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DECEMBER HOURS
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UPCOMING EVENTS IN BRIEF |
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Thursday, December 2 Friday - Sunday, December 3 - 5 Sunday, December 5 |
Thursday, December 9 Thursday, December 9, 7 p.m. |
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LETTER FROM BARBARA |
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Thank you to all of our Politics and Prose customers who swarmed into the store during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. You filled up your shopping bags with enough books to provide P&P with record sales as compared to previous years. We enjoyed seeing many of you who were just checking in while back in DC for the short holiday. This weekend I hope that we will see even more of our customers, including those of you who regularly shop the member sales. There are so many good new books this season that you will want to save a lot of time to browse. If you’re not a member, you can join when you check out at the register with your books. All our booksellers will be here to help you find what you are looking for or to recommend some of their favorites, and they have many! P&P HOLIDAY STOREWIDE MEMBER SALE
BOOK ANGELS Librarian Pamela Gardner requests fiction for grades 6-12. Our Children and Teens’ Department is ready to help you chose appropriate books and will collect your donations for Ms. Gardner. Books purchased for Wilson High School Book Angels will be given a 20% discount. The Book Angels Program runs through December 31, 2010. Please call the Children's Department at 202-364-1919 for more information.
As in past years, to make your holiday gift-giving easier, volunteers from the The Washington Literacy Council are at P&P gift-wrapping packages through December 26, every day from opening until closing. This is a joint endeavor between Politics & Prose, which donates the space and wrapping papers, and The Washington Literacy Council, which recruits and supplies the volunteers. Serving the Washington community for more than 45 years, WLC provides reading education and support to District adults with the most limited reading skills, greatest needs, and fewest resources. We suggest $1 donation per item to support this WLC fundraising campaign. So please help sustain this wonderful cause while reducing your holiday preparations and making your gift giving easier! You may also sign up as a volunteer gift wrapper by contacting Jennifer Durkin at WLCgiftwrap@gmail.com; just put "P&P Wrap" in the subject line.
CARDS AND CALENDARS FROM OUR SHIPPING DEPARTMENT Politics & Prose will contribute to the joys of your holiday season by providing shipping to your gift recipients on your behalf. Not only will volunteers from the Washington Literacy Council giftwrap your books and packages, but our packing and shipping elves will enlist reindeer provided by FedEx Ground (or the US Postal Service when appropriate) to safely carry your packages to homes around the world. We do request that you be aware of these shipping guidelines for the following destinations to ensure the timely arrival of your holiday gifts: December 3: Africa and South America.
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BOOK NOTES |
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HOLIDAY CATALOGUES
THE COOKBOOK COLLECTOR (Dial, $26) is the incomparable Allegra Goodman at her peak: evocative, richly detailed settings (the exuberant 1990s and the wonderfully funky neighborhoods of Boston and San Francisco); characters that are funny, questioning, and smart (dot-com prodigies, philosophy majors, hippie Hasids, and disgruntled booksellers); and dialogue that is so precise and true you often forget you’re reading. Add a fascinating subplot about a rare cookbook collection and the history of taste, and it’s easy to see why this study of financial, romantic, and culinary appetites is one of the best novels of the year. A riveting examination of the futility of war, MATTERHORN (Atlantic Monthly, $24.95) follows marine lieutenant Waino Mellas as he begins a grueling 13-month tour in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam. When they aren’t fighting the enemy, Mellas and the Marines under his command contend with racism, boredom, weather, and bureaucracy. When they are fighting, they have to deal with every imaginable horror: sadistic commanders, shooting at an enemy they can’t see, natural predators, and friendly fire. Karl Marlantes, a decorated war veteran himself, imbues his characters with humanity, capturing the complexity and contradictions of men at war. As the Marines pack up and vacate the hilltop they fought so hard for and for which so many died, the absurdity of their actions resounds. While his own country is in the midst of revolution, young aristocrat Olivier-Jean-Baptiste de Clarel de Barfleur de Garmont explores the newly christened United States with Parrot, a rough-at-the-edges British artist, bodyguard, and spy for the marquis, benefactor of Olivier’s family. Together this unlikely duo traverses early-19th-century America, ostensibly to study prison reform, but they soon find themselves caught up in a series of picaresque misadventures. Told in alternating points of view, Peter Carey’s Man Booker-nominated PARROT AND OLIVIER IN AMERICA (Knopf, $26.95) is a comic tour de force, rich with period detail and unforgettable characters. If you’ve read David Mitchell’s earlier, Man Booker-nominated novel, Cloud Atlas, you know this writer can do anything—Atlas was romance, history, mystery, science fiction, coming-of-age tale, all in the same book. Mitchell is a writer of phenomenal energy, and his dialogue doesn’t just crackle, it explodes (see Ghostwritten). 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 they do business with. The eponymous Jacob is an earnest, smart, and upright clerk among earthy rogues and greedy colleagues. Always trying to do the right thing, he transgresses one rule after another. His predicaments are by turns funny, rueful, and downright dangerous. He calls his superiors on their fraudulent trading numbers. 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.
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WINTER CLASSES 2011 | |||||||
Spaces are already being reserved for these upcoming Politics & Prose classes!
MODERN AMERICAN POETRY How does poetry continue to console us in a world with a fractured and degraded sense of the divine? Come join our poetry circle as we discuss the work of two seminal modern American poets, Stanley Kunitz and Richard Wilbur. Between them, these two giants of American poetry have won every honor available, including three Pulitzer Prizes, two Bollingen Prizes and two National Book Awards. Each has served as U.S. Poet Laureate. For those of you in the fall group discussing Blake and Dickinson, this session will continue our conversation about how poets define paradise as human imagination. But you don’t need to have been part of the fall group to join us. All you need is to enjoy the company of others and to love words. We will meet for six Tuesdays 3 - 4:30 p.m. January until March, with one week off. 4 Tuesdays, January 18 - February 8; Syllabus: The class fee is $100 (or $80 for P&P members). Click here to register. Course books are discounted 20% off for class participants. Please provide your email address when you register so that you can receive weekly emails about the readings, .
THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN FICTION AND HISTORY From 1172 to 1947, the British flag flew across the globe, marking England's commercial and political control over subject people. English military and maritime power, language, law, and customs spread over one-quarter of the earth. In meetings once a month from February to June, the class will discuss British imperial dominion over five colonies as shown in history and fiction. Classes will meet from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., on the second Tuesday (except in June, see below) OR Wednesday (choose one) of each month at Politics and Prose. The assigned books will be available at a 20% discount from class participants. Syllabus: Click here to register - $80 for P&P members, $100 for non-members Please indicate whether you will attend on Tuesday or Wednesday when you enroll.
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P&P READERS MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN . . . | |||||||
ROUND HOUSE THEATRE BETHESDA Round House Theatre presents the area premiere of A Wrinkle in Time, a play by John Glore based on the beloved youth sci-fi novel by Madeleine L'Engle. Children's tickets are just $10 weeknights and $15 at Fri. and Sat performances. On a dark and stormy night, the eccentric Mrs. Whatsit arrives at the home of Meg Murry, a tomboy whose scientist father vanished two years ago under mysterious circumstances. Aided by Mrs. Whatsit and her friends, Meg, her brother Charles Wallace, and her friend Calvin are transported through time and space on a mission to rescue their father from the evil forces that hold him prisoner on another planet. For tickets, call Round House at 240-644-1100. (Recommended for age 6 and above.)
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BESTSELLERS | |||||||
All Politics & Prose Weekly Hardcover Bestsellers are 20% off for Members.
Click here for our fiction paperback bestsellers.
Click here for our non-fiction paperback bestsellers.
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NEW IN PAPERBACK | |||||||
20 Under 40: Stories from The New Yorker, Edited by Deborah Treisman (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, $16) Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, by Helen Simonson (Random House, $14) Click FICTION or NONFICTION to see and buy more recently released paperbacks. |
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COMING NOW TO YOUR FAVORITE BOOKSTORE |
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If you can't attend a talk, but would like to buy a signed copy or a recorded author presentation, click the title links to reserve your book online.
Thursday, December 2 David Rohde & Kristen Mulvihill - A Rope and a Prayer 7 p.m. Rohde and Mulvihill have written a dual account of the seven months in 2008 that Rohde, a New York Times reporter, was held hostage by the Taliban in Pakistan. While Mulvihill tried to free him using the appropriate diplomatic channels, her husband witnessed the brutality and irrationality of his fundamentalist Muslim captors. This juxtaposition of Taliban and Western world views dramatizes the extreme difficulty of the two sides ever understanding each other. Friday - Sunday, December 3 - 5 P&P Holiday Storewide Member Sale Sunday, December 5 The Washington Chorus - Christmas with the Washington Chorus Thursday, December 9, 7 p.m. OLIVER SACKS Thursday, December 9, 7 p.m. EMMA DONOGHUE Click here to see more of our Signed Event Books. Also, for only $1.50 additional per book, Politics & Prose now offers an Archival Book Covering Service. Click here to add this item to your order, or add a note in the comments field when you check out online - or tell the cashier over the phone or at the store. These clear acid-free archival book covers will keep your signed, first-edition, and collectible books in perfect condition for years to come! |
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P&P CUSTOMERS ARE ALSO INVITED TO. . . | |||||||
Thursday, December 2, 6:30 p.m.
JACQUELINE JULES Friday, December 3, 7:30 p.m.
EDWARD P. JONES - ALL AUNT HAGAR'S CHILDREN Click here to buy $15 tickets and for more information. Monday, December 6, 7 p.m.
THOMAS KAUFMAN Emmy-winning director and cameraman Thomas Kaufman will present and sign his private eye mystery novel, which takes place in Washington, DC and provides a riveting tale of the adventures of private eye Willis Gidney. The book won the Private Eye Writers' of America "Best First Private Eye Novel" award. Publishers Weekly called the novel "a taut, compelling tale." Booklist said that the book's dialogue is "clever and often quirky" and that "fans of private eye novels will love this one." For information about this FREE event, contact please call 240-773-9555. Wednesday, December 8, 7:30 p.m.
WILLIAM ALBERT ALLARD Co-sponsored by Booz Allen Hamilton. Click here to buy $18 tickets (3-part series $48); NG Member: $16 (3-part series: $42). Friday, December 10, 2 p.m.
CAROL ERON RIZZOLI Carol Rizzoli has taught at Boston University, served as book editor for The Washington Post, and was a managing editor of publications for the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Hugo Rizzoli owned The Bookstall in Potomac for twenty years and then trained as a chef before starting a catering business and bringing his skills to the new B&B venture. Please sign up in advance for this FREE event by calling the Village Center at 301-656-2797.
Monday, December 13, 7 p.m.
Click here to purchase the book and receive 2 FREE tickets through Sixth & I, or to buy $8 tickets. Tickets at the door will be $10. Questions. Call 202.408.3100.
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FROM THE CHILDREN AND TEENS' DEPARTMENT | |||||||
Join Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and your other favorite DC SUPER HEROES and villains as they spring into action from THE ULTIMATE POP-UP BOOK (Little, Brown, $29.99). Critically acclaimed pop-up engineer Matthew Reinhart devotes a two-page spread to each hero, including miniature pop-up books within the book that describe and illustrate the heroes’ origins, weaknesses, friends, and enemies. The action on the last page rises about one foot off the page, and contains a legend of characters. Ages 5 and up. Heidi Powell
Story time takes a hiatus during the winter holiday season. For upcoming events and more from the Children and Teens' Department, click here.
Click here to access the teen blog.
SIGNED FIRST EDITION CHILDREN’S BOOK CLUB Did you miss out on buying a first edition Harry Potter book when J.K. Rowling was at Politics and Prose in 1999? Would you want a signed first edition, first printing of a new book by Chris Van Allsburg, Peter Sis, or David Wiesner? Now you can sign up to have a first edition, first printing of a newly released children’s or young adult book delivered each month directly to your - or another collector’s – doorstep. You can also save on shipping if you pick your book up at the store. There is no enrollment fee. The cost of each book ($30 or less, when including shipping) is the only charge, which will be processed every month when the books arrive at Politics & Prose. P&P members will receive 20% off on all selections. If you are not currently a member, we encourage you to register for a membership. You will save in the long run, and also receive all of the other member benefits - discounts on bestsellers, author event books, our notifications of the events by mail and email, the opportunity to participate in our four annual storewide member sales, and other discount promotions. Our current selection is: December: ART AND MAX signed by David Wiesner (Clarion, $17.99) But if you order now you can still also get the November selection: ZEN GHOSTS signed by Jon Muth (Scholastic, $17.99) You may enroll in the program for six or twelve months at a time. And into the coming year, you can be sure that we will continue to select books to cherish for years to come! To this end, for an extra $1.50, you can choose to have us protect your book in an acid-free archival book cover.
Call 202-363-1919 or email Amy Kane at the store for more information, or sign up online by clicking here. AND TO GO WITH A SIGNED BOOK GIFT SUBSCRIPTION Our irresistible children’s bookends ($20, $28, $38) are handmade by a small locally owned business in Hagerstown, Maryland. They are made of multi-ply birch and painted with nontoxic acrylic paint. They come in three sizes, many styles and colors. Click here to see a larger selection and to order online. |
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MARKDOWN BOOKS | |||||||
A book billed as “inspiring” that truly is, THE BOY WHO HARNESSED THE WIND: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope is William Kamkwamba’s story of growing up in an impoverished village in Malawi. It was a very windy village, however, and as a resourceful 14-year-old interested in science, Kamkwamba set to work on building a windmill. As he struggled to realize his dream, he and his family also struggled through famine and he himself was criticized and mocked by people who had no faith that his project—constructed with whatever discarded odds and ends he could find—would ever amount to anything. In fact, he revolutionized his community. Available in paperback, $4.98. What better time than the holidays to go back to tried-and-true favorite books? Virginia Woolf’s MRS. DALLOWAY broke new ground in literary history with its day-in-the-life of an ordinary upper-class British woman. The narrative follows Clarissa Dalloway as she does errands and prepares for a dinner party; Woolf’s keen observations of the sights and sounds of London, her insight into how a mind transforms sensations into thoughts, and her way of making the passing time a series of charged “moments of being,” made this a novel unlike any before it. It continues to electrify readers, whether they come to it for the first or the fourth time. Available in paperback, $5.98. Click here to browse other remainders that have recently become available.
• Laurie Greer |
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Music News |
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HOLIDAY CD PICKS I've put together an annotated list of new holiday CDs, as well as a roundup of favorites and classics from past years. The list can be viewed here.
Here are four of my new favorites: Matt Wilson, MATT WILSON'S CHRISTMAS TREE-O (Palmetto, $16.98)—Drummer Matt Wilson has come up with some of the wittiest arrangements of holiday favorites. Every cut is a winner, from the beloved chestnuts to lesser known treats ("Happy Xmas [War is Over]" and "Mele Kalikimaka"). Wilson's trio uses a palette of sound: reedman Jeff Lederer plays saxophones and clarinets galore, plus piccolo and toy piano, and bassist Paul Sikivie holds down the bottom. Fun and fresh. Pink Martini, JOY TO THE WORLD (Heinz, $15.98)—The "little" big band, Pink Martini, has always arranged songs with wit and inventiveness, and lead singer, China Forbes, can sing in many languages. Expect the same treatment on their holiday disc: Two versions—one Japanese—of "White Christmas" start the proceedings (complete with the seldom-sung verse), and a wild Brazilian version of "Auld Lang Syne" ends things on rousing note. Forbes does the sultry "Santa Baby," and a conga-driven "Little Drummer Boy." I guarantee you'll hear songs that are on no other holiday disc—sung in Hebrew, Arabic, Ukrainian, Ladino, Chinese, German, and Italian (Verdi!). Have a Pink Martini Christmas! Kate Rusby, SWEET BELLS (Pure Records, $14.98)—Singer Kate Rusby hails from south Yorkshire, and brings some wonderful arrangements of traditional songs (and writes a few new ones), backed by a jaunty band of guitar, bass, and diatonic accordion—and a brass quintet on some numbers. Rusby also takes familiar lyrics and puts them with new melodies, such as a slow version of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," and the two treatments of "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks."
Anonymous 4, THE CHERRY TREE (Harmonia Mundi, $18.98)—The four women of Anonymous 4 bring their crystalline voices to songs and carols both from medieval England and colonial American inspired by the miracle ballad, "The Cherry Tree Carol." Anonymous 4 will be in concert on December 16, at the Kennedy Center. KIRILL GERSTEIN & TABEA ZIMMERMANN Earlier this year, Russian pianist Kirill Gerstein won the Gilmore Artist Award, given every four years to a pianist in the early stages of a career (the previous three winners were Ingrid Fliter, Piotr Anderszewski, and Leif Ove Andsnes—very good company, indeed). His first recital album appeared recently, LISZT, SCHUMANN, KNUSSEN (Myrios Classics, $17.99). An even newer recital is by violist Tabea Zimmermann with Mr. Gerstein, BRAHMS, CLARKE, VIEUXTEMPS: SONATAS FOR VIOLA & PIANO, VOL. 1 (Myrios Classics, $17.99). Ms Zimmermann's first recital, SOLO (Myrios Classics, $18.98), which paired two of Bach's cello suites (played on the viola) with Max Reger was one of my favorite CDs from last year. Here, she champions the lovely 1919 Sonata by Rebecca Clarke (which has a fascinating story behind it), as well as sonatas by Henri Vieuxtemps and the viola version of Johannes Brahms's Op. 120, originally written for clarinet and piano. I got to see and hear Ms Zimmermann play in the Arcanto String Quartet this fall, and her sound is amazing. The Quartet also has a recent album, RAVEL, DEBUSSY, DUTTILEUX (Harmonia Mundi, $18.98). LIVE: LINN BARNES & ALLISON HAMPTON FOLGER CONSORT & THE TALLIS SCHOLARS
Lutenist Linn Barnes and Celtic harpist Allison Hampton celebrate 25 years of their annual Celtic Christmas show at Dumbarton Church in Georgetown on two weekends: December 4, 5, 11 & 12, Linn & Allison have a new CD just out, FANTASIES AND INVENTIONS (Oak Leaf, $16.99) Next weekend, for five performances, two great ensembles—the Folger Consort and the Tallis Scholars—team up for A Renaissance Christmas, an evening of English music from the mid-16th to the late 17th centuries, including selections by Purcell, Byrd, Taverner, and Gibbons. The dates are December 10 through December 12, at Georgetown University's Gaston Hall. Check out two great seasonal recordings, the Conort's A MEDIEVAL CHRISTMAS (Bard, $11.98), and the double-CD set, CHRISTMAS WITH THE TALLIS SCHOLARS (Gimell, $19.98). HANUKKAH SUGGESTION One of the most original collections of many years is back in stock: BLACK SABBATH: THE SECRET MUSICAL HISTORY OF BLACK-JEWISH RELATIONS (Idelsohn Society, CD & book, $14.98) assembles an extraordinary cast of Black entertainers singing Jewish-themed and Yiddish songs. The set (which comes with a beautiful 5x7 paperback book of essays, pictures and notes) has many hightlights: Johnny Mathis's moving "Kol Nidre," arranged by Percy Faith; Billie Holiday's "My Yiddishe Momme;" Jimmy Scott's slow, ballad-tempo take on "Exodus;" Lena Horne's protest song, "Now," sung to the tune of "Hava Nagila." There are terrific songs performed by Cab Calloway, Eartha Kitt, Aretha Franklin, Slim Gaillard, Nina Simone, Cannonball Adderley, and the Temptations (with a Fiddler on the Roof medley). NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday interviewed Johnny Mathis and compiler Josh Kun on the project. Click here to here the interview. BEST OF LISTS Annual best-of lists have started appearing. I wrote about Gramophone Magazine's awards last month; we have many of those titles on display with their respective reviews. Now the five classical music critics of the New York Times have weighed in. Their Gift Guide is here, and, once again, I'll display many of these recordings with the reviews.
A reminder: members of the Washington Chorus will be caroling in front of the store this Sunday, December 5, between 4 and 5 p.m. They have a brand new holiday CD, CHRISTMAS WITH THE WASHINGTON CHORUS (Dorian, $16.99). Click here for more news and reviews. Please call us at 202-364-1919 or email me at agoldinger@politics-prose.com to order these CDs.
• András Goldinger
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BOOK GROUPS |
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Politics & Prose currently hosts sixteen different book groups in the store each month.
Thursday, December 9, 7:30 p.m.
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NEWS FROM THE COFFEEHOUSE |
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Friday, December 3, 7:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.
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