Click here for our events calendar.
 Click here for more complete descriptions and to buy signed copies online.
Members always save 20% on event books. Click here to register!

 

 

Wow!   What a crowd we had Tuesday night for John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's GAME CHANGE: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime.  Not a bare spot was to be found in all the store.  The authors both spoke in detail about their processes of researching and writing the book so that it could be as accurate and free of bias as possible.  And despite the backstory revelations about all the campaign intrigues, all the candidates had called them to congratulate them on the book.  

Last night we sold over 200 books, and we still have more copies available signed by the authors. When we told them that we had successfully scheduled an encore event for Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson's Battle for America 2008, they promptly responded that they, too, would be up for doing another evening at Politics & Prose.  We will schedule the repeat performance for Game Change as soon as we can, and will keep you informed by email.

Check our website - www.politics-prose.com - for further details.  

AWARD-WINNING BOOKS FOR CHILDREN

One of the most anticipated days of the year in the Children and Teens’ Department is the announcement of the American Library Association awards at the group’s midwinter conference.  We come in early to gather around the computer, fingers crossed, hoping to cheer our favorites as winners.  This year, we did quite a bit of cheering.  A number of the award winners are featured in the Children and Teens’ Department 2009 Favorite Books, and others are favorites to hand sell.  The Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book was awarded to Jerry Pinkney for his book, THE LION & THE MOUSE (Little, Brown), a nearly wordless adaptation of Aesop’s fable.  The Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature was awarded to Rebecca Stead for her novel, WHEN YOU REACH ME (Random/Wendy Lamb), an homage to another Newberry Medalist, A WRINKLE IN TIME (Square Fish).  Come visit the store and see our display of these and the other award winners.  We look forward to sharing these exceptional books with you.

Read more about other awards and other honored books by clicking here.

 

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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. P&P members save 20% on these author event titles.

Thursday January 21

Danielle Ofri - Medicine In Translation
7 p.m. For fifteen years, Ofri has been a physician at Bellevue, New York’s oldest public hospital. These portraits of some of the poor, frightened, and often desperate patients she has treated offer a vivid profile of the strengths and weaknesses of our health-care system. They also illuminate issues of immigration, poverty, and tolerance of religious and racial differences.

Friday January 22

Maaza Mengiste - Beneath The Lion's Gaze
7 p.m. This debut novel is set in Ethiopia in 1974. War is about to break out, but Hailu’s family is already feeling the effects of strife. Hailu, a doctor, faces prison after treating a victim of state-sponsored violence, and his son has joined an underground resistance movement.  Mengiste, born in Addis Ababa and now residing in Brooklyn, was named “New Literary Idol” by New York magazine.

Saturday January 23

Greg Kats - Greening Our Built World
1 p.m. A recent study of 150 green buildings in eleven different countries shows that they cost just 2% more than traditional buildings to construct, yet they reduce energy use by some 33%. Kats details other results of this extensive analysis and reports on “green community development” initiatives by faith-based organizations to build according to specifications that reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Jeffrey Herf - Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World
6 p.m. Herf’s study concentrates on the little-known Nazi efforts to gain support among Arabs. Using transcriptions of the “Axis Broadcasts in Arabic” radio programs, Herf shows how the Germans selectively targeted Islamic traditions to foment anti-Semitism, and how this propaganda campaign sowed some of the seeds of current Arab-Israeli tensions.

Sunday January 24

Jim Wallis - Rediscovering Values
5 p.m. Wallis, author of The Great Awakening and God’s Politics, views the current economic downturn not as an ordeal to be endured, but as an opportunity for change. He argues that rather than restoring the previous normality—the very circumstances that brought about the crisis—we should reassess our values and goals to create a new, more sustainable, and satisfying normality, one based on community instead of competitiveness.

Monday January 25

Barry Friedman - The Will Of The People
7 p.m. In this history of the Supreme Court, the NYU law professor examines the Court’s development in terms of its role in democratic politics. Arguing that the justices are not so cloistered from public opinion and prevailing political winds as is often assumed, Friedman shows that the Court’s decisions, over time, come into line with majority will.

Tuesday January 26

Robert Chandler, translator - Everything Flows, by Vasily Grossman
7 p.m. The award-winning translator of Grossman’s masterpiece, Life and Fate and, with his wife, Elizabeth, of works by Pushkin and Platonov, Chandler finds the Russian writer’s last, unfinished novel nearly overwhelmed by “the burden of history it carries.” Yet Grossman crafted the painful reality of the Soviet era into art that, by its truth-telling, shows that “histories can cease to be burdens.”

Wednesday January 27

Ira Berlin - The Making Of African America
7 p.m. Berlin, the prize-winning author of Many Thousands Gone, Generations of Captivity, and other histories of the African experience in America, sees four distinct migrations of black people into and within the United States. His study emphasizes the continual evolution of black American culture, with its alternating phases of movement and stability.

Thursday January 28

David M. Walker - Comeback America
7 p.m. Framing his call to fiscal action on traditional values of responsibility and stewardship for future generations, the former head of the Government Accountability Office and current CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation offers specific proposals to control spending, save Social Security, dramatically alter Medicare, and simplify the tax code.

Friday January 29

Kathy Orton - Outside the Limelight: Basketball in the Ivy League
7 p.m. With no athletic scholarships, poor facilities, and demanding course loads, Ivy League students who play basketball do it for the sheer love of the game. Orton, The Washington Post’s long-time reporter on college basketball, presents a season in the lives of unsung college athletes.

Saturday January 30

Robert Lehrman - The Political Speechwriter's Companion: A Guide for Writers and Speakers
1 p.m. Geared specifically to politicians, this manual focuses on speechmaking as advocacy. Lehrman, former chief speechwriter for Al Gore and for organizations ranging from the Democratic National Committee to corporations and nonprofits, brings his extensive experience to bear in his LAWS of speechwriting - with tips on Language, Anecdotes, Wit, and Supporting Evidence.

Barry Lynn - Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction
6 p.m. Lynn, author of The End of the Line about global corporations (“Tom Friedman for grown-ups,” according to a Washington Post review), and a frequent contributor to Harpers and the Financial Times, argues that obscure but growing industrial monopolies in America threaten our democracy and basic freedoms.

Sunday January 31

Kyoko Mori - Yarn: Remembering the Way Home
5 p.m. Born in Japan, Mori learned to knit as preparation for marriage and subservience. Later, living in the American Midwest, she used the craft to help her endure the double loss of a failed marriage and her mother’s suicide. This memoir is both a personal history of knitting and a story of strength and survival.

 

To see the complete schedule and to purchase any of the above books, click here. If you would like to have our monthly schedule mailed to you, consider becoming a member.

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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.

Friday, January 22, 8:30 a.m.

Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
ROBERT POZEN
TOO BIG TO SAVE?: How to Fix the U.S. Financial System (Wiley, $29.95)
Pozen, Chairman of MFS Investment Management and a senior lecturer at the Harvard Business School, commands the respect and attention of the public and private sector. In this timely guide, he outlines his vision for the new financial future and provides useful advice along the way.
For more information and to register, visit hooksbookevents.com.

Friday, January 22, 6:30 p.m.

Alliance Française de Washington
2142 Wyoming Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008
JOHN W. KISER
COMMANDER OF THE FAITHFUL: The Life and Times of Emir Abd el-Kader: A Story of True Jihad (Monkfish, $28.95)

President Lincoln, Queen Victoria, Pope Pius IX, Sir Richard Burton, and French prisoners sang his praises. Commander of the Faithful is the story of the path to world-wide fame that turned a pious and precocious twenty-five year old Koranic scholar into a diplomatic commander of Muslim Arab resistance to French colonization in Algiers, and a figure admired around the world. To make reservations for this English-language presentation and purchase $10 tickets ($6 for Alliance Française members), call 202-234-7911 or visit www.francedc.org. Reservations will be accepted until 4 p.m. the day of the event. Admission will be $2 more at the door.

Thursday, January 28, 6:45 p.m.

Smithsonian Resident Associates
in Collaboration with the National Academy of Sciences
2101 Constitution Avenue, NW
(Enter at 2100 C Street)
Photo ID required
R. DOUGLAS FIELDS
THE OTHER BRAIN:  From Dementia to Schizophrenia, How New Discoveries about the Brain Are Revolutionizing Medicine and Science (Simon & Schuster, $27)
Neuroscientist R. Douglas Fields is a leading researcher on glial cells, which integrate communication networks in the brain and control electrical activity. Fields will lecture on recent and revolutionary research on glial cells and their links to health - including cancer, schizophrenia and depression, paralysis, and brain repair following injury and stroke.
Please call 202-633-3030 for tickets or visit residentassociates.org (Resident Members $15; Gen. Admission $25; Senior Members $13.

Monday, February 1, 7:30 p.m

Folger Shakespeare Library
201 East Capitol Street, S.E.
PEN/Faulkner Presents
SUSAN ORLEAN and GEORGE SAUNDERS
Introductions by Richard McCann and Matt Klam
New Yorker contributors and authors Susan Orlean and George Saunders read selections from the rich mélange of their combined repertoire. Tickets are $15 and may be purchased online at www.penfaulkner.org or by phone at 202-544-7077.

Wednesday, February 3, 7 p.m.

Sixth & I Historic Synagogue
600 I Street, NW
Metro: Gallery Place/Chinatown
ELAINE SHOWALTER, VINCA SHOWALTER LAFLEUR, and MICHAEL SHOWALTER
A JURY OF HER PEERS: Celebrating American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx (Vintage, $16.95)

On the occasion of the paperback release of Elaine Showalter's tenth book, A Jury of Her Peers: Celebrating American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx, three members of the Showalter family will talk about how they became writers and how being part of this family influenced their work. Vinca Showalter LaFleur is a former speechwriter for President Clinton and ghostwriter. Michael Showalter is a comedian, screenwriter, and comedy writer on Comedy Central. Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 the day of the event, or receive one (1) free ticket with the purchase of the book ($17). Tickets and books can be purchased at www.sixthandi.org. Please call 202.408.3100 with questions.

Thursday, February 4, 7:30 p.m.

Friendship Heights Village Center
4433 S. Park Ave.
Chevy Chase, MD
CURTIS ROOSEVELT
TOO CLOSE TO THE SUN: Growing Up in the Shadow of My Grandparents, Franklin and Eleanor (Public Affairs, $29.95)           
Curtis Roosevelt, grandson of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, tells what life was like when he and his sister — known as "Sistie and Buzzy"— spent more than a decade of their formative years in the spotlight with their famous grandparents at the White House and at the Roosevelt family home at Hyde Park. Please sign up in advance for this FREE event by calling the Village Center at 301-656-2797.

 

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This week Politics & Prose offered (to our knowledge) the only scheduled public book-signing for John Heilemann and Mark Halperin as they shared the hottest political revelations as described by the insiders. We still have signed copies available so order your copy soon!

GAME CHANGE: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime
signed by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin
(HarperCollins, $27.99)
Hardcover - January 2010

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THE FOUNTAIN OVERFLOWS
by Rebecca West
(NYRB Classics, $16.95)

Rebecca West published this gorgeous novel in 1956, but I think of it as a feminist alternative to Charles Dickens. Narrated by twelve-year-old Rose Aubrey, The Fountain Overflows follows the Edwardian adventures of the Aubrey clan—an eccentric family of musicians and writers ruled largely by its women. In between bouts of poverty and grueling practice schedules (Rose makes it clear that she and her twin sister will be professional pianists), the Aubrey children find time to solve mysteries, catch murderers and expel the occasional poltergeist. The Fountain Overflows is whimsical, luminous and not to be missed. - Elizabeth Sher

See more books recommended by P&P booksellers by clicking here!

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P&P members always save 20% on our top twelve FICTION and NON-FICTION hardcover bestsellers.
To see our complete bestseller lists, click on the titles below.

#1 FICTION:  SHADES OF GREY by Jasper Fforde

#1 NONFICTION: ALL THINGS AT ONCE by Mika Brzezinski

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

THE BELIEVERS  by Zoe Heller

CAPITOL MEN: The Epic Story of Reconstruction Through the Lives of the First Black Congressmen  by Philip Dray

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CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK
(20% off through 01/27/2010)
Kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk.  If you have been missing those marvelous three words, or know an entire group of babies and children with a gaping hole on the bookshelf, grieve no more.  Robert McCloskey’s BLUEBERRIES FOR SAL (Viking, $17.99 HB, $7.99 PB) is back in print, with the original illustrations, beautiful cream paper, and a new dust jacket. For those of you unfamiliar with the classic tale of Little Sal and her mother picking blueberries on one side of the mountain, and Little Bear and her mother picking blueberries on the other side of the mountain, you are in for a real read-aloud treat.   Ages 2-6 -  Dara La Porte

Read about - and buy - more of our favorite books for children by clicking here.

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

Join 826DC (formerly Capitol Letters Writing Center) for our monthly tween creative writing workshop.
 
Sunday, January 31, 1:30 p.m. - 3  p.m.
MUSIC TO MY EARS

Everyone’s a critic. In this workshop, students will learn the art of writing a music review. Using basic research skills to learn biographical and contextual information on the artist, we'll brainstorm about positive and negative elements of the song, and learn a little about basic song structure (verse/chorus). At the end of the session, each student will have penned their own review with it possibly being posted on the music review website indierockreviews.com! This workshop is open to students ages 10-14. The workshop is free, but space is limited to 15, please RSVP to kira@capitolletters.org.

For more information about our organization please visit 826dc.org

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

 

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Click here to browse more remainders that have recently become available.

 

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BRENDEL’S FAREWELL CONCERTS
In December, 2008, pianist Alfred Brendel gave farewell recitals after 60 years of concertizing. THE FAREWELL CONCERTS (Decca, 2 CDs, $24.98) includes masterful solo pieces (Beethoven, Schubert, Haydn, Bach/Busoni), as well as Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9, accompanied by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Charles Mackerras. To quote the Gramophone review, “there is greatness to bye found in every bar of these two discs, and that goes not only for the music but the musician too.”

FROM THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD ON DVD
The most lauded presentation at the Met last fall was director Patrice Chéreau’s staging of Leos Janacek’s final opera, FROM THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD (Deutsche Grammophon, DVD, $29.98),  based on Dostoevsky’s novel. Filmed at the Aix-en Provence Festival, Pierre Boulez conducts the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Arnold Schoenberg Choir in this powerful work.

CRAZY HEART SOUNDTRACK
Jeff Bridges’s portrayal of broken-down country musician Bad Blake won him a Golden Globe award, and is an Oscar front runner. Producer T Bone Burnett also won a Golden Globe for best original song for co-writing “The Weary Kind.” On the CRAZY HEART (New West, $15.98) soundtrack, Burnett mixes original songs sung by Bridges, Colin Farrell, and Robert Duvall with country classics by the Louvin Brothers, Kitty Wells, George Jones, and Buck Owens, among others.

Click here for András’s reviews and Music News and to buy these albums.