BOOKS WE HAVE KNOWN AND LOVED

On the table at the front of the store, we have a display of 50 of our favorite books during the past 25 years – 25 fiction and 25 nonfiction. There is also a list on the webpage.  Our hope was that people would rediscover some of the books that we have loved, many of which only sell infrequently now. Some on our list have obviously piqued your interest and others have been less successful.  So I want to say more about five of them today: George Packer -- Assassin’s Gate, David Remnick -- King of the World, David Maraniss – Clemente, Chang Rae Lee – A Gesture Life; and Ursula Hegi – Stones from the River. Click here for descriptions.

George Packer’s Assassin’s Gate is the single best book about how the U.S. fell into the Iraq War and what happened when we got there. George is going to be at the store on November 18 for his new book of essays, Interesting Times. You can read Assassin’s Gate before he comes and ask him questions.

David Remnick writes equally well about politics and sports as does David Maraniss. Each of them has a brilliant sports book on our list of favorites. David Remnick’s King of the World is such a subtle and touching evocation of Mohammad Ali.  It’s a great biography. So, too is David Maraniss’s Clemente. In neither case do you need to care about boxing or baseball because each book is full of detail about race and class, as well as grace and charm.

Among our fiction selections, Chang Rae Lee’s A Gesture Life is very sad, yes, but also so very beautiful. Many Americans aren't aware of how the Japanese treated Koreans when they occupied Korea between 1905 and World War II.  Lee’s book portrays with extreme sensitivity how that tragic time played out for an emigrant to Westchester County.  (A lovely new novel, The Calligrapher’s Daughter by Eugenia Kim also concerns that occupation and Korean dignity).   Chang Rae Lee has a new book coming out early next year.

Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi was an enormous bestseller fifteen years ago, and not only because it was one of the first books adopted by Oprah for her book club.  Hegi, who grew up in Germany, wrote about Nazi terror from the point of view of Germans.  She’s written other good fiction, but none that so captured people’s imagination as this book about the residents of a small German town.

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If you can’t attend a talk, but would like to reserve a signed copy, or a recorded author talk,
click the title links to purchase online. Members save 20% off on these titles.

Thursday October 15

7 p.m. Antony Beevor, the eminent World War II historian and author of Stalingrad, The Battle for Spain, and The Fall of Berlin 1945, here turns his attention to D-Day and the Normandy invasion. While military casualties were on a par with those of the Eastern front (Anglo-American losses were some 2,000 men per division per month after D-Day), Beevor notes that civilian deaths were also high, with more than 3,000 French civilians killed in the first 24 hours of Operation Overlord. This vivid account supplements its grisly statistics with many telling descriptions of the events from participants and frank assessments of the strategies and behavior of the military leaders involved. It continues the narrative through to the liberation of Paris.

Friday October 16

4 p.m. Denis MacShane, a British MP and chairman of the All-Party Commission of Enquiry into Anti-Semitism, argues that we are now facing an ideological assault based on hatred of Jews that threatens universal values, world peace, and even anti-poverty programs and environmental change initiatives. MacShane considers how anti-Semitism has become a linking mechanism between different extremisms; how it operates in national party politics and in the European Parliament; and how Holocaust denial has hardened into an organized ideological position. Globalising Hatred is both a cri de coeur for a new tolerance and an attempt to throw light on a form of hatred that mobilizes politics across many continents.

7 p.m. Barbara Ehrenreich has turned American optimism on its head in this savvy piece of cultural criticism, Bright-Sided. She argues that optimism is "the American ideology" and is used to promote growth through capitalism. When institutions demand that their employees not dwell on bad news, real disasters can result from unreadyness. Examples of this are the warnings about terrorism before 9/11 and the reports of New Orleans's vulnerability to weather events. Ehrenreich blames the epidemic of positive thinking for our current economic woes.

Saturday October 17

1 p.m. Rich Benjamin, a fellow at Demos, a nonprofit think-tank supporting an equitable economy and inclusive democracy, made a 27,000-mile journey around the United States to test the premise that America is a post-racial society.  In Searching For Whitopia, he describes that his road-trip revealed a country more divided by class than by race, but still pervaded by structural racism.

6 p.m. Tim Flannery has been a leader in efforts to change human behavior to avoid planetary catastrophe. In Now Or Never, Flannery says, “In the next forty to ninety years humanity will exceed …the capacity of Earth to supply our needs, thereby greatly exacerbating the risk of widespread starvation.”  In the coming decades, the Earth’s climate system will pass a point of no return. Why are we failing to cut back on consumption and live in a more sustainable manner?

 

Sunday October 18

1 p.m. Allison Silberberg has worked unceasingly to bring wider attention to the stories of courageous and innovative Visionaries In Our Midst who have made a big difference in their communities. She hopes that sharing the experiences of people who have made “something happen…who innovate and work to build a better life for others,” will inspire and guide those also working for community change.

5 p.m. Since the release of I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets, Paul Karasik has archived even more of Fletcher Hank’s brutally surreal comics. In You Shall Die By Your Own Evil Creation, he presents a second sampling of Hank’s work. An expansive introduction offers details on the artist’s personal life and includes some of the incredible early drawings Hank made as assignments for a cartooning correspondence school.

Monday October 19

7 p.m. Robert Lacey’s Inside The Kingdom is a firsthand modern history of Saudi Arabia. He lived there during the 1970s, during which he witnessed the growth of the oil boom and a developing clash of modernity and technology with traditional ways of life. Lacey offers insight into a complex country. How the Saudis resolve the tension between their particular heritage and a rapidly changing world has wide-reaching consequences.

Tuesday October 20

7 p.m. The music critic for The New Republic, David Hajdu joins Leon Wieseltier, the magazine’s literary editor, for a discussion of jazz, pop, movies, comics, and all manner of things cultural. As in Hajdu's books The Ten-Cent Plague and Positively 4th Street, this wide-ranging collection of essays, Heroes And Villains, combines deep knowledge of popular art with its socio-historical context. Along with pieces on Elmer Fudd, Woody Guthrie, Ray Charles, and others, the book features a profile of Billy Eckstine which celebrates not just his talent but the daring presentation of sex appeal and black machismo that tested the limits of a racially-segregated country and transformed American music.

Wednesday October 21

10:30 a.m. Now in London, Sophie, Josh, and the immortal Nicholas Flamel have barely escaped capture by Machiavelli and John Dee. Meanwhile, the Sorceress Perenelle is still a prisoner on Alcatraz, about to undergo a deadly test of her powers. Flamel seeks the only man with the knowledge necessary to save himself and the Twins of Legend from the plots of Machiavelli, Dee, and the Dark Elders: Gilgamesh, the 5,000-year-old King of Uruk. Ages 11-16.

4:30 p.m. at Bethesda Library If you can't attend in the morning, Michael Scott will also offer an afternoon reading and signing.

7 p.m. In  America's Prophet, Bruce Feiler (Walking the Bible) traces the importance and the influence of Moses on American politics and rhetoric from the founding fathers to Martin Luther King, Jr. Among the many instances of the influence of Exodus on American thought, he points to the pilgrims’ taking inspiration from 40 years in the wilderness and to the words engraved on the Liberty Bell.

Thursday October 22

4:30 p.m. A DUAL AUTHOR EVENT FOR TEENS
In Leviathan, Scott Westerfeld, author of the Uglies series, spins a historical fantasy set during World War I. The Germans and Austro-Hungarians have technologically advanced machinery. The English, inspired by Darwin’s theories, have evolved animals into war machines. Leviathan is a whale-dirigible. Common soldiers from each side escape on a round-the-world odyssey.

In a world populated with both mechanical and organic people, Lia must find her place. Crashed follows Skinned as the second book by Robin Wasserman in a futuristic series featuring an alternative society that sets new rules about the ethics of life and death. Ages 14-18.

7 p.m. Judith Jones, the great Knopf editor who played an instrumental role in bringing Julia Child’s recipes to American cooks, follows her memoir, The Tenth Muse, with a useful cookbook, The Pleasures Of Cooking For One, about taking care of and nurturing yourself. After her husband died, Jones taught herself how to cook and savor a good meal for one. "This book is for those of you who want to roll up your sleeves and enjoy, from day to day, one of the great satisfactions of life."

Friday October 23

10:30 a.m.  Deborah Heiligman tells the story of Charles and Emma. Charles Darwin and Emma Wedgwood were a devoted married couple who had ten children. Emma was devoutly religious and worried that she and Charles would be separated in the afterlife. Her fundamentalism, and the similar beliefs of others at the time, made Charles reluctant to publish his On the Origin of Species. It wasn't until an American wrote an essay with a theory similar to his theories that Charles realized he must publish his controversial ideas. Ages 12-16. 

1 p.m. Come meet Tina Wasserman, food columnist for Reform Judaism magazine, who will be in the store signing copies of her Entrée To Judaism Cookbook and discussing ways food informs the histories and traditions of the great Jewish Diaspora communities.  Tina will provide complimentary sweet treats to accompany coffee.

7 p.m. Steven V. Roberts, a journalist, explores the experience of immigration by tracking the fortunes of thirteen families who have recently come to the United States From Every End Of This Earth. He captures the voices of those living the promise of a new land—and the difficulties of starting over among strangers whose suspicions increasingly outweigh their open-armed acceptance. The impetus for Roberts’s book is his own immigrant roots; he talks about his Grandpa Abe, who arrived almost 100 years ago and writes that today, "America is still renewed by fresh transfusions of foreign blood."

Saturday October 24

1 p.m. With his co-author, Senator Christopher Bond, Lewis M. Simons, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, argues in The Next Front that Southeast Asia, and especially Indonesia, will be the next hot spot in the war on terror. The authors propose that the U.S., having lost credibility with failed military efforts in the Middle East deploy “smart power” - civilians, instead of soldiers - to defuse anger and create alternatives to violent movements.

6 p.m. Haleh Esfandiari’s 2006 visit to her mother in Tehran turned into a harrowing eight months of interrogations, phone taps, and solitary confinement in Evin Prison as Iranian authorities tried to prove she was part of an American conspiracy working for regime change. In My Prison, My Home, Esfandiari, Director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center, interweaves her experience as a political prisoner with the larger history of relations between America and Iran, and speculates on what may lie ahead for Iran.

Sunday October 25

1 p.m. Now in its third edition, Paul Dickson’s compendium THE Dickson Baseball Dictionary is the authoritative guide to the language of our national pastime.  What’s the difference between a “cut fastball” and a “four-seam fastball”?  Where did “fungo” come from?  Dickson traces sources, first usages, and etymologies of familiar (and not so familiar) baseball terms, with many insights into the game’s history along the way. Including more than 10,000 definitions and 250 photographs, the current volume has doubled in size from the original.

5 p.m. In The Dead Hand, David Hoffman, a Washington Post journalist, tells the gripping story of the secret negotiations and diplomatic maneuvers between Washington and Moscow to end the arms race. Together, the United States and the Soviet Union recognized it was in their common interest to keep nuclear and biological weapons out of the hands of rogue states.

TICKETS ON SALE NOW: Thursday, November 5

7 p.m. at GW Lisner Auditorium - Former vice president and environmental leader Al Gore has conducted "Solutions Summits" with top scientists, engineers, and policy experts to search for ways of dealing with the climate change crisis. OUR CHOICE draws on conclusions developed through those summits as well as on extensive research, describing how the choices necessary to save the Earth can be the foundations of policies to create new jobs and stimulate sustainable economic progress. Click here to buy the book and receive 2 free tickets or purchase individual tickets for $10 each.

To see the complete schedule in calendar form, click here,
or to read a detailed listing of the next thirty events and purchase the books, click here.

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Politics & Prose supplies books to the following book signing events.
Reservations and tickets should be acquired from the hosting organization.
If you can’t attend a talk, but would like to purchase a signed book, call
202-364-1919 or 1-800-722-0790 or click the title links below.

Thursday, October 15, 2:30 p.m.

University of the District of Columbia
Windows Lounge
4200 Connecticut Avenue, NW
STEVEN V. ROBERTS
FROM EVERY END OF THIS EARTH: 13 Families and the New Lives They Made in America (HarperCollins, $25.99)
Roberts follows the stories of thirteen immigrant families and captures both the voices of those living the promise of a new land and the difficulties of starting over among strangers whose suspicions increasingly outweigh their open-armed acceptance. As the political debate rages on, Roberts sheds light on the enormous contributions immigrants continue to make to the fabric and future of America. FREE and open to the public; visit hooksbookevents.com for more information.

Thursday October 15, 6:30 p.m. 

One Washington Circle Hotel
One Washington Circle NW
Metro: Foggy Bottom
SUZANNE BRAUN LEVINE
FIFTY IS THE NEW FIFTY: 10 Life lessons for Women in Second Adulthood (Viking, $25.95)
In our society, the assumption is that youth -- or at least "younger" -- is the ideal state, and that given a choice, no woman in her mind would relinquish it, but Levine has discovered the opposite to be true. She tells us what women do want as they explore this new stage of life and how they are defining it for all of us. $38 tickets ($30 for TTN members) include dinner and cash bar and may be reserved through www.thetransitionnetwork.org.  Questions, call Virginia Sorkin at 703-243-1523.

Thursday, October 15, 7:30 p.m.

National Geographic Live
Grosvenor Auditorium
1600 M Street, NW    
SIMON WINCHESTER
THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN, KRAKATOA, THE MAN WHO LOVED CHINA and editor for The Best American Travel Writing, 2009.
An intrepid journalist, author, and broadcaster, Winchester, joined by NGTraveler’s Don George, will share adventures and misadventures from decades on the road.
The evening will be preceded (at 6:30) by a reception featuring beers from around the world, presented by the Michelob Brewing Company (must be 21 or older).
For more tickets and more information visit events.nationalgeographic.com.

Friday, October 16, 7:30 p.m.

The GW Lisner Auditorium
730 21st Street, NW
DEEPAK CHOPRA
REINVENTING THE BODY, RESURRECTING THE SOUL: How to Create a New You (Harmony, $25)
Millions of people are waking up to new possibilities opened up by alternative medicine - to reinvent your body and resurrect your soul. Chopra says, “Aging and many lifestyle diseases are the result of entropy—the steady loss of energy inside the body. But each person can reverse this process. The key is awareness. To reduce the ravages of entropy, use the unlimited capacity of mind.” Tickets for this event are $35 and include a copy of the book; more information at hooksbookevents.com.

October 18 - 28

Washington DCJCC
1529 16th Street, N.W.
THE HYMAN S. & FREDA BERNSTEIN JEWISH LITERARY FESTIVAL AT THE WASHINGTON DCJCC
The Jewish Literary Festival presents the year's best in Jewish writing by emerging and established authors from across the globe. A celebration of Jewish literature, the Festival features engaging author panels, readings, films and talks for lovers of fiction, poetry, history, humor, children’s stories and much more. This year’s Festival includes acclaimed novelists Zoë Heller, Binnie Kirshenbaum and Dara Horn and groundbreaking books on Louis D. Brandeis and Hunting Eichmann. Don’t miss opening night, Literary Confessions: An Evening of Philip Roth, and the closing night Gerald L. Bernstein Memorial Lecture given by historian Howard M. Sachar, Current Israeli Myths and Realities: The Way to Peace. Browse the books that will be featured at the festival here. For more information, the full schedule, and to purchase tickets, go to http://washingtondcjcc.org/litfest or call (202) 777-3251.

On Thursday, October 22nd at 7:30 p.m., Past Imperfect: New Jewish Fiction - will feature acclaimed novelists Binnie Kirshenbaum, Jonathon Keats and Norah Labiner. The Literary Festival is offering FREE TICKETS to the first 5 people who send an email to litfest@washingtondcjcc.org with the name of their favorite Jewish novelist.

Sunday, October 18, 3 p.m.

The Washington Home & Community Hospices
3720 Upton Street, N.W.
JUDITH VIORST
ALEXANDER AND THE TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY (Atheneum, $17.99)
Build-Your-Own Ice Cream Sundae party followed by reading of the newly released 30th-anniversary edition. $20 tickets are available from http://sundaesandstories.eventbrite.com Contact Edie Burzio at 202-895-9680 for more information. Ages: 3-10

Monday, October 19, 7 p.m.

Sixth & I Historic Synagogue
600 I Street, NW
Metro: Gallery Place/Chinatown
VANESSA DAVIS
BODY OF WORK: A Woman's Role in Comics
Come explore the creative process with an interactive discussion and workshop on the portrayal of women and their bodies in comics. Davis authored SPANIEL RAGE (Buenaventura Press, $13.95), an illustrated memoir, draws a monthly column for Tablet, and contributed to The Best American Comics 2007, Kramers Ergot, and The New York Times. Part of Not Your Bubbe’s Sisterhood, Sixth & I’s series for women in their 20s and 30s, This FREE event is part of Jewish Body Week – exploring subjects raised in The Jewish Body by Melvin Konner. RSVP at www.sixthandi.org. Questions? Call 202.408.3100.

Monday, October 19, 7 p.m.

Friendship Heights Village Center
4433 S. Park Avenue, Chevy Chase
RICHARD BREITMAN
REFUGEES AND RESCUE: The Diaries and Papers of James G. McDonald, 1935-1945 (Indiana Univ., $29.95)
James McDonald, chairman of FDR's advisory committee on refugees from May 1938 until nearly the end of the war, wrote diaries that offer new insights into Roosevelt's response to the Holocaust. Richard Breitman is a professor of history at American University and editor of the US Holocaust Memorial Museums journal, Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Please sign up in advance for this FREE event by calling the Village Center at 301-656-2797.

Monday, October 19, 7:30 p.m.

National Geographic Live
Grosvenor Auditorium
1600 M Street, N.W.    
ROZ SAVAGE
ROWING THE ATLANTIC (Simon & Schuster, $24)
After 11 years as a management consultant, Roz Savage dropped everything, and entered the Atlantic Rowing Race as a solo rower—the only solo woman ever to compete in that race. At the time of this writing (July 2009), Savage is attempting to become the first woman to row solo across the Pacific. This event is part of the 3-part Quest for Adventure speaker series. Purchase as a series and save! Member: $15, 3-part series: $39 General Public: $18, 3-part series: $45

Tuesday, October 20, 7 p.m.

Friendship Heights Village Center
4433 S. Park Avenue, Chevy Chase
GAIL COLLINS
WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGED: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present (Little, Brown, $27.99)
Ms. Collins joined the Times in 1995 as a member of the editorial board and later as an Op-Ed columnist. In 2001 she became the first woman ever appointed editor of the Times editorial page. She returned to The Times as a columnist in 2007. Please sign up in advance for this FREE event by calling the Village Center at 301-656-2797.

Tuesday, October 20, 7:30 p.m.

National Geographic Live
Grosvenor Auditorium
1600 M Street, N.W.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE COLLECTION
This event marks the release of a new book celebrating the National Geographic Image Collection. Join the book's editor Leah Bendavid-Val; Image Collection director Maura Mulvihill; and contributing photographers David Doubilet, Maria Stenzel, Chris Johns, Michael Yamashita, and Steve Sasson (the Kodak® technologist who invented the digital camera) for an inside look at one of the world’s greatest treasure troves of photography. This event is the first event in the 4-part Masters of Photography series. Purchase as a series and save! NG Members: $15 / 4-part Series: $52; General Public: $18 / 4-part Series: $60

 Wednesday, October 21, 6 p.m.

Zola Wine & Kitchen
505 9th Street, N.W.
JUDITH JONES
The Pleasures of Cooking for One (Knopf, $27.95)
From the legendary editor of some of the world’s greatest cooks - including Julia Child and James Beard - a passionate and practical book about the joys of cooking for one. This two-hour gathering, the first in a new Food for Thought series, invites lively discussion and demonstrations in Zola Wine & Kitchen’s state-of-the-art cooking and cocktail test kitchen. Tickets are $75 and include a copy of the book, along with appetizers showcasing the published recipes and two glasses of wine. Tickets and more information at www.hooksbookevents.com.

Wednesday, October 21, 7 p.m.

Sixth & I Historic Synagogue
600 I Street, NW
Metro: Gallery Place/Chinatown
DAVID SAX
SAVE THE DELI: In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of Jewish Delicatessen (HMH, $24)
The Jewish delicatessen once sat at the very center of Jewish life and has become endangered by assimilation, homogenization, and health food trends. Sax will speak about how Jewish people view deli cuisine in relation to their health, weight, and bodies. Todd Kliman, Food and Wine Editor for The Washingtonian, will interview Sax. This event is part of Jewish Body Week – exploring subjects raised by Melvin Konner in The Jewish Body. $6 tickets, or 2 free tickets with the purchase of the book can be purchased at www.sixthandi.org. Questions? Call 202.408.3100.

Monday, October 26, 7 p.m.

Washington Post Conference Center
1150 15th Street, N.W.
STEVEN D. LEVITT and STEPHEN J. DUBNER
SUPERFREAKONOMICS (William Morrow, $29.99)
The New York Times best-selling Freakonomics was a worldwide sensation, selling over four million copies in thirty-five languages and changing the way we look at the world. Fans and newcomers alike will find that the freakquel is bolder, funnier, and even more surprising than the first. $40 tickets and more information at www.hooksbookevents.com. 

Monday, October 26, 7:30 p.m.

Folger Shakespeare Library
201 East Capitol Street, S.E.
PEN/Faulkner Presents
CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE & FAE MYENNE NG
Introduction by Patricia Griffith
Two award-winning writers explore the themes of love, politics, and cultural dislocation - themes integral to the experience of leaving one's home for a new country.  A 2008 MacArthur Foundation Fellow, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the author of Half of a Yellow Sun and The Thing Around Your Neck.  Fae Myenne Ng's current novel is Steer Toward Rock, and her first novel Bone was a finalist for the 1994 PEN/Faulkner Award. To purchase tickets call the Folger Shakespeare Library at (202) 544-7077 or click here.

Wednesday, October 28, 7:30 p.m.

National Geographic Society
1600 M Street, N.W.
PAM SPAULDING
AN AMERICAN FAMILY: Three Decades with the McGarveys (Random House, $35)
More than 30 years ago, Spaulding, a photojournalist for the Louisville Courier-Journal, began documenting events in the life of the McGarveys, a family from Louisville, Kentucky. She has produced a unique album comprising a remarkable look at their life. Photographer Sam Abell will introduce the event, and moderate a discussion with Ms. Spaulding and the McGarveys after the presentation. This event is part of the 4-part Masters of Photography speaker series. To purchase tickets, click here.

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Our top twelve hardcover FICTION and NON-FICTION bestsellers are always 20% off for P&P members. For our complete lists, click on the titles below.

#1 FICTION:  THE CHILDREN'S BOOK by A.S. Byatt
#1 NONFICTION: MANHOOD FOR AMATEURS by Michael Chabon

 

 

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Click FICTION or NON-FICTION  to browse a complete list of recent paperback releases.

LOVE IN INFANT MONKEYS by Lydia Millet
NOTHING TO BE FRIGHTENED OF by Julian Barnes

 

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BOOK OF THE WEEK
(20% off through 10/21)

A frog escapes from a jar and finds a book about SPELLS, (Simon & Schuster, $16.99) by Emily Gravett. Disappointed that the book is not about pirates or castles, the frog shreds the book’s pages for make believe. Amongst the shredded pages, there is a spell to become a prince. Attempts to formulate the spell emerge through split-page images and magical creatures form, but not a prince. Finally, the spell, mostly right, produces a prince. Alas, a crucial condition noted in small print was overlooked and, the prince reverts to a small green frog — gribbitt! Light-hearted drawings set against a dramatic background and cheeky touches will delight older readers of picture books. Ages 4-8 -  Mary Alice Garber

Stop by the store to see our wide selection of Halloween books.

 

Lisa Chapin-Hobbes hosts story time for young children every Monday morning at 10:30 a.m.

 

BOOKMARK CONTEST WINNERS
The winning entrees for the Politics & Prose 25th-anniversary children and teens bookmark contest have arrived in the store. Congratulations to Allison Eigsti, Sophia Diggs-Galligan, and Lia Blackwell. Stop by the store to get their collector edition bookmarks, displayed above!

For October events and more from the Children and Teens' Department, click here.

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This week we have some small books that make big claims. First, THE INTELLECTUAL DEVOTIONAL: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education and Roam Confidently with the Cultured Class. Put together by David Kidder and Noah Oppenheim, this compendium of 365 lessons is modeled on the spiritual tradition of daily devotionals, offering a bit of knowledge or wisdom to reflect on for each day of the year. It ensures a well-rounded reader by offering selections from seven different fields of knowledge, so that each week you learn something about history, literature, the visual arts, science, music, philosophy, and religion. The entries are easily digestible and substantial—good for quick reference (the book is indexed) as well as a systematic program.

For the specialist, Kidder and Oppenheim have put together a second, more focused volume, THE INTELLECTUAL DEVOTIONAL: Modern Culture. Organized along the same principle of one reading per day, covering seven fields of interest, this book presents nuggets of wisdom concerning personalities, literature, music, film, ideas and trends, sports, and pop. It all starts with Sigmund Freud; touches on penicillin, baseball cards, affirmative action, and Patti Smith; and wraps up with J.K. Rowling. Available in hardcover, $6.98 each.

This week, we also have more titles from the wonderful New York Review Books classics series, Click here to browse more recently arrived remainders.
•  Laurie Greer
For more recently acquired remainders, click here.

 

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Gramophone Awards
Dylan’s Christmas
New: Franco & Nellie McKay

 

P&P ENVIRONMENTAL BOAT TOUR

Saturday, October 24, 10-11:30 a.m.
Anacostia Riverkeeper, a local not for profit, non-governmental organization, will lead a boat tour of the Anacostia River for Politics & Prose customers on Saturday, October 24th, from 10 - 11:30 a.m.  This short river is highly polluted by DC and Maryland, but its great potential is increasingly drawing attention, even as climate change places it under added strains.  The tour will embark at the Riverkeeper’s dock in southeast DC, and navigate by Kingman Island to Kenilworth, where one of the Riverkeeper’s principal research projects is centered.  You will increase your awareness of the environmental issues that affect the river and its watershed and their impact on our own health and economy.  The Anacostia Riverkeeper is one of several NGOs working through advocacy, research, youth and volunteer projects to restore the river to health, engaging DC and Maryland governments in this pursuit.  Click here for more information about this organization - www.anacostiariverkeeper.org 

Car pools will depart from Politics & Prose at 9:30 a.m.  Space is limited to 12 persons.  Teens and adults welcome!

Politics & Prose’s Climate Action Project is sponsoring this tour.  Please contact CAP member, Nina Dodge, ndodge53@gmail.com, with questions and RSVPs.

GOURMET TODAY COOKBOOK OFFER

Customers who buy the new Gourmet Today cook book are entitled to a free one year subscription to Gourmet Magazine.  However… you probably have heard that the magazine is ceasing to be.  So:

“In place of Gourmet, purchasers of the Gourmet Today cook book will be eligible to receive a one-year subscription to Bon Appetit magazine. If you already subscribe to Bon Appetit your subscription will be extended.”

If you buy, or have recently bought Gourmet Today just fill out the label on the back flap as currently instructed, and the process will be automatic.