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

 

On Tuesday night, May 18, Politics & Prose was honored by Round House Theatre. We received The Spotlight Award, for our contributions to the community and to the arts. The occasion was a fund raising effort for Round House Theatre's outreach to schools and children. It was an elegant event with beautiful food and wine.

The organizers asked us to select one of our favorite books, and after much discussion, we chose ANGLE OF REPOSE (Penguin, $16). We are always pushing to make Wallace Stegner's great novel better known. As it happened, Diane Rehm was one of the other honorees of the evening, and she chose Maggie Scarff's book on emotional histories and relationships, INTIMATE PARTNERS (Ballantine, $15). Since both books are about marriage, they completely complemented one another.

Here is what Carla said, introducing our selection:

We selected Angle of Repose as one of our favorite books for many reasons.  Wallace Stegner, a well known novelist and professor of writing, received the Pulitzer Prize for Angle of Repose in 1972. I discovered the book about a decade later and became a crusader on its behalf

What drew me to Angle of Repose? I found it one of most compelling stories of marriage that I had read, as it includes the misconceptions that husbands and wives harbor, the expectations that are not aligned. Two people can love each other very much without knowing each other well.

When I introduced friends to Angle of Repose, they all said, "What a wonderful book; how come I didn't know about it?" And that was a small part of the reason why I wanted to open Politics & Prose, to introduce special books to people.

Each time I reread the book, I find myself bringing new views to my reading. This time, influenced by the Round House Theatre Spotlight Award, I kept thinking about the difference between books and plays. A book, especially one of this size, offers a vast canvas to portray characters, their past actions as well as their present ones. Any play based on Angle of Repose would have to be very condensed, but I think it could work well, portraying Susan's obtuse and snobbish attitude toward the small towns of West and Oliver's liberal critique of the mining industry which pushed him to the margins.

 

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Friends

I want to share my enthusiasm for a new novel called MY NAME IS MARY SUTTER (Viking, $26.95). Robin Oliveira is reading from the book and discussing it next Sunday afternoon, May 23 at 5 p.m. Robin is a nurse and has written a completely convincing novel about a young Albany woman who wants to become a doctor and serve the Union during the Civil War.

Mary was rejected by medical school and rebuffed by a physician to whom she offered to apprentice. She decides to leave for Washington to work in a wartime hospital, where she observes Union forces woefully unprepared for battle carnage.  Mary is proud and determined. Apprenticing herself to the hospital doctors, she becomes an accomplished field physician. But she loses some of herself as well. Devoted to her mission, she neglects her family's needs. Oliveira, herself a nurse, has convincingly recreated real events and real places, but the story is never weighed down by research. I found myself thinking about Mary long after I finished the book.

I think the book has everything: the feminist angle, a moving story about the Civil War, and love interest. Come hear Robin introduce her book.

 

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This Saturday, May 21 at 1 p.m. my first bookstore partner from the ‘70s, Hugo Rizzoli, will be here with his wife, Carol Eron Rizzoli, to talk about her book, THE HOUSE AT ROYAL OAK (Black Dog & Leventhal, $22.95), an account of their purchase and remodeling of a B&B on the Eastern Shore near St. Michaels, Maryland.  I took Hugo into my business as a partner at the Bookstall in 1978 and sold to him in 1980.  He ran the business until 1998.One of our best customers was poet Linda Pastan, who wrote a poem about "The Bookstall", which was selected by Metro for a public service poster in the Metro cars.  I’ll bring the framed poster, along with some pictures of Hugo, Linda, and me back in the ‘70s.  The House at Royal Oak will be excerpted in the June issue of The Washingtonian and featured in the July-August issue of Preservation Magazine.

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Several of our booksellers will be headed to New York for the annual Book Expo next week. With that in mind, we offer you:

THE MARKETS OF NEW YORK CITY (NYRB, $16.95)

by Karen Seiger

Turn a weekend - or even a day trip -- to frenetic New York City into a restful European-style vacation by approaching NYC not as the clogged, congested City That Never Sleeps, but as a burgeoning network of cottage industries! A cheat-sheet for local flavor and re-localized shopping, this charming new pocket guide will tip you off to the craft fairs, farmers' and flea markets of the five boroughs. Whether a weekly (or even daily!) recurrence or a special annual event, the details of these markets are detailed along with profiles of the unique people and products of each, from classical Old World foodstuffs to edgier indie handicrafts. - Lila Stiff

For those of you staying in Washington, click here for our recommendations for on local DC sightseeing, history, and literature.

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Lots of writers made their name in the short story - Raymond Carver, Alice Munroe, Flannery O’Connor. A sometimes tricky, occasionally hard to define genre (consider, for example, the stories of Lydia Davis), at its best the short story can be a versatile nugget of writing. Yet, despite the accolades received by recent collections like Elizabeth Strout’s 2009 Pulitzer winner Olive Kitteridge, Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Interpreter of Maladies, awarded the Pulitzer in 2000, and Sherman Alexie’s War Dances, which won the PEN/Faulkner this year, many readers are hesitant - and even downright resistant - to settling down with a story collection.

Short stories should not be considered a warm-up to novel writing. Writers from Edith Wharton to Annie Proulx have excelled in both genres and, when wielded by talented writers, the short story can slice through the core of human emotion more cleanly than some novels. As Colum McCann stated in the National Post, "Short stories are fierce, tight, imploding universes where every word matters."

My favorite story collections are ones that linger after the book is closed and back on my shelf. . . Click here for more about Junot Diaz, Mary Gaitskill, and others who are masters of this genre.

- Lacey Dunham

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In this season of new beginnings, we have put particular thought into items which students might need as they approach the next phase of their lives. Our four unique Graduation Gift Bags, tailored for the high school or college level, combine practical reference guides with essential, inspirational classics handpicked by the Politics & Prose staff. Each one comes carefully packaged in a sturdy P&P anniversary tote.

Click here to see our suggestions of how to provide a reward to a deserving graduate for his or her hard work!

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BUILDING SOCIAL BUSINESS
signed by Mohammad Yunus
(Public Affairs, $25.95)
Hardcover - May 2010
First editions, first printings.

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ACT OF GOD
directed by Jennifer Baichwal
(Zeitgeist, $29.95)

All of the rain this week reminds me of my favorite documentary, Act of God, a haunting exploration of man's relationship with lightning. Baichwal talks extensively about the metaphysical effect of being struck with Fred Frith, a CIA assassin, and author Paul Auster (who in a special feature reads from City of Glass). Previously Baichwal expertly showcased Edward Burtynsky's photography in Manufactured Landscapes and left an indelible impression on my view of the constructed world. Similarly, Act of God has given me a childlike awe of the power of lightning . . . and has left me wondering if lightning strikes are random at all. A perfect movie for a spring shower.

- Thad Ellerbe

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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.

FICTION

#1   THE IMPERFECTIONISTS by Tom Rachman (Dial Press, $25)
# 2   Innocent by Scott Turow (Grand Central, $27.99) (signed copies still available!!)
# 3   The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer (Knopf, $26.95)
# 4 Private Life, by Jane Smiley (Knopf, $26.95)
# 5 Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende (HarperCollins, $26)
# 6 A Gate at the Stairs, by Lorrie Moore (Knopf, $25.95)
Top of F# 7 The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Amy Einhorn, $24.95)
# 8 A Question of Belief by Donna Leon (Atlantic Monthly, $24)
# 9 The Double Comfort Safari Club by Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon, $24.95)
#10 Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson (Random House, $25)
#11 This Body of Death by Elizabeth George (HarperCollins, $28.99)
#12 Every Last One by Anna Quindlen (Random House, $26)

 

NONFICTION

#1 SPOKEN FROM THE HEART, by Laura Bush (Scribner, $30) (Signed copies still available!)
# 2 War, by Sebastian Junger (Twelve, $26.99)
# 3 The Last Stand, by Nathaniel Philbrick (Viking, $30)
# 4 Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It by Richard A. Clarke and Robert Knake (Ecco, $25.99)
# 5 Crisis Economics by Nouriel Roubini and Stephen Mihm (Penguin Press, $27.95)
# 6 The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898 by Evan Thomas (Little, Brown, $29.99)
# 7 Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory by Ben Macintyre (Harmony, $25.99)
# 8 The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, by Michael Lewis (W. W. Norton & Company, $27.95)
# 9 The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin (HarperCollins, $25.99)
#10 Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. the Supreme Court, by Jeff Shesol (W. W. Norton, $27.95)
#11 Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris by Graham Robb (W.W. Norton, $28.95)
#12 The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama by David Remnick (Knopf, $25.95)

 

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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 ANGEL'S GAME by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Anchor, $15.95)
THE EVOLUTION OF GOD by Richard Wolffe (Back Bay, $16.99)

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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 May 20

Jonathan Alter - The Promise: President Obama, Year One
7 p.m. A Newsweek senior editor and columnist, Alter follows his acclaimed book on FDR's first 100 days in office, The Defining Moment, with this analysis of President Obama's first year in office. Alter offers his assessment of the degree to which Obama has fulfilled his campaign promise of "Change We Can Believe In."

Friday May 21

Michael Buckley - The Sisters Grimm, Book 8: The Inside Story
4:30 p.m. Sabrina, Daphne, and Puck are stuck in the Book of Everafter, where all fairy tales are stored. They try to change the stories to protect their baby brother but are confronted by the evil Editor and the army of Revisers, who threaten the children if they don't stick to the approved stories. Will they be able to act in time to save their brother? (Ages 9-12)

David Helvarg - Saved by the Sea
7 p.m. In this deeply felt memoir and paean to the ocean, Helvarg, founder and president of the marine-conservation lobbying organization Blue Frontier Campaign, recounts his development from journalist to activist. He counterpoints his personal story with examples of the sea's sustaining wonders and beauties.

Saturday May 22

Justine Kenin with Annie and Veda Hedgepeth - We Grew It-Let's Eat It!
10:30 a.m. D.C. twins Annie and Veda learn about the White House vegetable garden and want to grow their own fruits and vegetables. They live in an apartment but are able to invest in a neighborhood community garden. The book has great photographs of the girls planting, tending, and harvesting their plants, plus recipes for preparing and eating the delicious harvest. (Ages 4-8)

Carol Eron Rizzoli - The House at Royal Oak
1 p.m. Carol Rizzoli, the wife of Hugo Rizzoli, Barbara's bookstore partner in the 1970s, recounts the story of her and her husband's transformation of a dilapidated Victorian house on the Eastern Shore into an elegant B&B. Linda Pastan will read the poem she wrote about the Rizzoli-Meade venture, The Bookstall.

Katy Kelly - Melonhead (signing only)
3 p.m. Adam "Melonhead" Melon constantly attracts trouble, especially when he and Sam find a snake on Capitol Hill. As they contemplate a science-fair project, custody battles over the snake spark some very funny scenes. (Ages 7-10)

Scott Higham & Sari Horwitz - Finding Chandra
3:30 p.m. In the summer of 2001, the sudden disappearance of Chandra Levy, a young, promising intern, and the possible involvement of Congressman Gary Condit gripped the nation. Six years after Levy's disappearance, Higham and Horwitz, two Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalists, revisited the case and the result was a thirteen-part series in the Washington Post, which provides the basis of this book.

Peter van Agtmael - 2nd Tour, Hope I Don't Die
6 p.m. An award-winning photographer, van Agtmael has documented the effects of the Three Gorges Dam, the scourge of AIDS in South Africa, and the devastation of the 2005 tsunami. More recently he has focused on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and this book presents images from his five trips to these war zones since 2006.

Sunday May 23

Ann McLaughlin - Leaving Bayberry House
1 p.m. The sixth novel from this noted local author (The House on Q Street) is set during a week in August, 1973. Clearing out the family house prior to selling it, the Carlson sisters recall old times, including the suicide of their father. When other relatives and the hippie friends of one sister's daughter arrive, musings on the past turn to the more urgent considerations of the present.

Robin Oliveira - My Name Is Mary Sutter
5 p.m. Oliveira's debut novel is steeped in the raw realism of the Civil War era. Mary Sutter is an Albany midwife determined to become a surgeon. Ignoring sexism and steeling herself against the horrors of battle wounds, she comes to Washington D.C. and makes herself invaluable to Chief Surgeon William Stipp at the overwhelmed Union Hotel Hospital.

Monday May 24

Sean Manning, Jonathan Eig, & Stefan Fatsis - Top of the Order
5 p.m. So, who’s your favorite ball player? Here are the responses from 25 writers, journalists, humorists, and cultural critics. Laura Lippman chooses Brooks Robinson, Neal Pollack likes Greg Maddux. Not necessarily based on statistics, these choices reflect something deeper and more mysterious about the fan/player connection.

Jonathan Eig - Get Capone
7 p.m. The former editor of Chicago magazine, Eig recounts the hunt for Al Capone. "Scarface" arrived in Chicago in 1920; in a few years, his outfit was a thriving business involving bootlegging, racketeering, and corruption. Elusive, he was finally convicted of tax evasion in 1931. Eig revisits the St.Valentine’s Day massacre and explodes longstanding myths about the criminal and his captors.

Tuesday May 25

Sarah Ellison - War at The Wall Street Journal
7 p.m. Ellison, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who covered Murdoch's quest to acquire Dow Jones, has expanded on her earlier stories to give a full account of the paper and the deal. Her insider's view offers a look at the feuding factions in the newsroom and among the Bancroft family, as well as an assessment of changes in the Journal brought about by Murdoch's $5-billion acquisition.

Wednesday May 26

Clyde Prestowitz - The Betrayal of American Prosperity
7 p.m. The author of Three Billion New Capitalists, and founder and president of the Economic Strategy Institute argues that the U.S. is losing ground to fast-growing countries like China. He believes the answer to our decline in power and prestige lies in a return to the country’s earlier emphasis on production over consumption, saving over spending, and technological innovation.

Thursday May 27

Terence Samuel - The Upper House
7 p.m. Former chief congressional correspondent for U.S. News & World Report and currently director of communications at Green For All, Samuel has written an incisive portrait of the Senate. Considering the institution’s history and rituals, he describes what it means to be a Senator today, giving particular attention to the experience of freshmen and the surprises in store for them.

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND - No events Friday, Sunday or Monday

Saturday May 29

Charlie Higson - The Young Bond Series Book 5: By Royal Command
10 a.m. Only James knows that an evil plot is afoot to destroy England. He flees Eton and goes to Austria, where he re-encounters an old enemy he will have to battle once again to get at the truth behind the evil plot. (Ages 10-14)

 

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.

Thursday, May 20, 12 noon           

The National Theatre
1321 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
JUDITH MARTIN and JACOBINA MARTIN
MISS MANNERS' GUIDE TO A SUPRISINGLY DIGNIFIED WEDDING (W.W. Norton, $24.95)
Miss Manners, aka Judith Martin, and her newlywed daughter and co-author, Jacobina Martin, tell brides and their cortèges what advice to ignore, what "traditions" to skip, and how to achieve the rare, tasteful wedding. They help their "gentle readers" navigate the world of wedding planners, couples' websites, and pre-printed thank-you notes with respectful hilarity to reveal ostentation which only masquerades as proper etiquette. Judith Martin, aka Miss Manners, has been married to Robert Martin for fifty years. Jacobina Martin, their perfect daughter, teaches improvisational comedy at Chicago's Second City and just married Ronald Kroll. Both had impeccable weddings.

Admission is FREE.  Seating is limited. Tickets are required, and are distributed one half-hour prior to the program, on a first-come-first-served policy. One ticket only to each person in line.  For more information, please call 202-783-3372.

Friday, May 21, 7 p.m.

The D.C. Association of Chartered Public Schools & GWU present
AN EVENING WITH LOUIS GOSSETT, JR. AND D.C.'S MOST OUTSTANDING CHARTER SCHOOL GRADUATES
George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium
21st & H St., NW

LOUIS GOSSETT, Jr.
AN ACTOR AND A GENTLEMAN (Wiley, $26.95)

Join Mr. Louis Gossett, Jr. for a wonderful evening of celebration.  The author and award-winning actor for roles in An Officer and a Gentleman and the television mini-series Roots, hosts the first DC's Most Outstanding Charter School Graduates Award Ceremony and presents his new autobiography. Doors open at 6 p.m., and the first 100 adults to arrive will receive a complimentary autographed copy of Mr. Gossett's new autobiography, An Actor and a Gentleman.

$20 Tickets ($10 Students) can be purchased in advance at www.ticketmaster.com or on event day at the box office.

Monday, May 23, 7:30 p.m.

Friendship Heights Village Center
4433 S. Park Ave.
Chevy Chase, MD
JUDITH MARTIN and JACOBINA MARTIN
MISS MANNERS' GUIDE TO A SUPRISINGLY DIGNIFIED WEDDING (W.W. Norton, $24.95)

You don't have to be planning a wedding to enjoy an evening with Judith Martin (Miss Manners) and her daughter, Jacobina Martin. Judith Martin has been writing her "Miss Manners" etiquette column, which chronicles America's manners and morals with humor, since 1978. Jacobina Martin is a newlywed and teaches improvisational comedy at Chicago's Second City. Together, this bride and mother-of-the-bride explain how weddings can be charming, affordable--and excruciatingly correct.

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

 

Monday, May 24, 7 p.m.

Arts Club of Washington
2017 I Street, NW     

Winner of the Arts Club of Washington's
Fourth Annual National Award for Arts Writing     

LINDA GORDON
DOROTHEA LANGE: A Life Beyond Limits (W.W. Norton, $35)

The National Award for Arts Writing is given annually by the Arts Club of Washington to nonfiction books about the arts written for a broad audience. Intended to help increase access to the arts, the Award celebrates prose that is lucid, luminous, clear, and inspiring-writing that creates a strong connection with ares and artists. For further information about this free public reading, contact: campbell.becca@gmail.com

Tuesday, May 25, 7 p.m.

Sixth & I Historic Synagogue
600 I Street, NW
Metro: Gallery Place/Chinatown

EMILY GOULD
AND THE HEART SAYS WHATEVER (Free Press, $16)

Outspoken, fiercely intelligent, unapologetically sexual, and a lightning rod for controversy, 28-year-old Emily Gould has been called by some, "the voice of her generation." From the downtown offices of Gawker.com to the cover of The New York Times Magazine, Gould has taken on some of the most vexed issues "her generation" has to face as well as the age-old intricacies of the human heart.

In And the Heart Says Whatever, Gould details the mistakes she's made, in public and in private. For everyone who has ever had a job they wish they didn't, wanted to pack up and move to the city without a plan, ended a relationship, regretted a decision, or told a secret to the wrong person, these stories are familiar and they may remind you of the best stories of your own life.

Click here for $8 advance tickets, or receive two (2) FREE tickets with the purchase of the book ($16) through Sixth & I.  Tickets are $10 at the event. If you have questions, please call 202.408.3100.

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(20% off through 05/26/2010)

One toy chest. Two boys. Two toys. It’s a battle of epic proportions: SHARK VS. TRAIN (Little, Brown, $16.99). In one corner, it’s the shark, terror of the sea, emperor of the oceans. In the other, the train, a hundred tons of unstoppable locomotive steel. Powered by the boys’ imaginations, Shark and Train battle in midair, in the ocean, and suspended over bottomless chasms. Who will win? Well, it depends…. Chris Barton’s story and Tom Lichtenheld’s hideously funny illustrations will leave everyone laughing. Ages 4-8. Sylvan Bongi.

 

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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NEW

The Rolling Stones, EXILE ON MAIN STREET Deluxe Edition (Universal, 2 CDs, $29.98) – One of the Rolling Stones’ greatest works, recorded in Villefranche-sur-Mer and Los Angeles, and originally issued in 1972, gets the deluxe treatment. The album (with its Robert Frank cover) comes with a second CD which includes outtakes and alternate takes, as well as newly issued songs (some with newly written and sung lyrics) mixed from the Exiles sessions. Each night last week on Jimmy Fallon’s late night show, five acts (Green Day, Phish, Taj Mahal, Sheryl Crow, Keith Urban) sang covers from Exile – and proved that you can’t beat the originals.

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

• András Goldinger