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By MELISSA KAREN SANCES

‘Emily’s mission in life is to teach women to live with confidence and joy inside their bodies.”This sentence mesmerized me.It’s an assured statement about a complicated topic: body image and sexuality, and it is the crux of sex educator Emily...

By STEVE PFARRER

Call it an encore performance.“The Spiderwick Chronicles,” the bestselling series of fantasy books by Amherst writers Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, has just been turned into a streaming series on The Roku Channel.That comes 16 years after a feature...

By STEVE PFARRER

Just in time to coincide with Children’s Book Week, a national event established in 1905, the Massachusetts Center for the Book (MCB) has created a children’s literary showcase here in the Valley.The Mass Kids Lit Fest, a new book festival taking...

By STEVE PFARRER

Cecilia: A Memoir of Lesbian Love and LossBy Astrid LindstromHeliotrope Press Astrid Lindstrom’s memoir, “Cecilia,” about the loss of her wife following a difficult battle with cancer, is at times a painful read. But it’s also a memorial to her late...

By STEVE PFARRER

Dear Oliver: An Unexpected Friendship with Oliver SacksBy Susan R. BarryThe Experiment, LLCSusan Barry, a former Mount Holyoke College professor of neuroscience, behavior, and biology, was born with a significant case of strabismus — crossed eyes —...

By STEVE PFARRER

One of a Kind: The Life of Sydney TaylorWritten by Richard MichelsonIllustrated by Sarah GreenCalkins Creek Valley poet and children’s author Richard Michelson has often delved into history in some of his books for young readers, such as “The Language...

By STEVE PFARRER

The Real Gatsby: George Gordon MooreBy Mickey RathbunWhite River Press Just who was the inspiration for the character of the Great Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s iconic novel of the same name?Scholars and literary detectives have tried for decades to...

By STEVE PFARRER

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art has no shortage of material to draw on for exhibits.Aside from highlighting work from traveling exhibits, or showcasing illustrations of specific artists drawn from various sources, the Amherst museum can...

By STEVE PFARRER

What’s New, Daniel?Written and illustrated by Micha ArcherPenguin/Random HouseIn the last several years, Leverett illustrator and children’s book author Micha Archer has been gaining increasing attention for her eye-catching art and for stories that...

By STEVE PFARRER

Kelly Link has piled up quite a few accolades and honors over the years: a MacArthur “genius grant,” a Pulitzer Prize nomination, several awards for fantasy fiction — a Hugo, a World Fantasy, and three Nebulas — and the kind of praise writers dream...

By STEVE PFARRER

KindlingBy Kathleen JenningsSmall Beer Press Kathleen Jennings had already made a name for herself as a talented illustrator of fantasy books when she began writing her own stories some years back — and it turns out she can spin some magical tales of...

By STEVE PFARRER

Where does art begin? With a general idea or image? Maybe something that’s sketched out quickly in a journal or on a piece of paper?This month at PULP in Holyoke, the Race Street gallery is showcasing just that sort of “behind-the-scenes” look at what...

By STEVE PFARRER

It’s that time of year again: time to crank out the “best of” lists. In this case, as I’ve done in the last several years, I’ve listed some of my favorite reads for 2023. I love reading these kinds of lists myself to discover a book, movie, or album I...

Hot tickets at the moviesAMHERST — Amherst Cinema usually has plenty of interesting and critically lauded films on its schedule. But at the moment, the independent movie house is screening two titles that are generating Oscar buzz as well.“The...

By STEVE PFARRER

Scott Norris says he’s been a huge fan of books, of reading, of words themselves, for many years. He’s also fascinated by calligraphy and different kinds of text, as well as letterpress printers and early printing methods — oh, and 18th-century...

By STEVE PFARRER

A bit over 10 years ago, Ilan Stavans, the longtime Amherst College professor and writer, made his first venture into the business world: starting a publishing company dedicated to international writing.Restless Books, whose tagline is “an...

By STEVE PFARRER

SOUTH HADLEY — Independent bookstores have been hearing for years that their days are numbered, that between the Internet and chain stores, the margins for brick-and-mortar booksellers aren’t good enough.But this month, the Odyssey Bookshop is marking...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

HOLYOKE — Inside Ann Wedaman’s home in Holyoke are boxes of books, more than 21,000 books roughly, that have been donated for a fundraising book sale planned by the Northampton area chapter of the League of Women Voters, an organization that Wedaman...

By STEVE PFARRER

In 1972, a new publication, Ms. Magazine, hit newsstands during a turbulent era marked by the civil rights movement, protests against the Vietnam War, changing trends in clothing and music — and the rise of the women’s movement.Ms., co-founded by...

By STEVE PFARRER

Continuing their strong run in recent years, a number of Valley writers have won awards or honors in the 2023 Massachusetts Book Awards, the 23rd year of the competition.Belchertown author and Hampshire College fiction professor Uzma Aslam Khan has...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — The Forbes Library is looking to expand the number of people sitting on its board of trustees for the first time since the 1980s, a move that the library says is essential to support its numerous programs and expand the diversity of its...