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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, July 7
7 p.m. Bob Riesman - I Feel So Good: The Life and Times of Big Bill Broonzy
Friday, July 8
7 p.m. Tom Gardner & LouAnn Lofton - Warren Buffett Invests like a Girl: and Why You Should Too
Saturday, July 9
5 p.m. Daniel Solove - Nothing to Hide: The False Tradeoff between Privacy and Security
Sunday, July 10
6 p.m. Marvin Kalb & Deborah Kalb - Haunting Legacy: Vietnam and the American Presidency from Ford to Obama
Monday, July 11
7 p.m. Sapphire - The Kid
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Tuesday, July 12
7 p.m. Ricky Riccardi - What a Wonderful World: The Magic of Louis Armstrong's Later Years
Wednesday, July 13
7 p.m. Ina Caro - Paris to the Past: Traveling Through French History by Train
Thursday, July 14
7 p.m. John A. Farrell - Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned
Friday, July 15
7 p.m. David Willman - The Mirage Man: Bruce Ivins, the Anthrax Attacks, and America's Rush to War
Saturday, July 16
1 p.m. Maya Soetoro-Ng - Ladder to the Moon
6 p.m. Christopher Sten - Literary Capital: A Washington Reader
Sunday, July 17
1 p.m. Top of FormBottom of FormAnna North - America Pacifica
5 p.m. Glenn Carle - The Interrogator: An Education
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NOTE FROM BRAD & LISSA
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As we settle in as the new owners of Politics and Prose, we are beginning to focus on several areas of the store’s operations that we hope will improve service to our customers. Here are a few projects already underway:
Online ordering and e-books:
We have been surprised to learn how many customers are unaware that the P&P website allows for online book ordering as well as e-book downloads to all e-readers except the Kindle. (More on that in a subsequent newsletter, but, for now, simply keep in mind that if you own a Kindle you have no choice but to buy ebooks from that corporate colossus, Amazon.) While we all hope that physical books are here forever, we can’t ignore the realities of the digital age. And clearly we need to do a better job of informing and educating our customers about what’s available digitally at politics-prose.com and how to make use of the site.
We are working with our staff this week to create more user-friendly instructions on the website, a “digital desk” within the store where customers can receive instructions about online ordering and downloading, and several training sessions for those who wish to bring their devices into the store and get a quick tutorial. Stay tuned for days and times of these sessions.
In the meantime, please continue to visit our website for events and classes, booksellers’ reviews (some of which you can see below), and to purchase our newest Politics & Prose gift card, with original artwork by our very own staff member Frans Boukas. Gift cards are available online for mailing to the recipient of your choice!
More class offerings to come:
We have hired a new staff member who will develop a broader array of new courses and learning programs to increase the excellent offerings that P&P has traditionally offered. More information to follow soon.
Reminders for July:
Thursday, July 14, 4 - 6 p.m.
Meet and Greet with Brad and Lissa
Please join us at the store for informal conversation at the store (no sign-up necessary).
Friday, July 22, 4 - 6 p.m.
Customer Focus Group
This will be the first of several small focus groups with customers intended to elicit your ideas and suggestions for the store. (Sign up required at the information desk or by phoning 202-364-1919 – first come, first serve)
In the weeks ahead, we hope to see many of you browsing the aisles in the store, attending an event, or joining us at the meet and greet or customer focus group. As always, thanks for your support.
- Brad and Lissa
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BOOKNOTES
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 Michael Dirda wrote an opinion article for the book review Bookforum, that encourages us to be adventurous readers and to seek books beyond the most popular bestsellers. It is a challenge for us as booksellers to introduce you to our favorites. It's a also a reminder to us to share our discoveries more often and more overtly! As we so often find, national tastes may include - but don't always reflect – your own interests or the best in literature or non-fiction. They often don't include books that are local favorites, or popular at libraries, or loaned by frends. It is an incomplete rating system.
Dirda advises us all to do more than just follow trends and award winners, “Be brave. Buy a collection of poems every so often, explore genre fiction..., go back to that classic you always meant to try again, study the important books on the subjects that interest you. Above all, just say no to the insidious dominion of the best seller. . . .Think outside the list. There are John Crowleys and Jaimy Gordons to discover.”
Our staff-recommended books are listed and reviewed in our two volume SUMMER NEWSLETTER. We hope that you will consider these as options and as an added incentive to sample them, they are discounted 20% to our members until Labor Day.
Here are just two books from this new list of recommendations. They remind us about why we love to read:
With his evocative and haunting prose, Simon Van Booy spins the tale of three characters whose lives intersect in Greece. Fans of his short stories (Love Begins in Winter and The Secret Lives of People in Love) will find his trademark theme of human connection in EVERTHING BEAUTIFUL BEGAN AFTER (Perennial, $14.99), Van Booy’s first full-length novel. The book focuses on Rebecca, who moves to Athens to escape her life back in France; Henry, an English archeology student; and George, an American with an extraordinary gift for ancient languages and a terrible case of alcoholism. The three come
together by pure chance, and through their individual relationships and their unique group dynamic, discover love and acceptance despite the terrible tragedy that eventually tears them apart. - Angela Maria Williams
Anyone who loves books will feel an immediate affection for A READER ON READING (Yale Univ., $18). Alberto
Manguel is a warm and graceful writer who considers himself first and foremost a reader. The sheer joy of holding,
opening, contemplating, and recalling books comes through in everything he writes. No facet of literacy is too small or large for his attention; here are fascinating histories of the period, the page, and libraries, while the political pieces on repression and censorship make powerful arguments for the essential role freedom of reading plays in a society.
Manguel’s appreciations of his favorite books, Alice in Wonderland and Don Quixote (he also loves detective novels), are erudite and insightful, yet are less literary criticism than heartfelt recommendations. As every reader does with what he loves, he has made these books his own, and his essays demonstrate how reading, as much as writing, is autobiography, even as the books reciprocate, the cumulative readings bringing out their true character and giving them richer tones. - Laurie Greer
Click here for the first catalog and click here for the second. Download the catalogs or stop in by the store for copies, browse our display, and pick up something new to read this summer!
Andrew Getman
CLUB READ WEEKEND RETREAT
Saturday, October 15 – Sunday, October 16
Politics & Prose is one of several independent bookstores throughout the Mid-Atlantic and the South sponsoring a weekend retreat in Huddleston, Virginia. A dozen authors and 200 readers will create a memorable experience for booklovers. If you love our author events, you’ll love this one-of-a-kind opportunity to spend quality time discussing books that have found enduring popularity and success with book groups across the country. Attend this non-stop feast of authors and for 24 hours, you'll dine, socialize, learn, chat, laugh, and make friends, as you share your enthusiasm as a reader and fan.
The cost: The entire weekend - all the activities with the authors, four meals, one night's lodging - is only $500 per person. Accommodations at the Mariners Landing are in multiple-bedroom condominiums. Attendees are responsible for the own travel and purchases of books, etc.
The authors: A dozen authors will participate; some you have met at Politics & Prose or have been local favorites, such as Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Amy Stolls, and Gretchen Rubin, as well as several debut authors. Click here to see the authors who have confirmed so far!
To keep Club Read a personal and intimate experience, registration is limited. Click here for more details and to register today. Registration code "POLITICSN" will identify you as a Politics & Prose customer, and will inform the organizers where you learned about the retreat.
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COMING SOON TO YOUR FAVORITE BOOKSTORE
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Click politics-prose.com/event for our author events calendar through August.
For children's and teens' events, see the Children's Department News below.
Thursday, July 7, 7 p.m.
Bob Riesman - I Feel So Good: The Life and Times of Big Bill Broonzy
Riesman’s life of Big Bill Broonzy (1903–1958) encompasses the bluesman’s many pivotal roles. From melding the traditional, rural blues of his native Arkansas Delta region with the urban sound in 1930s Chicago, to influencing the resurgence of folk music after World War II and inspiring the blues-rock musicians of the 1960s, Broonzy was a key figure for 20th-century popular music.
Friday, July 8, 7 p.m.
Tom Gardner & LouAnn Lofton - Warren Buffett Invests like a Girl: and Why You Should Too
Confidence and daring aren’t always a winning proposition when it comes to investments, say the authors, Motley Fool analysts. These qualities, along with compulsion, characterize how men make investments. Women, by contrast, have a more studious approach and their patience and research result in stronger portfolios—more like Warren Buffett’s than like that of the average male investor.
Saturday, July 9, 6 p.m.
Daniel Solove - Nothing to Hide: The False Tradeoff between Privacy and Security
The ongoing war on terrorism seems to demand that we give up privacy to gain security. In his sharply reasoned new book, Solove, John Marshall Harlan Research Professor of Law at G.W. Law School, argues that this is a false premise. Exploring the history of privacy rights and the challenges of present technology, he shows how regulation and oversight can preserve both security and privacy.
Sunday, July 10, 5 p.m.
Marvin Kalb & Deborah Kalb - Haunting Legacy: Vietnam and the American Presidency from Ford to Obama
Vietnam is the ghost haunting every president since 1975 who faces a decision about going to war. In their deeply researched history of the post-Vietnam era, the authors, veteran journalists, examine how each administration from Ford to Obama has responded to this legacy.
Monday, July 11, 7 p.m.
Sapphire - The Kid
Push introduced the savvy, street-smart, but brutalized and illiterate Precious. In her new novel, the singer and poet tells the story of Precious’s son, Abdul Jones. Opening with his mother’s funeral, the narrative follows Abdul from age nine to young adulthood as he travels from a Mississippi farm to Harlem, from poverty to the life of an artist.
Tuesday, July 12, 7 p.m.
Ricky Riccardi - What a Wonderful World: The Magic of Louis Armstrong's Later Years
Most studies of Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) focus on his rise to fame and his middle years; Riccardi, a musician and jazz scholar, tells the story of Armstrong’s later career. During the last twenty-five years of his life, the great jazz artist performed with Ellington, Fitzgerald, and Brubeck; he recorded with the All Stars; and produced a string of hits including “Mack the Knife” and “Hello, Dolly!”
Wednesday, July 13, 7 p.m.
Ina Caro - Paris to the Past: Traveling Through French History by Train
In her second guide to seeing France, Caro lays out detailed itineraries for historical daytrips from Paris. The twenty-five destinations, all within reach of a train ride from the City of Light, include an expedition to the 12th-century Cathedral Basilica of St. Denis; Orléans, where Joan of Arc had her visions; the great palace of Versailles; and France’s largest privately owned estate at Chantilly.
Thursday, July 14, 7 p.m.
John A. Farrell - Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned
A journalist, biographer of Tip O’Neill and now senior writer for The Center for Public Integrity, Farrell draws on unpublished documents to examine the darker side of the great defense attorney. Famous for his role in the Scopes “Monkey Trial” and his advocacy on behalf of workers and blacks, Darrow also faced charges of bribing a jury; meanwhile, his personal life was riddled with misjudgments concerning women and money.
Friday, July 15, 7 p.m.
David Willman - The Mirage Man: Bruce Ivins, the Anthrax Attacks, and America's Rush to War
The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist tells the story of the 2001 anthrax killings as several intertwined stories. There was the search for the perpetrator, which resulted in a false accusation before the true culprit was found. Then there were the media and government takes on the incidents, framing them as a second wave of terror following 9/11 and as another justification for war in Iraq.
Saturday, July 16, 6 p.m.
Christopher Sten - Literary Capital: A Washington Reader
Whether in the spotlight for its politics and power-brokers or serving as background for ordinary lives, Washington, D.C. has inspired writers from its earliest days. In this anthology of Washington-based literature, Sten, an English professor at George Washington University, has compiled poetry, letters, memoirs, and fiction by writers from Henry Adams to Gore Vidal, Frederick Douglass to Edward Jones, Walt Whitman to Sterling Brown, and many, many more.
Sunday, July 17, 1 p.m.
Anna North - America Pacifica
In her page-turning debut novel, Anna North, a writer for the popular website Jezebel and an Iowa Writer’s Workshop grad, tells the story of Darcy a young woman searching for her mother in a frighteningly realized dystopian future.
Sunday, July 17, 5 p.m.
Glenn Carle - The Interrogator: An Education
For Carle, questions about the line between interrogation and torture are not abstract. A long-time CIA agent, he was deployed to a black site overseas to question suspected Al Qaeda operatives. Despite voicing doubts about the operation, he was sent with a high-level detainee into even deeper secrecy. His memoir gives a chilling inside look at the darkest side of the U.S. war on terror.
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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.
Thursday, July 21, 7:30pm
 Friendship Heights Village Center
4433 S. Park Avenue,
Chevy Chase
Joe Yonan
Serve Yourself: Nightly Adventures in Cooking for One
Mr. Yonan is the editor of the Food and Travel sections of The Washington Post, where he also writes the award-winning “Cooking for One” column. His work earned for the Post the 2009 and 2010 James Beard Foundation’s award for best food section.
Serve Yourself is aimed at the food-loving single and includes more than one hundred inventive, easy-to-make, and globally inspired recipes celebrating solo eating.
There is no cost for this event. Friendship Heights Village Center is located at 4433 S. Park Avenue in Chevy Chase. Please sign up in advance by calling the Village Center at 301-656-2797. Copies of the book, provided by Politics and Prose Bookstore, will be available for purchase. |
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FROM THE CHILDREN AND TEENS' DEPARTMENT
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SUMMER READING DISCOUNTS
Through Labor Day, Politics & Prose offers a 10% discount on books purchased from school summer reading lists. If your school does not provide a summer reading list, check with your public library. All public libraries provide suggested reading lists and we will also honor them with a 10% discount. Just bring your list; we will be glad to help you make selections for an enjoyable summer of reading.
SHARE YOUR FAVORITES
Share your favorite books with us and each other. Keep track of your reading on our Summer Book Log and submit reviews of your favorites to the Children and Teens’ Department. You may submit more than one review; however, we will post no more than one review per person.
 CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK
(20% off through July 13)
Discover why 50 is the perfect number to create a dragonfly, 22 makes a walking stick, and 2500 means termites when you spend this summer with BUGS BY THE NUMBERS (Blue Apple, $19.99), by Sharon Werner and Sarah Forss, the award-winning creators of Alphabeasties. From its intriguing endpapers and surprising fold-out pages to its fascinating facts, this is a book that effortlessly marries art and science. All ages. – Mary Alice Garber
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.
 EVENTS FOR CHILDREN AND TEENS
Saturday, July 16, 1 p.m.
Maya Soetoro-Ng - Ladder to the Moon
When Suhaila asks her mother about her late Grandma Annie, her grandmother herself responds, lowering a ladder from the moon so her granddaughter can climb up for a visit. The author wrote this warm tale about embracing the world as a tribute to her mother, Ann Dunham, who is also the mother of President Barack Obama. Ages 4-7
For more upcoming events and news from the Children and Teens' Department, click here.
Click here to access the teen blog.
To receive periodic updates about events and news for children and teens at Politics & Prose, click here to add"Children's & Teens' News and Events" or "Teen Events and News" to your mailing lists! |
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MARKDOWN BOOKS
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THE ART OF WILLIAM STEIG—you’d know it anywhere, from New Yorker covers and cartoons to children’s books. Edited by Claudia J. Nahson, a curator at New York’s Jewish Museum, this volume contains nearly 300 of Steig’s drawings, watercolors, and cartoons from all phases ofa long and distinctive career (he contributed to The New Yorker for some 73 years). While the art speaks eloquently, the profile of the artist is rounded out with essays and memoirs from Steig’s family and colleagues, including his wife, Jeanne Steig, the artist and children’s book author; and his fellow geniuses Maurice Sendak, and Edward Sorel. Available in hardcover, $19.98.
Serge Carrefax: son of an inventor and himself obsessed with radio communications; a pilot, flying even higher when on cocaine; an archeologist; a spiritualist. His story makes up Tom McCarthy’s enigmatic novel, C. Short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, this post-modern tour de force by the author of Remainder and Tintin and the Secret of Literature is by turns mesmerizing and puzzling as it offers an unconventional history of the early 20th-century. Available in hardcover, $6.98.
BACK IN STOCK: THE LONDON SCENE: Six Essays on London Life is a recent collection of articles Virginia Woolf wrote in 1931 for the British Good Housekeeping. Five of the six pieces were published in book form in 1981, but the sixth was missing until 2004. It joins the others in this volume, completing Woolf’s tour of London with her descriptions of the city’s history, buildings, sights, and sounds, all as immediate and exquisitely evoked as when Woolf set pen to paper. Available in hardcover, $4.98.
Click here to shop for more recently acquired remainders.
• Laurie Greer
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MUSIC NEWS
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TWO STAFF PICKS BY SAM RAMOS
 Okkervil River, I AM VERY FAR (Jagjaguwar, $14.98)
When I lived in Austin, Okkervil River was one of those local bands that seemed to be playing somewhere every other month, and I went to see them every time. Each performance, live and on record, was energetic, passionate, and beautiful. It’s music one can learn from, like great poetry. Okkervil River’s newest album, I Am Very Far, is their best in years. It captures the band’s incredible ability to shift from whispering love song to wailing, chanting foot stomper on a dime. Front-man Will Sheff’s plaintive vocals manage to make even his ballads seem driving. I Am Very Far is definitely rock and roll, but has the lyrical beauty of Arcade Fire, the strangeness of The Magnetic Fields, and the honesty of the best country music.•Sam Ramos
 Ray Charles, MODERN SOUNDS IN COUNTRY AND WESTERN MUSIC, VOL 1 & 2 (Concord, 2 CDs, $18.98)
Before I put this CD on, I expected to hear pedal-steel guitars and fiddles: Ray Charles doing Hank Williams. As the music played, I heard Ray Charles doing Ray Charles, and I was confused and fascinated. It dawned on me how seamlessly the master of R&B had managed to fuse the twangy heartbreak of country classics with genuine soul. This record epitomizes the shared lessons of America’s native sounds, blues, country, and R&B. Ray Charles sings “You Don’t Know Me,”” “Born to Lose,””and“”Your Cheating Heart” in a way that the country greats never would, and you experience how great songs can cross genres and never lose their power. Especially when sung by the mighty Ray Charles, who can turn a song into his own without losing the spirit that made us love it in the first place. Sam Ramos
BIG BILL BROONZY'S STORY TONIGHT (THURSDAY)
Tonight at 7 p.m., author Bob Riesman will talk about his new book, I FEEL SO GOOD: The Life and Times of Big Bill Broonzy. To get a little preview, here's Big Bill playing “Hey Hey””-- listen to the driving bass, and please come by tonight.
(And the second week of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival is on the Mall, today through Monday, with a strong Rhythm and Blues program.)
N EW
Amina Alaoui, ARCO IRIS (ECM, $17.98) Moroccan singer Amina Aaoui, who now lives in Spain, was on one of my favorite albums from 2009, Jon Balke's Siwan. She now has a solo album which creates a timeless Andalusia, with touches of fado, flamenco, and Arab classical music. The New York Times said, “These hushed, gorgeous songs are profoundly personal reflections on where those traditions could lead.”” Her dramatic voice is accompanied by violin, oud, flamenco guitar, mandolin, and percussion.
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BOOK GROUPS
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P&P's book groups meet monthly and are free and open to the public.
Thursday, July 7, 7:30 p.m.
Capital James Joyce Book Group
Tuesday, July 12, 7:30 p.m.
Evening Fiction Book Group
Wanting, by Richard Flanagan
August 9 selection: The Optimist's Daughter, by Eudora Welty
Wednesday, July 13, 7:30 p.m.
Lez Read
Mean Little Deaf Queer by Terry Galloway
August 10 selection: Landing, by Emma Donoghue
Thursday, July 14, 2011
6:00 pm Fantasy Book Group
Game of Thones - George R.R. Martin
7:30 pm Science Fiction Book Group
Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke
August 11 selection: How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, by Charles Yu
Click here to learn more about participating in these or other Politics & Prose book groups.
To receive monthly updates about suggestions for private book groups as well as book groups at Politics & Prose, click here to add "Monthly Book Group Recommendations and News" to your mailing lists!
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NEWS FROM THE COFFEEHOUSE
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June Art Exhibit EXTENDED
Rick Crockett’s “Tidal Ways” photography show has been extended until July 14, 2011. In addition, all remaining photographs are on sale for reduced prices. Please contact the artist directly to arrange purchase. (Business cards can be picked up at the cafe counter). An online gallery of "Tidal Ways" can be found here.
Click here for news from the Modern Times blog or to follow them on Twitter.
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