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Click here for our events calendar to preview upcoming events through the end of August.
Members always save 20% on author event books and titles included in other special promotions. Click here to register! |
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Thursday, June 2
7 p.m. David McCullough - The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris
at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, 600 I Street N
Friday, June 3 – Sunday, June 5
P&P SUMMER STOREWIDE MEMBER SALE
Friday, June 3
7 p.m. Oscar Hijuelos - Thoughts Without Cigarettes: A Memoir
Saturday, June 4
6 p.m. Andrew Krivak - The Sojourn
Sunday, June 5
5 p.m. Jim Axelrod - In the Long Run: A Father, a Son, and Unintentional Lessons in Happiness
Monday, June 6
7 p.m. Oran Hesterman - Fair Food: Growing a Healthy, Sustainable Food System for All
Tuesday, June 7
7 p.m. Gretchen Morgenson & Josh Rosner - Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon
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Wednesday, June 8
4 p.m. Marie-Isabelle Callier - Sarah et le petit pois & Bosses, Cabosse et Carabosse
7 p.m. Ann Patchett - State of Wonder
Thursday, June 9
7 p.m. Sugar Ray Leonard - The Big Fight: My Life In and Out of the Ring
8 p.m. Dr. Norman Rosenthal with David Lynch - Transcendence at The Avalon Theatre
Friday, June 10
7 p.m. David Ignatius - Bloodmoney
Saturday, June 11
6 p.m. Ann McLaughlin - A Trial in Summer
Sunday, June 12
1 p.m. Jacqueline Davies - The Lemonade Crime
5 p.m. Maziar Bahari - Then They Came for Me: A Family's Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival
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LETTER FROM BARBARA
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P&P SUMMER STOREWIDE MEMBER SALE
All weekend long, from Friday, June 3 to Sunday, June 5, nearly everything currently on our shelves will be discounted to Politics & Prose Members! (Some exclusions apply.) P&P members always receive 20% off purchases of event books, bestsellers, and other discounted items. The sale offers 20% discounts on almost all books currently in the store, and 15% discounts on most CDs and DVDs. Come in early to have the best selection. You may also shop with us online or by phone between June 3 and 5 and receive the same benefits! Remember, our website always is open 24 hours a day!!!
This is a great time to join our Membership Program to continue enjoying our author events, our superior book selection, and savings throughout the year!
P&P members always receive:
• 20% off all titles in our monthly events calendar
• 20% off hardcover fiction and nonfiction bestsellers
• Store-wide discounts during four annual members sales
• Other periodic section discounts and promotions
BALLOU HIGH SCHOOL LIBRARY BOOK DRIVE
During our Member Sale this weekend, we are holding a book drive in partnership with Ballou High School to help enhance the inventory selection in their school library. There was an article about the library's needs in a recent Washington Post. Michelle Jackson, the school librarian, came in Monday to create a modest wishlist of books of 29 titles from our store’s inventory. She is focusing on acquiring more non-fiction for this book drive, with particular interest in health, science, American presidents, country studies (specifically regarding France and Spain), the Holocaust, and the art of Jacob Lawrence; and a display of some of the requested books will be on the table in the Sale Book Room. During the member sale, all customers who purchase specific books for Ballou will receive a 20% discount on those books.
As part of your community, we have an interest in seeing our local public, private, and charter schools thrive. We host events for students and book fairs for schools nearly every weekend of the school year. Thank you once again for your continued participation in creating a community of readers, for visiting us throughout the year, shopping with us in the store and online, and becoming P&P members.
SUMMER NEWSLETTER, DISCOUNTS, AND STORE MEMBERSHIP
In gratitude for your patronage, we will have two Summer Newsletters this year, full of suggestions for your summer reading. If you're not already a Politics & Prose Member, we hope you'll make the commitment to join and receive the 20% member discount on all titles reviewed in these newsletters as well as discounts on our store hardcover bestseller lists (12 fiction & 12 non-fiction titles) year round; a discount on the books of all the authors appearing at the store; and our 4 annual Member Sales during which the choice is yours -- 20% off nearly everything in the store (15% off music CDs and DVDs.
Moreover, during the entire month of June, we will discount all audiobooks to our Members. Perfect accompaniment for those trips you will be taking this summer or to make your daily commute more enjoyable.
Click to read more about our Membership Program.
The printed Summer Newsletter and Children's Summer Favorites now are available in the store. Click here for downloadable copies online. Or pick one up at the Member Sale!
FATHER'S DAY GIFT BAGS
Show Dad your appreciation by treating him to a gift that he can enjoy all year with a gift bag of five superb books!
Father's Day is June 19th this year. We've selected ten exceptional books that we think are perfect for dads. To tailor the gift for the father or grandfather in your life, pick any five books that you know he'll love from these ten selections. In addition, you can choose to include either a Politics & Prose canvas tote bag or a P&P baseball cap. We will wrap each book individually and are happy to ship your gift wherever you need.
Click the titles below to learn more about each of these books.
1. Otherwise Known as the Human Condition: Selected Essays and Reviews, by Geoff Dyer
2. The New Kings of Nonfiction, edited by Ira Glass
3. Our Kind of Traitor, by John le Carre
4. Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory, by Ben Macintyre
5. The Imperfectionists, by Tom Rachman
6. Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War, by Karl Marlantes
7. Sh*t My Dad Says, by Justin Halpern
8. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, by David Grann
9. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, by Michael Lewis
10. Descartes' Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason, by Russell Shorto
Click here to buy a Father's Day Gift Bag.
Price: $100 – five books of your choice plus tote bag or cap
$80 – P&P member price
Click here for other gift suggestions for fathers.
We also recommend the gift of a Book-a-Month or enrollment in our Signed First Editions Club for books that will arrive all year long.
We also are offering High School and College Graduation Gift Bags.
Click here for recommendations for graduates.
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BOOK NOTES
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Amid all the hoopla, protest, and outright disgust (Carmen Callil of the feminist publishing house Virago) shown toward the Man Booker International for awarding Philip Roth a lifetime achievement award, it was great to see the announcement in the New York Times of some young writers receiving awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia and St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, received the Benjamin H. Danks Award in Literature. Becca Kirk, one of our former staff members, called her stories "compelling... darkly imaginative, heartbreaking, and beautifully written."
Brando Skyhorse was awarded the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction and the 2011 Hemingway Foundation/Pen Award for The Madonnas of Echo Park. I wrote this review before he came to visit our store so I thought I would share it again.
We slipped into this country like thieves, onto the land that once was ours.
Brando Skyhorse’s debut novel, THE MADONNAS OF ECHO PARK (Free Press, $14), recounts the lives of Mexican Americans living in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Echo Park, once a fashionable home for people in the movie business and now a working-class community. Through a series of shifting points of view, we meet Felicia, a cleaning lady, and her daughter Aurora. We meet Efren Mendoza, a bus driver, and his brother Manny former jefe of the street gang Locos and father to Juan who’s just enlisted in the Army. And there are others -- all of these people who make up a neighborhood, people we see every day, never imagining the richness of their lives, or knowing how they intersect.The title comes from an incident that shaped the whole community, an act of violence, an accidental shooting, affecting some tangentially and affecting others deeply and crucially. This is a fine and beautiful novel by any standard, but as a first novel, it is astoundingly good.
Many of our booksellers enjoyed these books by these talented young authors, and we hope that you will, too.
- Mark LaFramboise
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DAVID'S DELIBERATIONS
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 Last week, several of our booksellers attended the 2011 BookExpo America with Politics & Prose’s new owners elect, Brad Graham and Lissa Muscatine. Brad and Lissa found themselves welcomed with open arms by editors, publishers, and fellow bookstore owners. I participated in a few meetings, and enjoyed breakfast each day with Mark, Ron, Brad and Lissa. As we briefed each other every morning, it was always clear that the previous day was splendid, and we eagerly anticipated the next.
Mark, Mike, and Ron were each focused on their meetings, renewing their relationships, building new ones and finding ways to introduce Brad and Lissa to our book selling world. Heidi and Gussie from our Children's Department had similar experiences.
I found the mood this year extraordinarily upbeat, contrasting sharply with the beleaguered mood of last year. Yes, changes are occurring and independent bookstores, in community, can master these changes. Independent bookstores and booksellers are finding new ways to add vitality to our work, by tapping into our creativity and intelligence. Carla was referenced at several public events, as booksellers and publishing representatives recounted her contributions and their recollections. In my many individual conversations, her absence was an oft-mentioned refrain. I was deeply moved.
My BEA experience was largely composed of visits and meals with editors, reps, marketers and publishers from Henry Holt, FSG, Norton, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, PublicAffairs, Harvard, Yale, Duke, and Beacon, regarding their forthcoming books. Mark enjoyed drinks with a small group of booksellers and Don DeLillo. My personal highlight was a stimulating author lunch with Tony Horwitz (Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War), who has written a new narrative history, entitled MIDNIGHT RISING: John Brown and the Raid that Sparked the Civil War (Henry Holt, $28). I read the book in manuscript (one of the best perks of the business). The other independent bookstore owners and I experienced a rich discussion, as Horwitz is an insightful and fast-paced thinker. The book will be released this fall on October 25, and, of course, we will be inviting all of you to join us in welcoming him to Politics & Prose. On a local note, our team beamed with pride for our P&P colleague Jennifer Close, as she signed pre-release copies of her novel, GIRLS IN WHITE DRESSES (Knopf, $24.95), which will arrive in the store on August 16. We can't wait until her reading and book signing at P&P, and you certainly have lots to look forward to under Brad and Lissa’s leadership!
- David Cohen
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TICKETED EVENTS ON SALE NOW
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Thursday, June 9, 8 p.m.
Dr. NORMAN E. ROSENTHAL with David Lynch
TRANSCENDENCE: Healing and Transformation Through Transcendental Meditation (Tarcher, $25.95)
at The Avalon Theatre
Rosenthal’s pioneering work on seasonal affective disorder has brought relief to millions of people. In his new book, the internationally recognized psychiatrist explains transcendental meditation, describing what it is, how it works, and letting practitioners, among them David Lynch, recount their own experiences with TM.
This is a ticketed event. Click here to buy $8 tickets in advance of the event ($10 on the day of the event and at the door), or click here to buy the book and receive two free admission tickets.
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PODCAST AND SIGNED BOOK OF THE WEEK
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 Del Quentin WIlber visited Politics & Prose on Tuesday, March 22, 2011 to present his newest book, Rawhide Down. He has offered to make personalizations for Father’s Day, upon request. We also still have a few signed first editions.
RAWHIDE DOWN: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan
signed by Del Quentin Wilber
(Henry Holt, $27)
First printings, first editions.
March 2011 - Hardcover
On March 31, 1981, John Hinckley, Jr., shot President Reagan and his press secretary, James Brady, outside the Washington Hilton. Wilber, with the sharp skills of a police-beat reporter, reconstructs that event, including new details gleaned from extensive interviews with the security personnel, police, and doctors involved that day.
If you would like a signed copy, please click here to submit your request, and we will fill the order shortly.
Click here to download an MP3. Click here for the digital book.
Click here for more information about the book, including reviews and a Google Preview of the contents, or if you just want the book sent without waiting for a signature.
We record nearly every in-store author event. In addition to posting some on our website, As of May 1, 2011 P&P will store all of these recordings on a public archive. Click here to browse and download more MP3s. Enjoy the free recordings and thanks for supporting our author events!
Politics & Prose also makes CDs of our events for $7.50 plus tax. We ask for a pre-payment for these orders. Please click here to order a CD. If you would like to request a recording from an event which is not already posted, send an email to Wendy Brown.
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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 August.
Thursday, June 2
David McCullough - The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris
at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, 600 I Street NW
7 p.m. One of the most esteemed and honored historians at work (two Pulitzers, two National Book Awards), McCullough combines his biographical and narrative skills to tell the stories of the ambitious Americans who went to Paris between 1830 and 1900. McCullough's subjects here include Charles Sumner, Elizabeth Blackwell, Samuel Morse, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and many other prominent writers, artists, and thinkers.
Tickets will be available at the door for $15, or receive two free admission tickets with each purchase of the book ($37.50).
Friday, June 3 – Sunday, June 5
P&P SUMMER STOREWIDE MEMBER SALE
All weekend long, from Friday, June 3 to Sunday, June 5, nearly everything currently on our shelves will be discounted to Politics & Prose Members - and these discounts also apply to online purchases! (Some exclusions apply.) P&P members always receive 20% off purchases of event books, bestsellers, and other discounted items, even when shopping online. The sale offers 20% discounts on almost all books currently in the store, and 15% discounts on most CDs and DVDs. Come in early to have the best selection. Or shop online or by phone between June 3 and 5 and receive the same benefits! Our website is open 24 hours a day!!!
This is a great time to join our Membership Program to continue enjoying our author events, our superior book selection, and savings throughout the year!
SUPPORT BALLOU HIGH SCHOOL
This weekend we are partnering with Ballou High School to help enhance the inventory selection in their school library. We will be holding a book drive during our Member Sale. The school librarian has selected a list of books from our store's inventory. We encourage customers to purchase any of these books at a 20% discount as a donation to Ballou. Read an article about the library's needs in this recent Washington Post article
Friday, June 3
Oscar Hijuelos - Thoughts Without Cigarettes: A Memoir
7 p.m. From Morningside Heights to pre-Castro Cuba and back again, this memoir by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love maps the making of an American writer. Hijuelos delves back into his upbringing in a working-class neighborhood and relives his catastrophic childhood visit to Cuba.
Saturday, June 4
Andrew Krivak - The Sojourn
6 p.m. Krivak's powerful debut novel follows Jozef from the New World back to the Old. After his mother's death in Colorado, the boy and his father return to Austria, where Jozef faces a difficult adjustment to rural impoverishment and later endures the grueling trenches of World War I.
Sunday, June 5
Jim Axelrod - In the Long Run: A Father, a Son, and Unintentional Lessons in Happiness
5 p.m. There are many reasons to run a marathon. When Axelrod, national correspondent for CBS News, entered the 2009 New York race, he was out to beat the 3:29:58 it took his late father to complete the course when he was 46. More than just logging miles, Axelrod also worked for a better balance between family and career.
Monday, June 6
Oran Hesterman - Fair Food: Growing a Healthy, Sustainable Food System for All
7 p.m. The mantra is simple: buy local, eat organic. But how far will this go to remedy a food system plagued by chemicals, shortages, mistreatment of workers, and unsanitary conditions? Hesterman, president and CEO of Fair Food Network and a former professor of agronomy, outlines ways to change how food is produced, packaged, and delivered.
Tuesday, June 7
Gretchen Morgenson & Josh Rosner - Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon
7 p.m. Looking back some fifteen years for the roots of the recent financial crisis, Morgenson, the New York Times business columnist, and Rosner, managing director at independent research consultancy Graham Fisher & Co, trace both the reckless actions of Wall Street and the collusion of government agencies that failed to regulate the mortgage industry.
Wednesday, June 8
Marie-Isabelle Callier - Sarah et le petit pois & Bosses, Cabosse et Carabosse
4 p.m. Belgian author/illustrator Marie-Isabelle Callier will be here to present two of her imaginative and vibrantly colored picture books. In the first, Sarah can’t sleep, and her mother blames a pea that must be in her bed. In the second, Zaza decides that magic chocolate will help her sick father who is sick and goes on a search for the Cocoa Fairy. Please join us for this children's event held entirely in French for children between the ages of 5 and 10.
Ann Patchett - State of Wonder
7 p.m. At once a vivid adventure story and an unfolding ethical dilemma, the latest novel from the author of the bestselling Run and Bel Canto follows a team of pharmaceutical researchers into the Amazon. Focusing on Marina, a failed medical resident, the narrative shows the personal, cultural, and economic stakes of developing modern medicines from exotic rainforest plants.
Thursday, June 9
Sugar Ray Leonard - The Big Fight: My Life In and Out of the Ring
7 p.m. A national Golden Gloves champion in 1973 and ’74, and Olympic gold medalist in 1976, Leonard is one of the great boxers of our time. In his autobiography he recounts the challenges he faced both in and out of the ring. This event is a book signing only. There will be no talk/Q&A.
Dr. Norman Rosenthal with David Lynch - Transcendence: Healing and Transformation Through Transcendental Meditation
at The Avalon Theatre, 5612 Connecticut Ave, N.W.
8 p.m. Rosenthal's pioneering work on seasonal affective disorder has brought relief to millions of people. In his new book, the internationally recognized psychiatrist explains transcendental meditation, describing what it is, how it works, and letting practitioners, among them David Lynch, recount their own experiences with TM.
This is a ticketed event. Click here to buy $8 tickets in advance of the event ($10 on the day of the event and at the door), or click here to buy the book and receive two free admission tickets.
Friday, June 10
David Ignatius - Bloodmoney
7 p.m. A Washington Post journalist as well as a spy novelist, Ignatius has the facts that give his thrillers the ring of truth. In his seventh work of fiction, a young CIA agent is sent to Pakistan to find out who is killing members of an intelligence unit there. As her investigation deepens, she travels throughout the Middle East.
Saturday, June 11
Ann McLaughlin - A Trial in Summer
6 p.m. The seventh novel from this accomplished local author is set in San Francisco in 1939. The daughter of a judge, Lorie is about to follow suit by going to law school, but she’d rather be a photographer. When she takes pictures of longshoremen, and gets romantically involved with a man who’s not what he seems, she jeopardizes the trial of a labor leader over which her father is presiding.
Sunday, June 12
Jacqueline Davies - The Lemonade Crime
1 p.m. Scott Spencer was introduced in the popular The Lemonade War as the chief suspect in the lemonade stand's missing cash; now he stands trial for the crime. Jessie, Evan and the rest of the fourth grade turn their classroom into a courtroom, with a judge, witnesses and a jury of peers. Ages 8-12.
Maziar Bahari - Then They Came for Me: A Family's Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival
5 p.m. Of Iranian descent, Bahari, a journalist and filmmaker, returned to his homeland in 2009 to cover the presidential election for Newsweek, only to be arrested during the demonstrations. He spent three months in Evin prison, continuing something of a family tradition: his father was detained by the Shah in 1950, his sister by Khomeini in the 1980s. |
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P&P CUSTOMERS ARE ALSO INVITED TO . . .
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Politics & Prose supplies books to many book signing parties and events. The events below are open to the public; however, reservations and tickets should be acquired from the hosting organization. Please contact offsite@politics-prose.com if you are planning an event and would like us to supply the books.
Monday, June 13, 7:30 p.m.
 National Geographic Live!
1600 M Street, NW
ROSS MACPHEE
RACE TO THE END OF THE EARTH: Amundsen, Scott, and the Attainment of the South Pole (Sterling Innovation, $27.95)
An extraordinary tale of courage, triumph, and tragedy at the bottom of the earth. A hundred years ago, two great explorers from different countries, with different goals, and employing very different methods of travel, set off across Antarctica in early 1911 to claim one of the greatest prizes in the history of exploration. Ross MacPhee, curator of the new National Geographic Museum exhibition, will bring to life the dramatic and fateful duel, offering insights based on his own experiences at high latitudes. MacPhee is also a curator at the American Museum of Natural History.
Co-presented with the British Embassy and the Embassy of Norway. See the Museum exhibition “Race to the End of the Earth” along with this presentation!
Click here to purchase $18 tickets (NG Members, $16; Combo ticket with exhibit, $20)
Thursday, June 16, 6:30 pm
 Sixth & I Historic Synagogue
600 I Street, NW
Metro: Gallery Place/Chinatown
Jewish Cooking 101: Farmers' Market Meals
LEAH KOENIG
THE HADASSAH EVERYDAY COOKBOOK: Daily Meals for the Contemporary Jewish Kitchen (Universe, $34.95)
Inspired by the produce at your local farmers’ market? Join Leah Koenig, author of The Hadassah Everyday Cookbook: Daily Meals for the Contemporary Jewish Kitchen and former editor-in-chief of the award winning food blog The Jew and the Carrot to learn how to make eco-kosher portobello mushroom burgers and basil two-bean salad.
Click here to enroll. The class is $30. Books will be for sale at the class. If you have questions, please call 202.408.3100.
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FROM THE CHILDREN AND TEENS' DEPARTMENT
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 CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK
(20% off through June 8)
A butterfly is magical; a butterfly is creative; a butterfly is spectacular; and, most of all, A BUTTERFLY IS PATIENT (Chronicle, $16.99). Learn about the butterfly’s metamorphosis from caterpillar to winged adult. Examine the distinctive patterns that help camouflage and protect these insects. Follow the famous migration of the monarchs from Canada to Mexico. Dianna Hutts Aston’s engaging, informative text accompanies Sylvia Long’s detailed watercolor illustrations in this gorgeous companion to the same team’s An Egg is Quiet and A Seed is Sleepy. Ages 5-8 – Dana Chidiac
For more recommendations, you can browse our catalog of Children's Department Summer Favorites in .pdf format by clicking here. The printed catalogs are available in the store.
Read about - and buy - more of our favorite books for children and teens by clicking here.
STORY TIME
BearSong's weekly story time is on hiatus until Monday, September 12. We will have special story times with guest musicians and authors during the summer.
On Wednesday, June 8 at 4 p.m., Belgian author/illustrator Marie-Isabelle Callier will be here to present two of her books: Sarah et le petit pois (ALICE Jeunesse, $25.95) and Bosses, Cabosse et Carabosse (ALICE Jeunesse, $26.95). A third book J'aime pas le poisson by the author (ALICE Jeunesse, $22.95) will also be available for purchase. Please join us for this children's event held entirely in French for children between the ages of 5 and 10.
On Monday, June 13th at 10:30 a.m., Politics and Prose will host a Spanish Story Hour with the Spanish language learning program Isabella & Ferdinand. This event will be held entirely in Spanish. The group will be promoting their new exciting and educational new CD: Olé and Play: Isabella & Ferdinand Spanish Language Adventures ($19.99). Their CD is for children 3-11 years old and consists of 13 fun and engaging songs about important artists and historical figures from Spain and Latin America. Produced by Grammy Award-winning producer Andres Castro and their own talented music director Fran Revert, the songs are sung by Latin Grammy nominee Adriana Lucia, Emmy nominee Gaby Moreno, Madrid Teen Pop Festival winner Carlos Barroso and many of the wonderful Spanish students at Isabella & Ferdinand.
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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As one of our booksellers said of John McPhee: “If he writes about it, you want to read about it.” From geology to transportation, New Orleans to tennis, McPhee can make any subject fascinating. His prose is graceful and lucid, however abstruse the topic. He introduces you to experts, lets them speak, and offers illuminating and often wryly humorous comments. In short, he’s a joy to read. And he’s prolific, so if you can’t decide where to start, THE JOHN MCPHEE READER is perfect. It contains excepts from twelve of his earlier books including A Sense of Where You Are, Levels of the Game, and The Curve of Binding Energy. Available in paperback, $9.98.
HOW TO READ THE AIR is the critically acclaimed second novel by Dinaw Mengestu, author of the fine The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears. The story of an Ethiopian couple who emigrate to the U.S., the book is narrated by their son, a teacher based in New York, who retraces his parents’ journey from Illinois to Tennessee. Jonas seeks to understand his parents, especially his late father, through the geographies they traveled, even at the expense of his own family and career. As in his first novel, Mengestu’s prose is vivid and beautiful. Available in hardcover, $4.98.
BACK IN STOCK: It’s the stuff of fantasy: rummaging through assorted dusty sheet music, and finding a long-lost Bach masterpiece. But that’s what happened to the teenage Pablo Casals, who just needed something to practice, and it forms one narrative of Eric Siblin’s fascinating THE CELLO SUITES: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece. Siblin was a pop music critic who fell in love with Bach’s Cello Suites; his book recounts the suites’ long, strange history, unravels some mysteries of their composition, and tries to fathom the extraordinary hold they have over musicians and audiences. Available in hardcover, $9.98.
Click here to shop for more recently acquired remainders.
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MUSIC NEWS
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REMEMBERING JFK: 50TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT (Ondine, 2 CDs, $19.99) – On the eve of his inauguration, on the snowy night of January 19, 1961, president-elect John F. Kennedy and his wife attended the Inaugural Concert by the National Symphony, led by Howard Mitchell, at Constitution Hall. (The couple then went to the gala produced by Frank Sinatra at the Armory, which went late into the night.)
This past January, conductor Christoph Eschenbach led the National Symphony Orchestra in a 50th anniversary concert. The program included Leonard Bernstein’s Fanfare for the Inauguration of John F. Kennedy and Symphonic Dances from West Side Story; Gershwin’s Concerto in F, with the pianist Tzimon Barto; and a newly commissioned piece, Peter Lieberson’s Remembering JFK (An American Elegy), with excerpts from three JFK speeches, read by Richard Dreyfuss.
A great bonus disc includes excerpts from the original 1961 radio broadcast of the concert, on the Mutual Broadcasting Network.
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, BERLIOZ & HANDEL (Philharmonia Baroque, $18.98) – Wonderful archival recordings by the late mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson continue to appear. Ms Lieberson had a long relationship with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas McGegan. These performances, recorded live at Berkeley’s First Congregational Church, in 1991 and 1995, included Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été, and a selection of Handel arias from Giulio Cesare, Ottone, Radamisto, and other operas. The review from last Sunday’s New York Times is here (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/arts/music/new-on-cd-lorraine-hunt-lieberson-songs-and-arias.html?ref=music ).
Jenny Lin, MOMPOU: SILENT MUSIC (MUSICA CALLADA) (Steinway & Sons, $17.99) -- Jenny Lin is one of my favorite pianists: She puts together adventurous programs, such as the one she played at the Freer this spring, exploring the themes of “chinoiserie,” both real and imagined, in music. She also records lesser-known repertoire, like her well-received Shostakovich 24 Preludes and Fugues, and now her exploration of Catalonian composer Federico Mompou’s spare and gentle Musica Callada. Read the New York Times review ( here, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/arts/music/new-on-cd-mompous-musica-callada-jenny-lin.html?_r=1&ref=music ).
NEW JAZZ
EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE A CAT (Disney, $14.98) – This is a collection for young and old alike, with brand new jazz interpretations of great songs from Disney movies. Some of the performers include Dave Brubeck, Esperanza Spalding, Diane Reeves, Joshua Redman, the Bad Plus, Roy Hargrove, and Regina Carter.
John Hollenbeck & Orchestre National de Jazz, SHUT UP AND DANCE (Bee Jazz, 2 CDs, $19.99) – Drummer John Hollenbeck is bandleader (with his Claudia Quintet, and his Large Ensemble), percussionist with singer Meredith Monk, and also a very inventive composer. The Orchestre National de Jazz commissioned him to write some tunes, and he came up with ten “mini-concertos” for members of the band. The witty results are now on CD.
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 a variety of 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 visit the book group's page.
Once on the website, click the title or book cover to read more about the books.
Thursday, June 2, 7:30 p.m.
Capital James Joyce Book Group
The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri (Mark Musa translation)
July 7 selection: TBA
Monday, June 6, 7:30 p.m.
Classics Book Group
Treatise on Friendship and Old Age, by Cicero
July 4: No Meeting
Tuesday, June 7, 7:30 p.m.
Travel Book Group
The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton
July 5 selection: The Bridge by Geert Mak
Wednesday, June 8, 7:30 p.m.
Lez Read
The Price of Salt, by Patricia Highsmith
July 13 selection: Mean Little Deaf Queer, by Terry Galloway
Thursday, June 9, 7:30 p.m.
Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Group
The City and The City, by China Mieville
July 14 selection: Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
Click here to learn more about participating in these or other Politics & Prose book groups.
All of these book-group titles are discounted 20% to participants. Please join us!
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