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Click here for our events calendar to preview upcoming events through the end of June.
Members always save 20% on author event books and titles included in other special promotions. Click here to register! |
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Thursday, May 5
10:30 a.m. Tom Lichtenheld - Cloudette
7 p.m. Michael and Audrey Levatino - The Joy of Hobby Farming: Grow Food, Raise Animals, and Enjoy a Sustainable Life
Friday, May 6
10:30 a.m. Robbin Gourley - First Garden: The White House Garden and How It Grew
7 p.m. Alexi Zentner - Touch
Saturday, May 7
1 p.m. Sophia Rosenfeld - Common Sense: A Political History
6 p.m. Miranda Kennedy - Sideways on a Scooter: Life and Love in India
Sunday, May 8 - Mother's Day - NO EVENTS
Monday, May 9
7 p.m. Geraldine Brooks - Caleb's Crossing @ Sixth & I Historic Synagogue
Tuesday, May 10
7 p.m. Melissa Fay Greene - No Biking in the House Without a Helmet |
Wednesday, May 11
7 p.m. Adam Hochschild - To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918
Thursday, May 12
7 p.m. Lauren Myracle - Shine @ Bethesda Library
7 p.m. Alexis Madrigal - Powering the Dream: The History and Promise of Green Technology
Friday, May 13
7 p.m. David Bezmozgis - The Free World
Saturday, May 14
1 p.m. Brian Till - Conversations With Power: What Great Presidents and Prime Ministers Can Teach Us about Leadership
6 p.m. Frederick Kempe - Berlin, 1961: Kennedy, Khruschev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth
Sunday, May 15
1 p.m. Amy Stolls - The Ninth Wife
5 p.m. Marc Kaufman - First Contact: Scientific Breakthroughs in the Hunt for Life Beyond Earth
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LETTER FROM BARBARA |
Over the weekend, I was inescapably pulled into a new novel. You may have seen Marie Arana's Washington Post review, and I also must add my endorsement. Set against the macrocosm of the Great Partition, Anuradha Roy’s characters are both Hindu and Muslim coexisting in a common nation before they are dislocated into separate Hindu and Muslim states. The author is a young Indian woman with impressive scholarly credentials who is also a publisher of academic books in New Delhi. It consequently came as a big surprise to me that her new book, AN ATLAS OF IMPOSSIBLE LONGING (Free Press, $14), is an absorbing gothic tale. From the very beginning, where the narrator invokes a scene colored by "darkening sepia," in which a decaying family mansion built long ago on the banks of a local river is slowly being flooded by the river’s rising waters. Living in the crumbling structure are a couple recently arrived from Calcutta with their young son. Within the immediate vicinity are abundant gothic props, an ancient fort and a graveyard of skeletons.
Overwhelmed by loneliness, the wife will go insane, and the son will marry a woman who dies in childbirth, leaving him to care for his baby daughter. In time, he will impulsively visit a local orphanage and adopt a young man of unknown lineage and caste. As the two children approach puberty, they discover abundant mutual pleasures, including forbidden love with overtones of incest. There are loads of villains and distressed maidens, surprise disappearances, frequent deceptions, and prophetic palm readers, plenty to fill a whole weekend of reading, and if you liked Rebecca and Wuthering Heights, you’ll love this new paperback original. - Barbara Meade
MEMBER DISCOUNTS ON GARDENING BOOKS
Politics & Prose often will extend a special discount for members on a particular section of the store. As spring is here, we are offering 20% off on all gardening books. Whether instructional or inspirational, photographic or descriptive, if it's in our gardening section and you are a member, you will save 20%. And mark your calendars, our next storewide member sale is June 3-5!
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DAVID'S DELIBERATIONS
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A MOTHER'S DAY TRIBUTE
We all know that Carla loved books and loved to read. Her wide ranging taste encompassed novels, memoirs and history.
We shared the joy of many books in our 52 year marriage. On the eve of Mother's Day, I want to list a fraction of those that mattered so much to us.
Middlemarch by George Eliot
We loved the multiple plots, the large cast of characters, the action that took place around the status of women, the nature of marriage. We were drawn to the tensions between idealism and self-interest, religion and hypocrisy, and the political reform in that vital period after the death of George IV when the Reform Act of 1832 incrementally enlarged the electorate. We felt lucky to read it again as adults and thought it was wasted on us as high school students.
No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The American Homefront During World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin
This Pulitzer Prize Winner has us delving into their public and personal lives of a marriage. Mrs Roosevelt, working to keep the lights of social justice alive, as FDR had to be Dr. Win the War. We rooted hard for Eleanor Roosevelt.
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin
This is a recognized stellar book on Lincoln's political leadership and two people whom Lincoln helped raise to outstanding leadership: Secretary of State Seward and Secretary of War Stanton. Lincoln's leadership sublimated huge ambitions and egos into a common purpose and left the lesser lights to be ensnared in their own limitations.
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Carla was usually not a fan of short stories. Jhumpa Lahiri's writing was an exception. These nine short stories contrasted the conflicts between the culture Indian immigrants brought from South Asia and the challenges they faced in the United States. Lahiri masterfully deals with the distances immigration to America created among families and between married couples. Over the years, Carla and I drew pleasure from many South Asian novelists, living both in the subcontinent and the diaspora.
All Will Be Well by John McGahern
This is McGahern's memoir. Like his fiction, which we both loved, it's full of Irish fields and rivers, communities and neighborhoods. The memoir is sad and dark as McGahern's mother dies of cancer when he is twelve. His father, a policeman stationed in barracks, is emotionally distant, volatile and violent. Even as an adult McGahern writes about feeling "safe in his mother's shadow" long after her death.
A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz
This is Oz's autobiography that centers on his mother's suicide and his rejection of his family's right-wing Zionism as Oz becomes a Labor Zionist. To this day, I read him as a voice for peace, who, with A. B. Yehoshua, David Grossman and Meir Shalev, represents the moral voice that the prophets of old represented.
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
Wallace Stegner believed that Carla played a major role in having him recognized as a national fiction writer, not a regional one, as so many of the New York literati had him pigeon holed. Lyman Ward, writing about his frontier grandparents, deals with the hardship of that western life as Susan Ward his grandmother wants to return east as a success. There is plot, finely drawn characters, gaps to interpret and a story of restlessness, movement, dissatisfaction and staying together.
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
We have a story of friendship, loyalty and love between two couples. Larry and Sally Morgan are people with limited economic resources, while Charity and Sid Lang seem to have everything. Charity is academically ambitious while her husband wants to write poetry, an activity that moves him away from the ambition track. She encourages Larry to write. The couple's friendships last through their lifetime as their life cycles encounter tragic moments. Their friendship endures as does their loyalty to each other.
A Happy Marriage by Rafael Yglesias
Happiness is banal for Yglesias. The couple is happy because they are there for each other. The wife faces death from cancer, and her husband is physically, emotionally and psychologically present to meet her needs. Each has to accept that her days are coming to an end. The reflection of their past absorbs the couple, and they recognize why they had a happy marriage, accepting each other in their tensions and difficult moments and feeling deeply their joyous times.
- David Cohen
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MORE GIFT SUGGESTIONS |
BOOK-A-MONTH
"Without a doubt, the Book-a-Month Program is the best gift I have ever received -- and monthly, I am reminded of how happy I am to have received it."
Need the perfect gift for a reader in your life? Enroll a lucky person in our Book-a-Month Program! Each month, our staff will choose and send a book anywhere in the world to the person of your choice.
Everything is tailored to each person's individual tastes! We carefully select each book based on the information you provide: your reader's interests and hobbies, and their favorite books and writers. We are happy to correspond with your gift recipient to discuss book selections and areas of literary interest.
Click here to read what our subscribers are saying about the program!
Sign up on our website, or download this enrollment form and email it to our coordinators at Bookamonth@politics-prose.com.
SIGNED FIRST EDITIONS CLUB
Join the P&P Signed First Editions Club to receive exclusive, autographed first printings of the most exciting upcoming titles. Past featured writers include Jonathan Franzen, Nicole Krauss, Ian Frazier, Salman Rushdie, Colm Toibin, and Tea Obreht. See all previous signed first edition selections here.
This spring we're excited to bring you new books by Adam Hochschild and Ann Patchett. P&P members receive 20% off on all selections.
Click here to sign up online or to read more about the program!
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BOOK NOTES |
PEN World Voices Literary Festival
International PEN is a worldwide association of writers founded in 1926 to promote freedom of expression and friendship among writers. Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the PEN World Voices Literary Festival, which took place in New York CIty hosted by the PEN American Center and Festival Chair Salman Rushdie. Readings and panel discussions occurred throughout the week, and it was exciting to witness the action.
 In one of his talks, Rushdie reflected how contentious the first gathering was in 1986. He recalled a sense back then that writers were at the center of the national argument and public debate. As he remembered it, a whole generation of authors very consciously looked for their public voices and felt they had a role to play in starting a conversation between America and the rest of the world. They acknowledged that the political realities might not have to be the realities, and they actively engaged with each other and society at large to participate in the debate. He wondered why that no longer seemed to be the case, why imaginative literary and artistic culture often seems to censor itself, and wondered what might be done. He admonished that there continue to be parts of the world where artists, writers, and filmmakers are restricted in their expression; and we in America often forget both the privilege that we have in this freedom, and the responsibility that this entails. He observed that authors and politicians are often at odds because they have visions for improving the world, but these aspirations for molding society come into collision.
There were many other highlights, but to me, one of the most fascinating was listening to Little, Brown editor Michael Pietsch converse with Rick Moody and Sandro Veronesi about THE PALE KING, by David Foster Wallace (Little, Brown, $27.99), his political and moral goals as he stretched the possibilities of the novel as a genre, and the humanity that he conveys upon even the faceless drones in the hated Internal Revenue Service.
Click here for more.
- Andrew Getman
ANNOUNCEMENTS
REGISTER YOUR BOOK GROUP TITLES ONLINE
Registering your book group titles with P&P allows your participants to receive a 20% discount on the books you are reading. You can now register your group's books online!
Registering online is quick and easy. All you need is your group's name, the date of the meeting, the title and author of the book, the number of people you expect will purchase the book in our store, and a way for us to contact you if we have any questions regarding your order; then just visit this link. You can bookmark the page for repeated visits.
As always, you're welcome to register your books by calling the store at 202-364-1919, by e-mailing your requests to bookgroups@politics-prose.com, or by visiting us in person.
HELP US GET A CAPITAL BIKESHARE STATION!
Capital Bikeshare is a project of the DC Department of Transportation (DDOT) that allows users to rent bikes from stations across Washington, DC and Arlington, VA. Bikes may be rented for any length of time and returned to any station. Many of our staff members and patrons use Capital Bikeshare; unfortunately, the closest bike depot is located at the Van Ness/UDC Metro.
The corner of Nebraska and Connecticut is a finalist for DDOT’s planned expansion of 25 new Bikeshare stations. We would love to offer this additional form of transportation to our staff, friends, and patrons who are looking for a convenient and reliable way to travel to and from our store and the neighborhood. You can read more about the Capital Bikeshare expansion here.
DDOT is interested in resident feedback about proposed stations. Please send an email to ddot.bikeshare@dc.gov to say that you support a Bikeshare station at Nebraska and Connecticut!
To make it especially easy, you can use or adapt this prepared text!
I am writing to express my strong support for the proposed Capital Bikeshare station at the intersection of Connecticut and Nebraska avenues NW. The CaBi program is an important way of increasing the reach, resilience and sustainability of the region’s transportation system. The 5000 block of Connecticut Ave NW is a vivid example of location that would benefit immediately from a new station and in turn benefit existing CaBi users by connecting them with literary, culinary and cultural offerings.
The 5000 block of Connecticut Ave NW hosts Politics & Prose Bookstore; Modern Times Coffeehouse; Marvelous Market; Jake’s American Grill; Buck’s Fishing and Camping; Comet Pizza & Ping Pong; and more. Limited transit access and inadequate parking, however, thwart access to these local businesses. On-street and commercial free parking regularly overflow, channeling cars into surrounding residential streets. Many customers, residents and employees would like to commute or shop using Bikeshare, but the nearest station is nearly a mile away at the Van Ness-UDC metro stop. The proposed station at Connecticut and Nebraska is part of a solution to these problems of access and capacity, and part of a better, greener DC. Please make it a reality.
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PODCAST OF THE WEEK
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Two Mysteries for Moms!
Donna Leon spoke about Drawing Conclusions (Atlantic Monthly, $24) at Politics & Prose on April 11, 2011.
Leon’s Commissario Guido Brunetti has earned legions of followers since he appeared on the scene in 1992. In his twentieth case he investigates the sudden death of a widow. The authorities say she died of a heart attack, but Brunetti is sure there’s more to it, and he’s determined to find out what really killed her.
Click here to listen to (or download) the podcast.
Jacqueline Winspear visited P&P on April 2, 2011 to speak about her book, A Lesson in Secrets (Harper, $25.99).
Winspear’s eighth Maisie Dobbs novel finds the former World War I nurse/psychologist turned private-investigator going under cover as a philosophy instructor. It’s 1932 and the government is monitoring the activities of a possibly subversive pacifist who runs a school. Maisie joins the faculty, someone is murdered, and it's up to her to solve the case.
Click here to listen to (or download) the podcast.
We record nearly every in-store author event. You can listen to our current selection of author event recordings here, or click here to browse and download more MP3s. If you would like to request a CD or MP3 recording from a past event which is not already posted, send an email to Wendy Brown.
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TICKETED EVENT ON SALE NOW
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Monday, May 9, 7 p.m.
Geraldine Brooks - Caleb's Crossing @ Sixth & I Historic Synagogue
As she did in her People of the Book, Brooks again transforms a suggestive historical nugget into a rich, fascinating novel. In 1665, Caleb, a Wampanoag from Martha’s Vineyard, became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard. As narrated by Bethia—herself denied an education in her patriarchal Puritan community—Caleb’s is a powerful story of soaring aspirations and constraining realities.
Click here to buy $10 tickets ($12 on the day of and at the door), or receive two free admission tickets with the purchase of each book.
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NEW IN PAPERBACK
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Gary Shteyngart's satire Super Sad True Love Story (Random House, $15) describes America in a not-so-improbable future. The economy has collapsed, the dollar is pegged to the yuan, life-extension is the rage, 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. His dystopic vision is both tragic and comic as we follow Lenny Abramov, the balding and cholesterol-heavy protagonist, in his pursuit of an unlikely and perhaps entirely unsuitable love interest. - Andrew Getman
It would be a shame, librarian and Book Lust author Nancy Pearl remarked on NPR, if the masterful Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay (Roc, $16) is shelved only under Sci-Fi/Fantasty, where ardent fans of historical fiction might never find his work. Gorgeously written and impeccably researched, Under Heaven depicts the rich, teeming universe of the Tang Dynasty in 8th-century China (known in this book as “Kitai”). Kay seamlessly blends history and fantasy, magic and myth, in this tale of assassins, scholars, warriors, poets, ruthless courtiers, Machiavellian politicians, and ghosts. Among the best characters are the women, who fuel their world (and the novel) with intelligence and strength. - Elizabeth Sher
John Vaillant's The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival (Vintage, $15) won British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. The jury described The Tiger as "a chilling adventure" and "a page-turner that in the end brings us to understand the tiger, probably the most intelligent super-predator in the world. Superbly written and highly enlightening, this is a gripping story about a man in conflict with nature." The Washington Post also chose The Tiger as one of its ten best books of 2010. Although describing a subject I ordinarily would never choose to read, Vaillant is such a gifted storyteller that he immediately converts a distracted mind into one that is passionately engaged. - Barbara Meade
The first Dickensian rock ’n’ roll memoir has arrived! Keith Richards's LIFE (Back Bay, $16.99), written with James Fox, has the classic rags-to-riches narrative, the epic musical highs and drug-induced lows, dozens and dozens of memorable characters, and a rollicking authorial voice that’s spellbinding. (Each chapter begins with a Victorian summary of astounding events to come.) Over a nearly fifty-year career with the Rolling Stones, Richards has co-written some of the greatest songs, and created some of the most memorable guitar riffs in rock history, and he has many tales to tell. From teenaged obsessions with T-Bone Walker and Chuck Berry, to infamous tours, busts, and feuds, Richards remembers it all, and humorously introduces other voices for some corroboration. “Hail, hail, rock ‘n’ roll!” - András Goldinger
Click here to see more recently released paperbacks, both Fiction and Non-Fiction.
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P&P BESTSELLERS
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All Politics & Prose Weekly Hardcover Bestsellers are 20% off for Members.
Click the book titles for more information about these featured books.
Bookmark www.politics-prose.com/bestsellers/hardcover-fiction and www.politics-prose.com/bestsellers/hardcover-nonfiction for our weekly discounted bestsellers.
Click here to receive the benefits of Politics & Prose membership.
FICTION
- Field Gray, by Philip Kerr (Putnam, $26.95)
- The Tiger's Wife, by Téa Obreht (Random House, $25)
- Drawing Conclusions, by Donna Leon (Atlantic Monthly, $24)
- The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain (Ballantine, $25)
- The Love of My Youth, by Mary Gordon (Pantheon, $25.95)
- Say Her Name, by Francisco Goldman (Grove, $24)
- The Pale King, by David Foster Wallace (Little, Brown, $27.99)
- Horoscopes for the Dead: Poems, by Billy Collins (Random House, $24)
- The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party: The New No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Novel, by Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon, $24.95)
- She Walks in Beauty: A Woman's Journey Through Poems, by Caroline Kennedy (Hyperion, $24.99)
- An Evil Eye, by Jason Goodwin (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $26)
- The Complaints, by Ian Rankin (Reagan Arthur, $24.99)
Click here for our paperback fiction bestsellers.
NONFICTION
- Bossypants, by Tina Fey (Reagan Arthur, $26.99)
- The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution, by Francis Fukuyama (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $35)
- America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation, by David Goldfield (Bloomsbury, $35)
- Tangled Webs: How False Statements are Undermining America: From Martha Stewart to Bernie Madoff, by James B. Stewart (Penguin Press, $29.95)
- The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement, by David Brooks (Random House, $27)
- The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, by Siddhartha Mukherjee (Scribner, $30)
- Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, by Laura Hillenbrand (Random House, $27)
- Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, by Manning Marable (Viking, $30)
- Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef, by Gabrielle Hamilton (Random House, $26)
- Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, by Joshua Foer (Penguin Press, $26.95)
- Our Haggadah: Uniting Traditions for Interfaith Families, by Cokie Roberts and Steven V. Roberts (HarperCollins, $19.99)
- 1861: The Civil War Awakening, by Adam Goodheart (Knopf, $28.95)
Click here for our paperback non-fiction bestsellers. |
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COMING SOON 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.
P&P members save 20% on all of these event titles.
Click www.politics-prose.com/event for our author events calendar through June.
Thursday, May 5
Tom Lichtenheld - Cloudette
10:30 a.m. This enchanting book from the bestselling illustrator of Duck! Rabbit! and Shark vs. Train features Cloudette, a smaller than average cloud who longs to grow bigger and throw lightning, show off rainbows, and make enormous storms. When she discovers a world that needs just enough rain, Cloudette turns a mud puddle into a pond to the delight of the resident frogs. Ages 3-6
Michael and Audrey Levatino - The Joy of Hobby Farming: Grow Food, Raise Animals, and Enjoy a Sustainable Life
7 p.m. Proprietors of a twenty-three acre farm near Gordonsville, VA, the authors grow vegetables, raise livestock, and participate in local farmers’ markets all while supporting their rural lifestyle with outside careers. Michael and Audrey’s primer offers advice on the nuts and bolts of small-scale, modern agriculture, from compost to tractors, berries to cut flowers.
Buy a copy of the book, attend the event, and enter to win farm-fresh products such as eggs, honey, llamanure soil amendment, homemade jam or flowers.
Friday, May 6
Robbin Gourley - First Garden: The White House Garden and How It Grew
10:30 a.m. Michelle Obama started the White House kitchen garden in 2009, the first vegetable garden on the grounds since Eleanor Roosevelt’s World War II Victory Garden. Gourley gives a colorful and informative tour of the First Garden in prose and drawings and includes delicious recipes children will love. Ages 5-8.
Alexi Zentner - Touch
7 p.m. An accomplished short story-writer, Zentner’s haunting first novel is set in northern Canada. Stephen, an Anglican priest, holds vigil for his dying mother and is overwhelmed with memories of his youth. Zentner’s evocative prose balances the somber occasion with powerful descriptions of logging, woodland spirits, and unforgettable characters.
Saturday, May 7
Sophia Rosenfeld - Common Sense: A Political History
1 p.m. Before the idea of common sense became integral to popular democracy and the American spirit thanks to Tom Paine, it had played a varied role in Europe during the Enlightenment and the Age of Revolutions. In her history of populist wisdom as a political tool, Rosenfeld, a history professor and author of A Revolution in Language, shows that it has been as manipulable as any other ideal.
Miranda Kennedy - Sideways on a Scooter: Life and Love in India
6 p.m. As a journalist working in New Delhi for five years, Kennedy experienced the fast pace of a vibrant modern city where, beneath the Westernized surface, a traditional culture continued to exert a strong hold, especially for women. Kennedy’s memoir introduces several Indian women she knew and recounts how they negotiated old and new rules of behavior.
Sunday, May 8
Mother's Day - NO EVENTS
Come into the store to see our recommendations for Mother’s Day gifts, or click here to see our suggestions online
Monday, May 9
Geraldine Brooks - Caleb's Crossing
at
Sixth & I Historic Synagogue
7 p.m. As she did in her People of the Book, Brooks again transforms a suggestive historical nugget into a rich, fascinating novel. In 1665, Caleb, a Wampanoag from Martha’s Vineyard, became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard. As narrated by Bethia—herself denied an education in her patriarchal Puritan community—Caleb’s is a powerful story of soaring aspirations and constraining realities.
Click here to buy $10 tickets ($12 on the day of and at the door), or receive two free admission tickets with the purchase of each book.
Tuesday, May 10
Melissa Fay Greene - No Biking in the House Without a Helmet
7 p.m. In There is No Me Without You, Greene told the moving story of AIDS orphans in Ethiopia. Her new memoir is a humorous, and no less affecting, account of her own experiences with adoption; she and her husband have nine children, five of them adopted, one from Bulgaria, and the others from Ethiopia. How this group has formed a family makes for a lively, loving book.
Wednesday, May 11
Adam Hochschild - To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918
7 p.m. Hochschild’s history of World War I focuses on those who had the courage to speak out against the conflict. Along with setting the social and political context and charting the course of the war, he profiles the pacifists and conscientious objectors who suffered derision, imprisonment, and torture for their convictions.
Thursday, May 12
Lauren Myracle - Shine
at the Bethesda Library
7 p.m. This mystery by the author of the IM Girls trilogy follows sixteen-year-old Cat as she tries to determine who is behind a hate crime perpetrated against her friend. To get to the truth, Cat risks the alienation of her small Southern town. Ages 14 and up.
Alexis Madrigal - Powering the Dream: The History and Promise of Green Technology
7 p.m. Many of the ideas currently being considered for renewable energy sources aren’t new. As Madrigal, Atlantic senior editor, reminds us, electric cars were on the road in the 1890s, and solar-powered heaters warmed California water before World War I. In looking back, Madrigal looks forward, showing how we can learn from the past for a truly sustainable energy future.
Friday, May 13
David Bezmozgis - The Free World
7 p.m. Bezmozgis earned acclaim with his book of linked stories, Natasha, and was named one of The New Yorker’s twenty young writers to watch. His first novel is the powerful story of the Krasnaskys, Soviet Jews who leave the USSR in 1978. Each family member has his or her own set of ambivalences and fears about emigration, and as they wait in Rome to see where they will go next, Bezmozgis skillfully ratchets up the personal and political stakes.
Saturday, May 14
Brian Till - Conversations With Power: What Great Presidents and Prime Ministers Can Teach Us about Leadership
1 p.m. Inspired by leaders such as Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and Vaclav Havel, Till, a young journalist and researcher at the New America Foundation, set out to meet these people. He did, and the conversations he had with them—along with many other world leaders and Nobel laureates—are illuminating looks at public life.
Frederick Kempe - Berlin, 1961: Kennedy, Khruschev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth
6 p.m. The Berlin Crisis was overshadowed by the Cuban Missile Crisis, but Kempe, former Wall Street Journal columnist and editor, argues that it was more decisive in shaping later Cold War developments. Drawing on documents and extensive interviews, Kempe recreates the chilling moment when Soviet and American troops faced each other directly, just yards apart.
Sunday, May 15
Amy Stolls - The Ninth Wife
1 p.m. An accomplished author of novels for young adults, Stolls here shifts to an older age group with a story about marriage. Bess has just gotten engaged and is shocked to learn that her intended has eight former wives. Desperate to understand him, she sets out on a cross-country trip to meet each of her fiancé’s erstwhile spouses.
Marc Kaufman - First Contact: Scientific Breakthroughs in the Hunt for Life Beyond Earth
5 p.m. Once thought inhospitable to living creatures, glaciers, volcanoes, and other extreme habitats in fact do harbor life, so why not the universe beyond Earth? Kaufman follows a range of scientists, from geologists and physicists to astrobiologists, explaining the challenges and theories of the search for extraterrestrial life.
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P&P CUSTOMERS ARE ALSO INVITED TO . . .
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Saturday, May 7, 7 p.m.
The 31st Annual PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Ceremony
Folger Shakespeare Theater
201 East Capitol Street SE
Celebrate literature in this festive evening packed with literary rock stars! Master of Ceremonies Scott Simon will host the 31st annual PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Ceremony featuring readings by winner Deborah Eisenberg (The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg) and finalists Jennifer Egan (A Visit from the Goon Squad), Jaimy Gordon (Lord of Misrule), Eric Puchner (Model Home), and Brad Watson (Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives). The PEN/Faulkner judging panel, including Laura Furman, William Kittredge, and Helena Maria Viramontes, will deliver individual citations for each honored book, and a seated dinner will follow in the Folger Library's Old Reading Room.
Click here to purchase tickets ($100) or call the Folger Library at 202-544-7077.
Wednesday, May 11, 7:30 p.m.
 National Geographic Live
National Geographic, Grosvenor Auditorium
1600 M Street, NW
CAROL BECKWITH and ANGELA FISHER
DINKA: Legendary Cattle Keepers of Sudan (Rizzoli, $75)
Thirty years of work on the African continent have carried Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher across 270,000 miles and through remote corners of 40 countries in exploration of more than 150 African cultures. According to Beckwith and Fisher, “These unique cultures possess a wealth of knowledge that should be celebrated, shared, and honored. It is our life passion to document and create a powerful visual record of these vanishing ways of life for future generations.”
Beckwith and Fisher’s most recent book, Dinka: Legendary Cattle Keepers of Sudan¸ is the fruit of a 30-year study documenting the vanishing people in war-torn Sudan. The pair were recently awarded two prestigious awards, the Image Award of the Spanish Geographical Society for excellence in photography, and the coveted Lowell Thomas Award of the Explorers Club, given only to the world’s most distinguished explorers. A book sale and signing will follow the presentation.
Click here to purchase tickets (National Geographic Members: $16 for individual tickets or $42 for 3-Part Series tickets; General public: $18 for individual tickets or $48 for 3-Part Series tickets).
Thursday, May 12, 7:30 p.m.
 National Geographic Live
National Geographic, Grosvenor Auditorium
1600 M Street, NW
ANDREW McCARTHY in conversation with DON GEORGE
A MOVABLE FEAST: Life Changing Food Adventures Around the World (Lonely Planet, $14.99)
Andrew McCarthy, the star of Anything But Love, 2B Perfectly Honest, and St. Elmo’s Fire, is also a contributing editor for National Geographic Traveler magazine, and a contributor to the Best American Travel series. He was named 2010 Travel Writer of the Year by the Society of American Travel Writers. In the Lonely Planet anthology A Movable Feast, McCarthy shares his most memorable travel adventures. Traveler contributing editor Don George will join McCarthy in conversation. The event will be preceded by a reception at 6:30 p.m.
Co-sponsored with National Geographic Traveler magazine.
Click here to purchase tickets (National Geographic Members: $16 for individual tickets or $42 for 3-Part Series tickets; General public: $18 for individual tickets or $48 for 3-Part Series tickets).
Thursday, May 12, 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
 Book Launch Party
1130 Connecticut Ave., NW (Lobby)
FRANCES PARK and GINGER PARK
CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE: The True Story of Two Sisters, Tons of Treats, and the Little Shop That Could (Thomas Dunne Books, $23.99)
“A real life Chocolat set in the nation's capital,” sisters Frances and Ginger Park’s memoir Chocolate Chocolate embraces sisterhood, the Great American Dream, romance, the immigrant experience, and, of course, twenty-five years of chocolate love. Please RSVP at ginger@chocolatedc.com.
Thursday, May 12, 7:30 p.m.
 Friendship Heights Village Center
4433 S. Park Avenue, Chevy Chase
SARAH PEKKANEN
SKIPPING A BEAT (Washington Square Press, $15.00)
Skipping a Beat is the moving story of a marriage and the choices we make as individuals that shape our lives forever. After Michael collapses in his office of a cardiac arrest, he survives and decides to give away his multi-million dollar fortune. His wife, Julia, isn’t ready to leave their affluent lifestyle behind and must decide if she is willing to take a leap into a new life with the man she once loved.
Skipping a Beat has received rave reviews from The Washington Post to People Magazine to Oprah Winfrey. Sarah Pekkanen writes the monthly “Domestic Disturbances” column for Bethesda Magazine, and has been published in USA Today, The New Republic, The Baltimore Sun, Reader’s Digest, and heard on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” She is the author of The Opposite Of Me.
This event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP by calling the Village Center at 301-656-2797. Copies of the book, provided by Politics and Prose Bookstore, will be available for purchase.
Wednesday, May 11, 7 p.m.
 Sixth & I Historic Synagogue
600 I Street, NW
Metro: Gallery Place/Chinatown
MIKA BRZEZINSKI with Joe Scarborough
KNOWING YOUR VALUE: Women, Money, and Getting What You’re Worth (Weinstein, $22.95)
Prompted by her own experiences as co-host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski set out to talk with prominent women about their career paths and achieving value in the workplace. Weaving candid stories of her own career obstacles with the latest research on equal pay, women in the boardroom, and access to start-up capital, Brzezinski offers an essential look at the worth of women in the workplace. Mika will be in conversation with Joe Scarborough, host of Morning Joe.
Click here to buy $12 advance tickets or receive 1 FREE ticket with the purchase of the book ($23) through Sixth & I. Tickets will be $15 on the day of the event. If you have questions, please call 202.408.3100.
Monday, May 16, 7:30 p.m.
 Friendship Heights Village Center
4433 S. Park Avenue, Chevy Chase
DIANA B. HENRIQUES
THE WIZARD OF LIES: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust (Times, $30)
Ms. Henriques, a senior financial writer, has led The New York Times’s coverage of the scandal since the day the story broke. Her book on Madoff and his Ponzi scheme draws on unprecedented access and more than one hundred interviews with people at all levels and on all sides of the crime, including Madoff's first interviews for publication since his arrest.
A Polk Award winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist, Diana B. Henriques has won several awards for her coverage of the Madoff scandal and was part of the team recognized as a Pulitzer finalist for its writing of the financial crisis of 2008.
Please sign up in advance for this FREE event by calling the Village Center at 301-656-2797.
Bookmark this link for future offsite events.
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FROM THE CHILDREN AND TEENS' DEPARTMENT |
KINDERGARTEN GRADUATION GIFT BAGS
Reward your favorite kindergartener with a graduation gift bag. We’ve hand-picked some of our favorites for future voracious readers and packed them together in a brightly-colored miniature Politics and Prose tote. We’re also happy to ship your gift.
Choose from either the basic or deluxe gift bag options. Click on the titles below to read more about each book.
Kindergarten Graduation – Deluxe
Deluxe Gift Bag:
$93 – four books, one CD plus tote bag
$74 – P&P member price
Kindergarten Graduation – Basic
Basic Gift Bag:
$65 – three books plus tote bag
$52 – P&P member price
 CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THE WEEK
(20% off through May 11)
Explore the ancient world with BURIED TREASURES: Uncovering the Secrets of the Past (Abrams, $19.95). Photographer Stéphane Compoint traveled everywhere from the North Pole to Easter Island and from Ireland to Pakistan capturing images that reveal the past. Working with archaeologists and experts in the field, Compoint explains the way dinosaur fossils were reconstructed in Mongolia and how the eruption of a volcano preserved the entire city of Pompeii. A world map at the beginning highlights the breadth of sites Compoint visited, and an appendix gives biographies of the archaeologists that helped the photographer create this fascinating book. Ages 9 and up. – Dana Chidiac
Read about - and buy - more of our favorite books for children and teens by clicking here.
Monday mornings at 10:30 a.m.
STORY TIME
BearSong, the Guitar Man, leads his weekly morning story time with stories, songs, finger plays, and more for children from birth to 4 years old and their caregivers.
For upcoming events and more from the Children and Teens’ Department, click here.
Click here to access the teen blog. |
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MARKDOWN BOOKS
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An unusual dual biography, Adam Gopnik’s ANGELS AND AGES: A Short Book about Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life begins with the interesting fact that Darwin and Lincoln were both born on February 12, 1809. Both, of course, made lasting marks on history, though in very different ways, and Gopnik’s investigation into their lives and work puts each in a fresh perspective. But beyond drawing parallels between these two men—who never met—Gopnik finds fascinating similarities between their world and the one in which we live today. Available in hardcover, $7.98.
While Diana Athill, the great English editor, has written several volumes of memoirs, she came to American notice only recently with SOMEWHERE TOWARDS THE END. Age 91 at the time she published this book, Athill wanted to redress the culture’s focus on youth by talking about life from an older woman’s perspective. As she looks back to the famous authors she’s worked with (V.S. Naipul, Philip Roth) and to personal relationships, she’s refreshingly unconventional. As to what comes next—Athilll has no faith in an afterlife. This is it. Available in hardcover, $4.98.
Back in stock: Fresh from winning the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, Kay Ryan’s THE BEST OF IT: New and Selected Poems is available in the remainder section once more. Ryan, Poet Laureate from 2008-2010, writes short, taut pieces that will take you by surprise the way a riddle or an aphorism will. Her work explores the everyday world, but seldom in the way you would expect. Best of all, this new book contains Ryan's latest writing, previously unpublished in book form. Remarkably witty, accomplished, and charged from the first, these poems are as concentrated as those of Emily Dickinson. Whether posing riddles or redefining something you thought you knew, these pieces are like brilliant lightning flashes of language that change your view of the world. Ryan’s work is clever, sonic, and refreshing. Available in hardcover., $8.98.
Click here to shop for more recently acquired remainders.
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MUSIC NEWS
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TRIBUTE TO HAZEL DICKENS
Once you heard Hazel Dickens, you never forgot; her voice touched your heart, and sent chills down your spine. She sang old songs about life in Appalachia, and wrote new ones that became classics; to use the title of one of her albums, they were “hard hitting songs for hard hit people.”
Hazel Dickens had called the DC-Baltimore area home for many decades, and she died at age 75 on April 22, in Washington. I was lucky enough to hear her on a few occasions, often accompanied by Dudley Connell from the Seldom Scene—she was unforgettable. The Post had a comprehensive obit. Listen to Hazel on A FEW OLD MEMORIES (Rounder, $16.98), a compilation of some of her best songs, and her earlier duet album with Alice Gerrard, HAZEL AND ALICE (Rounder, $16.98).
My co-worker, Angela, has written a more personal tribute:
To me, Hazel Dickens has always been the sound of West Virginia. It seems as if her songs have shaped my life. My family left West Virginia when I was four. But my father was born and raised in Monongalia County and never let us forget what it means to be from Appalachian coal country; the plight of the coal miner is embedded in our blood. When I was five years old, John Sayles made Matewan, which is about the miners’ strike in Mingo County that led to the Matewan Massacre. My father bought the movie and would sit me and my brothers down to watch it at least twice a year with him. Hazel Dickens sings three songs in the film, including the theme “Fire in the Hole.” Hardly a day goes by when I don’t hear her haunting voice in my head and each time I write about West Virginia, I put on her music. So even in death, she lives on for me and many others. Her music carries a poor, but fiercely proud, state on its shoulders and we will miss her. –Angela Maria Williams
VOCAL HARMONIES: THE WARBLERS & FLEET FOXES
One of the storylines that made Glee special this season was Kurt’s conflicted exit from McKinley High. The great news was that he enrolled at Dalton Academy, and got to sing with their acapella group, the Warblers (with its hunky and talented lead vocalist, Blaine, played by Darren Criss). Now, all the Warblers’s great songs are collected on GLEE: THE MUSIC PRESENTS THE WARBLERS (Sony. $13.98). “Teenage Dream” and “Bills Bills Bills” are two of the great covers done Warblers-style.
If you want more lush harmonies, check out HELPLESSNESS BLUES (Sub Pop, $13.98) by Fleet Foxes, led by lead singer and songwriter Robin Pecknold. Gorgeous sounds.
NEW CLASSICAL
SCHUMANN: COMPLETE WORKS FOR PIANO TRIOS (EMI Classics, 2 CDs, $23.98) – Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, violinist Christian Tetzlaff, and his sister, Tanja Tetzlaff, on cello gather Robert Schumann’s piano trios on two CDs.
Jonas Kaufmann, VERISMO ARIAS (Decca, $17.98) – Caballería Rusticana, Pagliacci, Andrea Chenier, Gioconda, Adriana Lecouvreur—these are the grand melodramatic works of the Italian verismo opera. German tenor Jonas Kaufmann sings arias with the Orchestra of the Nacional Academy of St. Cecilia, conducted by Antonio Pappano.
A PERFECT MOTHER’S DAY GIFT
This CD came out a year ago, but I still can’t think of a better Mother’s Day gift.
Natalie Merchant’s LEAVE YOUR SLEEP (Nonesuch, 2 CDs, $22.98) is lovely project combining poetry and music. Ms Merchant has found mostly Victorian and early 20th-century poetry—many dealing with mothers and children—and set them to a wide variety of musical settings. Celtic, early jazz, Chinese, Klezmer, reggae, and lush string arrangements all make an appearance, to frame poems by, among others, Ogden Nash, E.E. Cummings, Robert Louis Stevenson, Christina Rossetti, Edward Lear, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Robert Graves. Lesser known poets are represented as well, and there are biographical notes on each poet in a lovely book containing the two CDs.
Click here for 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 eighteen different book groups in the store each month.
P&P’s book groups meet monthly and are free and open to the public.
These are the selections for the next week. Click the titles to read more about these books.
Thursday, May 5
Capital James Joyce Book Group
The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri (Mark Musa translation) Canto 30
June 2 selection: TBA
Monday, May 9, 7:30 p.m.
Women's Biography Book Group
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
Monday, June 13 selection: A Woman Among Warlords, by Malalai Joya
Tuesday, May 10, 7:30 p.m.
Evening Fiction Book Group
A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry
June 14 selection: Pictures at an Exhibition, by Sara Houghteling
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Lez Read Book Group
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, by Alison Bechdel
June 8 selection: The Price of Salt, by Patricia Highsmith
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Group
The Demolished Man, by Alfred Bester
June 9 selection: The City and the City, by China Mieville
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Spirituality Book Group
The Mindfulness Revolution, edited by Barry Boyce
June 19 selection: TBA
Click here to learn more about participating in these or other Politics & Prose book groups and to see the entire month of upcoming meetings.
All book-group titles are discounted 20% to participants. Please join us!
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