I don't know of a way to directly read an Access file, but have had some success with converting them to MySQL, which should provide a bit more power than using CSV.

There are programs out there to convert Access DB's to MySQL format, but looking for them, I found something that may be even more interesting for you. According to this page, you can accomplish this with ODBC directly. However, they seem to be talking about a Virtual server on the Windows machine -- you'd need to tweak and use ODBC on both machines, I imagine.

One converter mentioned on the MySQL page is MyAccess. This will allow an Access Export to MySQL and Access queries to a MySQL DB. Finally, at Cynergi, there is an Access VB script to generate a MySQL input. Here you have the source, so you might be able to hack together something more to your liking.... (This last is the way I actually converted my Access DB.)