Featured Events in South Hadley in December, 2024(December Updated)

Join us on Tuesday, December 3 at 7 PM as Megan Tady talks about her new novel, Bluebird Day. She will be joined in conversation by Anna Hogeland. About the BookIn this hilarious, heartwarming tale, mother-daughter skiing champs face the bumps in their own relationship when an avalanche in a Swiss village forces them together. Alpine skiing G.O.A.T. Claudine Potts and her daughter, Wylie, have been bred for gold medal glory. They're skiing their way to fame, but this gilded future is cut short when a fall forces Claudine's retirement and Wylie's debilitating anxiety sends her off the slopes. With the collapse of their ski careers, their relationship falters and now it's been years since Wylie and Claudine have even spoken. They live on opposite coasts, pursuing different passions, until a chance opportunity to pair up in a European fitness competition drives them back together. Can this duo survive snow-buried regrets and family secrets and have the happy reunion they're hoping for? Set in a dreamy Swiss village with a colorful cast of characters, Bluebird Day will make readers laugh and swoon, as Claudine and Wylie slalom through the complicated terrain of lost ambition, past mistakes, and mother-daughter love. About the AuthorMegan Tady, a journalist and editor, is the author of Super Bloom. She founded Word-Lift, a communication consulting and copywriting firm. Originally from Nebraska, she now lives in New England with her husband and two children. About Anna HogelandAnna Hogeland is the author of The Long Answer (Riverhead Books). She’s a psychotherapist in private practice, with a master of social work degree from Smith College School for Social Work and a master of fine arts degree from the University of California, Irvine. Her essays have appeared in Literary Hub, Big Issue, iNews, Gloss Magazine, Romper and elsewhere. The Long Answer is her first novel and has been translated into seven languages. She lives in western Massachusetts. Information Source: Odyssey Bookshop | eventbrite

About the BookA masterly crafted and haunting tale of survival, longing, and empathy, set during the Spanish Civil War. In late 1936, eighteen-year-old Isidro Elejalde leaves his Basque village in Northern Spain, spurred to join the fight to preserve his country's democracy from the insurrectionists by the rousing words of a political essayist. Months earlier, Spanish generals launched a military coup to overthrow Spain's newly elected left-wing government. They assumed the population would welcome the coup, but throughout the country people like Isidro remained loyal to the ideals of democracy, and the Spanish Civil War began in bloody earnest. In Bilbao, Mariana raises her two young children while, with her writing, she decries the fascist-backed coup attempt and their German and Italian allies, imploring the world to support democracy. As the Nationalist forces assault the country, Mariana and Isidro's lives intersect fleetingly, yet in meaningful and lasting ways. Through a chorus of voices--a female soldier in an all-male battalion, a reluctant conscript recently emigrated from Cuba, a young girl whose parents have abandoned her in order to fight against the fascists, among others--we follow Isidro and Mariana as they struggle to maintain their humanity in a country determined to tear itself apart. Julian Zabalbeascoa is a fierce and assured new talent, and What We Tried to Bury Grows Here is a remarkable feat of research and imagination, as well as a transcendent literary accomplishment. About the AuthorJulian Zabalbeascoa’s debut novel What We Tried to Bury Grows Here will be published this fall by Two Dollar Radio. Among other journals, his stories have been published in American Short Fiction, Boulevard, The Common, Copper Nickel, Electric Literature, The Florida Review, The Gettysburg Review, Glimmer Train, One Story, Ploughshares, Ploughshares Solos, and Shenandoah. His interviews and reviews have appeared in The Believer, Electric Literature, The Millions, and Salamander. A dual citizen of Spain and the US, he was born and raised in California’s Central Valley. He earned his MFA in Creative Writing in Madrid from the University of New Orleans and taught at various institutions throughout California before moving to Boston, where he now teaches in the Honors College at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He leads annual study abroad programs to Belfast, Donostia-San Sebastian, Havana, Madrid, Paris, and Seville. Information Source: Odyssey Bookshop | eventbrite

Join us on Thursday, December 5 at 7 PM as Weike Wang presents her new novel, Rental House. This is the December pick of the Odyssey First Editions Club. About the BookFrom the award-winning author of Chemistry, a sharp-witted, insightful novel about a marriage as seen through the lens of two family vacations Keru and Nate are college sweethearts who marry despite their family differences: Keru’s strict, Chinese, immigrant parents demand perfection (“To use a dishwasher is to admit defeat,” says her father), while Nate’s rural, white, working-class family distrusts his intellectual ambitions and his “foreign” wife. Some years into their marriage, the couple invites their families on vacation. At a Cape Cod beach house, and later at a luxury Catskills bungalow, Keru, Nate, and their giant sheepdog navigate visits from in-laws and unexpected guests, all while wondering if they have what it takes to answer the big questions: How do you cope when your spouse and your family of origin clash? How many people (and dogs) make a family? And when the pack starts to disintegrate, what can you do to shepherd everyone back together? With her “wry, wise, and simply spectacular” style (People) and “hilarious deadpan that recalls Gish Jen and Nora Ephron” (O, The Oprah Magazine), Weike Wang offers a portrait of family that is equally witty, incisive, and tender. About the AuthorWeike Wang is a graduate of Harvard University, where she earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry and her doctorate in public health. She received her MFA from Boston University. Her fiction has been published in literary magazines, including Alaska Quarterly Review, Glimmer Train, and Ploughshares, which also named Chemistry the winner of its John C. Zacharis Award. A “5 Under 35” honoree of the National Book Foundation, Weike currently lives in New York City. Information Source: Odyssey Bookshop | eventbrite