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Perseverance and determination. Despair and defeat. Opportunity and danger. Hopes raised and dashed.For a family of Somali refugees who spent years in a refugee camp in Kenya, the United States beckoned as the promised land, one where they might all.
The promised land: Book recounts one family’s effort to find a country to call home
TY MCCORMICK
Ty McCormick’s “Beyond the Sand and Sea” chronicles a Somali family that spent years in a Kenyan refugee camp before four of its members made it the U.S.
Maryan Hussein, at left, in Dadaab, during a visit back to the huge Kenyan refugee camp in 2019. She had immigrated to the U.S. in 2005. CONTRIBUTED/TY MCCORMICK
A aerial view of Dadaab and the flat desert terrain of eastern Kenya where the sprawling refugee camp is located. At one point, Ty McCormick says, the camp a held almost 500,000 people. CONTRIBUTED/TY MCCORMICK
COVID marks new chapter for independent bookstores
Updated Feb 16, 2021;
Posted Feb 16, 2021
Zelmon Zee Johnson adjusts the shelves in her Olive Tree Books-n-Voices, a community bookstore on Hancock Street in Springfield. (Don Treeger / The Republican)
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SOUTH HADLEY For Joan Grenier, owner of the Odyssey Bookshop across from Mount Holyoke College, 2020 was a year of constant reinvention and gratitude.
With business interrupted by the coronovirus pandemic, Grenier said she was faced with the possibility of closing. The crisis prompted her to set up a GoFundMe online fundraiser seeking help from longtime customers and supporters of independent booksellers.
Grenier said she was overwhelmed when donors came forward with $70,000 to help the bookstore stay open and make payments on bills totaling nearly $150,000.
Remembering the old towns: Historian releases book, calendar about former Quabbin towns
J.R. Greene holds his latest book, “The Old Quabbin Valley In 100 Objects,” and his 2021 Quabbin History Calendar, both available for purchase now. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO An aerial view of the Quabbin Reservoir. FILE PHOTO
In 1938, Enfield residents held a “Farewell Ball” before their town was drowned and disincorporated during the creation of the Quabbin Reservoir. FILE PHOTO
The Quabbin Reservoir as seen from the overlook in New Salem off of Route 202.
Brush clearing and burning in Enfield; spring 1939. This is one of the photos taken by the Metropolitan District Water Supply Commission to document the construction of Quabbin Reservoir. This view was taken in the spring of 1939, at the site of Enfield Center, looking southeast. The brick building was the Enfield Town Hall, which had not yet been dismantled by the contractor who purchased it at auction in September, 1938. A larg