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

Next week, on March 18, we will accept the Henry Edgerton Civil Liberties Special Recognition Award at the National Capital Area ACLU’s 2010 Bill of Rights Awards Dinner. While making some brief remarks about how gratified we are, we will take the occasion to reflect on one of the many books that we have promoted over the years that frame a historical event crucial to the affirmation of the Constitution and civil rights.  This new book, SUPREME POWER: Franklin Roosevelt vs. the Supreme Court, by Jeff Shesol (Norton, $27.95) is a wonderful reminder about the precarious existence of civil rights, even during the administrations of presidents who seemed to embrace them.

In this new book, Shesol tells a sad and intricate story about how President Roosevelt came to underhandedly attempt to manipulate the number of seats on the Court in an effort to defeat the conservative majority.  It was a shoddy and duplicitous maneuver.  Roosevelt went to great lengths to denigrate the court, tastelessly suggesting that the Gridiron Club was a more appropriate court of appeal.  Shosel assesses Roosevelt’s court-packing as the work of an arrogant and delusional president, the same president that we continue to revere because of his avowed dedication to civil rights.  Did that make him a bad president?  Not at all.  Like all great men, he had his own pockets of hypocrisy, and his surreptitious attempt to pack the Court with liberal justices painfully reminds us of the endless need to remain vigilant about our constitutional freedoms even in seemingly safe political environments.

PASSOVER BEGINS
Passover begins March 29 this year. Click here to see and buy some of our selections of Haggadahs and related books.

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Wednesday, April 14, 7 p.m.
at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue
600 I Street, NW
(Metro: Gallery Place - Chinatown)
YANN MARTEL
BEATRICE AND VIRGIL (Spiegel & Grau, $24)
Martel won the 2002 Man Booker Prize for The Life of Pi, his story of a boy and a tiger adrift at sea. His new novel, featuring a donkey, a howler monkey, and an enigmatic taxidermist, is an equally whimsical and philosophical consideration of truth and deception, responsibility and complicity.

Click here for two free admission tickets with the purchase of BEATRICE AND VIRGIL or click here to purchase a single $12 ticket without the book.

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Tuesdays, April 6 - May 11, 3 - 4:30 p.m.

SPRING POETRY CLASS
Come celebrate spring with our poetry group as we read two straight-talking contemporary women poets from the United Kingdom and Ireland.  Born in Glasgow, Carol Ann Duffy is the first female British poet laureate.  She writes wry, witty poems that often inhabit the voices of others in a sharply contemporary idiom.  Eavan Boland is generally acknowledged to be the foremost woman writing in Ireland today.  Her mature work shares with Duffy the aim of re-interpreting history from a female point of view.

This is an appreciation group, not a critical studies class, so no prior experience is necessary -just a love of words and pleasure in the company of others. Taught by Gigi Bradford, former NEA Literature Director and Chair of the Folger Poetry Board.

Six Tuesdays: April 6 - May 11, 3 - 4:30 p.m.  $80 Members, $100 Non-members.
Syllabus: (click the book titles to purchase)
Selected Poems, by Carol Ann Duffy
New Collected Poems, by Eavan Boland

Click here to register online.

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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 March 11

Meet the Author: Rosemary Wells
4 p.m. Come and meet the creator of the irrepressible Max; his bossy big sister, Ruby; Noisy Nora; and Queen Janet of the Bunny Planet. With board books, picture books, and unforgettable creations, this author has delighted millions of children with her art and humor. Please note: The time has been changed to 4 p.m. so that fans can come and see her after school.

Chang-rae Lee - The Surrendered
7 p.m. Author of Native Speaker,  A Gesture Life, and Aloft, Lee focuses in his fourth novel on a trio of battered survivors. June Han, age 11, is alone and starving in war-torn Korea when she's rescued by an American soldier who has recently lost his father. June recovers at an orphanage where she comforts the director's wife, whose parents were killed in Manchuria. Lee's narrative sweeps across times and places, exploring the lasting emotional consequences of trauma, loss, and violence.

Friday March 12

Ian Buruma - Taming the Gods
7 p.m. Journalist, Bard College professor, and author of Murder in Amsterdam, Buruma here studies the history of church/state relations in Europe, the U.S., and Asia. Moving beyond seemingly irreconcilable differences between secular and religious authorities, Buruma offers a rich, complex look at ways the two can productively find common ground.

Saturday March 13

Gina Welch - In the Land of the Believers
1 p.m. A secular Jew, Welch spent two years as a member of Jerry Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church attempting to understand the evangelical world. Immersed in the music, vision, and missionary ventures of these impassioned believers, Welch dropped her initial skepticism. Her compassionate portrait includes the recognition that the congregation met needs she hadn't known she had.

Helen Simonson - Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
6 p.m. Simonson's debut novel focuses on Ernest Pettigrew, the epitome of the staid, dutiful Englishman, and his efforts to reunite a pair of heirloom shotguns. Meanwhile, his friendship with a local shopkeeper unexpectedly blossoms into something more. Herself British-born and educated at the London School of Economics, Simonson (a two-decade D.C. resident) offers a delightful tour of British traditions and recent changes.

Sunday March 14

Thomas Kaufman - Drink the Tea
1 p.m. Kaufman's debut mystery introduces Willis Gidney, a former foster child who has grown into a talented D.C. private eye. Gidney searches for a friend's missing daughter and becomes entangled with an ambitious right-wing politician, security thugs, and a murder. Kaufman's background as director, cameraman, and two-time winner of the Gordon Parks Award for cinematography is evident in the book's vivid, fast-paced action.

Annie Leonard - The Story of Stuff
5 p.m. One of Time's 2008 Heroes of the Environment, Leonard has visited some 40 countries to investigate patterns of consumption and disposal. An expert on environmental health issues and sustainability, she identifies the systemic nature of the ecological threat posed by current ways of living and offers an agenda for practical action.

Monday March 15

Adele Barker - Not Quite Paradise
7 p.m. Barker received a Fulbright Senior Scholar grant to spend the 2001-02 year teaching and writing in Sri Lanka.  Her new book chronicles her life on this beautiful island beset by the violence of a thirty-year civil war as well as sectarian discord among Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and Christians.

Tuesday March 16

Deborah Amos - Eclipse of the Sunnis
7 p.m. An NPR correspondent who has covered Iraq since 2003, Amos examines the unexpected displacement and diaspora of Iraqi Sunnis after the removal of Saddam Hussein. Found throughout the Middle East, these communities of Sunni exiles are frustrated by their inability to return home and as a result, she warns, are potential hotbeds of anger and resentment.

Wednesday March 17

Ngugi wa Thiong'o - Dreams in a Time of War
7 p.m. As he recounts in his memoir, this playwright, novelist, and cultural theorist of Wizard of the Crow, Decolonizing the Mind, and Petals of Blood was born in rural Kenya, the fifth child of his father’s third wife. From the effects of World War II on the then-British colony to the armed struggle for independence, Ngugi offers a fascinating personal account of how strife, political repression, and violence has shaped individuals and their society.

Thursday March 18

Jules Feiffer - Backing into Forward
4 p.m. Feiffer, the inimitable cartoonist, playwright, screenwriter, and author, tells his life story as a series of creative pursuits and encounters with powerful mentors. From his childhood strategy of avoiding bullies by drawing on the sidewalk to ghostwriting for Will Eisner, from hitchhiking across the country to serving in the military, Feiffer’s autobiography is nonstop action, wit, and wisdom.

Michael Lewis (in conversation with Joel Achenbach) - The Big Short
7 p.m. The bestselling author of Panic, Liar’s Poker, The Blind Side, and Moneyball, Lewis here presents his interpretation of how and why the American economy has tanked.  From villains on Wall Street to ineffectual government regulatory agencies, and even a few heroes, this is a dark tale colorfully told. Lewis will appear in conversation with Joel Achenbach, staff writer for The Washington Post.

Friday, March 19

David Maraniss - Into the Story
7 p.m. This collection of 32 stories and essays by our friend, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author (Clemente,They Marched Into Sunlight), covers a rich array of topics. Maraniss revisits Vietnam with an American soldier, considers how Vince Lombardi would view football today, and interviews a Virginia Tech student after the shootings on the campus.

Friday, March 19 - Sunday, March 21

Politics & Prose Spring Storewide Member Sale
Nearly everything in the store is discounted for Politics & Prose members all weekend long. Most books are 20% off; most CDs and DVDs are 15% off. It's a great time to sign up and take advantage of our discount opportunities! The same discounts will also be applied to members' online purchases from Friday, March 19, 12:01 a.m. through Sunday, March 21, 11:59 p.m.

No events are scheduled on Saturday and Sunday.

To see the complete schedule and to purchase any of the above 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.

Monday, March 15, 6-8 p.m.

Zola Wine and Kitchen
505 9th Street, NW
MICHAEL GELB
WINE DRINKING FOR INSPIRED THINKING: Uncork Your Creative Juices (Running Press, $19.95)
Come join Michael Gelb at Zola Wine & Kitchen for Hooks Book Events and Stir Food’s author series, Food for Thoughts. Michael is the author of 11 books on creativity and innovation (How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci and Innovate Like Edison). He is also a passionate connoisseur of fine wine and food, and has been featured in the Wine Spectator, The Wine Enthusiast, and in the wine column of the Washington Post. In Wine Drinking for Inspired Thinking, Gelb shares how wine can help us both tap into our creative potential and forge bonds with friends and co-workers. For more information and to purchase $60 tickets, visit hooksbookevents.com.

Monday, March 15, 7:30 p.m.

Friendship Heights Village Center
4433 S. Park Ave.
Chevy Chase, MD
SARAH PEKKANEN
THE OPPOSITE OF ME (Washington Square Press, $15)
Twenty-nine-year-old Lindsey Rose works for an elite New York advertising agency yet lives in the shadow of her ravishingly beautiful fraternal twin sister, Alex. This is a novel of the twin sisters' rivalry and of their family's secrets. Ms. Pekkanen is a nationally known writer and writes a monthly column called "Domestic Disturbances," for Bethesda Magazine. Please sign up in advance for this FREE event by calling the Village Center at 301-656-2797.

Tuesday, March 16, 7:30 p.m.

National Geographic Society
1600 M Street, NW
PETER MATTHIESSEN
THE SNOW LEOPARD  (Penguin Classics, $15)
SHADOW COUNTRY (Modern Library, $16)
A two-time National Book Award winner for his travel journal The Snow Leopard and his novel Shadow Country, Matthiessen has turned an unflinching eye on some of the most controversial issues of our time. In this National Geographic Live appearance, he will discuss an issue of special urgency: the impact of our technological, profit-driven society and of climate change on the indigenous cultures of the far north. Presented as part of the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital, Click here for more information and for $25 tickets ($20 NG Members).

Tuesday, March 23, 6:30-9 p.m.   

One Washington Circle Hotel
One Washington Circle, N.W.
The Transition Networks  (TTN) presents
BARBARA GREENSPAN SHAIMAN
LIVE YOUR LEGACY NOW! Ten Simple Steps to Find Your Passion and Change the World (iUniverse, $16.95)
Barbara Shaiman will lead participants on their own unique discovery of “what’s next” and how to find more meaning and fulfilment in our lives. Click here for more information and to purchase $38 tickets ($30 TTN Members) or email nikros@verizon.net.

Thursday, March 25, 7 p.m.

Sixth & I Historic Synagogue
600 I Street, NW
Metro: Gallery Place/Chinatown
JUDITH SHULEVITZ
THE SABBATH WORLD: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time (Random House, $26)
Judith Shulevitz, a literary critic and a former columnist for the New York Times and Slate, finds insights into the Sabbath in both cultural and contemporary sources—the Torah, the Gospels, the Talmud, and the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, as well as in the poetry of William Wordsworth, the life of Sigmund Freud, and the science of neuropsychology.  Tickets are $8, or receive two (2) free tickets with the purchase of the book ($26) when you purchase through www.sixthandi.org. If you have questions, please call 202.408.3100.

Thursday, March 25, 7:30 p.m.

Friendship Heights Village Center
4433 S. Park Ave.
Chevy Chase, MD
CHRIS FARRELL
THE NEW FRUGALITY: How to Consume Less, Save More, and Live Better (Bloomsbury $24)
Farrell shows how the economic downturn can be an opportunity to reconsider what, why, and how much we consume. With an emphasis on changing the way we live to make the most of what we have, Mr. Farrell provides a new plan for a new economic reality - the philosophy and practice of living frugally.

In addition to being a correspondent and an editor for Marketplace Money, he is economics correspondent for the business program Marketplace and American Radio Works, and a contributing economics editor at Business Week magazine.

Please RSVP for this FREE event by calling the Village Center at 301-656-2797.

Friday, March 26, 7:30 p.m.

Folger Shakespeare Library
201 East Capitol Street, S.E.
PEN/Faulkner presents
WALTER MOSLEY
KNOWN TO EVIL (Riverhead, $25.95)
With The Long Fall, Walter Mosley launched the new Leonid McGill mystery series; his reading with PEN/Faulkner coincides with the release of the second installment, Known to Evil.  Mosley will read at the Folger Shakespeare Library, followed by a wine reception and book sale/signing. Call 202-544-7077 or click here for more information and to purchase $15 tickets.

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The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050
signed by Joel Kotkin
(Penguin Press, $25.95)
Hardcover - February 2010
First Editions, first printings.
From the author of The City: A Global History and The New Geography, this look at America in 2050 foresees a population greater by 100 million people living mostly in suburban areas rather than in cities like New York and Chicago. With technology enabling more people to work from home, families and local communities will define the social fabric.

Thanks to our friends at Tattered Cover in Denver, Colorado for supplying us with these books.

Click here for more signed books.

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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:  MAJOR PETTIGREW'S LAST STAND by Helen Simonson

#1 NONFICTION: DRIVE by Daniel Pink

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 These two titles were both store favorites when they were in hardcover. Click FICTION or NON-FICTION  to browse a more complete selection of recent paperback releases.

LIFE SENTENCES by Laura Lippman

CHEEVER: A Life by Blake Bailey

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ALL OTHER NIGHTS by Dara Horn (W.W. Norton, $14.95) plunges into a fascinating and little-known world: the network of Jewish spies who served on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line during the Civil War. From New York’s German-Jewish merchants to the slave-owning families of Richmond and New Orleans, Horn deftly captures an insular yet deeply divided community. The richly populated cast stars Jacob Rappaport, who flees his father’s business to join the Union Army, and Eugenia Levy, a talented actress and magician who may or may not be a Confederate agent. We also meet real-life historical figures like Judah Benjamin, the Confederacy’s Jewish Secretary of War, and a secret coalition of slaves and African-American spies. Prepare to be enchanted and amazed.
 - Elizabeth Sher

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CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK
(20% off through 03/17/2010)
Flory, THE NIGHT FAIRY (Candlewick, $16.99), was born a little before midnight when the moon was full. When she is less than three months old and no higher than an acorn, a brown bat mistakes her for an insect.  Swooping down, he catches her and badly damages her wings.  Flory seeks shelter in a beautiful garden and is befriended and protected by Skuggle, a hungry squirrel who trades assistance for food.  But not every creature is as willing to bargain as Skuggle, and Flory needs help if she is going to fly again.  Newbery Medal winner Laura Amy Schlitz and miniaturist Angela Barrett have created a sumptuously illustrated classic fairy tale.  Ages 7-11  – Heidi Powell

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

Click here for our suggestions for older teen readers.

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

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

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NEW
Jimi Hendrix, VALLEYS OF NEPTUNE (Legacy, $14.98) – Twelve re-mastered unreleased recordings from the final days of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The highlights include the spacey title track, and the blues, “Ships Passing Through the Night,” and the electric version of “Hear My Train A Coming.” High quality Hendrix, not to be missed.

Paul Motian/Chris Potter/Jason Moran, LOST IN A DREAM (ECM, $17.98) – I love the playing and the compositions of drummer Paul Motian. Last year he released a splendid quintet album of standards -- all ballads – called Motian on Broadway, Volume 5. This year, he collaborates with young lions, saxophonist Chris Potter and pianist Jason Moran, for an album of his own compositions (plus a workout on Irving Berlin’s “Be Careful It’s My Heart”). It’s a live album, recorded a year ago at the Village Vanguard. To quote the New York Times: “Melody is at the heart of everything on this album; it brings out a contemplative glow in Mr. Moran…and an openhearted tenderness in Mr. Potter.” Highly recommended.

The Chieftains & Ry Cooder, SAN PATRICIO (Hear Music/Concord, $18.98) – Chieftain Paddy Moloney and Ry Cooder assembled a program of songs that tell the little-known story of the San Patricio battalion, a group of Irish immigrants who deserted the U.S. Army to on the Mexican side in the Mexican –American war. The Chieftains are joined by special guests Lila Downs, Los Tigres del Norte, Los Cenzontles, Carlos Núñez, among others.

NINA SIMONE BIOGRAPHY & ANTHOLOGY
Washington author Nadine Cohodas has previously written great books on Dinah Washington and Chess Records. Now, with PRINCESS NOIRE: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone (Knopf, $30), she’s done a terrific job on the life of one of most complex personalities of the last decades.
Hear the Nina’s great performances on ANTHOLOGY (RCA, 2CDs, $16.98), including “I Loves You Porgy,” “Mississippi Goddam,” “I Put a Spell on You,” and 28 other songs.

THARAUD & QUEYRAS IN CONCERT
One of my favorite discoveries of the last few years has been the pianist Alexandre Tharaud. He’s done fantastic programs of Couperin (on Tic Toc Choc), Bach, Ravel, and, lately, some fine Chopin (check out CHOPIN: JOURNAL INTIME (Virgin Classics, $16.98), and the budget re-issue, CHOPIN: VALSES (Harmonia Mundi, CD & catalog, $8.98). He’s in town for a rare appearance with cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, on Friday, March 12, at the Library of Congress.

Click here for more reviews and news. Please call us at 202-364-1919 to order these CDs.