Featured Events in South Hadley in August, 2025 (July Updated)

Join us on Thursday, August 7 at 7 PM as Jeannine Atkins talks about her memoir, Knocking on Windows. About the Book Acclaimed author Jeannine Atkins revisits her past in this brave and powerful memoir-in-verse about memory, healing, and finding her voice as a writer, perfect for fans of Amber Smith and Speak . Night darkens the window to mirror. I’m back in my old bedroom. Six weeks after the start of her freshman year of college, Jeannine Atkins finds herself back in her childhood bedroom after an unimaginable trauma. Now home in Massachusetts, she’s struggling to reclaim her life and her voice. Seeking comfort in the words of women, she turns to the lives and stories of Sylvia Plath, Maya Angelou, and Emily Dickinson. Through raw and poignant letter-poems addressed to these literary giants, Jeannine finds that the process of writing and reflecting has become not only a means of survival but the catalyst for a burgeoning writing career. Inspired and ready to move forward, she enrolls in her state university, where she feeds her growing passion for writing in fiction seminars. But she finds that she’s unable to escape the pervasive misogyny of her classmates and professors, who challenge her to assert her own voice against a backdrop of disbelief and minimalization. This time, though, Jeannine is not willing to go down without a fight. A searingly honest memoir told through gorgeous verse, Knocking on Windows stands as a beacon of hope and a celebration of the enduring spirit of survivors of sexual assault—and of writers. About the Author Jeannine Atkins is best known for her Girls Who Loved the Earth series, including Hidden Powers: Lise Meitner’s Call to Science , which won a Massachusetts Book Award Honor, and Green Promises: Girls Who Loved the Earth , published earlier this year. Knocking on Windows: A Memoir explores how Jeannine became a writer while recovering from a rape when she was eighteen. She chronicles silences, setbacks, and the support of friends, therapists, and faculty in the Five College area and includes letter poems to writers who inspired her, including Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, and Maya Angelou. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly called Knocking on Windows “a brave, searing autobiography.” Kirkus Reviews states, “An author known for highlighting courageous women shows herself to be among them.” Information Source: Odyssey Bookshop | eventbrite

Join us on Thursday, August 7 at 7 PM as Jeannine Atkins talks about her memoir, Knocking on Windows. About the BookAcclaimed author Jeannine Atkins revisits her past in this brave and powerful memoir-in-verse about memory, healing, and finding her voice as a writer, perfect for fans of Amber Smith and Speak. Night darkens the window to mirror. I’m back in my old bedroom. Six weeks after the start of her freshman year of college, Jeannine Atkins finds herself back in her childhood bedroom after an unimaginable trauma. Now home in Massachusetts, she’s struggling to reclaim her life and her voice. Seeking comfort in the words of women, she turns to the lives and stories of Sylvia Plath, Maya Angelou, and Emily Dickinson. Through raw and poignant letter-poems addressed to these literary giants, Jeannine finds that the process of writing and reflecting has become not only a means of survival but the catalyst for a burgeoning writing career. Inspired and ready to move forward, she enrolls in her state university, where she feeds her growing passion for writing in fiction seminars. But she finds that she’s unable to escape the pervasive misogyny of her classmates and professors, who challenge her to assert her own voice against a backdrop of disbelief and minimalization. This time, though, Jeannine is not willing to go down without a fight. A searingly honest memoir told through gorgeous verse, Knocking on Windows stands as a beacon of hope and a celebration of the enduring spirit of survivors of sexual assault—and of writers. About the AuthorJeannine Atkins is best known for her Girls Who Loved the Earth series, including Hidden Powers: Lise Meitner’s Call to Science, which won a Massachusetts Book Award Honor, and Green Promises: Girls Who Loved the Earth, published earlier this year. Knocking on Windows: A Memoir explores how Jeannine became a writer while recovering from a rape when she was eighteen. She chronicles silences, setbacks, and the support of friends, therapists, and faculty in the Five College area and includes letter poems to writers who inspired her, including Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, and Maya Angelou. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly called Knocking on Windows “a brave, searing autobiography.” Kirkus Reviews states, “An author known for highlighting courageous women shows herself to be among them.” Information Source: Odyssey Bookshop | eventbrite

Join us on Wednesday, August 13 at 7 PM as Shoshana Von Blanckensee presents her new novel, Girls Girls Girls. About the BookA vibrant queer Jewish debut teeming with heart, angst, love, and self discovery (Emily Austin) about a young woman who, caught between the expectations of others and her own evolving desires, is forced to make a series of fraught, life-altering decisions. It’s the summer of ’96 and best friends (and secret girlfriends) Hannah and Sam are driving across the country from Long Beach, New York, to the fabled queer paradise of San Francisco, free from the harsh gazes of their neighbors and the stifling demands of Hannah’s devout Orthodox Jewish mother. In San Francisco, they will finally be together as a real couple, out in the open, around other queer people . . . even if the move means leaving behind Hannah’s beloved Bubbe. When the financial strains of West Coast living push the girls to start stripping at The Chez Paree—yet another secret Hannah must keep from her family—Hannah feels trapped. Sam wants her at the club, but Hannah hates stripping nearly as much as she hates disappointing Sam. Then Hannah meets Chris, an older butch lesbian, who is immediately taken with her. Desperate to stay in San Francisco and away from the leering men at the club, Hannah proposes an escort arrangement. But as Hannah falls deeper into Chris’ world and Sam starts to meet new queer friends, a rift forms between them. Without Sam, who is Hannah? And what does San Francisco mean to Hannah alone—a space rich with queer possibility or an intimidating, unfamiliar place just as lonely as the one she’d left behind? An achingly tender and resonant story of survival, first love, and growing up queer in the '90s, Girls Girls Girls is a piercing exploration of the choices we make in the thrilling and often confounding search for ourselves and home. About the AuthorShoshana von Blanckensee lives in Berkeley, California, with her partner and kids. She is an Oncology Nurse by day, and a writer by any available moment. Girls Girls Girls is her debut novel. Information Source: Odyssey Bookshop | eventbrite

Join us on Thursday, August 14 at 7 PM as Jason Mott presents his new novel, People Like Us. This is the August selection of the Odyssey First Editions Club. About the BookThe riveting new novel by the author of the 2021 National Book Award winner and bestseller Hell of a Book People Like Us is Jason Mott’s electric new novel. It is not memoir, yet it has deeply personal connections to Jason’s life. And while rooted in reality, it explodes with dreamlike experiences that pull a reader in and don’t let go, from the ability to time travel to sightings of sea monsters and peacocks, and feelings of love and memory so real they hurt. In People Like Us, two Black writers are trying to find peace and belonging in a world that is riven with gun violence. One is on a global book tour after a big prize win; the other is set to give a speech at a school that has suffered a shooting. And as their two storylines merge, truths and antics abound in equal measure: characters drink booze out of an award trophy; menaces lurk in the shadows; tiny French cars putter around the countryside; handguns seem to hover in the air; and dreams endure against all odds. People Like Us is wickedly funny and achingly sad all at once. It is an utter triumph bursting with larger-than-life characters who deliver a very real take on our world. This book contains characters experiencing deep loss and longing; it also is buoyed by riotous humor and characters who share the deepest love. It is the newest creation of a writer whose work amazes, delivering something utterly new yet instantly recognizable as a Jason Mott novel. Finishing the novel will leave you absolutely breathless and, at the same time, utterly filled with joy for life, changed forever by characters who are people like us. About the AuthorJason Mott has published four novels. His first novel, The Returned, was a New York Times bestseller and was turned into a TV series that ran for two seasons. He has a BFA in Fiction and an MFA in Poetry, both from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. His poetry and fiction have appeared in various literary journals, and his most recent novel, Hell of a Book, was named the winner of the National Book Award for Fiction, 2021. Information Source: Odyssey Bookshop | eventbrite