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!

Politics & Prose Spring Storewide Member Sale
This coming weekend - all weekend long - nearly everything currently on our shelves is discounted for Politics & Prose members. Most books are 20% off, most CDs and DVDs are 15% off. If you are not yet a member, it's a great time to sign up and take advantage of our discount opportunities.

And if you can't make it into the store, the same discounts will also be applied to members' purchases online at www.politics-prose.com from Friday, March 19, 12:01 a.m. through Sunday, March 21, 11:59 p.m. 

No events are scheduled on Saturday and Sunday.

National Capital Area ACLU’s 2010 Bill of Rights Awards Dinner
Thursday March 18 is the big night when we receive the ACLU’s Edgerton Special Recognition Award for "demonstrating how the Freedoms of Speech and Press contribute to the public good."  In accepting this prestigious award, we will be recounting our early months, which set the course for 25 years devoted to presenting authors who fervently championed these First Amendment freedoms.  One of the first was Herblock, the intrepid political cartoonist from the Washington Post, whose book, Herblock Through the Looking Glass, had just been published.  In our first few years, we also hosted I.F (Izzy) Stone for his contrarian and controversial The Trial of Socrates; Anthony Lukas for Common Ground - his groundbreaking study of court-ordered busing to integrate the Boston public schools, and Marian Wright Edelman for Families in Peril.

During these 25 years, we have quite regularly seen Politics & Prose described both in print and online as a leftist bookstore.  What our critics don’t understand is that our commitment to freedom of speech dictates that we carry books across the entire political spectrum.  And the biggest surprise of all?  Karl Rove’s Courage and Consequence, displayed prominently since its arrival in the store last week, is now #8 on our bestseller list!

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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One of the most under-reported events of this week is C-Span’s online unveiling of a media extravaganza, 25 years of archived programming.  For political junkies, there’s the pure nirvana of reliving on video such dramatic moments as the confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas or Oliver North’s testimony in the Senate’s Iran-Contra hearings.  For booklovers, there’s ecstasy to be found in the some 9000 programs of author talks about their books now made accessible at will and at no cost.  Some are timely, like T.R. Reid’s interview about his book, The Healing of America, in which he samples the cost and quality health care around the globe.  Others are memorable, like Robert Caro’s 1990 author talk about Means of Ascent, the second volume in his biography of Lyndon Johnson.  
 
As many of you know, a Book TV crew is here to record author talks many times in a month since we both inhabit the same city. Until recently, if you missed an event or its scheduled airing, the author's talk became past history, but with this seismic digital-media unveiling, all author events filmed by Book TV anywhere will be immortalized in cyberspace.

To access either of these new treasures, click the above links or visit www.c-spanvideo.org/videoLibrary/.

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GUILT ABOUT THE PAST (House of Anansi, $15.95), composed of six lucid essays by Bernhard Schlink, landed on my desk, and I am most grateful for the gift.  I found this short book to be a provocative and lively set of arguments.  Those who missed Schlink’s amazingly successful novel THE READER (Vintage, $13.95) - and even those familiar with it - may not know that Schlink is a lawyer and a judge.  One essay is indeed devoted to law as an instrument, and the last is about the role and importance of fiction.

The second essay, "The Presence of the Past," is full of nuggets.  "Whatever course of action they follow, it is not for us Germans to raise objections or feel indignation."  On the other hand, "Whoever remembers wants the right to forget."  In the new generation, the literature of the Holocaust can give up some of its prominence, and it is important to administer the Jewish sites in a way that never seems patronizing.

In another essay called "Forgiveness and Reconciliation," Schlink distinguishes between forgetting, forgiveness, and reconciliation.  Read these essays for clarity about difficult issues.  Read them also for their beautiful writing.

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Wednesday, April 7, 8:15 p.m.
at the Avalon Theatre
5612 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.
(Metro: Friendship Heights)
DAVID REMNICK (in conversation with MICHELE NORRIS of N.P.R.)
THE BRIDGE: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama (Knopf, $29.95)
Using interviews and letters, David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, has expanded his magazine profile of Obama to tell the 44th president’s life story and trace the remarkable political journey that led to the White House. 

Click here for two free event tickets with purchase of the book or click here for a single $10 ticket each without book purchase.

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 author event admission tickets with purchase of the $24 book from P&P or for click here for a single $12 ticket without book purchase.

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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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During the Member Sale, don't forget to peruse our selection of DVDs. Not only do we have special limited edition 50% off selected items during the sale, there will also be a new shipment of Oscar winners and Oscar nominated films, available for 15% off the list prices for members, including:

Best Picture THE HURT LOCKER
JULIE & JULIA
A SERIOUS MAN
 PRECIOUS
UP IN THE AIR
THE BLIND SIDE
and UP

Shop early for the best selection!

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P&P members always save 20% on our top twelve FICTION and NON-FICTION hardcover bestsellers. To purchase these books, click the titles.

#1 FICTION:  MAJOR PETTIGREW'S LAST STAND by Helen Simonson

# 2 The Surrendered  by Chang-rae Lee (Riverhead ,$26.95)
# 3The Three Weissmanns of Westport by Cathleen Schine (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $25)
# 4 The Things They Carried: 20th Anniversary Ed. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $24) by Tim O'Brien
# 5 The Help (Amy Einhorn ,$24.95) by Kathryn Stockett
# 6  Wolf Hall (Henry Holt, $27) by Hilary Mantel
# 7 The Man from Beijing (Knopf, $25.95) by Henning Mankell
# 8 The Lacuna (Harper, $26.99) by Barbara Kingsolver
# 9 Wolf Hall (Henry Holt, $27) by Hilary Mantel
# 10 The Postmistress (Amy Einhorn, $25.95) by Sarah Blake
# 11 The Ask (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $25) by Sam Lipsyte
# 12 A Week in December (Doubleday, $27.95) by Sebastian Faulks

#1 NONFICTION: GAME CHANGE (Harper, $27.99) by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin

# 2 The Journal Keeper: A Memoir (Atlantic Monthly Press, $24) by Phyllis Theroux
# 3 The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff Is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health-and a Vision for Change (Free Press, $26) by Annie Leonard
# 4 Saving Henry: A Mother's Journey (Hyperion, $22.99) by Laurie Strongin
# 5 Dreams in a Time of War: A Childhood Memoir (Pantheon, $24.95) by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
# 6 Making Toast (Ecco, $21.99) by Roger Rosenblatt
# 7 Country Driving (HarperCollins, $27.99) by Peter Hessler
# 8 Courage and Consequence (Threshold Editions, $30) by Karl Rove
# 9 Zeitoun (McSweeney's, $24) by Dave Eggers
# 10 Letters to Jackie: Condolences from a Grieving Nation (Ecco, $26.99) by Ellen Fitzpatrick
#11 Citizens of London (Random House, $28) by Lynne Olson
#12 Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. the Supreme Court (W. W. Norton & Company, $27.95) by Jeff Shesol

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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.

THE WILD THINGS (Vintage, $14.95) by Dave Eggers

THE BROTHER GARDENERS (Vintage, $17.95) by Andrea Wulf

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BERLIN NOIR (Penguin, $20), by Philip Kerr

I spent the summer lost in Philip Kerr's brilliant evocation of 1930s Berlin, a city caught in the tightening vise of fascism, repression and fear. With unprecedented numbers of disappearances, it's ripe terrain for a private investigator. Enter the smart, shrewd Bernie Gunther, an ex-cop who never lets his private disgust for the Nazis stand in the way of a few deutschemarks. Bernie's moral ambiguity makes him the perfect Virgil into Berlin's underworld, a place where no one is a hero and everyone complicit, in some way, in Hitler's crimes. His cases bring us from the seediest dens to the Third Reich's most secret branches, from the 1936 Olympics to Kristallnacht in 1938. Kerr's outstanding postwar follow-ups to Berlin Noir are every bit as gripping and sophisticated, as a haunted Bernie roams Germany's ravaged Occupied Zones and uncovers a fugitive Nazi colony in Peronist Argentina. - Elizabeth Sher

Click here for more of Liz's recommendations.

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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 always save 20% on author event titles.

Thursday March 18

Gerald Finley
10 a.m. Famed bass-baritone Gerald Finley will sign his latest recital CDs. Most recently, Mr. Finley sang the role of Marcello in the Met’s La Bohème and created the role of Robert Oppenheimer in John Adams’s Dr. Atomic. If you cannot attend, click here to pre-purchase signed CDs or call the store if you are requesting personalizations. The pianist on each disc is Julius Drake.

• Schumann: Dichterliebe & Other Heine Settings (Hyperion, $18.98)
• Ravel: Songs (Hyperion, $18.98)
• Barber: Songs (Hyperion, $18.98)
• A Song - For Anything: Songs by Charles Ives (Hyperion, $18.98)
• SONGS: Tchaikovsky, Musorgsky and Ned Rorem (Wigmore Hall Live, $18.98)

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 - 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 student after the shootings at Virginia Tech.

Friday, March 19 - Sunday, March 21

Politics & Prose Spring Storewide Member Sale

All weekend long - nearly everything currently on our shelves is discounted for Politics & Prose members. Most books are 20% off, most CDs and DVDs are 15% off. If you are not yet a member, it's a great time to sign up and take advantage of our discount opportunities.

If you can't make it into the store, the same discounts will also be applied to members' purchases online at www.politics-prose.com from Friday, March 19, 12:01 a.m. through Sunday, March 21, 11:59 p.m. 

No events are scheduled on Saturday and Sunday.

Monday March 22

Lionel Shriver - So Much for That
7 p.m. Shriver follows her acclaimed romantic comedy, The Post-Birthday World, with an acute and timely novel about the collision of dreams and reality - and the shortcomings of the American health-care system. Shep Knacker, flush with the profit from selling his business, wants to retire to an island. Instead, he becomes his wife’s caretaker when she develops cancer.

Tuesday March 23

Nell Irvin Painter - The History of White People
7 p.m. Painter’s study of race centers on the invention of a white race and the characteristics attributed to it for economic, political, and scientific ends. A historian, Painter traces notions of whiteness back to the roots of Western civilization, through the 18th-century construction of American identity, and on to changes in notions of a white race in response to Malcolm X, the Civil Rights struggle, and more recent discussions of a post-racial society.

Wednesday March 24

Tim O'Brien - The Things They Carried (20th Anniversary Edition)
7 p.m. O’Brien’s collection of short fiction about men at war is as stunning and timely now as it was when it first appeared. Based on the author’s tour of duty in Vietnam, the stories are vivid and deeply affecting as they lay bare both the physical stress soldiers endure and the assorted emotional baggage - fear, shame, pride - that weighs them down.

Thursday March 25

Martha Nussbaum - From Disgust to Humanity: Sexual Orientation and Constitutional Law
7 p.m. A prominent professor of law and philosophy at the University of Chicago, Nussbaum presents a passionate advocacy for sexual freedom, particularly for same-sex relationships.  Disgust, she believes, has been the driving force behind civil legislation and public opinion, but compassion, powered by imagination, is just as natural a reaction.

Friday March 26

Diarmaid MacCulloch - Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years
7 p.m. MacCulloch won multiple awards for The Reformation and Thomas Cranmer. His new study traces the history of Christianity from the Hebrew Bible through the New Testament, charts the growth of evangelicalism from its German and English origins, and shows the faith’s pivotal role and influence during the Enlightenment, the Age of Explorations, and the First and Second World Wars.

Saturday March 27

Jabari Asim - A Taste of Honey
1 p.m. From the author of The N Word, this collection of 16 stories chronicles the lives of the Joneses, an African-American family living in the Midwest in the late 1960s. Blending coming-of-age narratives with tales of violence, politics, racism, and friendship, Asim draws a complex portrait of an era.  

Chloë Schama - Wild Romance: A Victorian Story of a Marriage, a Trial, and a Self-Made Woman
6 p.m. A Washington journalist for The New Republic, The Guardian, and other publications, Schama recounts a sensational Victorian-era scandal. Theresa Longworth was 19 when she met the future Viscount Avonmore. They married, he deserted her, and their story was dragged through the courts. The abandoned wife fought for her rights, then created a new life for herself as writer, speaker, and world traveler.

Sunday March 28

Deborah Bräutigam - The Dragon's Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa
1 p.m. A professor at American University’s School of International Service, Brautigam is a longtime observer and former resident of China. In her new book, she documents how China, having established a higher standard of living for itself, is now working to effect better conditions in Africa.

Kathryn Wagner - Dancing for Degas
5 p.m. Wagner’s debut novel richly evokes life in Paris at the turn of the 20th century. The story of Alexandrie, a provincial farm girl who overcomes the odds to join the Paris Opéra ballet and who falls in love with Degas, the narrative delves as much into the economics and sexual politics of the arts as it does into the romance and creativity of high culture.

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.

Tuesday, March 23, 6:30-9 p.m.   

Friday, March 19, 12 noon
Round House Theatre
4545 East West Highway
Bethesda, MD
ROBERT DEIGH
HOW COME NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT US? (WBusiness Books, $24.95)
Join local business leaders for networking and an informative presentation over lunch. Deigh, a communications professional with more than 25 years of experience in public relations and journalism, has written a practical, complete, and often humorous guide for organizations that want to win big visibility in an information-saturated world. For more information and to purchase $30 tickets, visit www.hooksbookevents.com.

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 [email protected].

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.

Saturday, March 27, 9 a.m.-2 p.m.

Temple Sinai
3100 Military Road, N.W.
TEMPLE SINAI SISTERHOOD'S ANNUAL AUTHORS' ROUNDTABLE
ALISON BUCKHOLTZ, STANDING BY: The Making of an American Military Family in a Time of War (Tarcher, $24.95)
JENNIFER BURNS, GODDESS OF THE MARKET: Ayn Rand and the American Right (Oxford Univ., $27.95)
JAN ELVIN, THE BOX FROM BRAUNAU: In Search of My Father's War (AMACOM, $24.95)
ALLISON SILBERBERG, VISIONARIES IN OUR MIDST: Ordinary People who are Changing our World (Univ. Press of America, $19.95)

Reservations must be pre-confirmed and pre-paid by March 20. Send your $12 check, payable to "TSS" c/o Jeannette P. Dubrow, 3139 Upland Terrace, NW, Washington, DC 20015.  Indicate choice of tuna, chicken, or vegetarian lunch.  

Thursday, April 1, 7 p.m.

Arts Club of Washington
2017 I St, N.W.
DYLAN LANDIS
NORMAL PEOPLE DON’T LIVE LIKE THIS (Persea, $15)
& JOANNA SMITH RAKOFF
A FORTUNATE AGE (Scribner, $15)
Meet two of our brightest emerging talents in contemporary fiction. 2009 Pulitzer-Prize winner Elizabeth Strout, called Normal People Don’t Live Like This "a wonderful, intriguing and original debut." Booklist praised A Fortunate Age for its "heartbreaking clarity," later naming it one of the Top Ten Debut Novels of 2009. Readings will be followed by a Q&A, then a light reception and booksigning.For more information contact: Sandra Beasley, ACW Literary Chair at 703-994-3166 or [email protected].

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CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK
(20% off through 03/24/2010)

From the cockerel’s first crow to the rooks’ returning to roost, welcome spring by COUNTING BIRDS (Tate Publishing, $14.50).  Follow a variety of birds throughout the day, counting as they grow in number from one to twenty.  Alice Melvin’s rhyme is simple and appealing, and readers will find something new in her engaging artwork every time they open this unique book.  How many birds hold a number in their beaks?  See if you can count how many birds are made of fabric or another material.  Which birds are your favorites?  Ages 3-7.  Heidi Powell

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.

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

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GERALD FINLEY CD SIGNING
This morning (Thursday, March 18) at 10 a.m., baritone Gerald Finley will stop by the store to sign CDs. For more details and to order signed CDs, see above.

\

NEW

Theo Bleckmann, SCHUMANN’S FAVORED BAR SONGS (Winter & Winter, $17.98) – Over the last few years, vocalist Theo Bleckmann has recorded a variety of fascinating projects: his take on Weil, Eisler and Brecht songs on Berlin: Songs of Love and War, Peace and Exile (2007); crooning standards on Las Vegas Rhapsody: The Night They Invented Champagne (2006); and his very original versions of Twelve Songs by Charles Ives (2009), a collaboration with the jazz-rock group, Kneebody. He re-teams with pianist Fumio Yasuda (from the Berlin and Las Vegas projects) on stripped-down versions of songs such as “Good Morning Heartache,” “Just a Gigolo,” and “Send in the Clowns.” Check out this true original.

Brad Mehldau, HIGHWAY RIDER (Nonesuch, 2 CDs, $18.98) – Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau reunites with producer Jon Brion for another sonic venture after Largo, in 2002 . The CD includes Mehldau’s trio, plus drummer Matt Chamberlain, saxophonist Joshua Redman, and a chamber orchestra, with orchestrations by Mehldau. The New York Times wrote about the collaboration last Sunday (here, ).

THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA & THE NOSE  
Two recent productions have gotten rave notices: Arena Stage’s Light in the Piazza, with a book by Craig Lucas, based on the novel by Elizabeth Spencer, is now playing in Crystal City through April 11. Listen to the original cast recording of THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA (Nonesuch, $18.98), with music and lyrics by Tony-winner Adam Guettel, starring Victoria Clark and Kelli O’Hara. 
Through March 25, the Metropolitan Opera is presenting an imaginative version of

Shostakovich’s The Nose, based on the Gogol story, directed by artist and filmmaker William Kentridge. The conductor for this production is Valery Gergiev, and he also conducts the Mariinsky Orchestra, Soloists and Chorus in the recently released recording, SHOSTAKOVICH: THE NOSE (Mariinsky, 2 CDs, Super Audio, $33.98).

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