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Week of November 10

National Novel Writing Month;
Author Events with Michael Ondaatje, Michael Dirda, and Max Hastings

Popular Destinations
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Upcoming Events Offsite Events
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Children and TeensMusic

 

Click here for our events calendar to preview upcoming events through December.
Members always save 20% on author event books and titles included in other special promotions. Click here to register!

 

Thursday, November 10
8 p.m. Joan Didion - SOLD OUT
Blue Nights
 (Knopf, $25)
at The Avalon Theatre, 5612 Connecticut Ave NW

Friday, November 11, 7 p.m.
7 p.m. Jim Newton
Eisenhower: The White House Years
(Doubleday, $29.95)

Saturday, November 12
1 p.m. Nada Prouty
Uncompromised: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of an Arab American Patriot in the CIA
(Palgrave Macmillan, $26)
3:30 p.m. William S. Cohen
Blink of an Eye
(Forge, $24.99)
6 p.m. Michael Dirda
On Conan Doyle: Or the Whole Art of Storytelling
(Princeton Univ., $19.95)

Sunday, November 13
1 p.m. Faye Moskowitz
And the Bridge Is Love
(The Feminist Press at CUNY, $12.95)
4:30-6 p.m. Father - Son Tailgate Party
with Katy Kelly - Melonhead and the Undercover Operation (Delacorte, $12.99)
and
Fred Bowen - Quarterback Season (Peachtree, $5.95)
5 p.m. Gershom Gorenberg
The Unmaking Of Israel
 (HarperCollins, $25.99)

Monday, November 14
7 p.m. Max Hastings
Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945
(Knopf, $35)

Tuesday, November 15
7 p.m. Kati Marton and Strobe Talbott discuss
The Unquiet American: Richard Holbrooke in the World (PublicAffairs, $29.99)


Wednesday, November 16
10:30 a.m. Tom Angleberger
Darth Paper Strikes Back
(Amulet, $12.95)
3-5 p.m. Jeff Kinney
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever
(Amulet, $13.95)
7 p.m. Michael Ondaatje
The Cat's Table
(Knopf, $26)
at Sixth & I Synagogue, 600 I Street, NW
8 p.m. - CANCELLEDClaire Tomalin
Charles Dickens: A Life
(Penguin Press, $36)
 
Thursday, November 17
7 p.m. Annie Leibovitz
Pilgrimage
(Random House, $50)

Friday, November 18
4 p.m. Sue Macy
Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way)
(National Geographic, $18.95)
7 p.m. Adam Gopnik
The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food
(Knopf, $25.95)

Saturday, November 19
1 p.m.
Gail D. Spilsbury
A Washington Sketchbook: Drawings by Robert L. Dickinson, 1917-1918
(Chesapeake, $30)
3:30 p.m. David Elfin & Art Monk
Washington Redskins: The Complete Illustrated History
(MVP Books, $30)  
6 p.m.
Ann Blackman
Off to Save the World: How One Woman Made a Difference: Julia Taft
(Maine Authors, $14.95)
Sunday, November 20
5 p.m. Daniel R. Green
The Valley's Edge: A Year with the Pashtuns in the Heartland of the Taliban
(Potomac Books, $29.95)


The Scoop from Brad and Lissa


ScoopWe had a wonderful event on November 7 with debut novelist Erin Morgenstern, whose book, The Night Circus (Doubleday, $26.95), is a staff and store favorite. Given that November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), it’s worth mentioning that Morgenstern began writing The Night Circus as a participant in this annual writing extravaganza in 2005.

In case you’re wondering, NaNoWriMo is pronounced nan-o-rhyme-o. And here’s what it is: A community-based movement that brings together aspiring writers on the internet and in public forums where they find encouragement and incentives to steel their nerves, turn on their laptops, and crank out 50,000 words of fiction in 30 days.

NaNoWriMo was launched in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1999 by freelance writer Chris Baty. That first year, 21 people participated. The number grew to 140 the next year. Word began to spread over the internet and soon the program was attracting writers from around the country—and from other nations. Bloggers weighed in, and stories in mainstream newspapers also helped garner more attention. Last year 200,000 writers took part.

While some critics view NaNoWriMo as a pointless exercise that will only clutter the world with more bad novels, we think the program has considerable merit. It provides an opportunity—and a challenge—for people to liberate themselves from their fears and constraints and attempt to write when they might otherwise have shelved their ideas, plots, and characters forever.

NanoPolitics & Prose is an enthusiastic sponsor of NaNoWriMo this year, offering a meeting place, an email network, and our own writing competition to inspire participants to finish their novels by November 30. The entry deadline for the P&P competition was November 6, and we’re delighted that 70 writers registered in those first six days of the month. Each week we send emails with words of encouragement and meeting times when participants can congregate at the store to discuss their successes and setbacks, compare notes, and simply write. (To sign up for these emails or learn more about the program, contact Sarah at [email protected].)

P&P has always sought to encourage and promote local writers, and we’re thrilled that so many in our community have decided to engage in a dizzying month of novel-writing. While the manuscripts submitted may not be polished or perfect (or even necessarily good), they will be completed drafts, and that’s part of the NaNoWriMo mission. Massaging the prose can happen after the first draft is done.

And by the way, the winner of our context will receive a copy of his or her novel printed and bound on our new printing machine, Opus. Stay tuned. Maybe we’ll discover the next Erin Morgenstern.

- Brad and Lissa

Book Notes


 

PenguinSave a Penguin

Do you love reading? Do you love penguins? We recommend two dark and hilarious mysteries from Andre Kurkov - Death and the Penguin and/or Penguin Lost(Melville House, $14.95 each).  They feature the criminal underworld in Kiev, a local mobster, a Chechen warlord, an aspiring writer Viktor Zolotaryov – who is just trying to catch a break, and his penguin Misha, whom he rescued when the local zoo started downsizing its animals.

We are participating in a program set up by Melville House. For every 25 copies we sell, they will adopt a penguin in P&P's name!  By "adopt" we don't mean that there will be a little feathered friend running around the store, but funds will be donated in our name to wildlife preservation. To read more about Melville House, Kurkov’s books, and the Adopt-a-Penguin program click here.

Support Politics & Prose, save some penguins, and read some great books. Come in and purchase a copy of Death and the Penguin or Penguin Lost today!

Sarah Baline

Parking Lot Advisory

On Wednesday, November 16, we will host a children’s event in our parking lot. In order to accommodate this event, the parking lot will be closed all day. While we always recommend public transportation when you are attending our larger events, we particularly encourage everyone to take public transportation or carpool if you are coming to the store next Wednesday afternoon.

We want to send a note of appreciation to our neighbor businesses on the block who are permitting us to do this. Not only will several of them provide food for the event, Comet Ping Pong is letting us use their speakers, microphone and sound mixer for free. Comet will be open for lunch and will be selling pizza at the event. Marvelous Market will be selling food at the event and so will Besta Pizza. Our own Modern Times Caf� will be selling hot chocolate, cookies, and brownies.

From Opus - the Print-on-Demand title of the week


Rockville PikeRockville Pike: A Suburban Comedy of Manners, by Susan Coll ($22.95)

Jane Kramer never imagined a life selling discount furniture and commuting between grocery stores and soccer fields via minivan. But when her father-in-law has a heart attack, she and her husband, Leon, trade in their glamorous New York life for a stint running the family business on Rockville Pike, a tributary of the suburban sprawl line extending outward from Washington, D.C. Kramer's Discount Furniture Depot sits away from several lanes of traffic, near the tombstone of Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is here that Jane escapes each day at lunchtime to ponder her confusing turn in life.

At age forty-one, she has a teenage Goth son, her husband is increasingly overweight and quick-tempered, and their business is in a state of crisis, both financially and legally. Jane finds herself wishing for something more. First, add to the mix Delia, a mysterious and strangely predatory patio-furniture saleswoman who seems to have her sights set on Leon, and then an attack on the store expansion plans by historic preservationists. When potentially disturbing findings about Delia's past come to light, Jane finds herself learning that, despite life's reversals, it is possible to reinvent herself by tapping into talents and desires she didn't realize she still had.

Rockville Pike is a smart, witty, and funny read that revels in the joy of discovering what life has in store.

Local author Susan Coll's articles and reviews have appeared in the International Herald Tribune, The Washington Post Book World, and The Asian Wall Street Journal. She lives in Maryland with her husband, the author and journalist Steve Coll, and their three children.

Ticketed Events



Two free event admission tickets will be provided with the purchase of each of the following books from P&P.
Additional tickets are $12 (or $15 on the day of each event).

Pre-purchased books and tickets may be picked up at Politics & Prose until the day before each event. On the day of the event, books and tickets may be collected at the event Will Call. Doors open an hour before the event begins (half an hour before the event at the Avalon Theatre).


Wednesday, November 16, 7 p.m.

Michael Ondaatje

Michael Ondaatje
The Cat's Table
(Knopf, $26)
at Sixth & I Synagogue
600 I Street, NW

Set on a ship bound from Colombo to England in the 1950s, the haunting new novel by the Booker Prize-winning author of The English Patient is the coming-of-age story of an eleven-year-old boy. Finding unlikely tutors on jazz, literature, and women among his fellow passengers, the boy also glimpses things he doesn’t understand, from a mysterious shackled man to the elusive Miss Lasqueti.

Two free tickets will be provided with each purchase of the book from P&P. Additional tickets are $12 (or $15 the day of the event).

Click here to purchase the book and/or tickets.


Novelty of the Week


Glasses

Long-time P&P friend and neighbor, Alice Joseph, has brought us her darling fabric Glasses Cases ($20). Each one includes an elastic band that wraps around any book cover, allowing your eyewear to snuggle up with your reading material. Alice’s unique fabric selection and fine craftsmanship make these handmade glasses cases really POP! There are no more excuses for losing your reading glasses.

 

Calendar of the Week


Shakespeare

“A whoreson, beetle-headed, flap-eared knave!” Ouch, that was a little harsh. Petruchio’s "dis" to his servant in The Taming of the Shrew is just one of 314 verbal assaults found in the 2012 Shakespeare’s Insults Page a Day Calendar (Pomegranate, $12.99). Shakespeare’s verses not only poetically profess love or revenge, they also deliver quite a few acerbic barbs. Each page contains an insult, its origin, who’s dissin’ who, and a brief explanation of certain extinct words used in the barb. It’s the perfect calendar for the literary scholar with an edge (and maybe a mean streak).
- Mark Moran

 

P&P Bestsellers


Bestsellers

All Politics & Prose Weekly Hardcover Bestsellers are 20% off for Members.
Click here to see what the community is reading and which of our hardcover fiction and non-fiction books we are discounting this week.
These are our top two titles.

The Prague Cemetery, by Umberto Eco.
Trans. by Richard Dixon
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $27)

The Time of Our Lives: A conversation about America, by Tom Brokaw
(Random House, $26)

 

Signed First Editions available now


Signed First

The Night Circus
Signed by Erin Morgenstern
(Doubleday, $26.95)

The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon's Last Uncontacted Tribes
Signed by Scott Wallace
(Crown, $26)

Steve Jobs,
Signed by
Walter Isaacson 
(Simon & Schuster, $35)

 

eBook of the Week


Reamde

 

Reamde: A Novel
By Neal Stephenson
(HarperCollins, $14.99)

Stephenson’s fiction is breathtaking in its imaginative range. Like the dazzling Anathem and Cryptonomicon, his new novel starts with established genres and comes up with something startlingly new. A thriller, Reamde follows the fate of a tech entrepreneur as the line between reality and his fantasy online war game disappears.

Click here for more information about eBooks available from Politics & Prose.
Click the book covers to learn more about each book.

 

 

Event Podcast of the Week


Stephen Greenblatt

Could a book change the world? In Stephen Greenblatt’s illuminating study of the Renaissance, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern (W. W. Norton, $26.95), the answer is yes, and the book is On the Nature of Things by the Roman philosopher Lucretius. Greenblatt, a Harvard Shakespeare scholar and author of the bestselling Will in the World, presents Lucretius’s ideas, shows whom they impressed and why, and demonstrates their pivotal and ongoing influence.
Click here to listen to the podcast online or to download the MP3.

You can also listen to more author talks from P&P by clicking here.

 

Coming Soon to Your Favorite Bookstore


Click www.politics-prose.com/event for our author events calendar through December.

events

Thursday, November 10, 8 p.m.

Joan Didion
Blue Nights
 (Knopf, $25) - SOLD OUT
at The Avalon Theatre
5612 Connecticut Ave NW

Didion’s spare yet richly stylized prose made The Year of Magical Thinking a haunting chronicle of grief and love. Her new memoir returns to these themes, this time to chronicle the loss of her daughter. As Didion remembers the young woman’s life, she also looks back on her own, meditating on parenthood, aging, and identity.
Joan Didion will be in conversation with NPR's Susan Stamberg.  

Friday, November 11, 7 p.m.

Jim Newton
Eisenhower: The White House Years
(Doubleday, $29.95)
Newton’s account of Eisenhower’s administration debunks the notion that the 34th president presided genially over bland times. Drawing on recently discovered and newly declassified documents, the long-time journalist and biographer of Earl Warren shows that Eisenhower took aggressive action on many fronts, from overseeing the new national highway system to putting the economy into the black to turning McCarthyism into “McCarthywasm.”

Saturday, November 12, 1 p.m.

Nada Prouty
Uncompromised: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of an Arab American Patriot in the CIA
(Palgrave Macmillan, $26)
Before being accused of passing secrets to Hezbollah (and being dubbed “Jihad Jane” by the New York Post), Prouty, a Lebanese-born naturalized American, had a sterling record as an undercover agent with the CIA. Then, as she recounts in her memoir, 9/11 led to anti-Arab sentiment. Eventually exonerated, Prouty nonetheless lost her job and her citizenship.

Saturday, November 12, 3:30 p.m.

William S. Cohen
Blink of an Eye
(Forge, $24.99)
In the second thriller by the former Secretary of Defense and author of Dragon Fire, an atomic bomb has just destroyed a major American city. The national security advisor is charged with identifying the attackers, but although evidence seems to point in one direction, a surprise discovery changes the whole situation…

Events

Saturday, November 12, 6 p.m.

Michael Dirda
On Conan Doyle: Or the Whole Art of Storytelling
(Princeton Univ., $19.95)
With the heartfelt erudition familiar to readers of his blog and his Washington Post columns, the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic offers a spirited account of Doyle’s life and work. Best known now as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Doyle was also a master of the supernatural story and a pioneer of science fiction. He wrote historical novels, essays, and memoirs; dabbled in tracts on spiritualism; and spoke out on social causes from imperialism and racism to more liberal divorce laws.

Sunday, November 13, 1 p.m.

Faye Moskowitz
And the Bridge Is Love
(The Feminist Press at CUNY, $12.95)
Originally published in 1991 and now back in print, Moskowitz’s collection of personal essays is as fresh as ever. The author of A Leak in the Heart, Her Face in the Mirror, and other works of both fiction and nonfiction, Moskowitz teaches creative writing and Jewish American literature at George Washington University.

Sunday, November 13, 4:30-6 p.m.

Father -Son Tailgate Party with Katy Kelly and Fred Bowen
Authors Fred Bowen and Katy Kelly will be talking about their newest books. See the children's section for more details.
Tickets are $5 for members and $7 for non-members, and can be ordered by calling or visiting the store; please call the Children's Department at 202-364-1919 for information.

Sunday, November 13, 5 p.m.

Gershom Gorenberg
The Unmaking Of Israel
 (HarperCollins, $25.99)
In his assessment of contemporary Israel, Gorenberg, senior correspondent for The American Prospect and author of The Accidental Empire, argues that the country is undermining its own ideals. To return to the potential which the nation had in the beginning, he urges that Israel end the occupation, separate state from religion, and create a new civil Israeli identity for both Jews and Arabs.

Events

Monday, November 14, 7 p.m.

Max Hastings
Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945
(Knopf, $35)
In Armageddon, Overlord, Retribution, Winston’s War, and other military histories, Hastings has given thorough and insightful looks at various aspects of World War II. In his new study, he delivers a comprehensive overview of the entire war, from the experiences of combatants and civilians in Europe and Asia to military and political strategy.

Tuesday, November 15, 7 p.m.

Kati Marton and Strobe Talbott on
The Unquiet American: Richard Holbrooke in the World (PublicAffairs, $29.99)
A panel discussion with Kati Marton and Strobe Talbott.
The late Richard Holbrooke was involved in most of the major foreign policy challenges of the last fifty years, from foreign service in Vietnam during the 1960s and directing the Peace Corps in Morocco in 1970 to serving as the Assistant Secretary of State for Asia (1977-81) and then Europe (1994-96). This collection of the diplomat's writings and reminiscences and assessments of those who knew and worked with him pays tribute to one of the towering figures of recent world history.
Please note that while originally scheduled, the editors will not be able to attend this event.

Wednesday, November 16, 10:30 a.m.

Tom Angleberger
Darth Paper Strikes Back
(Amulet, $12.95)
In the sequel to The Strange Case of Origami Yoda!, Harvey makes Darth Paper and gets Dwight suspended for being a troublemaker. Origami Yoda enlists Tommy and Kellen to clear Dwight's name; the book constitutes the file of evidence that will prove Dwight is an asset to Ralph McQuarrie Middle School. Ages 8-11.

Wednesday, November 16, 3 p.m.*

Jeff Kinney
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever
(Amulet, $13.95)

In the sixth installment of the Diary, Greg is in trouble for damaging school property. He's innocent this time - sort of. He gets a reprieve when a blizzard closes his school, but he knows that when the storm is over, he'll have to face the authorities. Ages 9-12.
* Join us at 3 p.m. when we start our own blizzard with a snow-making truck; Jeff Kinney will speak at 4. The parking lot will be closed from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on November 16 for the Jeff Kinney event.
Late breaking news! Actors Zach Gordon (Greg) and Robert Capron (Rowley) from the Wimpy Kid movies will also be speaking with Jeff at the event. Both boys will be handing out special posters at the event.
Tickets are required for the signing line and will be provided with your purchase. Please contact the store for more details, or see the children's department news below for more information.

Events

Wednesday, November 16, 7 p.m.

Michael Ondaatje
The Cat's Table
(Knopf, $26)
at Sixth & I Synagogue
600 I Street, NW

Set on a ship bound from Colombo to England in the 1950s, the haunting new novel by the Booker Prize-winning author of The English Patient is the coming-of-age story of an eleven-year-old boy. Finding unlikely tutors on jazz, literature, and women among his fellow passengers, the boy also glimpses things he doesn’t understand, from a mysterious shackled man to the elusive Miss Lasqueti.
Click here to purchase the book and/or tickets.
Two free tickets will be provided with each purchase of the book from P&P. Additional tickets are $12 (or $15 the day of the event).

Wednesday, November 16, 8 p.m.

Claire Tomalin
Charles Dickens: A Life
(Penguin Press, $36) - CANCELLED
Any account of Dickens is more a lives than a life; he was a journalist, actor, performer, and social reformer in addition to being a novelist. He was also the father of ten, and despite his advocacy on behalf of orphans and widows, he didn’t always treat his own family very well. Tomalin, award-wining novelist and biographer, charts Dickens’s career, book by book and child by child, focusing as much on his domestic life as on his public persona.
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED AND THERE IS NO RESCHEDULED DATE.

Thursday, November 17, 7 p.m.

Annie Leibovitz
Pilgrimage
(Random House, $50)
In her new collection, Leibovitz pays homage to the places that have nurtured some of the iconic figures in the arts. Off-duty from magazine assignments, she lets her camera roam the New England landscapes of Dickinson, Emerson, and Thoreau; captures images of the studios of Matthew Brady and Julia Margaret Cameron; and follows in the footsteps of Ansel Adams in the Yosemite Valley and Georgia O’Keeffe in New Mexico.

There will be no presentation and no Q&A. Book signing only; no memorabilia.

Friday, November 18, 4 p.m.

Sue Macy
Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way)
(National Geographic, $18.95)
Can you imagine riding a bike sidesaddle? With the rise of bicycles as a mode of transportation, women gained a measure of independence, but it took the creation of bloomers to change attitudes about appropriate attire and to start an empowering fashion revolution.  Ages 9-11

Events

Friday, November 18, 7 p.m.

Adam Gopnik
The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food
(Knopf, $25.95)
Eat to live or live to eat? Or, as the eloquent New Yorker essayist shows in this consideration of current attitudes about food, notice how central the dinner table is to ethnic and religious traditions, family life, and romance. Gopnik approaches his subject by way of 18th-century France, when restaurants as we know them developed. He goes on to sample related topics, such as eating locally, wine, and dessert.

Saturday, November 19, 1 p.m.

Gail D. Spilsbury
A Washington Sketchbook: Drawings by Robert L. Dickinson, 1917-1918
(Chesapeake, $30)
The author of New York Walk Book, Dickinson planned a similar volume of landscape sketches for the Washington area. Working in D.C. for a year, he left the project unfinished; the artwork languished in the Library of Congress from his death in 1950 until his grandsons rediscovered it sixty years later. Spilsbury, author of Rock Creek Park and founder of Bergamot Books, specializing in works on D.C., will introduce Dickinson’s beautiful legacy.

Saturday, November 19, 3:30 p.m.

David Elfin & Art Monk
Washington Redskins: The Complete Illustrated History
(MVP Books, $30)
Elfin’s fifth book on the Redskins looks back to 1932, when the then-Boston Braves entered the NFL. That team became the Redskins when they moved to Washington in 1937. They won the championship that year and then again in 1942. Covering nearly 80 seasons, this is the essential book for the Redskins fan. Hail! 
This event will be a talk and Q&A with David Elfin, followed by a book signing with both Elfin and Art Monk. They will only sign copies of this book. Absolutely no memorabilia or other items. 

Saturday, November 19, 6 p.m.

Ann Blackman
Off to Save the World: How One Woman Made a Difference: Julia Taft
(Maine Authors, $14.95)
Blackman’s fourth biography focuses on Julia Taft, one of this country’s top humanitarian relief experts. From directing the task force that managed the resettlement of refugees from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia to her humanitarian missions during the Ethiopian famine, Bangladesh flooding, and the Kosovo crisis, Taft steered U.S. responses to natural and man-made disasters around the world, becoming a legend in her field.

Sunday, November 20, 5 p.m.

Daniel R. Green
The Valley's Edge: A Year with the Pashtuns in the Heartland of the Taliban
(Potomac Books, $29.95)
When Green spent 2005-06 in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan as a State Department political adviser, he found that U.S. strategy to oust the Taliban faced problems that ranged from unrealistic expectations and unfamiliarity with Afghan culture to lack of resources. Revisiting the area in 2009-10, he noted improvement, but his book shows that changes are needed if American policy is to succeed.

 

P&P Customers Are Also Invited To . . .


 

Friday, November 11, 7 p.m.

Big Idea

National Geographic Live!
1600 M Street, NW
Beth Shapiro & Martin Chalfie
The Big Idea: Who Lives, Who Dies?

Why do only certain species survive? How can our growing knowledge of genomes reveal a deeper understanding of life’s cycles and secrets? Hear a conversation between Martin Chalfie, 2008 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, who pioneered using a fluorescent protein to track cancer, and National Geographic Emerging Explorer Beth Shapiro, who uses ancient plant and animal DNA to study evolution. National Geographic Weekend host Boyd Matson moderates.

Presented in partnership with the Nobel Prize Education Fund.

Click here for $20 tickets (NG Members: $18).

Saturday, November 12, 2 p.m.

OffsiteChevy Chase DC Neighborhood Library
5625 Connecticut Ave NW
Meredith Mileti
Aftertaste: A novel in five courses (Kensington, $15)
In her debut novel, Meredith Mileti weaves food, love, loss, humor, and resilience in writing is as crisp as an autumn day.  Mira Rinaldi is a real “foodie” – also a chef, restaurant owner, wife, and mother.  Her perfect Manhattan life with husband Jake and daughter Chloe takes a nose dive when she discovers said husband on the sofa in the restaurant’s office with a fiery Mediterranean bombshell.  Descriptions of the sumptuous food that Mira prepares are mouth watering.  If you’re hungry for a good story, this book is a delightful read.

Meredith Mileti will discuss her journey from a developmental psychology professor with a passion for food and a love of writing to an author who continues to appreciate any well cooked meal. Books will be available for purchase at the event and in advance of the event in the “Friends” area at the CCDC Library.
Sponsored by the Chevy Chase DC Friends of the Library

 

Tuesday, November 15 at 7:00 pm

David JaverbaumSixth & I
600 I Street, NW
Metro: Gallery Place/Chinatown
David Javerbaum
The Last Testament (Simon & Schuster, $23.99)
God breaks his 1,400-year literary silence with his final masterpiece. As dictated to 11-time Emmy Award–winning comedy writer David Javerbaum, God looks back with unprecedented candor on his time in the public sector and also offers his perspective on the perennial quagmires of love, marriage, and which sports teams he really roots for. Javerbaum is a former head writer and executive producer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Click here to purchase $8 tickets ($10 the day of the event) or receive two (2) FREE tickets with the purchase of the book through Sixth & I ($24). Questions? Please call 202-408-3100.

 

Tuesday, November 15, 4 - 6 p.m.

OffisteHouse of Sweden
2900 K Street, NW
Tom Friedman
That Used To Be Us: How America Fell Behind In the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $28)
and Marc Tucker
Surpassing Shanghai: An Agenda for American Education Built on the World's Leading Systems (Harvard Education Press, $29.95)

The National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) is hosting a book signing and briefing with NCEE President Marc Tucker and New York Times columnist Tom Friedman. Following a brief reception, they will participate in a discussion moderated by NBC Correspondent Luke Russert on how competition from highly educated people and highly capable machines is ratcheting up the demand for advanced education in all the developed countries. The conversation will be focused on the need to redesign the American education system to meet the challenges presented by countries with the top-performing education systems and on what can learned from them.

Wednesday, November 16, 7:30 p.m.

James Robertson

 

National Geographic Live!
1600 M Street, NW
James Robertson
The Untold Civil War: Exploring the Human Side of War (National Geographic, $40)

Marking the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War, distinguished historian James Robertson’s new book is dramatically illustrated with archival images and contemporary photography. His talk will offer compelling new stories behind the traditional battle narratives.
Click here for $20 tickets (NG Member: $18).

 

 

Thursday, November 17 at 7:30 pm

Offsite

Sixth & I
600 I Street, NW
Metro: Gallery Place/Chinatown
Diane Keaton
Then Again (Random House, $26)
In celebration of the release of Then Again, Diane Keaton’s unforgettable memoir about her mother and herself, the Academy Award-winning actress comes to DC as part of her 4-city book tour. Then Again is an unflinching portrait of her mother and family, recounting a story that spans four generations and nearly a hundred years. 

Click here to purchase $35 tickets, each of which includes one (1) copy of the book. Questions? Please call 202-408-3100.

 

 

Thursday, November 17, 7:30 p.m.

OffsiteFriendship Heights Village Center
4433 S. Park Avenue, Chevy Chase, MD

John Bredar
The President's Photographer: Fifty Years Inside the Oval Office (National Geographic, $35)


Mr. Bredar’s book, a companion volume to last year's PBS special, offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the world of presidential photographers, who serve as both visual historians and key links between the American public and the chief executive. Mr. Bredar is a documentary filmmaker and senior executive producer of National Geographic Television; he has won the Peabody Award and three Emmys for his work.

Please sign up in advance for this free event by calling the Village Center at 301-656-2797. Copies of the book, provided by Politics & Prose, will be available for purchase.

From the Children and Teens' Department



Twinkle

 

Children's Book of the Week

(20% off for everyone through November 16)
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (Little, Brown, $16.99) / How I wonder what you are…” begins the classic children’s song full of wonder and possibility. Caldecott medalist Jerry Pinkney (The Lion & the Mouse) transforms the song into a story told through the eyes of a chipmunk in these remarkable watercolor illustrations. The twinkling star appears on nearly every page as the chipmunk embarks on his woodland adventures.  Birth through age 6  – Kerri Poore

 

 

 

KeeperBlast from the Past!

This peek into the P&P archives features a book from years past that we still love today.
(20% for members through November 16)

He was a gawky boy, the only one in his soccer-obsessed town shunned by the local team. Retreating into the jungle, he found a clearing, a goal post, and the ethereal Keeper (Candlewick, $15.99) who drilled him and drilled him and drilled him until he was the best. Then, he became El Gato, winner of the World Cup, the greatest goal keeper of all time.Mal Peet has written a gripping, haunting soccer book even a non-sports lover will adore. Ages 10-14.

 

 

 

Blue HorseChildren’s Signed Book of the Week

Everybody knows author and illustrator Eric Carle from beloved children’s classics like The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We have first editions of Carle’s latest book, The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse (Philomel, $17.99), complete with bookplates signed by the author. We only have a limited number of signed books available. Call 202-364-1919 to reserve your copy today!

Black polar bears, pink rabbits, and orange elephants: one might assume that these fanciful representations of animals are the product of a child’s imagination, but in fact they are all part of famed children’s author and illustrator Eric Carle’s newest book, The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse (Philomel, $17.99). This simple story, told through illustrations in Carle’s trademark style, is inspired by the art of early twentieth-century painter Franz Marc, the Expressionist artist who painted blue horses.  Ages 4-8  – Janet Minichiello

Read about - and buy - more of our favorite books for children and teens by clicking here.  

 

TailgateSunday, November 13, 4:30-6 p.m.
Father - Son Tailgate Party
You're invited! Authors Fred Bowen and Katy Kelly will be talking about their newest books, Quarterback Season and Melonhead and the Undercover Operation.
Tickets are $5 for members and $7 for non-members. Refreshments will be served!
Please call the Children's Department at 202-364-1919 for information.

Katy Kelly
Melonhead and the Undercover Operation (Delacorte, $12.99)

Adam Melonhead and Sam Alswang join the FBI for the summer as Junior Special Agents, outfitted with FBI t-shirts and official FBI badges. Spotting criminals is tough work, but they’ve already got that lady down the street under surveillance. Ages 8-10.

Fred Bowen
Quarterback Season (Peachtree, $5.95)
Matt expects to be the starting quarterback for his team, but finds a rival in a talented newcomer. Meanwhile, Matt has to keep a journal for his English class, but has nothing to write about—except football. As his writing develops, he tells a story more complicated than he’d imagined. Ages 8-10.

Signing line tickets available now for . . .

Wimpy KidWednesday, November 16, 3 p.m.*
Jeff Kinney

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever (Amulet, $13.95)
In the sixth installment of the Diary, Greg is in big trouble for damaging school property. He's innocent this time - sort of. He gets a reprieve when a blizzard closes his school, but he knows that when the storm is over, he'll have to face the authorities. Ages 9-12.

* Join us at 3 p.m. when we start our own blizzard with a snow-making truck; Jeff Kinney will speak at 4. The parking lot will be closed from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on November 16 for the Jeff Kinney event.
Late breaking news! Actors Zach Gordon (Greg) and Robert Capron (Rowley) from the Wimpy Kid movies will also be speaking with Jeff at the event. Both boys will be handing out special posters at the event.

Tickets are required for the book signing line; click here for more details and to purchase your book from our website.

 Story Hour
Story hour with BearSong and his guitar takes place in the Children and Teens' Department each Monday at 10:30 a.m., Please join us each week for storytelling and music for children from birth to 5 years old. 

Sign up here to receive email updates about the Politics & Prose story hour.  We will inform you of special story hours, changes or cancellations.

Markdown Books


 

Markdown

Julian Barnes just won the Man Booker Prize for his latest novel, The Sense of an Ending(Knopf, $23.95). Barnes is also an excellent essayist, and he tackles another kind of ending in his recent nonfiction work, Nothing To Be Frightened Of. Yes, this is a book about mortality. And while you may read other studies about death that consider the subject seriously, even wisely, you won’t find many that do all that and manage a bit of levity. Barnes is a witty writer no matter what he writes about. Here he looks into the abyss and can still crack a joke or two. Available in hardcover, $5.98.

As if to prove how multifaceted a writer Ian McEwan is, this week we feature his novella, On Chesil Beach. This is a snapshot of sorts, offering a highly detailed look at the state of love and romance in provincial Britain in 1962. Or, to be more precise, it examines the transition from romance to marriage, chronicling a young newlywed couple’s first night together. Things don’t quite go as planned, and McEwan is meticulous and often beautiful as he charts the foundering marriage moment by moment. Available in hardcover, $5.98.

We all use language every day, and with texts and emails, we probably read and write more than we would have, say, a dozen years ago. Whether the new media help or hurt the English language, they certainly change attitudes toward it. If you’re interested in a wider historical perspective on English, one expert still worth the attention is H.W. Fowler, the great British lexicographer, born in 1858. His classic A Dictionary Of Modern English Usage is not only a handbook for sticklers, it’s a fascinating look at the language and how cultural needs have altered and shaped it. This edition has an introduction and notes by David Crystal, one of today’s linguistic experts, who assesses Fowler’s achievement for our times. Available in hardcover, $14.98.

Please call us at 202-364-1919 or stop by the store to shop for these and other discounted titles.

Laurie Greer

Music News


Music

PIANOS
Keith Jarrett, Rio (ECM, 2 CDs, $29.98) – Keith Jarrett recorded his first solo piano record, Facing You, forty years ago this month. His breakthrough Köln Concert came out four years later, and Jarrett has continually expanded and refined what a spontaneously improvised solo concert can be. Recorded just a few months ago on April 9, Rio has many moods and episodes: some rollicking and expansive, others hushed and meditative; this is another Jarrett solo classic.

Dejan Lazić, C.P.E. Bach/Britten: Liaisons Vol. 3 (Channel Classics, $20.98) – This is the third in pianist Dejan Lazić’s Liaisons recordings: each featuring two composers, and enabling him to (in his words) “explore musical worlds, sources of inspiration, and degree of influence.” His first volume explored Scarlatti and Bartók (it was one of my favorite recordings from 2009); his second, Schumann and Brahms. Now he juxtaposes C.P.E. Bach’s Prussian Sonatas with Benjamin Britten’s little known, almost minimalist works for solo piano; some very early works (5 Waltzes), another a very late work (Night Piece [Notturno]). This is another wonderful recording in Lazić’s ongoing series.

Hélène Grimaud, Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 19 & 23 (Deutsche Grammophon, $18.98) – Hélène Grimaud plays and conducts from the piano, leading the Bavarian Radio Chamber Orchestra. Besides the two piano concertos, soprano Mojca Erdmann sings “Non temer, amato bene” K. 505 from Idomeneo. There was a great profile of Grimaud in the New Yorker which detailed the making of this recording (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/11/07/111107fa_fact_max ).

Music

GOLDBERG VARIATIONS: ARRANGEMENTS & VARIATIONS
Bach’s Goldberg Variations were written for a harpsichord, but have been arranged and played on all manner of solo keyboards, as well as groups of instruments. 
The six viols of Fretwork have already recorded two CDs of Bach arrangements (The Art of Fugue and Alio Modo) and now bring out all of the contrapuntal virtuosity in their Bach: Goldberg Variations (Harmonia Mundi, 2-CDs, $18.98), arranged by its founding member, Richard Boothby.

Variations and rearrangements are pervasive in Bach’s compositions. Jazz pianist Dan Tepfer honors the spirit of Bach by playing 30 improvisations of his own interspersed with  Bach’s on Goldberg Variations/Variations (Sunnyside, $16.98).

Music

MUSIC FOR ANDY WARHOL’S SCREEN TESTS
This Saturday, November 12, at the National Gallery of Art, musicians Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips (known as Dean & Brita) will perform their original songs (on guitars and keyboards) for thirteen of Andy Warhol’s short portrait films, called Screen Tests. The performance is in conjunction with the NGA’s exhibit, Warhol: Headlines. Pick up the recording, 13 Most Beautiful: Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests (Double Feature, $15.99).

TICKET GIVEAWAY FOR TINARIWEN AT THE 9:30 CLUB
Next Tuesday, November 15, the Malian/Tuareg group, Tinariwen, will headline at the 9:30 Club. They’re touring to support their recent album, Tasili (Anti-, $15.98).

Anti- Records is giving Politics & Prose customers a chance to win a pair of tickets to the show.
To enter, please email: [email protected] with TINARIWEN in the subject field.

 

Click here for more news and reviews. Please call us at 202-364-1919 or email me at [email protected] to order these CDs.

András Goldinger

Book Groups


P&P's book groups meet monthly and are free and open to the public.

Monday, November 14, 7:30 p.m.

Women's Biography Book Group
Inheriting China, by Margaret Hollister
December 12 selection: An American Childhood, by Annie Dillard

Wednesday, November 16, 12:30 p.m.

 Daytime Book Group
Pudd'nhead Wilson, by Mark Twain
December 21 selection: The Elephant's Journey, by José Saramago (call the store for venue)

Thursday, November 17, 7:30 p.m.

Fascinating History Book Group
The Perfect Spy, by Larry Berman
December 15 selection: The Island at the Center of the World, by Russell Shorto

Sunday, November 20, 6 p.m.

Spirituality Book Group
What is God?, by Jacob Needleman
December selection: TBA

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!

 

News from the Coffeehouse


The Only Constant is Change

The one thing I can say about the people whom with we choose to work is that they are strong-willed, dedicated, quality-oriented, over-worked, small-business owners, artisans, delivery people - sometimes all of these things at the same time. . .

You might know Patisserie Poupon from their retail store in Georgetown. We're still getting to know them but what we've tried so far has impressed us. I've gotten the most raves about the almond croissants. My personal favorite has been the glazed apple turnover and, for late in the day, a mini chocolate eclair coupled with a macchiato can erase the chill from the air.

As always, let us know what you think! We want to continue providing the best in quality and service and sourcing pastries from only the best local bakers!

Click here to read more.

- Javier Rivas

Click here for news from the Modern Times blog or to follow them on Twitter.

 

 



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Store Hours:
Monday-Saturday: 9 a.m.-10 p.m.
Sunday: 10 a.m.- 8 p.m.
Modern Times Coffeehouse opens daily at 8 a.m.

 


Politics & Prose Bookstore
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Directions to Politics & Prose

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