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To our friends and loyal customers:

Today's press carries the news that Barbara and Carla are planning to retire after 26 years of growing an initially small store into a space five times larger in square footage, and over 20 times larger in sales.  We want to reaffirm that Politics and Prose is still thriving, ending the fiscal year with record sales; but we are looking for a successor from a younger generation to take our flourishing business in some new directions while assuring that Politics and Prose maintains its core commitments to excellence in literature and community involvement. 

Although we are contemplating retirement, we anticipate maintaining a regular presence during the transition, and hopefully afterward.  Our goal is to find new leadership to operate the business in the spirit which has been our hallmark. As always, we'll see you at the store!

 

 

SUMMER READING

Come into the store (or browse the selection online by clicking here) to get your copy of our Summer Reading Recommendations. All of the books in the Politics & Prose 2010 Summer Newsletter are 20% off to members through Labor Day.  We're really proud of the range of recommendations and that so many of the staff wrote reviews that make you want to read the books.  We think you can find a nice selection for your summer vacation whether you are traveling or just propping your feet up on the back porch.

The 2010 Children's Department Summer Favorites are also available now. In the Children's Department, we offer 10% off all school reading list titles, so bring your school lists into the store and we will help you get your reading material.

 

BOOK RECOMMENDATION

In THE THREE WEISSMANNS OF WESTPORT (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $25), Cathleen Schine has written a witty tongue-in-cheek novel about a mother and two adult daughters, who, due to reduced circumstances, move into a small house owned by Cousin Lou. The circumstances: Betty, the mother, has just lost her husband of forty years, not to death, but to other forces beyond her control; Miranda, a literary agent, has just lost all of her clients because their tell-all memoirs turn out to be contrived; only librarian Annie still has an income.  Schine's closest literary cousin is Elinor Lipman so I know that many of you will enjoy reading this book. - Carla Cohen

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Introducing THE PASSAGE (Ballantine, $27) by Justin Cronin

The buzz among our booksellers has been building over the past few months and we are so excited to finally share The Passage with you. Here is what they have to say about Cronin's new epic:

The Passage is only the first book of what will undoubtedly be a stunning epic. This book defies genre limitations and expectations. Addictive, daring, and enthralling. Just read it. - Adam Waterreus

Aspiring catastrophists despair. Justin Cronin has already written the most compelling and fully realized post-apocalyptic novel imaginable. The Passage's psychologically persuasive characters appear against a backdrop as vast as the American frontier mythos and as terrifyingly up-to-date as the latest headlines. - Michael Allen

I envy those who get to read The Passage for the first time. It is truly thrilling, start to finish. (Can I also say, "JUST READ THIS BOOK"?) - Sarah Baline

Pick up your copy of THE PASSAGE in the store today, or buy it online here.

A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD (Knopf, $25.95)
by Jennifer Egan

Time is the goon squad, and it comes for us all. Characters are revealed in their past, present, and future tenses. They advance or decline like civilizations. They attract or repel each other like atoms. They traverse the Earth or return to where they started looking for answers to the same questions. What begins in a 1970s San Francisco garage takes us to New York, Naples, Africa, an unnamed third world country. Location varies, but time is constant and cannot be ignored.

Egan experiments with language, with narrative style, with voice. Her PowerPoint chapter near the end of the book is something you have never seen before, and her final chapter explores the way technology may shape language in the very near future. Egan herself may be the goon squad. She is forcing it forward, like her characters, into the future.
- Bill Leggett

Jennifer Egan will appear at Politics & Prose on June 28.

BOOKS FOR PRIDE WEEK

Pride Week officially kicked-off last weekend in DC and culminates this weekend with the annual Pride Parade and Festival in Dupont Circle and on Pennsylvania Avenue. This year, we at Politics & Prose decided to highlight some lesser-known, though still recommended, LGBTQ books . Click here to see our recommendations. - Sarah Owens and Lacey Dunham

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NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC / SPENCER WELLS TICKET GIVEAWAY

As director of National Geographic's Genographic Project, renowned geneticist and anthropologist Spencer Wells has traced human evolution back to our earliest ancestors, creating a remarkable and readable map of our distant past. On Wednesday, June 16, 7 p.m. at the National Geographic Society, he will present his new book PANDORA'S SEED: The Unforeseen Cost of Civilization (Random House, $26), which offers a powerful and provocative globe-trotting tour of human history, back to the time when humans became farmers rather than hunter-gatherers. This episode enabled civilization but also set unforeseen costs in motion - from ill health and overpopulation to inequality and conflict. He suggests altering our lifestyle, changing our priorities and curbing self-destructive appetites to achieve better personal and global health.

For a chance to win two free tickets to this presentation, please send an e-mail to PGibson@politics-prose.com no later than noon on Monday, June 14.

DAVID SEDARIS & SARAH VOWELL TICKET GIVEAWAY

Humorists, nerds, and public radio superstars David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell are speaking at GW Lisner Auditorium this fall (October 7 and November 13, respectively.) Right now, tickets are on sale as a package to both shows, and Politics & Prose has a pair of these ticket packages to give away - that is, two tickets to David Sedaris and two tickets to Sarah Vowell for one very lucky reader.

David Sedaris is the author of numerous bestselling titles, including Me Talk Pretty One Day and When You are Engulfed in Flames. His newest book, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary with illustrations by Ian Falconer (Little, Brown, $19.99), will be published October 2010.

Sarah Vowell is the New York Times' bestselling author of five nonfiction books on American history and culture, including The Wordy Shipmates and Assassination Vacation.

To enter send a message to BOOKS@politics-prose.com with SEDARIS/VOWELL in the subject field. The winner will be chosen on Tuesday, June 15. For more information on these events, visit www.lisner.org.

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MEDIUM RAW: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook
Signed by Anthony Bourdain
(Ecco, $26.99)
Hardcover - June 2010
First editions, first printings.

Click here to buy this and other signed books.

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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 GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST by Stieg Larsson (Knopf, $27.95)

2. The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman (The Dial Press, $25)
3. Innocent by Scott Turow (Grand Central, $27.99)
4. The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer (Knopf, $26.95)
5. The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Amy Einhorn, $24.95)
6. Private Life by Jane Smiley (Knopf, $26.95)
7. Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes (Atlantic Monthly Press, $24.95)
8. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson (Random House, $25)
9. My Name Is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira (Viking Adult, $26.95)
10. Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende (HarperCollins, $26.99)
11. A Question of Belief by Donna Leon (Atlantic Monthly Press, $24)
12. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender (Doubleday, $25.95
    

NONFICTION

1. SPOKEN FROM THE HEART by Laura Bush (Scribner, $30)
2. The Promise: President Obama, Year One by Jonathan Alter (Simon & Schuster, $28)
3. Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory by Ben Macintyre (Harmony, $25.99)
4. Hitch-22: A Memoir by Christopher Hitchens (Twelve, $26.99)
5. The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris by Peter Beinart (HarperCollins, $27.99)
6. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis (W. W. Norton, $27.95)
7. The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama by David Remnick (Knopf, $29.95)
8. The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898 by Evan Thomas (Little, Brown, $29.99)
9. War by Sebastian Junger (Twelve, $26.99)
10. The Last Stand by Nathaniel Philbrick (Viking, $30)
11. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin (HarperCollins, $25.99)
12. Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin (HarperCollins, $27.99)

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 This was a store favorite in hardcover. Click FICTION or NON-FICTION to browse a more complete selection of recent paperback releases.

Economics is often perceived as a coldly rational and theoretical analysis of numbers. In the eighteenth century, before Adam Smith wrote the The Wealth of Nations, he explored The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Even then, he understood that, whether buying a house, choosing between romantic attractions, or participating in the current economic crisis, we, as individuals and as a nation, are making subtly imperceptible comparisons and choices that create a curious logic behind our human behavior. By exploring our emotions and the marketing gimmicks that exploit them, Dan Ariely's insightful and fascinating PREDICTABLY IRRATIONAL (Harper Perennial, $15.99) provides case studies and illustrations that clearly place economics in the realm of social science. Andrew Getman

Dan Ariely introduce his new book, The Upside of Irrationality, on Saturday, June 12 at 3:30 p.m.

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LIFE (BBC, $59.98) - This 11 part series - produced by BBC Earth and narrated by David Attenborough - aired on the Discovery Channel this last spring and is finally out on DVD. Like its predecessors, Planet Earth (BBC, $79.98) and the Blue Planet (BBC, $59.98), Life shows you the natural world as you have never seen it, this time with beautiful close-ups of animals in their natural environment, doing whatever it takes to survive. - Thad Ellerbe

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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 June 10

Christopher Hitchens - Hitch 22
7 p.m. In this memoir of his first 60 years, Hitchens, provocative author of God is Not Great, recounts his experiences in a family that functioned best in the company of guests or pets. A passionate young socialist, he abandoned dreams of a "radiant future" to become the enemy of "absolute certainty." His Hitch 22 shows the need "to combat the absolutists and the relativists at the same time."

Friday June 11

Dave Jamieson - Mint Condition
7 p.m. Before baseball cards were tucked into bubble gum packages, they were put into cigarette packs. Jamieson's history of these quintessentially American collectibles begins in the 19th century. He shows how the cards helped sell their products and he reveals the odds of finding that priceless treasure in a dusty collection.

Saturday June 12

Adele Logan Alexander - Parallel Worlds
1 p.m. Alexander's history of African Americans in the Foreign Service focuses on William Hunt and Ida Gibbs-Hunt. Members of the Talented Tenth, the couple married in 1904 and Hunt served as a U.S. representative in France, Madagascar, Guadalupe, and Liberia through the 1930s, while his wife became a writer and activist.

A Trio of Teen Authors @ Bethesda Library
2 p.m. Jenny Han, Elizabeth Scott, and Kieran Scott (a.k.a. Kate Banks) will present their new books for young adults in a panel discussion at the Bethesda Library.

Jenny Han - It's Not Summer Without You
For 20 years, two mothers and their four children have spent every summer in a beach house at Cousin's Beach. After the owner dies, three of the teenage children return for one last visit. The book explores the characters' complicated feelings of loss and love.

Elizabeth Scott - The Unwritten Rule
Sarah and Brianna are BFF, but there's one hitch: Sarah has a crush on Brianna's boyfriend, Ryan. The unwritten rule is that boyfriends of best friends are off limits. Ryan doesn't understand this rule and pursues Sarah, creating new tensions in the girls' friendship.

Kieran Scott - She's So Dead To Us
Ally Ryan lived a life of privilege and wealth until two years ago when her father's hedge fund crashed. Ally and her mother moved to Maryland to avoid the shame, and lost contact with Ally's father. Now Ally is returning to Orchard Hill; will her old friends accept her?

Dan Ariely - The Upside of Irrationality
3:30 p.m. The author of Predictably Irrational, which demonstrated the undesirable outcomes of decisions made irrationally, here looks at some of the surprising benefits of letting reason give way to emotion. The product of carefully designed experiments, Ariely's results pertain to situations both in the workplace and at home.

Stephen J. Rose - Rebound
6 p.m. The labor economist and author of Social Stratification in the United States examines the current economic downturn less for the weaknesses of the system that caused it than for the  strengths—the prospect of financial regulation; new investments in education, health care, and energy—we can build on to come back as a robust and thriving economy.

Sunday June 13

Aífe Murray - Maid as Muse
1 p.m. Emily Dickinson was a famous recluse, but she wasn't alone in her father's house. Murray, a scholar who has worked at the Emily Dickinson Museum, looks at the poet's relationship with the various maids and cooks who were her near-constant companions and finds evidence of their cultural and linguistic influence in Dickinson's writing.

Prof. Will Gardner - From Mountain Witches to Virtual Unicorns: The Fantastic Mode in Modern Japanese Literature

5 p.m. How have Japanese writers used the fantastic mode to explore their evolving modern identities and their cultural past? Examples will range from an archetypal tale by Izumi Kyôka of a pilgrim's encounter with a mountain sorceress, to an idyllic but sinister garden created by Tanizaki Junichirô, and an intriguing mental landscape poised between a dystopic near-future cityscape and a mythical medieval village, as mapped by contemporary writer Haruki Murakami. The talk will also address the development of the fantastic mode in Japan as a foil to the dominant realist and confessional modes of writing, and the surprising affinities between fantastic literature and the detective, crime, and mystery genres.

Monday June 14

Stephen Kinzer - Reset

7 p.m. The solution to the problem of peace in the Middle East, this long-time specialist in American foreign policy argues, is development of a new "power triangle" among the U.S., Iran, and Turkey.  Kinzer lays out his plan, complete with profiles of the diverse figures he expects would play essential roles in this new paradigm.

Tuesday June 15

Alan Furst - Spies of the Balkans

7 p.m. The latest thriller from the master of the historical spy novel takes place in Salonika, where the port city waits for the Nazis to strike in reprisal for the recent defeat that sent Mussolini's forces back to Albania. It's 1940 and spies from all over Europe are swarming; the head of the Greek police must somehow keep order amid the uncertainty and chaos.

Wednesday June 16

Peter Beinart - The Icarus Syndrome

7 p.m. Beinart, a Time and Daily Beast journalist and author of The Good Fight, puts U.S. foreign policy of the last decade into the wider context of a century of American over-reaching. His three-part study considers the brashness of Wilsonian reason, the Kennedy-Johnson wielding of military force, and Bush's assertion of ideological dominance in waging war.

Thursday June 17

Sebastian Mallaby - More Money Than God

7 p.m. Hedge funds developed in the 1960s. They were nearly destroyed in the stock market debacles of the 1970s, the 1994 crash, and again in the 2000 dot-com crash. Yet they've survived each disaster and, as Mallaby, author of The World's Banker, shows in his history of hedge funds, they may well represent the future of finance.

Friday June 18

Michael Pertschuk - The DeMarco Factor

7 p.m. This profile of Maryland activist Vinny DeMarco focuses on specific campaigns - for gun control laws, increased cigarette taxes, and legislation to extend healthcare to low-income workers - while also outlining the general strategies of timing, coalition-building, and leadership which De Marco has developed during his two decades as an advocate for popular causes.

Saturday June 19

Steve Dryden - Peirce Mill: Two Hundred Years in the Nation's Capital
1 p.m. Established by Pennsylvania Quakers, Peirce Mill was in operation before the Revolutionary War and continued to be used to grind corn, wheat, and other grains until the 1890s. As Dryden, a preservationist and environmental activist, recounts in this history of the mill, the waterwheel was repaired in the 1930s and restoration of the building continues, with the goal of making the Rock Creek landmark an educational facility.

After the talk and Q&A, Mr. Dryden will lead interested participants out the back door of the store to Rock Creek Park, which is literally right across the parking lot. He will take us for a walk down along Broad Branch Creek to the Peirce Mill, where we will have a tour of the restoration. This will take about two hours, after which The Friends of Peirce Mill will offer shuttle rides back to P&P with an estimated return by about 4 p.m. Please join us!

Sam Munson - The November Criminals
6 p.m. Addison Schacht, high school senior, small-time pot dealer, socially awkward but with a head full of factoids, is an unlikely detective. But when a fellow student is killed, he takes the plunge into sleuthing. Munson's debut novel, set in Washington, D.C., has earned praise for its pitch-perfect presentation of character and voice.

To see the complete schedule and to purchase any of the above books, click here

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Politics & Prose supplies books for this book signing event.
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 link below.

Wednesday, June 16, 7 p.m.

National Geographic Society
1600 M Street, NW|

SPENCER WELLS
PANDORA’S SEED: The Unforeseen Cost of Civilization (Random House, $26)
As director of National Geographic’s Genographic Project, renowned geneticist and anthropologist Spencer Wells has traced human evolution back to our earliest ancestors, creating a remarkable and readable map of our distant past. His new book offers a powerful and provocative globe-trotting tour of human history, back to the time when humans became farmers rather than hunter-gatherers. This episode enabled civilization but also set unforeseen costs in motion - from ill health and overpopulation to inequality and conflict. He suggests altering our lifestyle, changing our priorities and curbing self-destructive appetites to achieve better personal and global health.

Click here to purchase $10 tickets ($8 for NG Members) and for more information. For a chance to win two free tickets to this presentation, please send an e-mail to PGibson@politics-prose.com no later than noon on Thursday, June 10, 2010.  Put PANDORA in the subject line, and be sure to include a phone number so that we can reach you.  Winners will be notified by the close-of-business Friday, June 11th. 

Thursday, June 17, 5 p.m.

Fox Hill Club and Residences
8300 Burdette Road
Bethesda, MD
invites you to a
Champagne Reception & Book Signing:
KITTY KELLEY
OPRAH: A Biography (Crown, $30)
Turning her reportorial sights on Oprah, Kelley has now given us an unvarnished look at the stories Oprah’s told and the life she’s led. Kelley has talked to Oprah’s closest family members and business associates. She has obtained court records, birth certificates, financial and tax records, and even copies of Oprah’s legendary (and punishing) confidentiality agreements. She has probed every aspect of Oprah Winfrey’s life, and it is as if she’s written the most extraordinary segment of The Oprah Winfrey Show ever filmed - one in which Oprah herself is finally and fully revealed.

RSVP to Lauren Myers at (301) 968-1851 or lmyers@foxhillseniorcondonimium.com

Wednesday, June 16, 12:30 p.m.

Congregation Har Shalom
11510 Falls Road
Potomac, MD
DAVID MAKOVSKY
MYTHS, ILLUSIONS, & PEACE (Viking $17.00)

A cogent analysis, co-authored by Dennis Ross, of what went wrong in Middle East policy and how to get it back on track. A Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, David Makovsky, together with Ross, brings fresh focus to a range of difficult issues with their profound gasp of Middle East realities.

For further information contact Jerry Miller: jmsm803@aol.com

Monday June 21, 7 p.m.

Sixth & I Historic Synagogue
600 I Street, NW
Metro: Gallery Place/Chinatown
LORI GOTTLIEB
MARRY HIM: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough (Dutton, $25.95)

Finding herself single at age 40, journalist Lori Gottlieb said the unthinkable in her March 2008 article in The Atlantic: Maybe she, and single women everywhere, were holding out for a mythical Prince Charming when what might really make them happy is Mr. Good Enough.

From culture to biology, Marry Him explores the dilemma that so many women today seem to face—how to reconcile the desire for a husband and family with a list of must-haves so long that many great guys get rejected out of the gate. A provocative romantic wake-up call, Marry Him asks us to look at ourselves and our belief systems about what it really means to be happily in love.

Tickets are $8 in advance, $10 the day of the event, or receive two (2) FREE tickets with the purchase of the book ($26) through Sixth & I. If you have questions, please call 202.408.3100.

 

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CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK
(20% off through 06/16/2010)

Bridget loves to draw. She spends hours creating masterpieces. She'd even rather make art than eat ice cream! Of all her supplies, BRIDGET'S BERET (Holt, $16.99) is the most important: it adds the flair every artist needs. So when her beret blows away, Bridget is more than devastated; she is uninspired. Bridget sadly retires from her career. The way Bridget rediscovers her creativity (even without her beret) is both clever and charming. Blossoming young artists will love Tom Lichtenheld's story about the talent inside all of us. Ages 3-6 - Amy Kane

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

The 2010 Children's Department Summer Favorites are also available now.

In the Children's Department, we offer 10% off all school reading list titles, so bring your school lists into the store and we will help you get your reading material.

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

 

 

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Sounds of Africa: Salif Keita, Regina Carter, and Fela! on Broadway

The Bauls of Bengal

Mark Your Calendars: Rosanne Cash at 6th & I on August 11

SOUNDS OF AFRICA

Salif Keita, LA DIFFÉRENCE (Emarcy, $16.98) – The title track of Salif Keita’s new album begins, “I am black but my skin is white” (translation courtesy Songlines magazine), and addresses the plight of albino people in Africa; this is Salif’s cause, and the proceeds of the CD help fight this discrimination. The album is acoustic, and revisits a few of Salif’s greatest songs, such as “Folon” and “Seydou.” It’s a great sound, and Salif will be bringing it to town this week: he performs this Friday, June 11, at Lisner Auditorium as part of the VSA Festival.

 

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