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We want to recognize two of our faithful, longtime customers and local authors who have been in the spotlight this past week.  Rick Atkinson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist currently working on the third and final volume in his World War II Liberation series, was awarded the 2010 Pritzker Military Library Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing.  We have enjoyed hosting Rick ever since his history of West Point, THE LONG GRAY LINE (Holt, $17), which was first published in 1989, and we are cheering for this recognition of his spectacular career as a military historian.  Read more by clicking on this article from The Washington Post.

Similarly, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has just announced  that the new novel, WHAT IS LEFT THE DAUGHTER (HMH, $25), by our “resident” fiction author Howard Norman has been chosen as  the monthly selection by three First Edition clubs and also will be featured in an NPR interview by Scott Simon.  We have been promoting Howard as one of our favorite authors since The Bird Artist (Picador, $16) in 1995, which was a National Book Award finalist.

Publishers Weekly also loved this new novel from Howard, saying “Set on the Atlantic coast of Canada during WWII, Norman’s latest ... is an expertly crafted tale of love during wartime. . . . Norman’s writing is effortless, and his plot is grand in scope but studded with moments of tenderness and intimacy that help crystallize the anxiety and weariness of life on the home front. That Norman is able to achieve so much in 250 pages is a testament to his mastery of the craft.”  And Kirkus Review wrote: “Norman…scores again with this gripping account of a family ripped apart by obsession and murder…Norman has developed this brave, emotionally reticent man with great delicacy.  It is extraordinary that a story which carries such a weight of sorrow is never depressing, but Norman the master craftsman pulls it off.”  One hundred huzzahs for Howard!

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. Click here to download a PDF of the 2010 Summer Newsletter.

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 as the adult recommendations are, we do offer discounts on all school reading list books. Click here to download a PDF of this catalog of our staff reviews for children.

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Congratulations to our friends and neighbors at Comet Ping Pong!  On Monday, June 28th, owner James Alefantis and his crew appeared on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, a top-rated show hosted by Guy Fieri on The Food Network.  A large crowd of supporters gathered for a viewing party at the restaurant the night the episode aired.  It was a festive environment, with cheers and applause erupting frequently, and customers sampling much of the tasty food that was featured on the broadcast.

 

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The New Yorker's 20 Under 40

In the recent Summer Fiction issue of The New Yorker, the editors listed 20 writers under the age of 40 who they "believe are, or will be, key to their generation." The list arrives a decade after a similarly themed grouping the magazine published in 1999, titled "The Future of American Fiction." With both lists, the editors acknowledge their efforts to include writers who had, in their words "proved themselves" as well as "those whom we expected to excel in years to come." Click here to browse work by the authors on The New Yorker list.

After our staff read the list, there was a great deal of discussion about the writers included. We were thrilled with many of the writers included but curious that some of our staff favorites did not make the cut. Why were some chosen and others who are staff favorites left off? If we created our own list, whose talent do we believe propels them above other writers of the same or similar generation?

Of course, all lists are somewhat arbitrary and all must have a quantitative cut-off point. There's no room for an infinite number of winners at the Olympics. Still, one or more of us felt passionate enough about certain writers under the age of 40 that we decided to compile our own list of the best with a few reasons why, in our opinion, they deserve notice. Click here to read more about authors under 40 who we think might have been included.

Over the next few weeks, we'll continue to introduce you to some of our staff's favorite writers, especially those young writers who we believe deserve special notice. We'll also discuss a few writers whose early death we feel cheated the world of promising talent and, in some instances, cheated them of a literary legacy a longer life would have otherwise guaranteed.

Whatever your opinion may be about ranking talent in general, or about The New Yorker list in particular, we encourage you to e-mail us your thoughts and opinions. Reading is a solitary act, but its enjoyment should be shared.

• Lacey Dunham and Michael Allen on behalf of the Politics & Prose staff

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Thursday, July 8, 7 p.m.

National Geographic Live!
1600 M Street, NW

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

In conjunction with The National Geographic Museum exhibition Da Vinci—The Genius, 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. Click here to buy $10 tickets (NG Members, $8).

For a chance to win two free tickets to this presentation, courtesy of National Geographic LIVE!, please send an e-mail to PGibson@politics-prose.com no later than noon on Tuesday, July 6. Put LEONARDO 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 Tuesday, July 6.

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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. Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis (Knopf, $24.95)
2. Spies of the Balkans by Alan Furst (Random House, $26)
3. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson (Knopf, $27.95)
4. The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Amy Einhorn, $24.95)
5. Innocent by Scott Turow (Grand Central, $27.99) signed copies still available
6. The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman (Dial, $25)
7. The Passage by Justin Cronin (Ballantine, $27)
8. The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer (Knopf, $26.95)
9. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson (Random House, $25)
10. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Knopf, $25.95) signed copies still available
11. The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg (Pegasus, $25.95)
12. Every Last One by Anna Quindlen (Random House, $26)

NONFICTION

1. The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898 by Evan Thomas (Little, Brown, $29.99)
2. War by Sebastian Junger (Twelve, $26.99)
3. Washington at Home: An Illustrated History of Neighborhoods in the Nation's Capital by Kathryn Schneider Smith (Johns Hopkins Univ., $45) signed copies still available
4. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis (W. W. Norton, $27.95)
5. Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook by Anthony Bourdain (Ecco, $26.99) signed copies still available
6. Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American Hist by S. C. Gwynne (Scribner, $27.50)
7. Masters of the Game: Inside the World's Most Powerful Law Firm by Kim Eisler (Thomas Dunne, $26.99)
8. Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India by William Dalrymple (Knopf, $26.95)
9. Hitch-22: A Memoir by Christopher Hitchens (Twelve, $26.99)
10. Russia Against Napoleon by Dominic Lieven (Viking, $35.95)
11. Spoken from the Heart by Laura Bush (Scribner, $30) signed copies still available
12. The Ninth: Beethoven and the World in 1824 by Harvey Sachs (Random House, $26)

 

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

Mary Karr’s third memoir follows her bestselling The Liars’ Club and Cherry, picking up the story of her life with an account of her marriage, motherhood, alcoholism, and recovery. This volume, LIT (HarperCollins, $14.99), takes her from the brink of suicide through institutionalization and on to a miraculous normality, achieved with the help of writing and religious faith. Karr describes her difficult transformation with relentless self-scrutiny and dark humor.

Longtime residents of New Orleans, Kathy and Abdulrahman Zeitoun are Muslims who run a successful paint and repair business. As warnings of Hurricane Katrina mount, Kathy decides to evacuate, but her husband, known as ZEITOUN (Random House, $15.95), refuses to leave. Instead, feeling called to stay and watch over the couple’s many rental properties, he readies his second-hand canoe. His wife and their four children depart, and the family is split in the hurricane’s aftermath. Dave Eggers deftly recounts this uniquely American story, too amazing to be fiction, of Katrina and of a Muslim man attempting to make his way in military-controlled New Orleans. - Jory Hearst

England in 1837 was on the cusp of huge changes. In his lyrical first novel, THE QUICKENING MAZE (Penguin, $15), short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, Adam Foulds examines the shifts from traditional faith, handcrafting, and village life to an as-yet- uncertain industrial future. He focuses on the closed society of High Beach mental asylum, which counts among its inmates John Clare, the once-renowned "peasant poet" who is now out of fashion, and the young Alfred Tennyson, a promising writer about to embark on In Memoriam, the masterpiece that Queen Victoria would keep at her bedside. Foulds takes readers inside the poets’ minds as well as into the consciousness of other patients, the distracted doctor hoping to make a fortune with a new mechanical woodcarver, and the doctor’s daughter, smitten with Tennyson. Weaving fictional with historical characters and events, Foulds has created a rich tapestry of voices and visions. - Laurie Greer 

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If you’ve read David Mitchell’s earlier, Man Booker-nominated novel, Cloud Atlas (Random House. $15), then you know this young writer can do anything. Cloud Atlas defied genres - romance, history, mystery, science fiction, coming-of-age tale, all in the same book. A writer of phenomenal energy, even in his debut, Ghostwritten (Vintage, $14.95), his dialogue doesn’t just crackle, it explodes.

THE THOUSAND AUTUMNS OF JACOB DE ZOET (Random House, $26) is his fifth novel; Mitchell has matured. He’s honed his prodigious talent and the craftsmanship is evident throughout this tale of 19th –century trade, love, loyalty, and double dealings among the Dutch of the East India Company and the wary Japanese with whom they do business. The eponymous Jacob is an earnest, smart, and upright clerk among earthy rogues and greedy superiors. Always trying to do the right thing, he repeatedly transgresses one rule after another. His predicaments are by turns funny, rueful, and downright dangerous. He calls his superiors on their fraudulent trading figures. He falls in love with a Japanese woman. He stands up to a crew of British interlopers who plan to muscle in on Dutch markets in Japan. There’s a lot of history here, well woven into the salty sailor talk, the poker games, and Jacob’s bittersweet dreams of love. - Laurie Greer

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Last Thursday, hundreds of teens came to Politics & Prose to see John Green and David Levithan speak about their new book WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON.

On Monday, Ally Carter stopped by to sign copies of ONLY THE GOOD SPY YOUNG, her fourth book in the Gallagher Girls series . The street date for this book was Tuesday. We still have signed first editions of both of these books.

Click here to purchase these and other signed books available now!

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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 Sunday, July 4, the store will be open from 10 - 4 p.m.

Monday July 5

Oren Harman - The Price of Altruism
7 p.m. If genes are selfish and each individual is programmed to survive and reproduce at nearly any cost, how is it that altruism exists? Harman, a professor of the history of science at Bar Ilan University,  explores this question by profiling George Price, the physical chemist who developed new ideas of evolutionary and game theory. Trying to help the homeless, Price eventually lost everything and committed suicide.

Tuesday July 6

Allegra Goodman - The Cookbook Collector
7 p.m. Goodman’s acclaimed Intuition explored the daily life of a cancer research lab, and she brings the same thoroughness and telling detail to this riveting look at the 1999-2000 dot-com bubble and its aftermath. The story centers on two sisters, a start-up CEO and a philosophy graduate student. Through their relationships with colleagues, friends, and each other, Goodman deftly captures a particular period of recent American history.

Wednesday July 7

Stefanie Syman - The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America
7 p.m. Yoga studios today are as ubiquitous as gyms or spas, but when the practice was introduced to America in the 19th century, it was thought strange and even dangerous. Syman, a journalist and long-time yoga adept, recounts yoga's rising popularity as it spread from colonial India to Emersonian New England and New York, to California, and back to New York.

 

Thursday July 8

Susan Coll - Beach Week
7 p.m. Perfect beach reading, Coll’s romp of a novel follows the exploits of a group of new high-school graduates as they head for the next rite of passage: summer at the shore. The author of Acceptance and Rockville Pike keeps things lively with parental angst, romance, controlled substances, and even a peeping Tom.

Friday July 9

Bill Press - Toxic Talk
7 p.m. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Lou Dobbs—these are just some of the voices dominating radio, and they are all right-wing. Press, a syndicated talk-show host on the left, examines just what each of his conservative counterparts is really saying, and offers an analysis of how this imbalance of opinion came about and what it means for the media.

Saturday July 10

Chris Palmer - Shooting in the Wild: An Insider's Account of Making Movies in the Animal Kingdom
1 p.m. Those unforgettable scenes of soaring birds or romping lion cubs may not be as easy to capture as they seem. They might not be what they seem at all. Palmer, an award-winning wildlife filmmaker, gives an insider's view of the dangers, problems, and joys of making documentaries in the wild, including the need to counter sensationalism and curb risk-taking.

Akbar Ahmed - Journey Into America
6 p.m. A companion to his Journey into Islam, Ahmed’s new book is an extensive look at Muslims in America. Visiting over 75 U.S. towns and cities, Ahmed asked Muslim residents about all aspects of their lives, from education to dress to relations with people of other religions, and compared the experiences of immigrants from diverse points of origin.

Sunday July 11

Brando Skyhorse - The Madonnas of Echo Park
1 p.m. This first novel describes a group of middle-class Mexican-Americans living and working in Los Angeles. When an act of senseless violence occurs, each person is affected differently. Skyhorse evokes the trauma and its aftermath with great power and compassion.

Carolyn Parkhurst - The Nobodies Album
5 p.m. In Parkhurst's third novel, a writer becomes a detective to solve the murder which her son is accused of having committed. Octavia has been estranged from her musician son for several years, but the crime draws them back together. Innovative in form, the story includes pieces of Octavia's novel-in-progress, offering a look at the interweaving of real life and imagination.

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.

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, will be open for viewing until 6:45 p.m.

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

For a chance to win two free tickets to this presentation, courtesy of National Geographic LIVE!, please send an e-mail to PGibson@politics-prose.com no later than noon on Tuesday, July 6. Put LEONARDO 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 Tuesday, July 6.

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 reserve $45 tickets online.

 

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CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK
(20% off through 07/06/2010)
What would the Statue of Liberty say to the hopeful as they entered the United States?  Emma Lazarus imagined Lady Liberty’s words in her now famous poem, The New Colossus.  EMMA’S POEM (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $17) proclaims, “Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”  Author Linda Glaser tells the story of Emma’s privileged life and how she became passionate about helping immigrants.  Claire A. Nivola’s detailed paintings depict the time just before the Statue of Liberty was erected in New York Harbor.  Ages 7-10.  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 the next two Wednesday afternoons at 4 p.m., July 7 and 14.  More info to come!

Please join Ferdinand and Isabella for a lively story time in Espanol, Wednesday at 5pm in the children’s department.  With guitar and songs, they will have a great time singing songs and playing games with children ages 1-5.

 

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

 

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JAZZ & TAP
Geri Allen & Timeline, LIVE (Motema, $13.99) – Jazz and tap dancing have a long history together, and, especially in the swing era, tappers would trade fours and eights with the elite bands of the day, as well as alternating sets; Arena Stage’s just-completed run of Sophisticated Ladies brought this to excited audiences. Pianist Geri Allen revives  this tradition back in a modern context in a fantastic album recorded live with her trio: Kenny Davis, bass; Kassa Overall, drum; and Maurice Chestnutt, tap percussion. The CD also includes bonus videos of two performances from last year’s Detroit Jazz Festival.Writer Greg Tate writes with verve about the project in his liner notes (Ms Allen and Mr Tate met at Howard University in the 1970s). Highly recommended.

VOICES
Jessye Norman, ROOTS: MY LIFE, MY SONG (Sony, 2 CDs, $16.98) – Soprano Jessye Norman has turned to some of her favorite songs, crossings genres and styles. Opera, spiriturals, and standards are all represented, in songs made famous by Duke Ellington, Nina Simone, Odetta, Ella Fitzgerald, and Lena Horne. The project was recorded live, and she’s backed by a small, swinging combo.
NPR had a good interview with Ms Norman about the project last Monday  (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128168510#child )

Angelika Kirchschlager, BRAHMS: THE COMPLETE SONGS, Volume 1 (Hyperion, $18.98) – Pianist and scholar Graham Johnson inaugurates the first volume of the complete songs of Johannes Brahms, projected to be nine volumes, each with Johnson collaborating with a different singer. Volume one pairs him with with mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirchschlager, exploring Op. 48, as well as other selected songs showing Brahms’s use of folk songs in his art music. Johnson previously worked on projects of the complete Schubert and Schumann songs.

GRAMOPHONE’S RECORDING OF THE MONTH
From their many monthly reviews, Britain’s Gramophone Magazine always picks a dozen or so “Editor’s Choice” CDs, as well singling out a “Recording of the Month.” For May, it was BERLIOZ: SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE (Zig-Zag Territoires, $17.99) played by the chamber-sized orchestra, Anima Eterna Brugge, with Jos van Immerseel conducting. Anima Eterna uses small forces and historical instruments associated with the period (the 1830s), to “bring that [shockingly visceral] sound to life once again.” The Symphonie is paired with Le Carnaval Romain.

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