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!

This past June 30th was the close of our fiscal year, and we are proud to say fiscal year 2009-2010 was a record for us in sales, up more than 7 percent over the previous year.  We can attribute such an increase to our talented, hardworking staff of booksellers whose dedication to their jobs is palpable everywhere in the store.  This past week a customer gave us a wonderful example of how our booksellers affect people's lives.  The woman, who spoke English with a noticeable accent, said that when her daughter was very young, she wanted more than anything for her daughter to learn to speak English without an accent.  One of our booksellers in the children's department offered to read to the daughter several times a week during this time that she was learning to speak (and to read).  That daughter now will be starting her freshman year at Columbia University in the fall, an accomplishment that the mother traced back to Politics and Prose.

We also want to thank Peter Osnos, the publisher and founder of PublicAffairs Books for the words of praise he wrote on June 22 in The Atlantic online. He wrote about the current atmosphere of bookselling and "the role of [a] generation of master booksellers, leaders in the field of independent bookselling" while also providing some recognition to our store, which he called, "a superb emporium" with "an illustrious 26-year history." He added, "Politics and Prose is what a great bookstore should be: a community anchor with reading groups, almost nightly author events, a helpful and knowledgeable staff, and a downstairs coffee shop." He also provided a tribute to some of our colleagues in this field, women whom we have both learned from, and grown with, as we have been involved in this business.

In the best of times, bookselling in the "indie" tradition is a business that requires an especially resilient spirit, given how complex it is to remain viable in an economy dominated by national chains, consolidation, and technology behemoths. These booksellers all have excelled in the relationship aspects of what they do, shaping a loyal customer base by making their stores essential in the way people feel about their communities. Independent booksellers will have to overcome the convenience and advantages of online and on-demand bookselling by continuing to give premium service and supporting cultural activities around books.

Osnos acknowledged, "What characterizes these stalwarts is their commitment to the art of hand-selling good books and the evolving science of marketing. . . .Every trade and profession has its stars and this great generation of independent booksellers has earned a lasting place in publishing lore and the respect and gratitude of all who have benefited from them." Thank you for your praise, Peter. Read the entire article by clicking here.

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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 our2010 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 browse our selections and reviews online. Click here to download a PDF of this catalog of our staff reviews for children.

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We slipped into this country like thieves, onto the land that once was ours. Those who’d never been here before could at last see the Promised Land in the darkness; those who’d been deported and come back, only a shadow of that promise. Before the sun rises on this famished desert, stretching from the fiercest undertow in the Pacific to the steepest flint-tipped crest in the San Gabriel Mountains, the temperature drops to an icy chill, the border disappears, and in a finger snap of a blink of an eye, we are running, carried on the breath of a morning frost into hot kitchens to cook your food, waltzing across miles of tile floor to clean your houses, settling like dew on shaggy front lawns to cut your grass. We run into this American dream with a determination to shed everything we know and love that weights us down if we have any hope of survival. This is how we learn to navigate the terrain.

Brando Skyhorse’s debut novel, THE MADONNAS OF ECHO PARK (Free Press, $23), recounts the lives of Mexican Americans living in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Echo Park, once a fashionable home for people in the movie business and now a working-class community. Through a series of shifting points of view, we meet Felicia, a cleaning lady, and her daughter Aurora. We meet Efren Mendoza, a bus driver, and his brother Manny former jefe of the street gang Locos and father to Juan who’s just enlisted in the Army. And there are others -- all of these people who make up a neighborhood, people we see every day, never imagining the richness of their lives, or knowing how they intersect.

The title comes from an incident that shaped the whole community, an act of violence, an accidental shooting, affecting some tangentially and affecting others deeply and crucially. This is a fine and beautiful novel by any standard, but as a first novel, it is astoundingly good. Brando is going to be here on Sunday afternoon, July 11th at 1 p.m. Don’t worry about missing the World Cup final since it doesn’t begin until 2:30, plenty of time to hear this marvelous young novelist and still make it home to catch the game. - Mark LaFramboise

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On Wednesday, August 11, 7 p.m., Politics & Prose will host country musician Rosanne Cash for the release of her new memoir, COMPOSED (Viking, $26.95), at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue. Tickets may be purchased for $10 or receive two free admission tickets when you buy the book from Politics& Prose. Click here to reserve your book and tickets now!

On Thursday, September 23, 3-4:30 p.m., best-selling teen author Suzanne Collins will be signing MOCKINGJAY (Scholastic, $17.99) at Politics & Prose. We are excited to host Suzanne Collins and look forward to having you join us. This is a ticketed event. One free ticket will be distributed when any book from THE HUNGER GAMES trilogy is purchased from Politics & Prose. Each participant must have a Politics & Prose event ticket and may get ONE book signed.

Scholastic Publishers stipulate that because Suzanne Collins suffers from hand strain, she will be “signing” books with a special stamp custom made for Mockingjay events.
- Ms. Collins will sign ONE book per person.
- Ms. Collins will not personalize books.
- Fans must be present in line to get a book signed. Ms. Collins will not sign books left at the store.

- Please note that this event is a book-signing only.

Click here to pre-order your copy of Mockingjay and to read more information about this book-signing event!

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Britain in the 16th Century - - WOLF HALL by Hilary Mantel

Tuesday, October 12 OR Wednesday, October 13, 1-3 p.m.

Henry VII wants a divorce; the Pope forbids it. Enter Thomas Cromwell, the King's brilliant commoner to transform the Tudor power structure and advocate for the English reformation. This dramatic situation forms the center of Hilary Mantel's novel, Wolf Hall, which traces Cromwell's amazing career from gutter to glory.

In this class, Virginia Newmyer sets the historical stage for Britain's uneasy renunciation of the Roman Catholic Church. Susan Willens discusses how Hilary Mantel brings Thomas Cromwell and his era to new life.

$15 for P&P members, $20 for non-members Click here to register now.

Wolf Hall is available at Politics & Prose at a 20% discount, when you sign up for the class. Click here to purchase a hardcover copy today. It will be available in paperback on August 31. Click here to pre-order a paperback copy.

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EVERYTHING (Nan A. Talese, $25.95) by Kevin Canty

Kevin Canty’s seventh work of fiction is a quiet novel of quiet lives played out in the rugged Montana hill country. Quiet but not uneventful, the narrative is a series of changing and multi-faceted portraits of RL, a fisherman, guide, and tackle-store proprietor; his daughter, Layla; his employee, Edgar; and assorted old friends. These characters’ shifting views, rather than shifts of plot, drive the story. As the group variously experiences loneliness and connection, comes to grips with illness, greets new babies, and faces loss yet again, they keep revising their understanding of each other and themselves. In Canty’s understated, crystalline prose, the sharp edges of emotion catch the light and illuminate a truth that Edgar, an artist, describes as being in “the face, where the inner person, the stranger, unknowable, surfaces a little into the world. It was all there, you just had to know how to look.” - Laurie Greer

Politics & Prose will host Kevin Canty on Tuesday, August 3. Mark your calendar and please join us!

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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. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Knopf, $25.95) signed copies still available
2. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (Random House, $26)
3. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson (Knopf, $27.95)
4. Spies of the Balkans by Alan Furst (Random House, $26) signed copies still available
5. The Passage by Justin Cronin (Ballantine, $27) signed copies still available
6. The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Amy Einhorn, $24.95) signed copies still available
7. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson (Random House, $25)
8. The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno by Ellen Bryson (Holt, $26)
9. The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman (Dial, $25)
10. Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis (Knopf, $24.95)
11. The Lovers by Vendela Vida (Ecco, $23.99)
12. Work Song by Ivan Doig (Riverhead, $25.95
    

NONFICTION

1. War by Sebastian Junger (Twelve, $26.99)
2. Spoken from the Heart by Laura Bush (Scribner, $30) signed copies still available
3. Masters of the Game: Inside the World's Most Powerful Law Firm by Kim Eisler (Thomas Dunne, $26.99)
4. Hitch-22: A Memoir by Christopher Hitchens (Twelve, $26.99)
5. The House at Royal Oak: Starting Over & Rebuilding a Life One Room at a Time by Carol Eron Rizzoli (Black Dog & Leventhal, $22.95)
6. Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern (It Books, $15.99)
7. Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History by S. C. Gwynne (Scribner, $27.50)
8. Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Free Press, $27)
9. 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
10. Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin (HarperCollins, $27.99)
11. Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory by Ben Macintyre (Harmony, $25.99)
12. 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

 

 

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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 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.

Monday July 12

David Howard - Lost Rights
7 p.m. When the first 10 amendments to the Constitution were ratified in 1789, 14 copies of the document were written out by hand. One resided in the North Carolina Statehouse, where it was stolen by a Union infantryman in 1865. Howard, a widely-published journalist and now editor of Bicycling magazine, traces the path of this long-lost artifact as it passed through a series of hands until an FBI sting operation returned it to Raleigh.

Tuesday July 13

William Antholis & Strobe Talbott - Fast Forward
7 p.m. Talbott, the president of Brookings, and Antholis, the managing director, who also served on President Clinton’s climate-change policy team, argue that the complexities and the urgency of global warming require nations to work together in ways conventional U.N.-style diplomacy is unequipped to handle.

Wednesday July 14

EatingWell on a Budget w/ Jessie Price and the contributors
7 p.m. Price, who directs content for the award-winning EatingWell magazine, one of the most reliable sources of science-based nutrition, has edited this collection of recipes and tips on buying food, planning menus, and using leftovers with an eye to making meals that are not only healthful and cost-conscious, but flavorful, too. Contributors include Price, Marisa Stubbs, Yake Argueta, and Liesel Flashenberg

Thursday July 15

Dominique Browning - Slow Love
7 p.m. Losing a job necessitates huge adjustments, especially when it’s a job you love. In her humorous, elegant memoir of adjusting to life as the former editor of House & Garden, Browning balances the loss of one identity with the forging of a new one. While she was forced to downsize and give up a fairly public persona, she gained the private satisfactions of many new interests.

Friday July 16

William Jelani Cobb - The Substance of Hope
7 p.m. The point of departure for Cobb’s analysis of the 2008 presidential election is the fact that Obama received 90% of the black vote in the primaries, while most of the African-American leaders supported Hillary Clinton. Author of To the Break of Dawn and the chair of the history department at Spelman College, Cobb examines the growth of a new generation of black voters, one that came of age without first-hand experience of the Jim Crow era.

Saturday July 17

Ruth Kassinger - Paradise Under Glass
1 p.m. To help her cope with illness, middle age, and the loss of loved ones, Kassinger, a science writer, established a conservatory. Her book delves into the long history of greenhouses, which date back to the 15th century, and profiles a colorful cast of botanists and their sometimes flamboyant gardens.

Gail Dines - Pornland
6 p.m. Dines, professor of sociology and women’s studies and chair of the American Studies Department at Wheelock College, argues that pornography is growing more extreme and more ubiquitous. She ties the increased commercialization of degrading and even brutal imagery to Fortune 500 companies and also cites porn’s widespread social effects, such as the ways it distorts sexual norms and turns its consumers into porn addicts.

Sunday July 18

Patrick Thomas Casey - Our Burden's Light
5 p.m. Casey’s first novel is a powerful evocation of a Shenandoah town reeling from the murder of a high-school senior. The narrative homes in by turns on the dead boy’s family, struggling to stay together; on his classmates, preparing for adulthood; and on the young killers, trying to come to grips with what they’ve done.

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. before the talk.

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 reserve $45 tickets online.

 

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CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK
(20% off through 07/14/2010)
Mauk is only supposed to sharpen his Master’s pencils, but it seems he’s been tampering with his Master’s drawing of the Palazzo. The bricklayers have spilled their bricks on the ceiling, and workers are falling down stairs and hanging from windows. In a clever tribute to M.C. Escher, author and illustrator D.B. Johnson has created a world where upside down is right side up, fish fly, birds swim, and the story of PALAZZO INVERSO (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $17) never ends.

Try it alongside Mirror Mirror (Dutton, $16.99), by Marilyn Singer, a previous book of the week and another of our favorite books! Ages 4-8 - Heidi Powell

July Members' Sale on Puzzles in the Children and Teens’ Department

All children’s puzzles are 20% off.  The perfect way to spend a vacation evening or to enjoy on a long plane or car trip!  

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, remember that we offer 10% discounts on all school reading list books. Bring your summer reading lists into Politics & Prose and we'll help you meet your requirements for the fall!

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

Click here to download a PDF of our catalog of staff favorites for children.

REVIEWS BY KIDS, 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.

STORY TIME

Our regular story time is on hiatus until after Labor Day.
Please join Isabella & Ferdinand™ Spanish Language Adventures™ for a lively story time in espanol, Wednesday, July 21 at 4 p.m. 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.

Isabella & Ferdinand™ Spanish Language Adventures™
Isabella & Ferdinand™ Spanish Language Adventures is an extra-curricular Spanish language learning program for children 12 months to 9 years to learn the fundamentals of Spanish while learning about the art and culture of the Spanish-speaking world. Children learn their shapes while learning about Picasso paintings, their action verbs while learning about Christopher Columbus's  first voyage, their numbers while singing about Queen Isabella & King Ferdinand and more! The program offers classes for first-time learners of Spanish as well as for bilingual children. Unlike other foreign language programs, this program focuses exclusively on Spanish with a special focus on linguistic excellence and cultural understanding.We collaborate with the Embassies of Spain and Latin America, the Instituto Cervantes and other educational and arts institutions. 

Mention this email and receive a 10% discount on all registrations for CERVANTES IN THE PARK CAMP (a Spanish immersion half-day camp for 8-11 year olds that uses theater as a way of learning language) or the morning CASTILIAN CAPERS CAMP (a play-based half-day immersion camp) for 3-5 year olds.  A few spots are still available for Sessions 3 (July 19-30) and Session 4 (August 2-13)! Sign up today!  www.isabellaandferdinand.com

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

 

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STAFF PICK BY SARAH OWENS: GALACTICA

Ever marched in a New Orleans jazz funeral? Or danced to the Meters? Then you’ll love the funk jam-band Galactic’s latest, YAH-KA-MAY (Anti, $15.98), featuring New Orleans’s finest artists on every track.

Yah-Ka-May is old school meets new school: old timey big band together with new wave alt-rock. And lo, a new sound-child is born – pitching a rhapsodical fit of screaming, clanking, pulsating funkification, while swaddled in a layer of soulful ’90s hip-hop, New Orleans “bounce” and electronica.

Songs span everything from the more laid back (“You Don’t Know” and “Dark Water”) to frenetic modern-day fusion gems (“Katey vs. Nobby” and “Do It Again”). Melding mellower, often string-heavy jazz – featuring such big-name blues and soul acts as Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas and John Boutté – with the raw, raucous funk energy of brass bands, the album becomes fluid and chameleon-like. It’s somehow always satisfying, whether on a lazy afternoon, or on an after-hours dance floor. Can yah dig?

Let’s get to the dance floor: Yah-Ka-May is permeated by the heightened tones and vibes of live-action music-making; its visceral evocation of concerts clinches its unconditional listenability. I was at Galactic’s 9:30 Club show back in February featuring two special guests who are on the CD; the walls were reverberating with the same deep-hallow echos from the horns of the Rebirth Brass Band and Trombone Shorty, not to mention all the razor-sharp snare-slapping and full-bodied bass-thumping. (Galactic is coming back to the 9:30 Club on August 6!)

Refined and inventive, steeped in a rich style at once familiar and prophetic, Galactic’s latest groove is, as their name implies, out of this world.

•Sarah Owens

JOHN BERGER’S MEDITATIONS ON COLOR (WITH MUSIC)

John Berger’s Ways of Seeing from 1972 is a staple of every good bookstore’s art section; Berger has also written many other wonderful books – essays, novels, collaborations with photojournalists and artists. In the late 1990s, he and artist John Christie exchanged letters on the subject of color. Later, the correspondence was published as I Send You This Cadmium Red in a small edition, and then BBC Radio 3 made an audio piece with Berger and Christie reading portions of their letters, with original music composed by Gavin Bryars for his ensemble of clarinet, electric guitar, viola, and double bass. Now this beautiful piece is released on CD; I SEND YOU THIS CADMIUM RED (GB Records, $17.99) also includes The Island Chapel for contralto voice, cello, and electric keyboard, a piece Bryars wrote for a performance in St. Nicholas Chapel, St. Ives, which overlooks the Atlantic Ocean.

Suggestion: go see the Yves Klein exhibit at the Hirschhorn; then, listen to this CD; Berger and Christie make several references to Yves Klein Blue and his “void.”

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

• András Goldinger