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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 21
7 p.m. Cameron McWhirter - Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America
Friday, July 22
7 p.m. Dorothy Wickenden - Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West
Saturday, July 23
3 p.m. Sandra Beasley - Don't Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life
Sunday, July 24
5 p.m. Tom Carson - Daisy Buchanan's Daughter
Monday July 25, 2011
7 p.m. Sally Jacobs - The Other Barack: The Bold and Reckless Life of President Obama's Father
Tuesday July 26, 2011
7 p.m. Jeremy Ben-Ami - A New Voice For Israel: Fighting for the Survival of the Jewish Nation
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Wednesday July 27, 2011
7 p.m. J. Courtney Sullivan - Maine
Thursday July 28, 2011
7 p.m. Jason Zinoman - Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood, and Invented Modern Horror
Friday July 29
7 p.m. Matthew Swanson & Robbi Behr - Idiots' Books
Saturday July 30
6 p.m. Joby Warrick - The Triple Agent: The al-Qaeda Mole Who Infiltrated the CIA
Sunday July 31
5 p.m. Thomas Kaufman - Steal the Show
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The Scoop from Brad & Lissa
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Another reason to support your local Indie . . . .
The most successful and enduring independent bookstores survive because of their deep and genuine roots in the community. Politics & Prose is no exception. We are continuously thinking of ways to promote reading, thinking, and discourse and to engage more people in our shared cause of good books.
One excellent example has been our Book-a-Month gift program, currently orchestrated by talented bookseller Elizabeth Sher. The idea was to avail the curatorial expertise of our P&P staff to people from other places. So far, it has been wildly popular for out-of-towners, but also for regular and local customers who simply enjoy the fun of being directed to books they might not otherwise read.
With Book-a-Month, our staff carefully chooses books based on information you provide about your gift recipient’s interests, hobbies, favorite books and writers, and literary genres. Each month, we send a new title to the reader getting your gift. We ship anywhere in the world, so don’t worry if the object of your affection lives in Ouagadougou or Ulan Bator. Our booksellers also will be happy to correspond with the gift recipient to discuss book selections and areas of literary interest.
We send books to readers of all ages. Visit our Children’s Book-a-Month page to give this gift to a child.
Here’s what one happy customer told Liz in a recent email:
I just love the Book-a-Month program. It makes me read more, challenges me to consider other genres and generally exposes me to new writers and topics. One of the best parts of the program is the constant contact with you, my personal bookseller! You have helped me pick books for my book club, buy gifts for friends and generally make good decisions on what to read next. I admit that I used to take suggestions from Amazon on what to read next, but it was one book of drivel after another. I was pretty miserable. You have saved me and my intellect. . . The program is by far the best thing I’ve come across in quite a while.
You can sign up by clicking here, fill out an application at the store, or download this enrollment form (pdf) and email it to Liz Sher at: bookamonth@politics-prose.com. Or call us at 202-364-1919 or toll-free at 1-800-722-0790.
Reminder: Our first customer focus group is tomorrow – Friday, July 22, 4 – 6 p.m.
We have a few more spaces remaining. You can sign up at the Information Desk or by calling the store at 202-364-1919.
We look forward to seeing you soon.
- Brad and Lissa
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BARBARA’S BYLINE
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Borders - How a Good Bookstore Goes Bad
When Politics & Prose first opened its doors in 1984, Carla and I quickly heard from many customers about a wonderfully well-stocked independent bookstore in Ann Arbor, Michigan called Borders . During the 1990s, the Borders brothers became more ambitious, adopting a superstore model which they planned to open at numerous locations in the United States. Midway into their grand idea they ran out of money and sold their bookstores to K-Mart, whose capital allowed it to proliferate superstores in over 400 locations. Several years after that, Borders became a publicly owned company of which shares were traded on Wall Street. When the first Borders in the Washington, D.C. area opened on Rockville Pike (across the road from their current White Flint location), Carla and I went for a visit to scope out our competition. No one could have possibly walked away from that store without being truly impressed. The inventory was awesome, the staff even more so. Former English professors staffed the fiction sections; physicists, the science sections; elementary-school librarians, the kid’s section. Multiple titles from university and academic publishers adorned their bookshelves. To top it all off, there were discounts. As Carla and I left, we shook our heads in wonder of how such a magnificent store could survive. It didn’t take long.
Click here for more about Borders.
Washington Independent Review of Books review
My review of Christopher Sten's collection of great writing about Washington, D.C., LITERARY CAPITAL: A Washington Reader (Univ. of Georgia, $29.95), was recently published in The Washington Independent Review of Books, a website produced by dozens of writers and editors, mostly in the Washington area, and dedicated to book reviews and writing about the world of books. This is an excerpt to whet your appetite:
Marita Golden, John Dos Passos and Edward P. Jones are just a few of the writers Sten includes whose narratives of city life are filled with richly diverse portraits of Washingtonians, both black and white, as they go about their daily lives. For book lovers who prefer order in their reading, travel the logical route straight through from beginning to end; book browsers who favor dipping into a book can open this treasure to almost any random page and find one of Sten’s engaging selections. . . .
Click here to read my whole review on the WIRB site.
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BOOKNOTES (and SIGNED BOOK)
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 DEBUT NOVELS AND AUTHORS
We love to help you discover new novelists. One of them visited our store last week and we still have signed copies of her book. Click here for more of our favorite debut authors and novels.
AMERICA PACIFICA
signed by Anna North
(Reagan Arthur, $24.99)
First editions, first printings.
May 2011 - Hardcover
This debut novel recounts a thrilling, dystopian quest. Darcy is a young woman who has grown up on a cramped, polluted, slowly disintegrating island where the remaining inhabitants of North America have escaped an ice age. Living in areas with names such as Little LA and Manhattanville, the classes are divided between the first and last "boaters." The rich eat real meat and vegetables, the poor are left with molded jellyfish powder. Darcy's mother disappears, and in her search, Darcy uncovers the dark, shadowy secrets of Pacifica as well as information that will destroy - or save - the last of humanity. - Sarah Baline
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EBOOK OF THE WEEK
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As with his dazzling debut Natasha: and Other Stories (Picador/Google eBook, $9.99), David Bezmozgis's first novel THE FREE WORLD (Farrar, Straus & Giroux/Google eBook, $12.99) focuses on the immigrant experience. In Natasha, it was that of the Berman family, recently emigrated to Canada, adjusting to their new lives. In The Free World, the Krasnansky family — three generations of Russian Jews — is stuck in bureaucratic limbo in Rome. Bezmozgis's strength lies in his compassion for his characters, their meditations on imperfect pasts and unsure futures told with black humor and keen insight. - Sarah Baline
Click here for more recommended ebooks.
And note that all of these ebooks are also available as print books. Amazing!
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PODCASTS OF THE WEEK
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Ricky Riccardi spoke about his book, WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD: The Magic of Louis Armstrong's Later Years (Pantheon, $28.95), on Tuesday, July 12, 2011. Click here to listen to the event and download the podcast.
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!”
Singer and poet Sapphire spoke about her new novel, THE KID (Penguin, $25.95), on Monday, July 11, 2011. Push introduced the savvy, street-smart, but brutalized and illiterate Precious. In The Kid, Sapphire 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.
Click here to listen to the audio recording and download the podcast. As you can imagine, Sapphire is a fabulous reader, and the question and answer session was particularly rich.
All of our author event titles are discounted 20% to Politics & Prose members, who, by registering their commitment to the store, support us in bringing these fantastic authors to your community.
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COMING SOON TO YOUR FAVORITE BOOKSTORE
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Click www.politics-prose.com/event for our author events calendar through August.
Thursday, July 21, 7 p.m.
Cameron McWhirter - Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America
From April to November 1919, a wave of racial violence and lynchings swept the country, from the South to Chicago and Washington D.C. In his first book, McWhirter, a Wall Street Journal reporter, investigates the scenes of unrest, profiling those involved on both sides, and finding in these events the roots of the later civil rights movement.
Friday, July 22, 7 p.m.
Dorothy Wickenden - Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West
Wickenden’s pioneer story follows two Smith graduates (one the author’s grandmother) who headed out to tiny Elkhead, Colorado, in 1916. Eschewing high society for a community of homesteaders and a rough-hewn schoolhouse, the women faced blizzards, ruffians, and illness, but persevered, preserving their experiences in the letters home that richly illuminate this book.
Saturday, July 23, 3 p.m.
Sandra Beasley - Don't Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life
This memoir from the award-winning poet chronicles Beasley’s life-long allergies to—just about everything. A partial list of what she must avoid includes dairy, soy, beef, shrimp, cucumbers, and mustard. Thriving despite the constant threats, Beasley tells her story with wit and humor, examines the science of allergies, and offers advice to fellow sufferers.
Sunday, July 24, 5 p.m.
Tom Carson - Daisy Buchanan's Daughter
GQ’s “The Critic” and author of Gilligan’s Wake, Carson in his third novel lets one Pamela Buchanan Murphy Gerson Cadwaller talk about her life, loves, and exploits from the vantage point of her 86th birthday. Just a few of the highlights: her experience as a war reporter on Omaha beach, stepping out with Marlene Dietrich, and comforting LBJ when events went against him.
Monday July 25, 7 p.m.
Sally Jacobs - The Other Barack: The Bold and Reckless Life of President Obama's Father
7 p.m. The senior Barack Obama was a man of contradictions: a promising economist, he earned scholarships but never held the government post he trained for. He fathered eight children, but wasn’t a family man. He was an outspoken nationalist but his achievements were limited by alcoholism. Jacobs has interviewed Obama’s relatives, friends, and colleagues for this thorough and intimate look at the President’s father.
Tuesday July 26, 7 p.m.
Jeremy Ben-Ami - A New Voice For Israel: Fighting for the Survival of the Jewish Nation
7 p.m. Ben-Ami, the founder of J Street, stands, as the grandson of Zionists, on the cusp of a changing perspective of Israel. A moderate, he argues that support for Israel is fully compatible with support for a Palestinian state. He also addresses the American Jewish community, advising its leaders to rethink old attitudes, such as alliances with neoconservatives.
Wednesday July 27, 7 p.m.
J. Courtney Sullivan - Maine
7 p.m. The second novel from the author of Commencement spends a summer with the Kellehers. As the clan gathers at the family’s summer home, tradition and change are both in the air. Focusing on four women of the family, the story delves into secrets of the past, domestic frustrations of the present, and surprises in store for the future.
Thursday July 28, 7 p.m.
Jason Zinoman - Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood, and Invented Modern Horror
7 p.m. Through a combination of Zinoman’s critic’s eye and dogged reporting, Shock Value looks in depth at the genre of Modern Horror film from the years roughly between 1968 and 1979, when a handful of outcasts and oddballs revolutionized the industry.
NOTE: Jason’s event will feature a screening of two rarely seen short films, Bloodbath (directed by Dan O'Bannon) and Foster's Release (by Terrence Winkless, starring O'Bannon). Both movies are from the USC Film School in the late 60s, a fertile time for genre movies. The screening will follow the Q&A, and last approximately 25 minutes.
Friday July 29, 7 p.m.
Matthew Swanson & Robbi Behr - Idiots' Books
French Explorers, Sacred Cows, and Disappointing Babies: Making and distributing odd, commercially non-viable picture books for adults
Author/illustrator pair Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr of Idiots’ Books will read from their catalog of satirical illustrated volumes and discuss collaboration, running a small press, and their ongoing battle with genre. Their work has been praised by the New York Times, New York Magazine, Slate.com, and BoingBoing. A selection of their books will be available for sale at the event.
Saturday July 30, 6 p.m.
Joby Warrick - The Triple Agent: The al-Qaeda Mole Who Infiltrated the CIA
In a work of investigative reporting that reads like a thriller, Warrick, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, tells the story of Humam Khalil al-Balawi, a Jordanian double-agent the CIA had employed to infiltrate Al Qaeda. In December 2009, Balawi detonated a bomb at a secret CIA base in Khost, Afghanistan—thus revealing that he was in fact working against U.S. intelligence.
Sunday July 31, 5 p.m.
Thomas Kaufman - Steal the Show
Kaufman’s first crime novel, Drink the Tea, won awards and introduced Willis Gidney, a man well-versed in D.C.’s juvenile-justice system. In the second Gidney mystery, Kaufman’s anti-hero finds an abandoned baby and, reluctant to surrender her to a life of institutions but unable to afford a child, Gidney gets involved in a small-crime venture that quickly spins out of control.
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P&P CUSTOMERS ARE ALSO INVITED TO . . .
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Politics & Prose sells books at 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.
Saturday, July 23, 4-6 p.m.
 National Council of La Raza (NCLR)
National Latino Family Expo
Marriott Wardman Park Hotel
2660 Woodley Road N.W.
EVA LONGORIA
EVA'S KITCHEN: Cooking with Love for Family and Friends (Clarkson Potter, $29.99)
booksigning only
Inspired by her heritage, Eva highlights the essentials of great Mexican cooking, Texas style—with her family’s recipes and techniques for making the world’s best tamales, homemade tortillas, Spanish rice, and Pan de Polvo (Mexican pastry), to name a few. She also offers dishes from a variety of international cuisines, and includes personal stories and anecdotes.
The National Latino Family Expo is FREE and open to the general public. Themed pavilions explore key issues within the community and celebrate the Latino culture; over 200 exhibitors participate. For more information, please visit nclr.org/index.php/events/latino_family_expo/
Thursday, August 4, 7:30pm
 Friendship Heights Village Center
4433 S. Park Avenue, Chevy Chase
JOE YONAN
SERVE YOURSELF: Nightly Adventures in Cooking for One (Ten Speed, $22)
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. Mr. Yonan is the editor of the Food and Travel sections of The Washington Post, where he 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.
There is no cost for this event. Please sign up in advance by calling the Village Center at 301-656-2797.
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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. If your review is posted on our website, you may come in to select a free paperback book! 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 27)
A box of seven FORTUNE COOKIES (Beach Lane, $14.99) arrives in the mail for a little girl, with a fortune for her to pull out each day. So begins Albert Bitterman’s story of a week filled with small dramas and precious things lost and found. With his signature quick-brushed watercolors, Chris Raschka renders each object, gesture, and emotion with great personality. This interactive book allows the reader to participate in the story, pulling tabs to reveal each of the girl’s fortunes. Ages 2-5 – András Goldinger
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.
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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Jonathan Rosen’s wide-ranging THE LIFE OF THE SKIES: Birding at the End of Nature is as much about thinking and feeling as it is about looking for and at birds. Or, as he might put it, birdwatching is as much about thinking and feeling as it is about tracking birds. A birder for over a decade, Rosen sees in his avocation a metaphor for almost all aspects of life, and finds that life’s daily demands, in turn, suggest analogies to birding. Rosen’s book isn’t a field guide—though he describes the habits and histories of several birds, and chronicles field trips to places as diverse as the Southern swamplands, in search of the presumed-extinct ivory-billed woodpecker, and to Israel to see cranes, owls, and hoopoes—but a beautiful and thought-provoking meditation on living. Available in hardcover, $4.98.
The former U.S. Poet Laureate Donald Hall is nearly as prolific a memoirist as he is a poet. In his most recent autobiographical volume, UNPACKING THE BOXES: A Memoir of a Life in Poetry, he looks back from the vantage point of his eighties to his Depression-era upbringing and early efforts at writing. He talks about the books that inspired him, about his formal education at Harvard and Oxford, and about his friendships with writers ranging from Frank O’Hara to Edward Gorey to Robert Bly. Fans of Hall’s poetry will recognize many of the landscapes here, as well as Hall’s honesty and humor. Available in hardcover, $4.98.
If you need something light but literary to help you through the hot summer, take a look at Elinor Lipman’s THE FAMILY MAN. Henry Archer is a divorced, gay lawyer who lost touch with his former wife and his step-daughter long ago. But when they suddenly burst back into his life, he not only adjusts, but comes to know and love them both. In this warm, charming, and funny novel, Lipman shows her knack for creating vivid, fully realized characters. Available in hardcover, $4.98.
Click here to shop for more recently acquired remainders.
• Laurie Greer
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NEW MUSIC
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NEW JAZZ
Paul Motian, THE WINDMILLS OF YOUR MIND (Winter & Winter, $17.98) – Guitarist Bill Frisell is the consummate melodic accompanist in any musical context. And drummer Paul Motian has a good track record with introducing “pop” vocalists to jazz standards—his Motian on Broadway, Vol. 4 (2006) featured Rebecca Martin. On The Windmills of Your Mind, Motian, Frisell and bassist Thomas Morgan accompany Petra Haden on ballads like “Easy Living,” “I’ve Got a Crush on You,” “I Loves You Porgy,” as well as the title tune. They’re sung straight, with little embellishment, so you hear the original tune—the jazz is all in the accompaniment. Five of Motian’s own moody and melancholic tunes, played by the trio, are interspersed between the vocals. A very sweet album.
Steve Coleman & Five Elements, THE MANCY OF SOUND (Pi Recordings, $15.98) – Alto saxophonist Steve Coleman started the M-Base collective in the 1980s; an influential group of musicians were affiliated with the group, including Cassandra Wilson, Greg Osby, Geri Allen, and Gary Thomas. Coleman’s compositions have always been rhythmically complex, yet swinging: in his present octet, he’s got two dynamic drummers (Marcus Gilmore and Tyshawn Sorey) and Afro-Cuban percussionist Ramón Garcia Pérez. The front line includes saxophone, trumpet, trombone, and voice (Jen Shyu). Continuing his interest in Afro-Cuban music, The Mancy of Sound uses Yoruban divination systems (“mancy”) as compositional devices.
Terri Lynn Carrington, THE MOSAIC PROJECT (Concord, $17.98)) – Drummer Terri Lynn Carrington gathered an all-star lineup of woman jazz artists on her latest. My colleague, Deb Morris, will write a review of this CD for next week’s eblast.
 MORE GILLIAN WELCH
I wrote about Gillian Welch’s great new album, The Harrow and the Harvest, a few weeks ago. What I didn’t mention was the beautiful letterpress cover portrait, printed on very thick cotton paper.
There are two videos on Gillian’s website about the making of the cover, and a how-to on how to “age” the cover in diluted coffee (scroll a little at http://www.gillianwelch.com/news/ ).
Gillian (and her duet partner, David Rawlings) were on Fresh Air on Monday. You can listen to it also at the above link.
And, on Tuesday, August 2, Gillian and David will be in concert at Strathmore.
GEOFF DYER ON KEITH JARRETT
One of my favorite books of the year is Geoff Dyer’s bountiful collection of essays and reviews, Otherwise Known as the Human Condition (Graywolf, $18). Dyer’s written a book on jazz (But Beautiful (Picador, $15), and there’s a whole section in the new book on music. On this week’s Jazz on 3 on BBC Radio 3 (well worth tuning in to every week), Dyer expounds on Keith Jarrett’s solo and trio work in a 20 minute essay (listen starting at 56:00, here ). The rest of the show is good, too, with live sets from the Steve Lehman Trio and Tyshawn Sorrey’s Paradoxical Frog.
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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P&P's book groups meet monthly and are free and open to the public.
Thursday, July 21, 7:30 p.m.
Veterans Book Group
High-Value Target, by Edmund Hall
Monday, July 25, 7:30 p.m.
Public Affairs Book Group
The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein
Tuesday, July 26, 7:30 p.m.
Poetry Book Group
The Poems of Marianne Moore
Wednesday, July 27, 7:30 p.m.
Graphic Novel Book Group
Daytripper by Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon
Thursday, July 28, 7:30 p.m.
Fascinating History Book Group
Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 by Eric Foner
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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TONIGHT: Documentary Appreciation Salon
Thursday, July 21, 7:30 p.m. @ the Coffeehouse
Docs in Progress presents: The Documentary's Impact on and Influence from Reality TV
This salon series brings together filmmakers and documentary film aficionados to discuss and debate great issues in documentary cinema. Each salon will focus around a particular sub-genre of documentary and use clips from documentary films and questions from the moderator to spur reflection and discussion. As a way to encourage greater discourse on documentary film, this series is free to the public although donations are always welcome.
This month's topic will focus on how documentary has influenced and is influenced by "reality" television. Now an almost default setting for mainstream entertainment, Reality TV emerged in the early 1970s as a highly experimental and controversial mode of documentary expression.This salon focuses on Reality TV’s intersections with different trends in documentary filmmaking, how the mode has shifted over the past four decades, and its current place in the broadcast industry. Groundbreaking programs such as PBS’s An American Family (1973) will be central to the discussion.
We are pleased to welcome guest facilitator, Josh Glick. He is a PhD candidate at Yale University in the departments of Film Studies and American Studies. His research and teaching interests are focused on the history and theory of American documentary film, Hollywood, and race and representation in popular media.
Although this is a free event, because of limited seating (of no more than 15 participants), advance registration is highly recommended. Wi-fi will be disabled during the event. For more information, visit www.docsinprogress.org
- Lance Kramer
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