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

 

 

It's quite a week at Politics & Prose! The Man Booker shortlist and Hugo Awards have been announced, our Fall Storewide Member Sale is this weekend, Gary Shteyngart, Sara Gruen, and Eliza Griswold will be here next week, and three graphic novelists are visiting us before participating in the Small Press Book Expo!

FALL STOREWIDE MEMBER SALE

As a benefit to our members, all cookbooks on our shelves will be 20% off throughout the month of September. Don't forget that our usual fall storewide member sale will take place Friday-Sunday, September 10-12, and members receive a 20% discount on nearly every book and 15% off nearly CD and DVD in the store that weekend.

You're going to be out of town that weekend? Call us and we will help you make a list and then will do your shopping for you during the sale. Or better yet, visit our website at www.politics-prose.com and do your shopping yourself! Just remember that, as in the store, discounts will only apply to items that are "On our shelves now."

MAN BOOKER SHORTLIST

The Man Booker shortlist was just announced. The judges have narrowed the list down to five with the final announcement to come on October 15. You can begin sampling these selections as four of the six are in the store today. Click these title links to read more about these books and buy them today.

Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey (Knopf, $26.95)
Room by Emma Donoghue (Little, Brown, $24.99)
In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut (Emblem, $22.99, call the store to order from Canada)
The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson (Bloomsbury, $31.85, call the store to order from the UK)
The Long Song by Andrea Levy (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $26)
C by Tom McCarthy (Knopf , $25.95)

Floor Manager Bill Leggett and Floor Supervisor Adam Waterreus offer their impressions of two of the nominees. Next week we will offer two more reviews of Man Booker shortlisted books.

 

Emma Donoghue must be a trickster at heart. Her novel ROOM (Little, Brown, $24.99) beckons us down dark alleys and leaves us in a place we never intended to be.

The story is told through the irrepressible and naive voice of five-year-old Jack, who has lived his entire life in a single 11 x 11room. His innocent depiction of "Room" belies the horrid reality that exists for him and "Ma", his only friend, his teacher, and his protector from "Old Nick", who keeps them both captive.

Donoghue takes an unthinkable situation and challenges the reader to relate to it in pragmatic and occasionally mundane terms. The magic here is not in creating an epic novel that covers generations and a constellation of characters, for which so many authors have been praised, but in crafting an intimate story of a mother, a son, and how they cope to survive and support each other in a confined space.

Later, as they re-enter society, Jack's narrative reveals how much "Room" has forced both characters to change, and details the challenging process of individuation and recovery from trauma and depravation. Donoghue's skillful storytelling reveals her characters' confusion and resilience, and will have you caring and rooting for them as they deal with the aftermath of a life they never chose. - Bill Leggett

 

Tom McCarthy’s C (Knopf , $25.95) is a novel unlike any you've ever read. The story begins at the dawn of the 20th century with the birth of Serge Carrafax and follows him from adolescence to maturity as his life is marked by a number of historic hallmarks: his obsession with radio communication and technology, his experiences as an artillery observer in World War I, his addiction to cocaine and morphine and immersion into the sudden culture of the séance salons of London, and even taking him to Egypt, where he acts as both a surveyor and spy.

Though the reading at times proves challenging, McCarthy's use of language and allusion, of metaphor and symbol, gives the reader a satisfactory sense of digging into a secret, as if the reader were the archaeologist and the novel the crammed and layered tomb. C is a beautifully complex book told in breathless, intricate prose, which successfully weaves adventure, tragedy, complex metaphor, and stunningly symbolic language into a novel that is as stunning as it is difficult. - Adam Waterreus

 

Read more about the 2010 Man Booker Prize here.

 

HUGO AWARDS
Winners of the Hugo Awards were announced at a ceremony during Aussiecon 4, the 68th World Science Fiction Convention, held in Melbourne, Australia, September 5. The Award for Best Novel was a tie between two books that our staff members had already discovered and loved.

• The City & The City, China Miéville (Del Rey, $15)
• The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade, $14.95

 

WEBSITE SERVICE UPDATE

From 6 a.m, to approximately 10 a.m. on Sunday, September 12, www.politics-prose.com will be offline for scheduled maintenance by our e-commerce host. Specific tasks for this outage include:

* Installation of new Juniper firewalls.
* Application of security patches and OS upgrades to the servers.
* Master database integrity scan and optimization.

During the replacement and installation of the firewalls, the website will be unavailable for these four hours.  We apologize for the inconvenience, especially as this conflicts with shopping availability during our member storewide sale, but please do use the site the rest of the weekend!

Go back to top of email

 

It may be a coincidence, but two of our upcoming authors have written books in which digital devices play critical roles. Gary Shteyngart will be visiting us on Monday, September 13 at 7 p.m. His new satire Super Sad True Love Story (Random House, $26) describes America in the not-so-distant future; the economy has collapsed, and everyone carries a PDA or äppärät, which not only facilitates communication, but also detects everything from cholesterol levels to the bearer's net worth and sexual desirability quotient - and broadcasts this information to the world. Oh, and reading lowers one's attractiveness because it is common knowledge that books smell bad. Gary Shteyngart's talk will be entertaining; and the book is both tragic and comic as Lenny Abramov, the balding and cholesterol-heavy protagonist, pursues his unlikely and perhaps entirely unsuitable love interest.

 

Similarly, Lane Smith challenges modern fads with his picture book for kids entitled, rather self-evidently, It's a Book (Roaring Brook, $12.99). At least, this fact is obvious to the monkey who is engrossed in reading Treasure Island. But for the jackass who only knows about computers, it's necessary to explain how one uses a book and why such a primitive device would be at all interesting. Lane Smith is well known for collaborating on many other irreverent books with John Scieszka (such as, The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales), and Mr. Smith will read to kids on Thursday, September 16 at 10:30 a.m. and will sign books in the afternoon at 4:30 p.m.

Also, consider attending the Small Press Expo in Bethesda this weekend to meet other great illustrators and authors. - Andrew Getman

Go back to top of email

 

Sunday, October 10

Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece of domestic architecture, in a wooded area of western Pennsylvania near the Maryland border, is one of our favorite locales. Once again this fall we are conducting a community trip by bus to enjoy the foliage during peak season.

We will meet at Modern Times Coffee House located at Politics & Prose at 8 a.m. for a light breakfast of coffee and muffins. The bus will leave promptly at 8:30 a.m. The bus trip takes about 4 hours each way. Once we arrive, we can enjoy lunch in the very pleasant café in the visitor's center before our guided docent tours begin. The tour lasts one hour and will allow ample time to explore the grounds and to visit the wonderful gift shop. One stop will be made for refreshments on the return trip, and we can expect to return about 8 – 8:30 p.m.

The trip costs $110.00, which includes continental breakfast at P&P, transportation, entrance fee, guided tour, and a tip for the bus driver. As an additional option, we also offer Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater: The House and Its History (Dover, $14.95), a fascinating and comprehensive guidebook with 118 illustrations, as part of the package for an additional $12.

Register in the store, by calling Politics & Prose at 202-364-1919, or click here to sign up online. Seating is limited. If you have any questions, please contact Bonnie Kogod at (202) 363-7738 or bkogod@politics-prose.com.

 

Go back to top of email

 

CHEKHOV IN ENGLISH
Thursdays, September 30 - November 4, 12:30 - 2 p.m.
(Please note: This is a change from the originally scheduled time.)
Taught by Penny duBois

The time is past that we must identify Chekhov with the picturesque decline of Russia under the Tsars or with the distorted image of his work projected by the Soviets. Chekhov has become an honorary world citizen, read and performed widely, studied, admired and imitated by writers and thinkers in many languages.

Chekhov opposed theory and made fun of people who expected a better world to follow abstract principles. But his understanding of a vast range of characters is based on a definite attitude to life. “Pitiless” he was called, also tender and compassionate. Can we discern in the stories and the plays a definite moral attitude? He was able to observe and laugh at the foolishness and blindness of many different kinds of people, all struggling to survive, some forced to give up consoling images of themselves. We will be looking for the steely moral backbone that allowed him to pass through judgment to acceptance, and for insights into the stories which will help us to see how he created a new kind of writing for the theater.

We will discuss a selection of Chekhov’s stories and then read "The Cherry Orchard". The text will be THE PORTABLE CHEKHOV (Penguin, $18). For the first class, participants should read "The Name-Day Party".

The class is $80 for P&P members or $100 for non-members. Register at Politics & Prose or by clicking here.

Go back to top of email

 

 These titles were store favorites when they were in hardcover.

In HOMER & LANGLEY (Random House, $15), E. L. Doctorow uses the true story of Manhattan’s eccentric Collyer broth­ers and re-imagines it to take the reader on a tour of 20th-century Amer­ica. From World War I through the Summer of Love, Doctorow brilliantly and poignantly writes in the voice of Homer, the blind younger brother, discussing the changes in the larger world while he and Langley continue to erode inside their smaller one, searching for love and companionship in a society they understand less and less with each passing year. - Bill Leggett

As she did in her mem­oir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls spins family dysfunction into a riveting, triumphant tale. Walls writes HALF BROKE HORSES (Scribner, $15), a "true-life novel," in the voice of her spirited, defiant grandmother, Lily Casey Smith. Lily grew up in the Depres­sion's grueling rural poverty, moving from a Texas dugout to a failing New Mexico ranch. She was forced to leave school when her father spent her tuition money on a pack of great Danes, but she still became a pilot, rancher, and teacher. Think Little House on the Prairie, with a bit more grit and a lot more sass. - Elizabeth Sher

Religion today often seems caught between the literalism of fun­damentalists and the atheism of materialists. Arguing against both sides of this all-or-nothing debate, Karen Armstrong, the great scholar and historian of religion, looks back to the roots of Christian­ity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and other traditions to make THE CASE FOR GOD (Anchor, $16.95). Originally, belief rested in symbol, myth, and mystery. Not orthodox propositions, but behavior specifically delin­eated as outside everyday concerns was the hallmark of spirituality, and religious prac­tices were designed to reinforce community bonds, teach compassion, and help contain potentially overwhelming emotions like fear, grief, or guilt. The emphasis was on what was unknown and probably unknowable about a deity; and this is in sharp contrast to today’s dogmas and truth claims. Where modern religions have gone wrong, Armstrong argues, is in treating religion like science and expect­ing the same sorts of certainty from a sacred text that we would from a scientific textbook. - Laurie Greer

David Small’s deftly woven tale of his child­hood, STITCHES (W.W. Norton, $15.95), manages not only to draw readers in with its powerful washed ink-work and sometimes nightmarish depiction of childhood, but also to whisk them into childish fantasy. Here are images of embryonic babies running down hallways, of Small and his characters melting into pages, and the consolation of imagined sanctuaries. From the mysterious lump that appears on David’s neck in his adolescence, to the Eisnerian drawings which document Small’s family history, Stitches is a revelatory tale of acceptance, forgiveness, and strength. - Adam Waterreus

Click FICTION or NON-FICTION to buy these books and to browse a more complete selection of recent paperback releases.

Go back to top of email

P&P Members always save 20% on our top twelve FICTION and NON-FICTION hardcover bestsellers.
Click the titles to read more about these books and to buy them from Politics & Prose.

FICTION

1. Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $28)
   - appearing at P&P on Friday, September 24, 7 p.m.
2. The Cookbook Collector, by Allegra Goodman (Dial, $26)
3. Comedy in a Minor Key, by Hans Keilson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $22)
4. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, by Stieg Larsson (Knopf, $27.95)
5. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, by David Mitchell (Random House, $26)
6. The Invisible Bridge, by Julie Orringer (Knopf, $26.95)
7. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett (Amy Einhorn, $24.95)
8. What Is Left the Daughter, by Howard Norman (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $25)
   - appearing at P&P on Sunday, September 19, 5 p.m.
9. Super Sad True Love Story, by Gary Shteyngart (Random House, $26)
   - appearing at P&P on Monday, September 13, 7 p.m.
10. Skippy Dies, by Paul Murray (Faber & Faber, $28)
11. Three Stations: An Arkady Renko Novel, by Martin Cruz Smith (Simon & Schuster, $25.99)
12. An Impartial Witness: A Bess Crawford Mystery, by Charles Todd (William Morrow, $24.99)

NONFICTION

1. Let's Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship, by Gail Caldwell (Random House, $23)
2. The Twilight of the Bombs: Recent Challenges, New Dangers, and the Prospects for a World Without Nuclear Weapons, by Richard Rhodes (Knopf, $27.95)
   - appearing at P&P on Saturday, September 25, 6 p.m.
3. A Journey: My Political Life, by Tony Blair (Knopf, $35)
4. Composed, by Rosanne Cash (Viking, $26.95)
   - signed first editions still available
5. The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, by John Vaillant (Knopf, $26.95)
6. Ill Fares the Land, by Tony Judt (Penguin, $25.95)
7. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, by Michael Lewis (W. W. Norton, $27.95)
8. Lyndon B. Johnson: The American Presidents Series: The 36th President, 1963-1969, by Charles Peters (Times Books, $23)
9. Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other: In Praise of Adoption, by Scott Simon (Random House, $22)
10. The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss, by Edmund de Waal (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $26)
11. Four Fish, by Paul Greenberg (Penguin, $25.95)
12. The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam, by Eliza Griswold (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $27)
    - appearing at P&P on Wednesday, September 15, 7 p.m.

Go back to top of emaii

 

Thursday September 9

Richard Thompson - Cul de Sac Golden Treasury & Keith Knight - The Knight Life: Chivalry Ain't Dead

7 p.m. In conjunction with the Small Press Expo (September 11-12 at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center), we're delighted to host two artists who excel at contemplating the minutiae of everyday life and making it hilarious. Thompson's strip is focused on a loveable family in a suburban development, while Knight's is told through the eyes of a city dweller.

Friday September 10

James Sturm - Market Day

8 p.m. Co-founder of the Center for Cartoon Studies, Sturm has set this beautifully crafted historical fiction in the Eastern European countryside of the 1900s. His day in the life of Mendleman, a carpet peddler, uses spare narrative and finely-honed images to achieve a powerful emotional resonance.

Friday - Sunday September 10-12

P&P Fall Member Sale
All weekend long, Politics & Prose members receive discounts on nearly everything currently in stock. Most books are 20% off, most CDs and DVDs are 15% off. If you are not yet a member, it's a great time to sign up and take advantage of these and other discount opportunities. 

The same discounts will apply to shopping completed online when members purchase items currently on our shelves between Friday, September 10, 12:01 a.m. and Sunday, September 12, 11:59 p.m.!

Monday September 13

Gary Shteyngart - Super Sad True Love Story
7 p.m. In his third novel the wildly inventive Shteyngart shows why The New Yorker selected him as one of its twenty young writers to watch. An old fashioned love story set in an information-binging, tech-heavy future, the story is at once keen social satire, comedy, and tender billet-doux to the unchanging vulnerability of the human heart.

Tuesday September 14

Sara Gruen - The Ape House
7 p.m. Gruen continues the fictional exploration of human-animal connections begun in Water for Elephants with this story about the language capabilities of bonobos. When a bombing halts work at the Great Ape Language Lab, the animals are sold and become stars of a reality show. Meanwhile, Isabel, a research scientist, teams up with a tabloid reporter to discover more about what happened.

Wednesday September 15

Eliza Griswold - The Tenth Parallel
7 p.m. Griswold, an investigative journalist and fellow at the New America Foundation, spent seven years traveling between the equator and the line of latitude 700 miles north of it that marks the tenth parallel. This region is home to half the world's Muslims, 60% of its Christians, and as such is a center of religious conflict, as well as a battleground over natural resources.

Thursday September 16

Lane Smith - It's a Book
10:30 a.m.  - event
4:30 p.m.  - signing only
A Caldecott-Honor illustrator, Smith has produced a fable about old and new technology. The gorilla happily reads a book, but the tech-sophisticated jackass doesn't understand how it works without a mouse or batteries. He takes a look, and soon is won over by the story and the sheer joy of reading print on paper. (Ages 4-7)

 

Deborah Fallows - Dreaming in Chinese

7 p.m. The struggle to learn Mandarin proved key to unlocking many aspects of Chinese culture and behavior that had eluded Fallows when she began her three-year sojourn in Shanghai and Beijing. Interspersing anecdotes with lessons on tones, Fallows's book is rich in the insights afforded by ordinary occurrences and encounters. Want to know today's China? Place an order at a Beijing Taco Bell.

Saturday September 18

Larry Rohter - Brazil on the Rise

1 p.m. Two decades ago Brazil carried a heavy national debt and still felt the repression of a military dictatorship. Today, it's the world's eighth-largest economy, enjoys democracy, and anticipates the wealth of newly discovered oil reserves. Rohter, for many years The New York Times bureau chief in Rio, has watched Brazil's amazing transformation as it has happened.

Audrey Niffenegger - The Night Bookmobile

3:30 p.m. Readers know Niffenegger from The Time Traveler's Wife, but her involvement with books is visual as well as literary. A professor at the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts, she has produced two "novels-in-pictures," and now a graphic novel. First serialized in The Guardian, this is the story of Alexandra, a reader who becomes a librarian in order to find the elusive night bookmobile containing everything she has ever read.

Feryal Ali Gauhar - No Space for Further Burials

6 p.m. Drawing on her own experience as a political prisoner in Pakistan, Gauhar has created a compelling voice for the American narrator of her second novel. Captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan and confined in a mental asylum, the unnamed U.S. Army medical technician describes his fellow inmates, making of their stories a rich and powerful account of the effects of war, desperation, and greed on this besieged nation.  

Sunday September 19

Isabel Wilkerson - The Warmth of Other Suns

1 p.m. Between 1915 and 1970, some six million black Americans left the South and headed north and west. To make sense of this massive migration, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Wilkerson focuses on three individuals: a Mississippi sharecropper turned Chicago entrepreneur, a civil rights activist who relocated from Florida to Harlem, and a Louisiana doctor who became Ray Charles's personal physician.

This event is co-sponsored by Fall for the Book, a literary festival organized by George Mason University and the city of Fairfax, VA. More information at www.fallforthebook.org

Howard Norman - What is Left the Daughter
5 p.m. The latest novel from our good friend and neighbor, Howard Norman, is a letter from a father to the daughter he hasn't seen in decades. Wyatt begins with the loss of his own parents when he was 17. Sent to live with his aunt and uncle, he fell in love with his adopted cousin, who was involved with a German student—a complicated relationship as World War II was under way. 

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

 

Go back to top of email

 

Thursday, September 16, 7:30 p.m.

Friendship Heights Village Center
4433 S. Park Ave.
Chevy Chase, MD

MARTHA GRIMES
THE BLACK CAT (Viking, $25.95)
The prolific writer Martha Grimes presents her latest murder mystery as the inimitable Richard Jury returns in a thrilling tale of mystery, madness, and mistaken identity. A young woman has been murdered behind the local pub. The only witness is the establishment's black cat, who gives neither crook nor clue as to the girl's identity or her killer's. Please sign up in advance for this FREE event by calling the Village Center at 301-656-2797.

Tuesday, September 21, 6:30-9 p.m.

The Transition Network (TTN)
One Washington Circle Hotel
Pennsylvania and New Hampshire Avenues, NW
KERRY HANNON
WHAT'S NEXT?  Follow your Passion and Find your Dream Job (Chronicle, $22.95)

From a former mortgage banker who's back in the classroom to a tough cop turned Nashville music agent, these in-depth testimonials offer encouragement and advice from real people who have changed careers mid-life. Kerry Hannon, a personal finance editor and retirement correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, will present an exciting roadmap for anyone looking to make their next job their dream job.

TTN is a community of women over 50 who are navigating career transitions, broadening horizons, celebrating life, exploring options, and making connections. For more information and to register for this dinner meeting ($40; $35, TTN Members), contact Clare Donaher at cdonaher@starpower.net or visit www.thetransitionnetwork.org.

Thursday, September 23, 7:30 p.m.

Friendship Heights Village Center
4433 S. Park Ave.
Chevy Chase, MD
JANE SMILEY
PRIVATE LIFE (Knopf $26.95)
Ms. Smiley was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for A Thousand Acres. In 2001 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She received the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature in 2006.

Her riveting new novel traverses, from the 1880s to World War II, the intimate landscape of one woman's inner world: of the little girl within the hopeful bride, of the young woman filled with yearning, and of the faithful wife who comes to harbor a dangerous secret. It is also a heartbreaking portrait of marriage and the mysteries that endure even in lives lived side by side. A masterly, unforgettable novel from one of our finest storytellers.

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

Go back to top of email

 

Please join us when story time resumes after Labor Day on Monday, September 13, 10:30 a.m. BearSong, the Guitar Man, will be back after several years' hiatus, leading stories, songs, finger plays, and more for children from birth to 4 years old and their caregivers.

Teachers - from pre-school through grade 12 - and school and public librarians are eligible for Politics & Prose's educator's discount program.  To qualify for a 20% discount on books purchased for your classroom or library and a 10% discount on personal purchases, please bring a current ID for the 2010-2011 academic year to the children's and teens' department to update your file.

CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK
(20% off through 09/15/2010)

Welcome the Jewish New Year with Yiddish wisdom. In reaction to severe overindulgence, a young prince decides that he is not a boy, but THE ROOSTER PRINCE OF BRESLOV (Clarion, $16.99). He strips off his clothes and clucks around chewing on hard corn. No one can help his horrified royal parents turn him back into the prince, not even for a sack of gold. Finally, a frail old man promises that if he is given seven days and the king and queen do exactly as he says, he will "return a prince ready to rule the land." The old man cleverly awakens the mensch in the prince and sends a fine young man back to his parents. Eugene Yelchin’s illustrations capture the feel of the old country and the whimsy of Anne Redisch Stampler’s retelling of this well-loved Yiddish folktale. Ages 4-8 - Dara La Porte

 

Click here to shop more of our 2010 Summer Favorites online.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
MOCKINGJAY (Scholastic, $17.99), the third book in The Hunger Games trilogy by best-selling teen author Suzanne Collins has just been released. Mockingjay is discounted 20% to everyone who buys it at P&P. Read it today, because on Thursday, September 23, 3-4:30 p.m., Suzanne Collins will be at Politics & Prose.

We are excited about hosting her and look forward to having you join us. Even though Ms. Collins is not speaking, she is eager to meet her fans and very much wants to answer your questions as you go through the signing line. Please note: Due hand strain, Ms. Collins will be "signing" books with a special stamp custom created exclusively for Mockingjay events. Make sure you pick up your signing line ticket when you buy your book. You must buy your book from P&P to participate in this event. Click here to buy your copy of Mockingjay and to read more information about this book-signing!

 

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

 

VOICES

Rebecca Martin, WHEN I WAS LONG AGO (Sunnyside, $16.98) – I first heard Rebecca Martin sing beautiful ballads on drummer Paul Motian’s Motian on Broadway, Vol. 4, from 2006. I wanted to hear more, and now she’s released a full album of standards, backed by only bassist Larry Grenadier and saxophonist Bill McHenry. The low-key setting, recorded live to two-track, lets the songs shine, and Ms Martin includes beautiful readings of “Lush Life,” “Willow Weep for Me,” “Wrap Your Trouble in Dreams,” and eight more (and she sings all the introductory verses that are often left out).

Theo Bleckmann, I DWELL IN POSSIBILITY (Winter & Winter, $17.98) – I’m a huge fan of Theo Bleckmann; he’s done very original work on albums of Kurt Weil and Charles Ives songs, as well as the American Songbook. His new CD is solo project (with a variety of voice loops, toy instruments, and original percussion), recorded live in the reverberant space of a monastery in Beinwil, Switzerland. His own tunes are mixed with settings of Kurt Schwitters and Emily Dickinson along with his renditions of Supertramp and Joni Mitchell. Check out this one-of-a-kind vocalist.

THE BAD PLUS & JASON MORAN AT THE ROSSLYN JAZZ FESTIVAL
Two very inventive piano trios are playing (for free!) this Saturday afternoon at the Rosslyn Jazz Festival. Both groups are celebrating ten year anniversaries.

The Bad Plus (pianist Ethan Iverson, bassist Reid Anderson, drummer Dave King) have a brand new CD, NEVER STOP (E1 Music, $15.98) featuring all original compositions by each group member. Their tunes combine rockin’ and swinging rhythms, and cross genre boundaries between jazz, pop and contemporary classical.

Pianist Jason Moran’s Bandwagon (with bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits) released one of 2010’s best albums, TEN (Blue Note, $17.98). Moran pays tribute to mentors and teachers (Thelonious Monk, Jaki Byard, Andrew Hill), plays tunes by Bernstein and Nancarrow, and throws in plenty of originals.
Catch both these great originals this Saturday.

BENGA BEATS

There are many recordings that reach our shores from West Africa, but far fewer in number from East Africa. THE KING OF HISTORY: CLASSIC 1970s BENGA BEATS FROM KENYA (Stern’s, $16.98) is a great introduction to the music of D.O. Misiani’s Shirati Jazz, who popularized benga, “the energetic dance music of the Luo people of Kenya and Tanzania,” full of hypnotic electric guitars and dancing bass lines.

PUTUMAYO YOGA
From time to time, I’m asked for suggestions for music for yoga. Now, Putumayo has compiled a collection for everyone who wants to mix tunes with their asanas. YOGA (Putumayo, $14.98) has selections by Krishna Das, Susheela Raman, and many, many more.

PREVIEW
Next week, albums by Robert Plant, Mavis Staples, Charles Lloyd Quartet and Steve Reich.

• András Goldinger

 

Save $10 on The Talented Mr. Ripley at Round House Theatre

Politics & Prose customers can save $10 per ticket on center orchestra or center balcony seats for Round House Theatre's U.S. premiere of The Talented Mr. Ripley, a play by Phyllis Nagy adapted from Patricia Highsmith's thriller (W.W. Norton, $13.95).

Conman Tom Ripley is determined to gain wealth and social status by any means possible. The perfect opportunity arises when American financier Herbert Greenleaf sends him to Italy to track down his son, who has been living the high life there. His mission takes on a sinister twist as the lives of Ripley and young Richard Greenleaf become inextricably entwined.

For tickets, call the box office at 240-644-1100 and mention the "Politics & Prose" discount. This offer is good for performances from Wed., Sept. 8 through the matinee on Sat. Sept. 18. (Ripley is recommended for age 17 and above.)