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Click here for our online events calendar and to preview events through April.
Members always save 20% on our author event books. Click here to register!
Click the event titles for more information about each event and to purchase the book.
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Thursday, March 8
7 p.m. Peter Behrens - The O'Briens (Pantheon, $25.95)
7 p.m. Baratunde Thurston - How to Be Black (HarperCollins, $24.99) at Sidwell Friends School, Quaker Meeting House, 3825 Wisconsin Ave, NW
Friday March 9 – Sunday, March 11
Spring Storewide Member Sale
Friday, March 9
7 p.m. Noam Scheiber - The Escape Artists: How Obama's Team Fumbled the Recovery (Simon & Schuster, $28)
Saturday, March 10
3 p.m. Beryl A. Radin - Federal Management Reform in a World of Contradictions (Georgetown Univ.. $29.95)
Sunday, March 11
3 p.m. Campbell McGrath - In the Kingdom of the Sea Monkeys: Poems (Ecco, $14.99)
Monday, March 12
3:30 p.m. Cal Ripken, Jr. - Super-Sized Slugger (Hyperion, $16.99)
7 p.m. Senator Bob Graham - Keys to the Kingdom (Vanguard, $7.99)
Tuesday, March 13
5 p.m. Ally Carter - Out of Sight, Out of Time (Hyperion, $16.99) and Rachel Hawkins - Spell Bound (Hyperion, $17.99) at the Bethesda Library, 7400 Arlington Rd, Bethesda, MD
7 p.m. Eric Klinenberg - Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone (Penguin, $27.95)
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Wednesday, March 14
7 p.m. Tiki Davies and Todd Purdum present John Paton Davies, Jr.’s autobiography - China Hand (Univ. of Pennsylvania, $34.95)
Thursday, March 15
10:30 a.m. Christopher Paul Curtis - The Mighty Miss Malone (Wendy Lamb, $15.99)
7 p.m. Michael E. Mann - The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines (Columbia Univ., $28.95)
Friday, March 16
7 p.m. Elaine Pagels - Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation (Viking, $27.95)
Saturday, March 17, 3 p.m.
Robert Kanigel - On an Irish Island (Knopf, $26.95)
Sunday, March 18, 5 p.m.
Ellen Cassedy - We Are Here: Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaust (University of Nebraska, $19.95)
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The Scoop from Brad and Lissa
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Friday March 9, 9 a.m. – Sunday, March 11, 8 p.m.
Spring Storewide Member Sale
Membership with Politics & Prose helps sustain our author events program so members always receive 20% discounts on the monthly author event titles, as well as on our weekly list of hardcover bestsellers. In addition, members can participate in our summer and winter holiday promotions, and - four times a year - our storewide member sales!
This coming weekend, Friday through Sunday, Politics & Prose members receive 20% off almost all of our current in-store book inventory and 15% off our DVDs and CDs. Members' online and phone purchases will also receive the same discounts as long as the items selected are on our shelves and payment is provided at the time of the order. Discounts do not apply to specially ordered items.
If you are not yet a member, it's a great time to sign up and take advantage of our discount opportunities. Members always receive:
• 20% off all titles in our monthly events calendars
• 20% off our weekly hardcover fiction and nonfiction bestsellers
• Store-wide discounts during four annual members sales
• Other periodic section discounts and promotions
Women’s History Month
 Politics & Prose is celebrating Women’s History Month with a new display in the store’s front window of books by and about women. Whether you’re in the mood for a novel, a political exegesis, a memoir, a biography, a work of history or social criticism, or a collection of poetry, we’re pleased to present an array of women-related titles that spans all genres and eras, from the classic to the contemporary.
Amid this literary celebration of the contributions and experiences of women is one book that deserves special mention for having profoundly re-shaped the way many women—and men—think about their lives. The book is Composing a Life by Mary Catherine Bateson (Grove, $14), a brilliant work of original thought, literary style, and persuasive argument. Although first published in 1989, the book remains a timeless read, especially for women who must continually sort through difficult decisions and choices about family, work, relationships, and identity.
Bateson, an anthropologist who has studied and written extensively on gender roles (and is the daughter of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson), uses the lives of five women as a platform for describing the range of choices available to women if they allow themselves to imagine life scenarios that don’t necessarily follow the expected path. Bateson’s point is that there is no single best route to get from point A to point Z in life. Rather, she suggests, women should feel free to “compose a life”—to make choices that work in the contexts and circumstances of their individual work and family obligations, as well as their long-term needs, interests, and aspirations. Bateson’s concept of composing a life, articulated so eloquently in the book, has left many readers, including men, feeling liberated, with a new appreciation of the creative opportunity that their lives offer. Deborah Tannen has called Bateson “one of the most original and important thinkers of our time,” and a New York Times review offered that “Bateson has an extremely interesting mind and the ability to express herself with extraordinary literary felicity.”
Composing a Life should not be confused with another provocative and inspiring work from Bateson called Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom (Vintage, $15.95) Published in 2010, the latter is her tenth book, an exploration of later adulthood and the potentials and opportunities it offers to engage more deeply in life. Here again, Bateson uses stories of real people—in this case men and women—to provide examples of what she calls the “age of active wisdom.”
We hope you’ll enjoy these and the many other titles throughout the store worthy of attention during Women’s History Month—and for many more months to come.
Click here for more suggestions from our staff.
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Politics & Prose Classes
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Transport yourself to Mississippi this summer with a six-week intensive on William Faulkner: The 1930s. Taught by Joseph Fruscione, a professor at Georgetown and George Washington Universities, the course will cover three of Faulkner’s early novels: As I Lay Dying, Light in August, and The Wild Palms. Two week gaps between classes will give everyone plenty of time to read.
On four Saturday mornings, beginning April 28, author and former NPR environmental correspondent John Nielsen will teach The Thing with Feathers, a class designed for both bird enthusiasts and the merely curious, that will focus on the literature of birds. And beginning May 5, for two Saturdays at lunchtime, author and former Washington Post correspondent Marc Kaufman will teach New Worlds Unveiled, which will focus on accessible science writing and will culminate in a trip to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Also on offer this spring are:
An Egg Decorating workshop using the Ukrainian pysanky wax resist technique meets on Friday, April 6, 6-8 p.m. just in time for Easter. (Ages 10 – Adult)
For more information, click the above hyperlinks to our website. For other classes, please visit: http://www.politics-prose.com/classes/2012-classes.
Susan Coll
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Booknotes
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 Hari Kunzru’s fourth novel, Gods Without Men (Knopf, $26.95), is set in the Mojave desert in a variety of times, from the seemingly eternal Native American mythic era to the high-tech 21st century. Kunzru shuffles a number of stories -- some extended narratives, others one-time glimpses -- and all of them are absorbing. This multi-layered structure enacts his thematic concern with pattern and the larger meaning -- or mystery -- available in coincidence and recurrence. The desert, after all, is where people go to search for truth, have visions, meet extra-terrestrials, do drugs, or just to get lost, the place they go when life is too much or too little. All of these scenarios are in play here, and Kunzru builds a stunning, moving novel out of a UFO cult, hippies, and a family cracking apart under the strain of caring for an autistic son, and then enduring the media spotlight when he disappears in the desert.
Click here to watch Hari Kunzru's introduction to his book on YouTube.
Ranging from historical to autobiographical fiction and modern tall tales, Nathan Englander’s stories are written with a ferocious, startling energy. They also pose difficult questions -- dilemmas requiring Solomonic wisdom to resolve -- and they don’t let anyone off the hook. Set in Israel and various parts of the U.S., the fiction of What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank: Stories (Knopf, $24.95) focuses on Jewish characters. But “it’s a delicate thing being Jewish”; what exactly is a Jew, anyway? How secular can one be and still be Jewish? How many dietary laws can one fudge and still claim to be observant? And, as the title suggests, how large should the Holocaust loom in 21st-century Jewish life? Englander masterfully concentrates a number of these matters into “what if” scenarios that use humor and gravitas to vividly dramatize ideas of obligation and sacrifice. Above all, this writer is after the truth, and he takes notions of transparency to ends both logical and absurd to make his characters—and his readers—bare their souls and see what’s there. It’s a cliché to say of powerful fiction that it will haunt you after you close the book, and though Englander steers clear of cliché, this one was true for his previous books and is for this one as well.
Click here for more of my favorites.
Click here for recommendations by some of my colleagues!
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Bestsellers
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All Politics & Prose Weekly Hardcover Bestsellers are 20% off for Members.
Click here to see what the community is reading and the top twelve hardcover fiction and non-fiction books we are discounting this week.
These are our top two titles.
 Watergate, by Thomas Mallon (Pantheon, $26.95)
With Dewey Defeats Truman, Fellow Travelers, and others, Mallon has proven himself an adept novelist of recent history. His ninth work of fiction revisits the Nixon years and, from several carefully selected perspectives, Mallon lets the scandal’s participants tell us what happened, including the fate of those erased 18 -1/2 minutes of tape.
Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now -- As Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It, and Long for It, by Craig Taylor (Ecco, $29.99)
This lively field guide to Londoners is part Dickens and part Studs Terkel. Interviewing a diverse cross-section of the city’s denizens, from an iconic Buckingham Palace guard to a retired driver to a heroin addict, Taylor gives us some eighty distinct views of life in London.
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New Paperbacks
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Fantastic Fiction
The Wise Man's Fear (DAW, $19), the second installment of Patrick Rothfuss's best-selling Kingkiller Chronicle series, continues the story of Kvothe -- actor, arcanist, inventor, and musician extraordinaire. Follow him as he mingles with the courtly society in Vintas, uncovers an assassination attempt, is put on trial by legendary Adem mercenaries and even travels to the Fae realm. (If you are yet to discover this incredibly engrossing series, we also have copies of the first volume, The Name of the Wind.)
Click here for more of my suggestions!
Non-Fiction
Autobiography of Mark Twain: Volume 1, Reader's Edition, by Mark Twain, edited by Harriet Elinor Smith (Univ. of California, $26.95)
In 2010, in honor of the 100th anniversary of Mark Twain's death, UC Press published Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1 ($34.95), the first of a projected three-volume edition of the complete, uncensored autobiography. The book became an immediate bestseller and was hailed as the capstone of the life's work of America's favorite author. This Reader's Edition republishes the text of the hardcover Autobiography in the size of a trade paperback, without the editorial explanatory notes. It includes a brief introduction describing the evolution of Mark Twain's ideas about writing his autobiography, as well as a chronology of his life, brief family biographies, and an excerpt from the forthcoming Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2.
Also available as a digital book Autobiography of Mark Twain: The Mark Twain papers (Google eBook) By Mark Twain(Univ. of Calif, $24.47)
Click here for more of our digital book suggestions and for instructions on downloading from our site.
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Sideline of the Week
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We are always multitasking, but sometimes tasks multiply beyond the capacity of our panicked and fumbling hands. Luckily there’s the Bondi (Funky Rico, $15), the multipurpose cellphone holder, perfect for any multitasker wishing they had a few more limbs. Clip Bondi to your bike while you pedal to work, or in your car while you navigate city streets. Made of flexible, high quality silicon, Bondi comes in a wide variety colors to suit any taste. Make multitasking easier and hand your phone over to Bondi.
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Coming Soon to Your Favorite Bookstore
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Click here for our online events calendar and to preview events through March.
Members always save 20% on our author event books. Click here to register!
Thursday, March 8, 7 p.m.
Peter Behrens - The O'Briens (Pantheon, $25.95)
In his second novel Behrens resumes the saga of the family he introduced in The Law of Dreams. Spanning half a century, this lyrical and evocative fiction from the former Stegner Fellow follows Joe O’Brien from his backwoods Canadian youth through his move to California, his courtship of Iseult, and his rise to railroad magnate.
Thursday, March 8, 7 p.m.
Baratunde Thurston - How to Be Black (HarperCollins, $24.99)
at Sidwell Friends School
Quaker Meeting House
3825 Wisconsin Ave, NW
The social critic, comedian, and digital director at The Onion grew up in Washington, DC, graduated from Sidwell Friends School, and went on to earn a philosophy degree from Harvard. His funny, poignant insights into race, politics, technology, and modern culture have provoked, inspired, and entertained audiences around the world. How to Be Black - part memoir and part satirical guide to racial issues - has been called “humorous, intelligent, and audacious.”
This event is free and open to the public. RSVP requested, but not required. Please email events@politics-prose.com. For more information, click here.
Friday, March 9, 7 p.m.
Noam Scheiber - The Escape Artists: How Obama's Team Fumbled the Recovery (Simon & Schuster, $28)
In his analysis of the Obama administration’s team of economic policy-makers, the New Republic senior editor profiles key figures, including Geithner, Summers, and Obama himself, looking at how these people work as a team, and considering their particular visions and blind spots regarding the American economy.
Saturday, March 10, 3 p.m.
Beryl A. Radin - Federal Management Reform in a World of Contradictions (Georgetown Univ.. $29.95)
Radin, a Georgetown Public Policy Institute faculty member, cites three basic areas of incompatibility between the U.S. federal system and many of the proposals for reform offered in recent decades. In considering diverse aspects of the government’s shared-powers structure, values, and politics and administration, she makes a thorough analysis of how techniques suited to the private sector or borrowed from parliamentary systems are often a poor fit for federal management.
Sunday, March 11, 3 p.m.
Campbell McGrath - In the Kingdom of the Sea Monkeys: Poems (Ecco, $14.99)
In his eighth collection of poems, the Guggenheim and MacArthur “genius” grantee applies Walt Whitman’s capaciousness to contemporary culture. While noting the banalities of everyday life, McGrath wields an ironic romanticism to winnow enduring meaning from the ephemeral.
Monday, March 12, 3:30 p.m.
Cal Ripken, Jr. - Super-Sized Slugger (Hyperion, $16.99)
Cody Parker may be an incredible third-baseman, but he’s overweight and an easy target for bullies like Dante Rizzo. Competing with Dante for a chance to play ball and dealing with thefts at school threaten to sideline Cody, but he’s determined to show his true colors. Ages 8 and up.
This is a book signing only. Purchase of Super-Sized Slugger from P&P is required for signing. Please call the store at 202-364-1919 for details.
Monday, March 12, 7 p.m.
Senator Bob Graham - Keys to the Kingdom (Vanguard, $7.99)
This thriller from the former Florida senator and governor starts with the murder of the 9/11 Congressional Commission co-chair and leads to the uncovering of an international conspiracy involving al-Qaeda and Saudi Arabia. The plot culminates in a race against time to prevent a nuclear device from being detonated off the California coast.
Tuesday, March 13, 5 p.m.
Ally Carter - Out of Sight, Out of Time (Hyperion, $16.99) and Rachel Hawkins - Spell Bound (Hyperion, $17.99)
at the Bethesda Library
7400 Arlington Rd
Bethesda, MD
In Carter’s latest installment of the Gallagher Girls series, Cammie Morgan wakes up in a convent and doesn’t know how she got there - she’s forgotten the entire past month.
In Hawkins’s new Hex Hall book, Sophie Mercer is stripped of her demonic powers, but she can’t be sure who her true enemies are. Ages 11 and up.
Tuesday, March 13, 7 p.m.
Eric Klinenberg - Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone (Penguin, $27.95)
In most cities today, a third of the population lives alone. In his investigation of this demographic shift, the NYU sociology professor, editor of Public Culture, and author of Heat Wave, finds that living alone is on the rise in all age groups and classes, which suggests concurrent changes in attitudes toward marriage and family.
Wednesday, March 14, 7 p.m.
Tiki Davies and Todd Purdum present John Paton Davies, Jr.’s autobiography - China Hand (Univ. of Pennsylvania, $34.95)
John Paton Davies, Jr. (1908-1999) was a Foreign Service Officer from 1931 to 1954, when McCarthyism ended his career. His memoir recounts his deep relationship with China, including his role as one of the first Americans to talk with Mao. Davies also offered early assessments of Chiang Kai-shek, met with Nehru and Gandhi in the 1940s, and served in Moscow with Kennan.
Thursday, March 15, 10:30 a.m.
Christopher Paul Curtis - The Mighty Miss Malone (Wendy Lamb, $15.99)
In Curtis’s Newbery Award-winning novel Bud, Not Buddy, Bud met a girl named Deza Malone. This book is her story. Deza is the smartest girl in her class in Gary, Indiana, and her teachers predict she will do great things. But the Depression hits the Malone family hard, and after Deza’s father leaves to find work, the rest of the family follow, ending up in a Michigan Hooverville. Ages 10-14
Thursday, March 15, 7 p.m.
Michael E. Mann - The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines (Columbia Univ., $28.95)
Mann was the lead author of the 2001 report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize) that documented the correlation between rising temperatures and increased use of fossil fuels. The chart resembled a hockey stick and became a focal point for climate-change deniers. In his account of the politics behind the science, Mann discusses the attacks he and other scientists have faced from business and energy interests.
Friday, March 16, 7 p.m.
Elaine Pagels - Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation (Viking, $27.95)
In her bestselling Reading Judas and The Gnostic Gospels, Pagels, Princeton professor of religion, made ancient texts vital by illuminating their history. Here she considers the Book of Revelation in light of events in the year 66 C.E., which included John of Patmos’s response to the Roman occupation of Jerusalem.
Saturday, March 17, 3 p.m.
Robert Kanigel - On an Irish Island (Knopf, $26.95)
Great Blasket Island, off the west coast of Ireland, was an isolated preserve of traditional ways until the last residents left in 1953. In his profile of this rugged spot, Kanigel, MIT professor of science writing emeritus, delves into the island’s history and some of the personages associated with it.
Sunday, March 18, 5 p.m.
Ellen Cassedy - We Are Here: Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaust (University of Nebraska, $19.95)
Cassedy’s investigation of Lithuanian history began with her efforts to recover her mother’s and uncle’s pasts; it gradually widened to include the region’s brutal experiences under both Nazis and Russians.
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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.
Thursday, March 8, 7 p.m.
 Sixth & I
600 I Street, NW
Metro: Gallery Place/Chinatown
Michael Ian Black
You’re Not Doing It Right: Tales of Marriage, Sex, Death, and Other Humiliations (Gallery, $23.99)
“You’re not doing it right.” Michael Ian Black has been hearing these five words all his life. And now—on the eve of his 40th birthday—the comedian, actor, and bestselling author who brought you Stella and The State is finally beginning to wonder why.
As a husband and father living in the suburbs, Michael asks: How did I end up here? Michael’s debut memoir takes on his childhood, his children, and his career.
Click here to purchase $12 tickets or to buy 1 book + 2 tickets for $28. Questions? Call 202.408.3100.
Saturday, March 10, 2 p.m.
 Watha T. Daniel-Shaw Library
1630 7th Street N.W., 2nd floor
Reading: From the Stone Age to the Digital Age
Come celebrate the love of reading at the library. On Saturday, March 10, DC Public Library will host the second annual DC Read-In, a daylong celebration of reading.
Join a lively discussion about the history of reading -- past, present and future. Mark LaFramboise, Senior Book Buyer for Politics & Prose will moderate the panel. Panelists include:
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Erik Delfino, professor of history at Catholic University
- Kari Kraus, professor of information science at University of Maryland
- Matt Kirshenbaum, professor of literature at University of Maryland
Refreshments will be served. For more information call 202-727-1288.
This is one of several events occurring across the city at the DC Public Libraries. From poetry readings to edible book contests, there is something for everyone to enjoy. Click here for more information about DC Read-In.
Tuesday, March 13, 7 p.m.
Washington National Cathedral
3101 Wisconsin Ave., NW
Beauvoir School presents
Richard Louv
The Nature Principle: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age (Algonquin, $14.95)
Richard Louv is a journalist and author of eight books about the connections between family, nature and community. His most recent book offers a new vision of the future, in which our lives are as immersed in nature as they are in technology.
For $25 tickets and more information, visit www.beauvoirschool.org/leadingvoices
Thursday, March 15, 7 p.m.
 Sixth & I
600 I Street, NW
Metro: Gallery Place/Chinatown
Jodi Picoult
Lone Wolf (Atria/ Emily Bestler, $28)
A father is injured in a car accident and is on lifesupport. He is divorced and his son is estranged from him. He has remained close to his daughter. Who decides his fate? What are their motives for keeping him alive - or letting him go? This is the medical and moral dilemma at the heart of Picoult’s gripping new novel.
Picoult will be in conversation with Ron Charles, deputy editor and a weekly fiction critic for The Washington Post Book World. Book signing to follow.
Click here to purchase 1 book + 1 ticket for $28 OR 1 book + 2 tickets for $38. If you have questions, call 202.408.3100.
Monday, March 19, 7 p.m.
 Sixth & I
600 I Street, NW
Metro: Gallery Place/Chinatown
Jonathan Safran Foer and Nathan Englander
New American Haggadah (Little, Brown, $29.99)
Read each year around the seder table, the Haggadah recounts through prayer, song, and ritual the story of Exodus, when Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt to wander the desert for forty years before reaching the Promised Land.
Now, Foer has orchestrated a new way of experiencing and understanding one of our oldest and sacred stories, with a new translation of the traditional text by Nathan Englander and commentary by major Jewish writers and thinkers Jeffrey Goldberg, Lemony Snicket, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, and Nathaniel Deutsch.
Tickets are $12 or receive 2 FREE tickets with the purchase of the book through Sixth & I ($30). Purchase here. If you have questions, call 202.408.3100.
Wednesday, March 21, 7 p.m.
Sixth & I
600 I Street, NW
Metro: Gallery Place/Chinatown
Jonathan Haidt
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion (Pantheon, $28.95)
An investigation into the origins of morality -- which turns out to be the basis for religion and politics, the book is timely, explaining the American culture wars and refuting the "New Atheists," as well as scholarly with its integration of insights from many fields. Haidt is a professor in the Dept. of Psychology at UVA. He is the author of The Happiness Hypothesis and has presented at TED talks .
Click here for $8 tickets, or to receive 2 FREE tickets with the purchase of the book through Sixth & I ($29). Questions? Call 202-408-3100. |
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From the Children and Teens' Department
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 Children's Book of the Week
(20% off for everyone through March 14)
The ocean is a wonderful world full of beautiful, often unseen creatures. In the Sea (Candlewick, $16.99) reveals the mysteries of animals that live underwater. In short, clever verses, David Elliott describes sea creatures from the famous blue whale to the infamous giant squid. Holly Meade’s watercolor and block print illustrations capture the whirring, rocking movements of the ocean. This poetic picture book will inspire young imaginations to explore what lies beneath the water’s surface. Ages 2-5 – Amy Kane
Children’s Blast from the Past
(20% off for Members through March 14)
Even though fifteen-year-old J.J. and his family are brilliant musicians, many of the townspeople in the West Ireland village of Kinvara are careful to avoid them. People whisper that long ago J.J.’s grandfather committed a terrible crime. Meanwhile, time has become a precious commodity in Kinvara. When J.J.’s mother wishes for more time for her birthday, J.J. is determined to find it for her. One of the villagers leads J.J. to the Tir na n’Og, a land of enchantment where time used to stand still, but now seems inexplicably to be advancing. On his journey, J.J. discovers the cause of lost time in both worlds and unravels the dark secret that has haunted his family. The New Policeman (Greenwillow, $8.99) by Kate Thompson is a book that adults will enjoy as much as young people. A traditional Irish tune follows each chapter, adding a delightful dimension to this captivating tale of family, mystery, and Irish lore. Ages 11 and up.
Click here to see the Children and Teens' Department 2011 Favorites.
Story Hour
Each Monday at 10:30 a.m., BearSong offers storytelling and guitar music for children from birth to 5 years old.
Click here to sign up to receive email updates. We will inform you of special story hours, changes, or cancellations. |
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Markdown Books
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Yes, remainders are also 20% off for members during the upcoming member sale!
Eleanor Henderson’s first novel, Ten Thousand Saints, burst on the literary scene last spring with a front-page Sunday New York Times Book Review accolade. Praised for its realism and its powerfully realized characters, Henderson’s fiction captures the pulse of the late 1980s in small-town Vermont and New York City. After Jude’s best friend dies of an overdose, Jude moves to the East Village and discovers the straight-edge subculture, an alternative lifestyle that offers him new challenges as well as a way to overcome his addictions and sort out his family situation. Available in hardcover, $6.98.
Thriving on large-scale subjects, Douglas Brinkley has delivered comprehensive histories of Teddy Roosevelt and the conservation movement (The Wilderness Warrior) and Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath (The Great Deluge). In his most recent work, he investigates The Quiet World: Saving Alaska’s Wilderness Kingdom, 1879-1960. Yet the time and place he chronicles was anything but quiet. A landscape of breathtaking natural wonders -- Mount McKinley, the Tongass, Glacier Bay -- Alaska is also the site of extensive fossil fuel deposits. Brinkley ‘s story of this contested land involves environmental heroes, industrial villains, native peoples, and the ongoing struggle to balance competing interests. Available in hardcover, $9.98.
Vyacheslav Molotov is better known for incendiaries than for his literary taste, but in fact this Soviet factotum had an extensive library. When the British journalist Rachel Polonsky moved to Moscow, she found much of it intact, and this served as the unlikely muse for Molotov’s Magic Lantern: Travels in Russian History. Following in the footsteps of writers including Chekhov, Pushkin, and later figures, some of whom were sent to the gulag, Polonsky visited sites throughout Russia and Siberia; her report is part history, part travelogue -- and a thoroughly enjoyable literary tour de force. Available in hardcover, $6.98.
Please call us at 202-364-1919 or stop by the store to shop for these and other discounted titles.
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Music News
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NEW
 Andrew Bird, Break It Yourself (Mom & Pop Records, $17.98) – Singer, songwriter, classically-trained violinist (and virtuoso whistler) Andrew Bird returns with a fine collection of songs, and an ever-expanding palette of violin sounds and arrangements. This is a melodious and very fine album.
Note: With the purchase of the album, P&P is offering the first five customers a free poster, featuring artwork by Jay Ryan.
Grégoire Maret, Grégoire Maret (E One Records, $15.98) – Past and present masters of the chromatic harmonica include Larry Adler, Toots Thielemans, and Stevie Wonder. Over the last few years, Grégoire Maret has been the go-to star of the instrument, collaborating with Cassandra Wilson, Pat Metheny, and Herbie Hancock among others. Now he’s released his first album: Maret mixes great covers songs by Stevie Wonder, Milton Nascimento, and Ivan Lins, with fine original songs and two lyrical suites. Guests include Ms Wilson (on “The Man I Love”), Marcus Miller, and the master himself, Toots Thielemans.
The Touré-Raichel Collective, The Tel Aviv Sessions (Cumbancha, $14.98) – This is an easy-going instrumental collaboration (with a few vocal snippets) headlined by Israeli keyboard player Idan Raichel and Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré. They are joined by bassist Yossi Fine and calabash player Souleymane Kane.
Wes Montgomery, Echoes of Indiana Avenue (Resonance, $16.98) – A newly discovered collection of live performances by the jazz guitarist recorded in Indianapolis in 1957 and 1958. The 24-page booklet includes notes by Dan Morgenstern, Michael Cuscuna, and David Baker.
Bruce Springsteen, Wrecking Ball (Columbia, $13.98) – Springsteen adds to his great catalog of songs with working-class themes. This was the final recording of the E Street Band’s legendary saxophonist, Clarence Clemons.
Note: The Boss will play at the Verizon Center on Sunday, April 1.
CDs are now searchable on our website, but stock status is not always currently visible. Please click the title links to place orders online - or call the store at 202-364-1919 with questions. You may also continue to email me at agoldinger@politics-prose.com to order.
Click here for more news and reviews.
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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.
Click here to see all of our upcoming in-store book groups.
Thursday, March 8, 6:30 p.m.
Fantasy Book Group
Mythago Wood by Holdstock
Science Fiction Book Group
Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
April 12 selection:
Fantasy The Magicians, Lev Grossman
Science Fiction Everything Matters, by Ron Currie
Sunday, March 11, 4 p.m.
Swarthmore / Memoirs of Africa
Extra meeting at Arlington Central Library Auditorium
1015 N. Quincy St., Arlington, VA
Country of My Skull, by Antjie Krog
Monday, March 19 selection: The Years of Childhood by Wole Soyinka
Monday, April 16 selection: Country of My Skull, by Antjie Krog
Monday, March 12, 7:30 p.m.
Women's Biography Book Group
The Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother's Hidden Life, by Jasmin Darznik
April 9 selection: Must You Go? by Antonia Fraser
Tuesday, March 13, 7:30 p.m.
Evening Fiction Book Group
The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
April 10 selection: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Wednesday, March 14, 7:30 p.m.
Lez Read
Wingshooters by Nina Revoyr
April 11 selection: Taking My Life by Jane Rule
Sunday, March 18, 6 p.m.
Spirituality Book Group
Contemplative Prayer by Thomas Merton
April 15 selection: Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness by Simon Wiesenthal
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News from the Coffeehouse
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Today is the 6th anniversary of Modern Times Coffeehouse. The Coffeehouse will be closing at 9 p.m. More celebratory plans will be announced. Plan to visit on Thursday for specials and surprises!
Click here for more news from the Modern Times blog or to follow them on Twitter.
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