandmother Nino taught her that you can always find something good in other people. "Even the meanest person might have pretty eyes," she would say. Nino's words persuaded Whitmer to look for the good in any person or situation--just one of many colorful personal experiences that have shaped her political vision. (And, as Whitmer writes, one that resonated more than another piece of advice her grandmother offered, to "never part your hair in the middle.") In this candid and inspiring book, Whitmer reveals the principles and instincts that have shaped her extraordinary career, from her early days as a lawyer and legislator and her 2018 election as governor of Michigan, to her bold and innovative actions as she led the state through a series of unprecedented crises. Her motto in politics, she writes, is to "get shit done." Whitmer shares the lessons in resilience that steered her through some of the most challenging events in Michigan's history, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, a five-hundred-year flood, the rise of domestic terrorism, and the fierce fight to protect reproductive rights. Along the way, she tells stories about the outsize characters in her family, her lifelong clumsy streak, the wild comments she's heard on the campaign trail, her self-deprecating social media campaigns (including her star turn as a talking potato with lipstick), and the slyly funny tactics she deploys to neutralize her opponents. Written with Whitmer's trademark sense of humor and straight-shooting style, True Gretch is not only a compelling account of her remarkable journey, but also a blueprint for anyone who wants to make a difference in their community, their country, or the world. It is a testament to the power of humor, perseverance, and compassion in the face of darkness."-- Provided by publisher
Traveling
On the Path of Joni Mitchell
Authored by: Ann Powers
"For decades, Joni Mitchell's life and music have enraptured listeners. One of the most celebrated artists of her generation, Mitchell has inspired countless musicians--from peers like James Taylor, to inheritors like Prince and Brandi Carlile--and authors, who have dissected her music and her life in their writing. At the same time, Mitchell has always been a force beckoning us still closer, as--with the other arm--she pushes us away. Given this, music critic Ann Powers wondered if there was another way to draw insights from the life of this singular musician who never stops moving, never stops experimenting. In Traveling, Powers seeks to understand Mitchell through her myriad journeys. Through extensive interviews with Mitchell's peers and deep archival research, she takes readers to rural Canada, mapping the singer's childhood battle with polio. She charts the course of Mitchell's musical evolution, ranging from early folk to jazz fusion to experimentation with pop synthetics. She follows the winding road of Mitchell's collaborations with other greats, and the loves that emerged along the way, all the way through to the remarkable return of Mitchell to music-making after the 2015 aneurysm that nearly took her life. Along this journey, Powers' wide-ranging musings on the artist's life and career reconsider the biographer's role and the way it twines against the reality of a fan. In doing so, Traveling illustrates the shifting nature of biography, and the ultimate contradiction of celebrity: that an icon cannot truly, completely be known to a fan. Kaleidoscopic in scope, and intimate in its detail, Traveling is a fresh and fascinating addition to the Joni Mitchell canon, written by a biographer in full command of her gifts who asks as much of herself as of her subject."-- Provided by publisher
Think to New Worlds
The Cultural History of Charles Fort and His Followers
Authored by: Joshua Blu Buhs
"How a writer who investigated scientific anomalies inspired a factious movement and made a lasting impact on American culture. Flying saucers. Bigfoot. Frogs raining from the sky. Such phenomena fascinated Charles Fort, the maverick writer who scanned newspapers, journals, and magazines for reports of bizarre occurrences: dogs that talked, vampires, strange visions in the sky, and paranormal activity. His books of anomalies advanced a philosophy that saw science as a small part of a larger system in which truth and falsehood continually transformed into one another. His work found a ragged following of skeptics who questioned not only science but the press, medicine, and politics. Though their worldviews varied, they shared compelling questions about genius, reality, and authority. At the center of this community was ad man, writer, and enfant terrible Tiffany Thayer, who founded the Fortean Society and ran it for almost three decades, collecting and reporting on every manner of oddity and conspiracy. In Think to New Worlds, Joshua Blu Buhs argues that the Fortean effect on modern culture is deeper than you think. Fort's descendants provided tools to expand the imagination, explore the social order, and demonstrate how power was exercised. Science fiction writers put these ideas to work as they sought to uncover the hidden structures undergirding reality. Avant-garde modernists-including the authors William Gaddis, Henry Miller, and Ezra Pound, as well as Surrealist visual artists-were inspired by Fort's writing about metaphysical and historical forces. And in the years following World War II, flying saucer enthusiasts convinced of alien life raised questions about who controlled the universe. Buhs's meticulous and entertaining book takes a respectful look at a cast of oddballs and eccentrics, plucking them from history's margins and spotlighting their mark on American modernism. Think to New Worlds is a timely consideration of a group united not only by conspiracies and mistrust of science but by their place in an ever-expanding universe rich with unexplained occurrences and visionary possibilities."-- Provided by publisher
State of Paradise
A Novel
Authored by: Laura van den Berg
"It's another summer in a small Florida town. After an illness that vanishes as mysteriously as it arrived, everything appears to be getting back to normal: soul-crushing heat, torrential downpours, sinkholes swallowing the earth, ominous cats, a world-bending virtual reality device being handed out by a company called ELECTRA, and an increasing number of posters dotting the streets with the faces of missing citizens. Living in her mother's home, a ghostwriter for a famous thriller author tracks the eerie changes. On top of everything else, she's contending with family secrets, spotty memories of her troubled youth, a burgeoning cult in the living room, and the alarming expansion of her own belly button. Then, during a violent rainstorm, her sister goes missing. She returns a few days later, sprawled on their mother's lawn and speaking of another dimension. Now the ghostwriter must investigate not only what happened to her sister and the other missing people but also the uncanny connections between ELECTRA, the famous author she works for, and reality itself. A sticky, rain-soaked reckoning with the elusive nature of selfhood and storytelling, Laura van den Berg's State of Paradise is an intricate and page-turning whirlwind. With inimitable control and thrilling style, van den Berg reaches deep into the void and returns with a story far stranger than either reality or fiction."-- Amazon.com
Seven Shoulders
Taxonomizing Racism in Modern America
Authored by: Sam Forster
Selfish Genes to Social Beings
A Cooperative History of Life
Authored by: Jonathan Silvertown
"For all the "selfishness" of genes, they team up to survive. Is the history of life in fact a story of cooperation? Amid the violence and brutality that dominates the news, it's hard to think of ourselves as team players. But cooperation, Jonathan Silvertown argues, is a fundamental part of our make-up, and deeply woven into the whole four-billion-year history of life. Starting with human society, Silvertown digs deeper, to show how cooperation is key to the cells forming our organs, to symbiosis between organisms, to genes that band together, to the dawn of life itself. Cooperation has enabled life to thrive and become complex. Without it, life would never have begun." -- Publisher's description
Practice
[a Novel]
Authored by: Rosalind Brown
"A first novel about a day in the life of a young student who experiences her thoughts, her fantasies, her wishes, as she writes about-or tries to write about- Shakespeare's sonnets."-- Provided by publisher
Margo's
Got Money Troubles
A Novel
Authored by: Rufi Thorpe
"As the child of a Hooters waitress and an ex-pro wrestler, Margo Millet's always known she'd have to make it on her own. So she enrolls at her local junior college, even though she can't imagine how she'll ever make a living. She's still figuring things out and never planned to have an affair with her English professor--and while the affair is brief, it isn't brief enough to keep her from getting pregnant. Despite everyone's advice, she decides to keep the baby, mostly out of naiveté and a yearning for something bigger. Now, at twenty, Margo is alone with an infant, unemployed, and on the verge of eviction. She needs a cash infusion--fast. When her estranged father, Jinx, shows up on her doorstep and asks to move in with her, she agrees in exchange for help with childcare. Then Margo begins to form a plan: she'll start an OnlyFans as an experiment, and soon finds herself adapting some of Jinx's advice from the world of wrestling. Like how to craft a compelling character and make your audience fall in love with you. Before she knows it, she's turned it into a runaway success. Could this be the answer to all of Margo's problems, or does internet fame come with too high a price?"-- Provided by publisher
The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt
The Women Who Created a President
Authored by: Edward F. O'Keefe
"A spirited and poignant family love story, revealing how an icon of rugged American masculinity was profoundly shaped by the women in his life, especially his mother, sisters, and wives." -- Provided by publisher