ODY New Books Collection

A Gorgeous Excitement

"The summer of 1986 in New York City starts off with a model's face getting slashed after rejecting her landlord's advances. It ends with a young woman's half naked body discovered in Central Park, murdered after a night of "rough sex." Nina Jacobs is 18, working a series of boring temp jobs, trying to lose her virginity before she leaves for college at the end of the summer, while also trying to stay out of the way of her mother, who spends her days in bed or criticizing Nina, or often both. And developing a burgeoning cocaine habit. Could the magnetic IT boy from the bar they hang out at that caters to the Upper East Side private school rich kid set, be the one who can help her achieve both her goals this summer?"-- Provided by publisher

Why Nothing Works

"America was once a country that could do big things - building the world's greatest rail network, a vast electrical grid, interstate highways, abundant housing, Social Security, NASA, and more. But today, on issues that touch us each and every day, from housing to clean energy to high-speed rail, we feel stuck, unable to move the needle, ruled by a vetocracy that uses its power to stifle progress. Marc Dunkelman's provocative analysis of the architecture and use of power investigates how we moved from a can-do culture to one in which new red tape is added to a world already hampered by it-and how we can find our way back. While Progressives blame the right, it's actually Progressive reforms that curtail anyone who wields power - from bureaucrats and politicians to financiers, and corporate executives - from getting things done. Guardrails placed around power brokers so that they don't interfere with our individual autonomy or oppress us with its coercive authority have worked all too well - so well that government has been rendered incompetent, stifling the very tool needed to fight for justice and equality. As Americans confront massive crises like climate change, rising healthcare costs, crumbling infrastructure, and failing schools, Americans need quick and decisive action. In this book Dunkelman shows how progressives can rediscover their roots, end gridlock, and do the crucial work of serving the people."-- Provided by publisher

The Art of the SNL Portrait

"The electric spirit of Saturday Night Live as captured by longtime resident photographer Mary Ellen Matthews. Andy Samberg in a giant martini glass. Billie Eilish peeking out of a pile of snow. Kevin Hart writing his own cue cards. Paul Rudd as Paul McCartney. Sarah Silverman dusting the NBC marquee. Alec Baldwin as the Godfather. These are just a few examples of Matthews's bold, dynamic, and playful celebrity portraits that for over two decades have artfully highlighted the hosts and musical guests who help bring the show to life. Week after week, photographer Mary Ellen Matthews makes magic happen on Saturday Night Live with her inventive, irreverent, and truly original photography for the "bumpers"--portraits of the host or musical guest that transition the show to and from commercial breaks. Published on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of SNL and exquisitely designed by Pentagram, this book is the first collection of Mary Ellen's remarkable body of work as well as a celebration of America's longest-running comedy TV show".-- Publisher description

How to Be Avant-Garde

"Art has poisoned our life," proclaimed Dutch artist and De Stijl cofounder Theo van Doesburg. Reacting to the tumultuous crises of the twentieth century, especially the horrors of World War I, avant-garde artists and writers sought to destroy art by transforming it into the substance of everyday life. Following the evolution of these revolutionary groups, How to Be Avant-Garde charts its pioneers and radical ideas. From Paris to New York, from Zurich to Moscow and Berlin, avant-gardists challenged the confines of the definition of art along with the confines of the canvas itself. Art historian Morgan Falconer starts with the dynamic Futurist founder Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, whose manifesto extolling speed, destruction, and modernity seeded avant-gardes across Europe. In turn, Dadaists Hugo Ball and Emmy Hennings sought to replace art with political cabaret, and the Surrealists tried to exchange it for tools to plumb the unconscious. He guides us through the Russian Constructivists with their adventures in advertising and utopianism and then De Stijl with the geometric abstractions of Piet Mondrian. The Bauhaus broke more boundaries, transmuting art into architecture and design. Finally, the Situationists swapped art for politics, with many of their ideas inspiring the 1968 Paris student protests. How to Be Avant-Garde is a journey through the interlocking networks of these richly creative lives with their visions of a better world, their sometimes sympathetic but often strange and turbulent conversations, and their objects and writings that defied categorization.

A Fearless Eye

"A captivating volume that transports us onto the San Francisco streets of the 1970s through the black-and-white images of a previously unknown master of 20th-century photography, Barbara Ramos."-- Provided by publisher

How to Sleep at Night

"Ethan and Gabe's marriage is tested when Ethan announces his congressional run as a Republican, while Nicole rekindles a romance with Ethan's sister Kate, a political reporter whose life spirals as family and career collide."-- Provided by publisher

The Riveter

Follows Josiah Chang, a Chinese Canadian who, barred from military service, works in a shipyard and falls in love with Poppy; as their romance blossoms, Josiah seeks to prove his worth to her family and himself, leading him to enlist in Toronto amid the changing dynamics of wartime Canada.

Victorian Psycho

"In Grim Wolds, England, Winifred Notty takes on the role of governess at Ensor House, where she must navigate the twisted dynamics of the dysfunctional Pounds family while suppressing her own violent past; as Christmas approaches, she plans sinister gifts for her charges, revealing her true nature."-- Provided by publishers

I'm
That Girl

This memoir from the two-time Olympian gymnast chronicles her journey to the awards podium while overcoming racism, childhood trauma and devastating setbacks, highlighting the importance of family support and the resilience of the human spirit​.

Three Days in June

"Gail Baines is long divorced from her husband, Max, and not especially close to her grown daughter, Debbie. Today is the day before Debbie's wedding. To start, Gail loses her job--or quits, depending who you ask. Then, Max arrives unannounced on Gail's doorstep, carrying a cat, without a place to stay and without even a suit in which to walk their daughter down the aisle. But the true crisis lands when Debbie shares with her parents a secret she has just learned about her husband-to-be. It will not only throw the wedding itself into question but also send Gail back into her past and how her own relationship fell apart. Told with deep sensitivity and a tart sense of humor, full of the joys and heartbreaks of love and marriage and family life, Three Days in June is a triumph, and gives us the perennially bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer at the height of her powers."-- Provided by publisher

Talk to Me

"Rich Benjamin's mother, Danielle Fignolé, grew up the eldest in a large family living a comfortable life in Port-au-Prince. Her mother was a schoolteacher, her father a populist hero--a labor leader and politician. The first true champion of the black masses, he eventually became the country's president in 1957. But two weeks after his inauguration, that life was shattered. Soldiers took Danielle's parents at gunpoint and put them on a plane to New York, a coup hatched by the Eisenhower administration. Danielle and her siblings were kidnapped, and ultimately smuggled out of the country. Growing up, Rich knew little of this. No one in his family spoke of it. He didn't know why his mother struggled with emotional connection, why she was so erratic, so quick to anger. And she, in turn, knew so little about him, about the emotional pain he moved through as a child, the physical agony from his blood disease, while coming to terms with his sexuality at the dawn of the AIDS crisis. For all that they could talk about--books, learning, world events--the deepest parts of themselves remained a mystery to one another, a silence that, the older Rich got, the less he could bear. It would take Rich years to piece together the turmoil that carried forward from his grandfather, to his mother, to him, and then to bring that story to light. In Talk to Me, he doesn't just paint the portrait of his family, but a bold, pugnacious portrait of America--of the human cost of the country's hostilities abroad, the experience of migrants on these shores, and how the indelible ties of family endure through triumph and loss, from generation to generation."-- Provided by publisher

The Suicides

"A stymied reporter in his early thirties embarks on an investigation of three unconnected suicides. All he has to go on are photos of the faces of the dead. Other suicides begin to proliferate, while a colleague in the archives sends him historical justifications of self-murder by thinkers of all sorts: Diogenes, David Hume, Emile Durkheim, Margaret Mead. His investigation becomes an obsession, and he finds himself ever more attracted to its subject as it proceeds." -- Back cover

Source Code

"The software giant explores his personal journey, recounting his early influences, friendships, family and first steps in computing that paved the way for his revolutionary career and later philanthropic focus, offering an intimate look at the experiences that shaped him."-- Provided by publisher

Show Don't
Tell

"In her second story collection, Sittenfeld shows why she's as beloved for her short fiction as she is for her novels. In these dazzling stories, she conjures up characters so real that they seem like old friends, laying bare the moments when their long held beliefs are overturned. In "The Patron Saints of Middle Age," a woman visits two friends she hasn't seen since her divorce. In "A for Alone," a married middle-aged artist embarks on a creative project intended to disprove the so-called Mike Pence Rule, which suggests that women and men can't spend time alone without lusting after each other. And in "Lost but Not Forgotten," Sittenfeld gives readers of her novel, Prep, a window into the world of her beloved character Lee Fiora, decades later, when Lee attends an alumni reunion at her boarding school. Hilarious, thought-provoking, and full of tenderness for her characters, Sittenfeld's stories peel back layer after layer of our inner lives, keeping us riveted to the page with her utterly distinctive voice."-- Provided by publisher

The New Menopause

"Menopause is inevitable, but suffering through it is not! This is the empowering approach to self-advocacy that pioneering women's health advocate Dr. Mary Claire Haver takes for women in the midst of hormonal change in The New Menopause. A comprehensive, authoritative book of science-backed information and lived experience, it covers every woman's needs: From changes in your appearance and sleep patterns to neurological, musculoskeletal, psychological, and sexual issues, a comprehensive A-Z toolkit of science-backed options for coping with symptoms. What to do to mediate the risks associated with your body's natural drop in estrogen production, including for diabetes, dementia, Alzheimer's, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and weight gain. How to advocate and prepare for annual midlife wellness visits, including questions for your doctor and how to insist on whole life care. The very latest research on the benefits and side effects of hormone replacement therapy. Arming women with the power to secure vibrant health and well-being for the rest of their lives, The New Menopause is sure to become the bible of midlife wellness for present and future generations."-- Provided by publisher

The Moral Circle

"A philosopher calls for a revolution in ethics, suggesting we expand our "moral circle" to include insects, AI systems, and even microbes. Today, human exceptionalism is the norm. Despite occasional nods to animal welfare, we prioritize humanity, often neglecting the welfare of a vast number of beings. As a result, we use hundreds of billions of vertebrates and trillions of invertebrates every year for a variety of purposes, often unnecessarily. We also plan to use animals, AI systems, and other nonhumans at even higher levels in the future. Yet as the dominant species, humanity has a responsibility to ask: Which nonhumans matter, how much do they matter, and what do we owe them in a world reshaped by human activity and technology? In The Moral Circle, philosopher Jeff Sebo challenges us to include all potentially significant beings in our moral community, with transformative implications for our lives and societies. He explores provocative case studies such as lawsuits over captive elephants and debates over factory-farmed insects, and compels us to consider future ethical quandaries such as whether to send microbes to new planets and whether to create virtual worlds filled with digital minds. Taking an expansive view of human responsibility, Sebo argues that building a positive future requires the shedding of human exceptionalism and radically rethinking our place in the world." -- Book Jacket

The Menopause Brain

"Menopause and perimenopause are still a black box to most doctors, leaving patients exasperated as they grapple with symptoms ranging from hot flashes to insomnia and brain fog. As a leading neuroscientist and women's brain health specialist, Dr. Lisa Mosconi unravels the mystery by revealing how menopause doesn't just impact the ovaries--but it's a hormonal show in which the brain takes center stage. The decline of the hormone estrogen during menopause influences everything from body temperature to mood and memory, potentially paving the way for cognitive decline later in life. To conquer these successfully, Mosconi brings us the latest approaches--from cutting-edge hormone replacement therapies like "designer estrogens" to the role of hormonal contraception, and key lifestyle changes encompassing diet, exercise, self-care, and self-talk. Best of all, Mosconi dispels the myth that menopause signifies an end, demonstrating that it's actually a transition. Contrary to popular belief, if we know how to take care of ourselves during menopause, we can emerge with a renewed, enhanced brain-ushering in a meaningful and vibrant new chapter of life."-- Provided by publisher

A Matter of Complexion

"A biography of Charles Chesnutt, one of the first Black authors to write for both Black and white readers. In A Matter of Complexion, Tess Chakkalakal gives readers the first comprehensive biography of Charles W. Chesnutt. A complex and talented man, Chesnutt was born in 1858 in Cleveland to parents who were considered "mixed race." He spent his early life in North Carolina after the Civil War. Though light-skinned, Chesnutt remained a member of the black community throughout his life. He studied among students at the State Colored Normal School who were formerly enslaved. He became a teacher in rural North Carolina during Reconstruction. His life in the South of those years, the issue of race, and how he himself identified as Black informed much of his later writing. He went on to become the first Black writer whose stories appeared in The Atlantic Monthly and whose books were published by Houghton Mifflin. Through his literary work, as a writer, critic, and speaker, Chesnutt transformed the publishing world by crossing racial barriers that divided black writers from white and seamlessly including both Black and white characters in his writing. In A Matter of Complexion Chakkalakal pens the biography of a poor teacher raised in rural North Carolina during Reconstruction who became the first professional African American writer to break into the all-white literary establishment and win admirers as diverse as William Dean Howells, Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells, and Lorraine Hansberry."-- Provided by publisher

Isola

"Heir to a fortune, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and gentility. Then she is orphaned, and her guardian--an enigmatic and volatile man--spends her inheritance and insists she accompany him on an expedition to New France. Isolated and afraid, Marguerite befriends her guardian's servant and the two develop an intense attraction. But when their relationship is discovered, they are brutally punished and abandoned on a small island with no hope for rescue. Once a child of privilege who dressed in gowns and laced pearls in her hair, Marguerite finds herself at the mercy of nature. As the weather turns, blanketing the island in ice, she discovers a faith she'd never before needed. Inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, Isola is the timeless story of a woman fighting for survival."-- Amazon.com

Fearless and Free

"Published in English for the first time, this is the memoir of the fabulous, rule-breaking, one-of-a-kind Josephine Baker."-- Provided by publisher