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

MORE NEWS ABOUT OUR RETIREMENT

Our announcement two weeks ago that we are beginning to plan for our retirement has generated some attention in the press. We again wish to reassure our customers that any changes will take some time.

As Sam Jewler from The Northwest Current reported,"According to Meade, customers need not fear any drastic changes in the store’s style. 'The price is not necessarily the greatest consideration' in selling the store, Meade said. 'The greatest consideration is what somebody coming in plans to do with the store, and we feel it’s important that they need to stay on the same model that we have run the store on.'" Furthermore,we wish to reiterate that it is all of your loyalty that will sustain the store in the future. Again as Jewler reported, "Regardless of whom the owners choose, Meade is confident about the store’s future. 'Loyalty is tremendous here to Politics and Prose.... Whatever the threats out there, our sales have continued to increase, and I expect that will continue.'” Click here to read the full article.

The New York Times, also reported on "Our Next Chapter" in an excellent article. As Yeganeh June Torbati reported:

All viable candidates will be subject to a “good long talk,” Ms. Meade said, “about what they plan to do with the store.”
And if they fail to find someone who meets their high standards?
“We’ll just keep on looking,” Ms. Meade said. “We’re not going to sell unless it’s a person we feel completely comfortable with and would be as devoted to books and our customers as we have been.”

There were so many nice accolades in the New York Times article. These are just two that we would like to share with you.

Esther Newberg, a New York literary agent whose clients include the writers Thomas L. Friedman, Seymour Hersh, Maureen Dowd and Caroline Kennedy, said what makes Politics and Prose so attractive to authors is that Ms. Cohen and Ms. Meade manage to get large audiences for even relatively unknown writers.
“In many bookstores, in bigger bookstores, in less specialized bookstores, you have to have a name — forget what the book is,” Ms. Newberg said. “In this bookstore, they’re turning out for books that have ideas. They have a list of people that trust them.”
...
Like any independent bookstore, Politics and Prose is a reflection of its owners’ personalities. “It’s like going to a chef-owned restaurant,” said Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and an author who has read at the store.

Click here to read the whole article. And thank you to both reporters as well as to all of you who contributed your observations and appreciations in conversation. We are grateful.

- Barbara Meade

SUMMER READING

Come into the store to get your copy of our Summer Reading Recommendations. All of the books in the Politics & Prose 2010 Summer Newsletter are 20% off for Politics & Prose Members through Labor Day.  We're really proud of the range of recommendations and the fact that so many of our booksellers wrote reviews that make you want to read the books. You can read some of the reviews below, or browse the selection online by clicking here. 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.

If you prefer a print copy, click here to download the newsletter in a PDF.

As you are shopping, don't forget to pick up a copy of our 2010 Summer Favorites from our Children's Department. While these titles are not discounted for members as the adult recommendations are, instead we offer 10% discounts on all school reading list books to all of our customers. Click here to browse the 2010 Summer Favorites online.

Click here to download a PDF of 2010 Children's Summer Favorites.

Please note: Speaking of the Children's Department, tonight, Thursday, June 24 from 6:30 p.m. to closing, we expect the Children's Department to be very crowded due to an event for teenagers with John Green and David Levithan. While you are welcome to shop during this event, we do want you to be aware that your shopping abilities may be slightly impeded.

Go back to top of email

Whenever we hear of literary prizes and awards, we're especially proud of the authors who have come through for a reading or whom we've recommended to customers. Below are the young authors from The New Yorker's "20 under 40" list whom we have singled out before:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie read at Politics & Prose in July 2009 for the hardcover release of "The Thing Around Your Neck."

Jonathan Safran Foer has been a frequent visitor to the store, speaking for both the hardcover and paperback release of "Everything is Illuminated" (2002 and 2003) as well as the hardcover release of "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" in 2005. Most recently he spoke for his non-fiction book on vegetarianism and animal rights "Eating Animals" this past December.

Dinaw Mengestu read from his book "The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears" in February 2008. Mengestu's novel is about an Ethiopian immigrant who lives in D.C.'s Logan Circle neighborhood. Mengestu's second novel "How to Read the Air" will be published in October.

Our summer newsletter highlights novels and story collections by four authors on the list: C.E. Morgan, Wells Tower, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Yiyun Li.

Mark LaFramboise says Wells Tower's story collection "Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned" is "sometimes funny, always insightful, and entertaining to read" while the stories "plumb the barrenness and futility of men's lives."

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is "a skilled novelist with important stories to tell," says Deb Morris in her review of "The Thing Around Your Neck."

Lila Stiff writes that C.E. Morgan's "All the Living" "has a rustic timelessness about it, which puts it in a long tradition of first-class American writing." Strong praise for a first time novelist!

Laurie Greer writes that Yiyun Li's novel "The Vagrants" is a "vivid portrait of a repressed society [where] even schoolchildren can become informers, and personal acts bear political consequences."

Perennial customer and staff favorites include Nicole Krauss's "The History of Love," a sweeping novel of love, loneliness, and loss, and Sarah Shun-lien Bynum's "Ms. Hempel Chronicles," whose central character is a teacher whose entry into adulthood parallels her teenage students' coming-of-age. Karen Russell's short story collection "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised By Wolves" is a favorite of former P&P bookseller Becca Kirk, who calls the stories "compelling... darkly imaginative, heartbreaking, and beautifully written."

- Lacey Dunham & Michael Allen

Go back to top of email

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. Spies of the Balkans by Alan Furst (Random House, $26
2. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nestby Stieg Larsson (Knopf, $27.95)
3. Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis (Knopf, $24.95)
4. Innocent by Scott Turow (Grand Central, $27.99) signed copies still available
5. The Passage by Justin Cronin (Ballantine, $27) signed copies still available
6. The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer (Knopf, $26.95)
7. Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes (Atlantic Monthly Press, $24.95) signed copies still available
8. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson (Random House, $25)
9. The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Amy Einhorn, $24.95)
10. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Knopf, $25.95)
11. Anthropology of an American Girl by Hilary Thayer Hamann (Spiegel & Grau, $26)
12. The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman (The Dial Press, $25)

NONFICTION

1. The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris by Peter Beinart (HarperCollins, $27.99)
2. Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre (Harmony, $25.99)
3. The War Lovers by Evan Thomas (Little, Brown, $29.99)
4. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis (W. W. Norton, $27.95)
5. Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain (Ecco, $26.99) signed copies still available
6. Hitch-22: A Memoir by Christopher Hitchens (Twelve, $26.99)
7. War by Sebastian Junger (Twelve, $26.99)
8. Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin (HarperCollins, $27.99)
9. The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama by David Remnick (Knopf, $29.95)
10. Role Models by John Waters (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $25)
11. Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris by Graham Robb (W.W. Norton, $28.95)
12. The Presumption of Guilt by Charles K. Ogletree, Jr. (Palgrave Macmillan, $25)

Go back to top of emaii

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.

Putting faith in Paul Auster, the master of inventive perspectives and refracting truths, is a dangerously exhilarating proposition.  The three rules to navigating Auster's INVISIBLE (Picador, $15) are:

1. Don't trust the narrator or any other characters.
2. Don't hope for a particular ending, because that will ensure it won't happen.
3. Don't believe in one Truth, because everyone has his or her own version.

Once you start this powerful mix of humanity and sexuality, you're going where Auster wants to take you, and, as should be expected, you're still not sure whose side you're on when it's over. Have fun, and don't forget the rules. - Conor Moran

Jackson Lear's REBIRTH OF A NATION (Harper Perennial, $15.99) traces how the memory of the Civil War inspired a country to glorify violence as a means to progress. Lear links the personal to the political—individuals worked to purify themselves for the good of the nation, and each political struggle determined the moral compass of that nation. This revitalized identity grew into a sense of global crusade, mobilizing Americans to expand overseas. While the violence of modern warfare in World War I may have shaken faith in positive military intervention, Lear's concept of rebirth continues to echo in American politics and foreign engagements today. - Ginnie Palm

Go back to top of email

Remember Barbara Meade's fascination with Marguerite Duras's novel The Sailor from Gibraltar (Open Letter, $12.95) last year? Well, this year the novelist Vendela Vida was inspired by another book by Duras. In her new book, THE LOVERS (Ecco, $23.99), the principal character, Yvonne, is reading The Lover (Pantheon, $11), in which she sees parallels and clues to her own life and emotions.

After the death of her husband, Yvonne flees the shadows of widowhood to visit Datcha, the small Turkish town where she and her husband Peter celebrated their honeymoon twenty-five years earlier. As Yvonne tries to capture the love she felt for Peter shortly after their wedding, she must also navigate the darker memories of their life together and the strange marriage of a young Turkish woman who seeks her advice. When Yvonne befriends a quiet, young boy selling seashells at a nearby beach, the novel takes a dark turn towards heartbreak and redemption. The Lovers is a perfect novel for the airport or the beach. -- Lacey Dunham

Go back to top of email

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 24

Charles K. Ogletree, Jr. - The Presumption of Guilt
7 p.m. A law professor and author of All Deliberate Speed, Ogletree examines the July 2009 arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.  Ogletree replays the sequence of events, then examines the incident in the wider context of issues of race and justice, exploring why the arrest escalated into a national story and what still needs to be addressed on matters such as racial profiling.

John Green & David Levithan - will grayson, will grayson (on the lower level)
7 p.m. Join us to honor two award-winning authors on the occasion of their collaboration. When Will Grayson meets Will Grayson, both their lives are changed. One Will is sensitive and a true friend to fullback-sized Tiny Cooper; the other Will is cynical, sarcastic, and depressed yet maintains an edgy sense of humor. As their lives intertwine, the boys find the meaning of honest love and help Tiny produce an epic high-school musical. (Ages 14 and up)

Please note: From 6:30 p.m. to closing, we expect the Children's Department to be very crowded due to this event for teenagers.  While you are welcome to shop during the event, we do want you to be aware that your shopping abilities may be slightly impeded.

Friday June 25

Piper Kerman - Orange is the New Black
7 p.m. Kerman was sentenced to 15 months in the minimum-security correctional facility in Danbury, Connecticut, ten years after she was involved in a drug deal. Blonde, blue-eyed, a Smith College graduate, and, at 34, a first-time offender, Kerman offers an unusual perspective on the criminal justice system.

Saturday June 26

Michael O'Hanlon & Hassina Sherjan - Toughing It Out in Afghanistan
1 p.m. O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at Brookings, and Sherjan, president of Aid Afghanistan for Education, look at the present situation in Afghanistan, debunk mistaken impressions of the country, and lay out a plan for its future, including increasing the size and capabilities of the Afghan army and police, and facilitating Afghan businesses' involvement in economic recovery.

UnRequired Reading for Teens
3:30 p.m. A panel of six authors who write for young adults will talk about teen reading. Participants include: Kristen Tracy, A Field Guide for Heartbreakers; Brent Crawford, Carter's Big Break; Stacey Kade, The Ghost and the Goth; Daniel Waters, Passing Strange: A Generation Dead Novel; Elizabeth Rudnick, Tweet Heart; and Emily Franklin & Brendan Halpin, The Half-Life of Planets.

Dan Nadel - Art in Time
6 p.m. Prompted by the success of his Art Out of Time, a collection of strips by lesser known artists, Nadel has gathered the less familiar work of well-known comics creators, including the gritty private eye tales of Harry Lucey, one of the Archie cartoonists, and the brutal Man-o-Metal pieces by H.G Peter, the golden-age Wonder Woman artist. If not for Nadel, these would have been lost.

Sunday June 27

Samuel Zipp - Manhattan Projects
1 p.m. Urban renewal—a strategy to create strong, modern cities, or a sure way to perpetuate racial and class inequities, displace people, and build alienating environments? Zipp, a Brown University professor of American Civilization and Urban studies, presents both sides of the debate in his study of post-war New York City.

Eli Kintisch - Hack the Planet: Science's Best Hope - or Worst Nightmare - for Averting Climate Catastrophe
5 p.m. Many ideas for mitigating climate change that were once considered crackpot solutions are now gaining credibility. Kintisch, a writer for Science magazine, investigates the facts behind these geoengineering proposals, weighing the risks of trying what seems outlandish against those of doing nothing.

Monday June 28

Lynne Rae Perkins - As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth
4:30 p.m. Ry is on a train headed to summer camp in Montana when he belatedly opens a letter from the director and finds that the camp has closed. When he calls his grandfather from the next station, the train leaves without him. Perkins, a Newbery Medalist, uses wonderful, hilarious descriptions to evoke both the misfortune and luck of Ry's odyssey. (Ages 10-12)

Jennifer Egan - A Visit from the Goon Squad
7 p.m. The latest novel from the acclaimed author of The Keep unfolds in the music worlds of punk-era San Francisco and contemporary New York. As the characters grow out of their early rebelliousness, their attention turns from performance to money-making. Egan charts the fluctuations of fortunes and friendships, exploring various notions of change and stability.

Tuesday June 29

Nicholas Carr - The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains
7 p.m. Expanding his much-discussed Atlantic Monthly article about the Internet's social and cognitive effects, Carr argues from scientific and anecdotal evidence that the Web, by fostering distraction in place of concentration, changes how we read and think and even alters neural pathways.

Wednesday June 30

Nassim Nicholas Taleb - The Black Swan, Second Edition
7 p.m. Before 1697, Europeans believed all swans were white. The improbable, but real, existence of undreamed of black swans is the point of departure for Taleb's best-selling book (now in paperback) on forecasting the future. Whether it's the stock market, an actuarial table, or a flight overseas, Taleb, author of Fooled by Randomness, argues that past experience can tell us only so much—it's that rare, unpredictable event that determines an outcome.

Thursday July 1

Luis Alberto Urrea - Into the Beautiful North
7 p.m. Join us for the paperback release of the latest novel from the author of The Hummingbird's Daughter. The story begins in Tres Camarones, a tiny Mexican village made even smaller by the departure of its men to look for work in the United States. But it's not so small that drug traffickers ignore it, and when their home is threatened, four Tres Camarones teens go North to bring their fathers and brothers back.

Friday July 2 - Sunday July 4

NO EVENTS DURING INDEPENDENCE DAY WEEKEND

On July 4th, the store will be open from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Happy Independence Day!

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

Go back to top of email

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.

Monday, June 28, 7 p.m.

Sixth & I Historic Synagogue
600 I Street, NW
Metro: Gallery Place/Chinatown
ERIC POOLEY
THE CLIMATE WAR: True Believers, Power Brokers, and the Fight to Save the Earth (Hyperion $27.99)
The great American argument over global warming continues to rage on Capitol Hill and beyond. What is it like to devote your career to passing a climate bill — a decade-long struggle that’s hotter than ever today? Why has it been so difficult for the U.S. to come to grips with this problem, and why do so many Americans still believe it’s not really happening? Pooley describes the political and economic battle surrounding climate change legislation, offering a revealing look at the power players who are working to either make or break transformative energy policy.

In a rare panel discussion, Pooley interviews key players of the Environmental Defense Fund’s National Climate Campaign, the most passionate advocates for a mandatory declining cap on carbon emissions. Together, they will lead a tour of the climate battleground, from the backrooms of Capitol Hill to the corporate C-suites to the West Wing of the Obama White House.

Click here for $8 advance tickets ($10 the day of the event) or receive two FREE tickets with the purchase of the book. Questions? Please call Sixth & I at 202-408-3100.

Tuesday, June 29, 7:30 p.m.

Friendship Heights Village Center
4433 S. Park Ave.
Chevy Chase, MD
LUCIE SNODGRASS
DISHING UP MARYLAND: 150 Recipes from the Alleghenies to the Chesapeake Bay  (Storey Publishing $19.95)
Ms. Snodgrass spent 14 months visiting farms and dairies, vineyards, bison and oyster ranches - even a maple camp -  and intersperses recipes with profiles of local food producers, chefs and restaurants, and watermen.  The recipes showcase seasonal ingredients and regional favorites including seafood and local vegetables.  There are also personal recipes from farmers, vendors and chefs, including the Smith Island cake and a 40-ingredient challenge from Frederick's Volt restaurant. 

Ms. Snodgrass's food writing has appeared in the Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun.  She and her husband, a fifth-generation farmer, live in Hartford County.  Please RSVP for this FREE event by calling the Village Center at 301-656-2797.

Thursday, July 8, 7 p.m.

National Geographic Live!
1600 M Street, NW
BULENT ATALAY
LEONARDO'S UNIVERSE: The Renaissance World of Leonardo daVinci (National Geographic, $35)
MATH & THE MONA LISA: The Art and Science of Leonardo da Vinci (Smithsonian, $24.95) (Harper, $12.99)

A man whose very name is synonymous with genius, Leonardo da Vinci created some of the supreme masterworks of Western art, carried out cutting-edge scientific research, and dreamed of inventions that would not be built until centuries later. To celebrate the new National Geographic Museum exhibition Da Vinci—The Genius, the author of Math and the Mona Lisa and the National Geographic book Leonardo's Universe, Bülent Atalay, offers a comprehensive look at Leonardo, his work, and his world. Himself both a scientist and artist, Atalay is uniquely qualified to offer a comprehensive overview of Leonardo, his art, scientific discoveries, and the many ways in which this enigmatic genius has influenced our world.

The National Geographic Museum exhibition Da Vinci—The Genius, normally open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., will be open for viewing before the presentation from 5 to 6:45 p.m. Dr. Atalay's books will be available for sale and signing afterwards.

Click here to buy $10 tickets (NG Members, $8).

Wednesday, July 14, 8-10 p.m.

Through the Kitchen Door at
Comet Ping Pong
5037 Connecticut Avenue, NW

JESSIE PRICE and The EatingWell Test Kitchen
EatingWell ON A BUDGET (Countryman Press $18.95)
After the 7 p.m. in-store book presentation, everyone is invited to join the authors and representatives at a festive and delicious reception just a few doors away at Comet Ping Pong. The menu includes Comet favorites and specialties and will highlight local and seasonal foods as well as a cash bar. A $45 fee at the door benefits the training programs of Through The Kitchen Door - the D.C. based non-profit featured in the book - and includes a copy of the book, or click here to pre-register online; ticket purchases before June 30 are only $40.

Go back to top of email

JUST FOR KIDS!

Share your favorite books with us and each other this summer!

Readers entering grades K-6 can click here to download a book log for recording your reading progress. Read a book, write down the title, the author, and your rating (on a scale of 1-5, 5***** = BEST), and you can keep track of your reading accomplishments throughout the summer! You can also submit your reviews on the attached sheet to the Children and Teens’ Department.

The second page in the book log is a form for writing reviews. If you write a review and submit it to the Children and Teens' Department, we will post a couple of reviews each week on our web site! Let us know what you are reading and we will share it with your friends at Politics & Prose!

Readers entering grades 7-12 should check out our new teen book blog. If you are in junior high or high school, you can also publish reviews of your favorite summer reading on the blog by emailing Dana at dchidiac@politics-prose.com.

CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK

(20% off through 06/30/2010)
Would you like to make George's Marvelous Medicine, create a Twister in a water bottle, or dye Rechenka's Eggs? Science teacher Jennifer Williams tells you how in OOBLECK, SLIME AND DANCING SPAGHETTI (Bright Sky Press, $14.95). Enjoy your favorite books even more as you learn about the chemistry, engineering, meteorology, and food science behind the stories. Each chapter starts with summaries of "The Story" and "The Science," followed by "The Experiment." While you might not want to taste anything from your butter battle (The Butter Battle Book), you'll certainly enjoy everything on your Ice Cream Larry data sheet. Don't miss the suggestions for further reading and research at the end of each chapter. Ages 4-11 - Heidi Powell

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

Click here to download a copy of our catalog of 2010 Summer Favorites.

Our regular story time is on hiatus until after Labor Day. We are going to have a Spanish language story time on 3 consecutive Wednesday afternoons at 4 p.m., June 30, July 7 and 14.  More info to come!

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

Go back to top of email

Go back to top of email

MORE JAZZ PIANO
Jason Moran, TEN (Blue Note, $17.98) – Jason Moran and his trio, Bandwagon  (Tarus Mateen, bass, and Nasheet Waits, drums) has been together for ten years, and this is a strong, strong collection to celebrate the occasion. Moran pays tribute to mentors and teachers (Monk, Jaki Byard, Andrew Hill), plays tunes by Bernstein and Nancarrow, and throws in plenty of originals. Given Moran’s deep love of history, there’s even a hidden bonus track, “Nobody,” the theme song of minstrel Bert Williams. Read the New York Times review (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/21/arts/music/21choice.html?ref=music ).

Fred Hersh, WHIRL (Palmetto, $15.98) – Hersch comes back strong after his recent illness with his trio of Jon Hebert, bass, and Eric McPherson, drums. Hersch also pays tribute to Jaki Byard, plays a Paul Motian tune, then pours it on in his many originals. He ends the album with the tune deep with significance, “Still Here.”

Marilyn Crispell & David Rothenberg, ONE DARK NIGHT I LEFT MY SILENT HOUSE (ECM, $17.98) – Pianist Marilyn Crispell just took part in last weekend’s tributes to Anthony Braxton in New York; she was once a member of his quartet. Her new album is a duet with clarinetist David Rothenberg, here playing beautiful low woody tones of the bass clarinet. Some of the tunes are pensive, others spiky and pointillist. Also check out David Rothenberg’s two books about sounds in nature, specifically birds and whales, Why Birds Sing (Basic Books, $19.95), and Thousand Mile Song (Basic Books, $20).

JOHN PRINE & PRINE TRIBUTES
John Prine, IN PERSON AND ON STAGE (Oh Boy, $12.98), and BROKEN HEARTS & DIRTY WINDOWS: Songs of John Prine (Oh Boy, $12.98) – There’s a nice symmetry with these two releases. On the first, John Prine sings his great songs live, backed by a trio, with  some special guests, among them Iris DeMent and Emmylou Harris.

On the second, a younger generation pays tribute to Prine songwriting skills with versions by Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Josh Ritter, Sara Watkins, Justin Townes Earle, Old Crow Medicine Show, Conor Oberst, Deer Tick, Drive-By Truckers, Lambchop, Those Darlings, and My Morning Jacket. Check out the master and then the students.

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