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Week of April 19
Ticketed events with General Colin L. Powell, Madeleine Albright, and Dan Rather;
National Poetry Month; Pulitzer Prize Winners; Mother’s Day Gift Bags;
Author Events with Michael Lind, Lucette Lagnado, Gary Krist, Loung Ung, and Eric Alterman
Popular Destinations
Click a link below to skip down to the relevant section
Upcoming Events • Offsite Events
• Classes
• Signed Book of the Week
Children and Teens •
Music
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Click here for our online calendar to preview events through May.
Members always save 20% on our author event books. Click here to join!
Click the event titles for more information about each event and to purchase the book.
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Thursday, April 19
7 p.m. Ross Douthat - Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics (Free Press, $26)
Friday, April 20
7 p.m. Ben Anderson - No Worse Enemy: The Inside Story of the Chaotic Struggle for Afghanistan (OneWorld, $24.95)
Saturday, April 21
1 p.m. Edward Luce - Time to Start Thinking: America in the Age of Descent (Atlantic, $26)
3:30 p.m. Philip Auerswald - The Coming Prosperity: How Entrepreneurs Are Transforming the Global Economy (Oxford Univ., $29.95)
6 p.m. Michael Lind - Land of Promise: An Economic History of the United States (HarperCollins, $29.99)
Sunday, April 22
1 p.m. Lucette Lagnado - The Arrogant Years: One Girl's Search for Her Lost Youth, from Cairo to Brooklyn (Ecco, $14.99)
5 p.m. Gary Krist - City of Scoundrels: The 12 Days of Disaster That Gave Birth to Modern Chicago (Crown, $26)
Monday, April 23
World Book Night
Tuesday, April 24
7 p.m. Loung Ung - Lulu in the Sky: A Daughter of Cambodia Finds Love, Healing, and Double Happiness (Harper Perennial, $15.99)
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Wednesday, April 25
7 p.m. Eric Alterman - The Cause: The Fight for American Liberalism from Franklin Roosevelt to Barack Obama (Viking, $32.95)
Thursday, April 26
7 p.m. Ron Rash - The Cove (Ecco, $26.99)
7:30 p.m. Guy Delisle - Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City (Drawn and Quarterly, $24.95) on the lower level
Friday, April 27
7 p.m. Michael J. Sandel - What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $27)
Saturday, April 28
1 p.m. Paul French - Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China (Penguin Press, $26)
5 p.m. Michael Duffy and Nancy Gibbs - The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity (Simon & Schuster, $32.50)
8 p.m. Rachel Maddow – Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power SOLD OUT (Crown, $25) at Sixth & I
Sunday, April 29
3 p.m. Jane Shore - That Said: New and Selected Poems (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $22)
5 p.m. Madeleine Albright - Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948 (HarperCollins, $29.99) at Sixth & I
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The Scoop from Brad and Lissa
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Madeleine Albright’s Prague Winter
Madeleine Albright covered a lot of territory in her decades as a diplomat, and she’s done so again more recently as a best-selling author. From her classic memoir, Madame Secretary (Miramax, $14.95), to her witty and artful Read My Pins (HarperCollins, $40), to her examination of the role of religion in world affairs in The Mighty and the Almighty (Perennial, $14.95), to her Memo to the President Elect (Perennial, $14.95), her books have been bold, candid, and elegantly written.
Given this literary track record, we eagerly awaited her newest title, Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948 (HarperCollins, $29.99). And what a book it has turned out to be.
Prague Winter is part family history, part political and cultural history, and part lesson on the moral dilemmas and choices people and nations face in the tumultuous context of war. It is also a page-turner. Reading the manuscript before he died, Albright’s friend and hero, former Czech President Vaclav Havel, called it “a remarkable story of adventure and passion, tragedy and courage, set against the backdrop of occupied Czechoslovakia and World War II.”
The impetus to write Prague Winter, as Albright explains in the opening pages, was her desire to delve more deeply into her family’s past, most notably her discovery at age 59 that three of her grandparents and many other family members had died in the Holocaust. The information, uncovered by a Washington Post reporter shortly after Albright became U.S. secretary of state in 1997, was stunning. She had been raised by her Czech parents as a Roman Catholic.
In the years following the discovery of her family’s Jewish roots, she began her own journey, taking trips to the Czech Republic to renew acquaintances with a cousin she had known as a child, mining her father’s voluminous papers, and retrieving newly released documents related to her father’s career as a diplomat, democratic reformer, and head of wartime broadcasting for the Czechoslovak government in exile. Along the way, she realized that her family’s complicated past could only be fully understood in the context of Czech history and the upheaval generated by World War II.
Indeed, the tales of Albright’s family and of her native land are intertwined. Czechoslovakia was a small strategically located country used as a bargaining chip by the major European powers, resulting in the appeasement of Hitler and the onset of global conflict. In less than a dozen years, hundreds of thousands of Czech citizens, including Albright’s parents, were uprooted, thrust into new roles, and forced to grapple with questions of identity, belief, and survival in a climate of fear and mistrust.
Albright captures the heroism, resilience, and sadness of that period, as well as the characters and events that defined it, with a historian’s eye, a writer’s touch, and a humanist’s heart. Even those already knowledgeable about the era will learn something new and meaningful in every chapter.
We are delighted to host Secretary Albright for a special Politics & Prose event at 5 p.m. on April 29th at Sixth & I Synagogue in Washington, DC. She will discuss her book with Leon Wieseltier, the literary editor of The New Republic. Prague Winter will be on our shelves at Politics & Prose beginning April 24th. The book also can be ordered on-line now at www.politics-prose.com or by calling 202-364-1919.
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Booknotes
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The 2012 Pulitzer Prizes
We had chosen all of the winners as favorites last year. Controversial as it was for the judges not to select a Fiction prizewinner, we liked all three of the finalists - Train Dreams by Denis Johnson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $18), Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (Vintage, $14.95), and The Pale King by David Foster Wallace (Back Bay, $16.99), - and could have supported any of them.
Fiction
National Book Award-winner Denis Johnson’s compact and intense Train Dreams (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $18) tells the story of Robert Granier, who spent his life from the early 1900s through the early 1960s working on lumber crews in Idaho and Montana. After losing his wife and daughter in a fire, Granier led a mostly solitary life homesteading and dealing with the enormous changes taking place around him, such as the advent of the automobile and the airplane. Rather than tell the story of a man’s life in exhaustive detail, Johnson captures the totality of Granier’s life by detailing just a few experiences over the course of his lifetime. Granier never lets go of the tragic deaths of his wife and daughter, and their passing merges in his mind with local folklore. Johnson’s character study reveals the essence of an ordinary man, and in that very ordinariness lies his glory.
- Mark LaFramboise
Click here for more of our booksellers' reviews - of The Pale King, Swamplandia!, and the Pulitzer poetry and non-fiction winners – Life on Mars, Malcolm X, The Swerve, and George F. Kennan.
You can also click from there to more commentators' perspectives about the judges' unwillingness or inability to choose a fiction winner.
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National Poetry Month
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It's National Poetry Month! Politics & Prose has many anthologies of new and selected poetry on display for you to enjoy, as well as many recently released and reviewed poets' individual collections. Browse our selections online to help you fill your month with poetry, or come in the store to peruse our shelves for even more choices.
We wouldn’t be good booksellers if we didn’t give you a new spin on the usual. So this year our National Poetry Month display showcases poetry’s new guard. Each poet is only one or two books into his or her career and is already profoundly influencing the modern American poetry.
So if you like Mary Louise Gluck, pick up Rebecca Lindenberg’s debut collection Love, An Index (McSweeney's, $18), a breathtaking poetic elegy to Craig Arnold, a poet who disappeared while hiking a volcano in Japan.
If Langston Hughes is more to your taste, then you should go for Skin, Inc. (Greywolf, $23) by Thomas Sayers Ellis, whose playful language redefines our ideas and conceptions of what it means to be African-American.
For the Carolyn Forché fans, she selected Traci Brimhall’s Our Lady of the Ruins (W.W. Norton, $15.95) for the 2012 Barnard Women Poet Prize. Brimhall creates a war-torn landscape stunning in its lush imagery and brutal truth.
This is just a taste of what’s on display, so drop by - or click here - and discover these movers and shakers.
– Angela Maria Williams
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Mother’s Day Gift Bags
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Give the gift of Politics & Prose!
Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 13th. Show your appreciation for Mom by treating her to a gift that she can enjoy all year. A gift bag of five superb books!
We have selected ten exceptional books that we think would be perfect for moms. To tailor the gift for the mother or grandmother in your life, pick any five books that you know she’ll love from these ten selections. We will wrap each book individually, enclose a greeting card if desired, and put them all into a useful, sturdy, canvas Politics & Prose tote bag. If you like, we’re also happy to send the gift bag to your mother on your behalf.
To help you choose, click each title to read about the book:
- An Atlas of Impossible Longing by Anuradha Roy
- You Know When the Men are Gone by Siobhan Fallon
- The Year We Left Home by Jean Thompson
- The Fates Will Find Their Way by Hannah Pittard
- Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading by Maureen Corrigan
- For You Mom, Finally by Ruth Reichl
- Mom: A Celebration Of Mothers from StoryCorps by Dave Isay
- Day of Honey: A Memoir of Food, Love, and War by Annia Ciezadlo
- Bossypants by Tina Fey
- The Best American Short Stories 2011 edited by Geraldine Brooks
The price for five books and the tote bag is $100 ($80 for P&P members). Click here to order a gift bag for your mother.
Click here to see more of our suggestions for Mother's Day. |
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Spring & Summer Classes
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More Spring and Summer Classes---including three great classes for children and teens!
We’ve added even more spring and summer classes, including three great workshops for kids and teens!
By popular demand, we have just added a new session for Phyllis Theroux’s Journal Keeper class. The new class will held on Friday, June 8, from 1-3 p.m. Also, consider spending a week writing with Phyllis on retreat in the California Wine Country, September 20-October 4. Click here for details.
Registration is now open for Alicia Oltuski’s Two-part Intensive Writing Workshop (June 19 and 26). This accomplished author will help you work through any challenges you face on your writing project. And Sara Taber’s Memoir Club, (June 12-July 24), is modeled on J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis’s Inklings and the Bloomsbury Group’s Memoir Club, and is open to all writers of creative non-fiction.
And the following classes are still open for enrollment. Click the titles for dates, more information, and registration.
Politics & Prose is also excited to offer three summer classes for kids and teens:
Dave Burbank, who has worked for the Takoma Park Library for over 15 years and created the SummerQuest interactive reading game, will teach two classes at the store this summer:
Dungeons & Dragons (July 9-13, 10 a.m. to noon) , for ages 10 and up, is a great way to inspire literacy without requiring a great deal of reading, and has proven a great motivator for intelligent and creative kids who may suffer from reading disabilities.
and Comics Jam & Scribblers’ Cabal (August 20-24, 10 a.m. to noon), for ages 8 and up, is a read-aloud session and drawing free-for-all, like a book club for comics fan, but heavy on the fun.
Lori Steel, a librarian and educator in Bethesda, will teach a Fantasy Writing Workshop for teens, grades 9-12. (August 6-10, 10 a.m. to noon) Participants will learn about the different forms of fantasy and will engage in exercises to develop craft and creativity. This class is geared toward those with work in progress as well as those just getting started
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Literary Tours to Ireland and France with Politics & Prose
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Politics & Prose has long been a civic forum and community gathering spot, a place where book readers can attend author talks, take classes, join book groups, and exchange ideas about the salient issues of the day. Now we’re excited to expand on P&P’s tradition of bringing booklovers together and literally take readers and authors on the road. We invite you to join us as we launch Politics & Prose Travel, a series of journeys that will merge great books with great travel. Trips to Ireland and France are now ready for registration.
Details can be found at www.politicsandprosetravel.com, and questions should be directed to ATA at 202-785-9000 or 1-800-556-7896. Keep an eye out also for coming announcements about additional adventures early next year to India and Israel.
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Ticketed Events On Sale Now
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Sunday, April 29, 5 p.m.
 Politics & Prose hosts
Madeleine Albright
Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948 (HarperCollins, $29.99)
at Sixth & I Synagogue
600 I Street NW
Albright’s family history is inescapably a history of Europe during the Second World War. In this memoir of her early years, the former Secretary of State and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations looks back to the Nazi invasion of her native Prague, then traces her family’s responses to war and the Holocaust, examining the options available at the time and reflecting on difficult decisions made.
Albright will be in conversation with Leon Wieseltier of The New Republic.
Click here for more information and to purchase tickets. One general admission ticket is $15. One book and one ticket is $32. One book and two tickets, $40.
Thursday, May 3, 7 p.m.
 Politics & Prose hosts
Dan Rather
Rather Outspoken: My Life in the News (Grand Central, $27.99)
at Sixth & I Synagogue
600 I Street NW
Anchor of the CBS Evening News for twenty-four years, Rather began reporting in 1950 with the AP. Later he was a play-by-play radio announcer for college football and minor league baseball. In 1961 he earned the moniker “Hurricane Dan’ for his innovative live reporting of Hurricane Carla, work that brought him to the attention of CBS. Rather’s memoir recounts these and other landmark events of his long and distinguished career.
Click here for more information and to purchase tickets. One general admission ticket is $12, or receive two free tickets with the purchase of the book ($27.99) from Politics & Prose.
Tuesday, May 29, 7 p.m.
 General Colin L. Powell
It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership (HarperCollins, $27.99)
at Sixth & I Synagogue
600 I Street NW
Four-star general and former Secretary of State Colin Powell reveals the lessons that have shaped his life and his legendary career in public service. Powell shares vivid personal stories about his immigrant-family upbringing in the Bronx, his Army training, and his decades in the military and in the top ranks of four presidential administrations. He offers insights into some of the controversial issues he was involved in during his tenure as Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005, and he distills his blueprint for effective leadership into thirteen simple rules, including: “Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier,” “Share credit,” and “Don’t let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.”
Powell will be in conversation with Robert Siegel, senior host of NPR's award-winning evening newsmagazine All Things Considered and a leading journalist for 40 years.
Click here for more information and to purchase tickets. One general admission ticket is $12. One book and one ticket is $30. One book and two tickets, $36.
This event is co-sponsored with Sixth & I and NPR.
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Ticketed event and free ticket giveaway
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Friday, April 27, 8 p.m.
G.W. Lisner Auditorium
21st and H Streets, NW
Marjane Satrapi
Persepolis (Pantheon, $24.95) & Chicken With Plums (Pantheon, $12.95)
Interviewed by Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran (Random House, $16)
World-renowned for her award-winning graphic memoir (and film) Persepolis, a global bestseller, Marjane Satrapi will make a rare US appearance. Satrapi grew up during the Iranian revolution and witnessed firsthand the brutal and historic overthrow of the Shah. The subsequent Islamic repression and Marjane's own journey away from Iran are intricately linked to all of her books, films, and artwork.
Azar Nafisi’s acclaimed Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books electrified readers with a compassionate and often harrowing portrait of the Islamic revolution in Iran and how it affected one university professor and her students.
Click here for tickets and more details or call 1-800-745-3000.
To enter your name in a drawing for two free tickets to this event, please email your name and phone number to rlevine@politics-prose.com with “Marjane Satrapi” in the subject line.
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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.
The Beginner's Goodbye, by Anne Tyler (Knopf, $24.95)
Anne Tyler gives us a wise, haunting, and deeply moving new novel in which she explores how a middle-aged man, ripped apart by the death of his wife, is gradually restored by her unexpected appearances—in their house, on the roadway, in the market.
A limited number of signed first editions are available.
Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West, by Blaine Harden (Viking, $26.95)
Little news comes out of North Korea and even fewer people. Harden, an experienced foreign correspondent and author of A River Lost, tells the remarkable story of Shin Donghyuk, a man who survived not only the brutality of a political prison camp, but a daring escape from it.
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Graphic Novels of the Month
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No Longer Human, Volumes 1-3 (Vertical, $10.95 each)
Yozo Oba does not understand humans. He has spent his entire life only acting as he thought others expected him to. But his actions--from womanizing to skipping school--have their price, and as he leaves high school he embarks on a journey of failure and relief, success and love, addiction and sorrow, and through it all he struggles to discover what he is and his purpose in the world (or, if he indeed even has one). Usamaru Furuya's stunning adaption of Osamu Dazai's famous novel of human connection in changing times is a hallmark of translated manga.
Unterzakhn by Leela Corman (Schocken, $24.95)
Taking place in the early twentieth century, Unterzakhn tells the story of Esther and Fanya - twin sisters of immigrant parents - who soak up all their knowledge and experience of the world from the streets of New York City. From sexuality to religion, money to politics, Esther and Fanya move apart in their understanding of the world, each finding her own place within it. Their fates unfold in provocative and cunning ways, and though the story is full of the tragedy of life, it does not succumb to melodrama, instead adapting humor and complexity, history and religion, to tell a story as charming as it is affecting. Corman's artwork is expressive and full of time-period genuineness.
Click here for more of our graphic novel selections this month.
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Sideline of the Week
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We know our customers love some good ol’ word play. Scrabble addicts brace yourself for Dabble (INI, $25), your newest board game obsession. Dabble is like lighting fire scrabble, where players have 30 seconds to spell five words, 2-6 letters in length, using their allotted tiles. Think fast: the victor scores points from the unused tiles of his/her opponent. This fast pace word game is great for helping children develop their vocabulary, polish their spelling, and ignite quick thinking. Educational and exciting- no crossword puzzle is capable of producing this much adrenaline.
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Author Events
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Click here for our online events calendar and to preview events through May.
Members always save 20% on our author event books. Click here to join!
Thursday, April 19, 7 p.m.
Ross Douthat - Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics (Free Press, $26)
What's the opposite of Christianity? In his provocative social critique, the New York Times columnist and author of Privilege argues that Christianity is most threatened not by atheism but by heresy. Once the moral center of mainstream America, Christianity, in Douthat's view, has been trivialized by pop culture, political appropriation, and other trends.
Friday, April 20, 7 p.m.
Ben Anderson - No Worse Enemy: The Inside Story of the Chaotic Struggle for Afghanistan (OneWorld, $24.95)
In this boots-on-the-ground view of the conflict in Afghanistan, the London–based journalist and documentary filmmaker details the string of IED explosions and sniper fire he experienced during the periods over the last five years when he was embedded with the U.S. Marines and British forces in Helmand Province.
Saturday, April 21, 1 p.m.
Edward Luce - Time to Start Thinking: America in the Age of Descent (Atlantic, $26)
Like a British Tocqueville touring today’s America, Luce, The Financial Times Washington commentator, offers fresh insight into this country’s political and economic woes. Drawing on a wide range of interviews with politicians, lobbyists, new graduates, and the unemployed, Luce has eschewed abstractions to fashion a comprehensive picture of how lives are actually being lived.
Saturday, April 21, 3:30 p.m.
Philip Auerswald - The Coming Prosperity: How Entrepreneurs Are Transforming the Global Economy (Oxford Univ., $29.95)
Auerswald, coeditor and cofounder of Innovations and a public policy professor at George Mason, argues that globalism means opportunity and progress, not inequality and fear. He illustrates his thesis with examples of entrepreneurs from all over the world, including the man who founded Afghanistan’s first mobile phone company and the woman who started the world’s first not-for-profit pharmaceutical concern.
Saturday, April 21, 6 p.m.
Michael Lind - Land of Promise: An Economic History of the United States (HarperCollins, $29.99)
Once again, “it’s the economy,” and Lind’s history of America’s economic growth helps put the recent downturn into perspective. The author of The Next American Nation and Hamilton’s Republic, Lind looks at the roots of our past prosperity and suggests how they can be nurtured for the future.
Sunday, April 22, 1 p.m.
Lucette Lagnado - The Arrogant Years: One Girl's Search for Her Lost Youth, from Cairo to Brooklyn (Ecco, $14.99)
Join us for the paperback release of Lagnado’s second memoir. Having introduced readers to her father in The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit, here she focuses on her mother. But the story of her mother’s privileged life in Cairo leads Lagnado to observe other models for women’s lives as she struggles to position herself between her family’s past and her own future.
Sunday, April 22, 5 p.m.
Gary Krist - City of Scoundrels: The 12 Days of Disaster That Gave Birth to Modern Chicago (Crown, $26)
Nearly 100 years ago, city planners were poised to make Chicago the “Metropolis of the World.” Then a series of disasters nearly turned the dream to a nightmare. In his fast-paced narrative history of the momentous events of 1919, Kris, novelist, journalist, and author of The White Cascade, recounts that summer’s riot, transit strike, blimp crash, and child murder.
Monday, April 23
World Book Night
Tonight, all over the country, volunteers will be distributing books free of charge. They’ll be handing out any of thirty different titles, donated by publishers, in a wide range of community locations. The goal of this event, which debuted in the U.K in 2011 and continues there this year, is to celebrate books and reading by passing out a million books. For more information, see http://www.us.worldbooknight.org.
Tuesday, April 24, 7 p.m.
Loung Ung - Lulu in the Sky: A Daughter of Cambodia Finds Love, Healing, and Double Happiness (Harper Perennial, $15.99)
In First They Killed my Father and Lucky Child Ung related her family’s horrific experiences under the Khmer Rouge and her subsequent life as a refugee. Her third memoir recounts her struggle with traumatic memories, her healing trip back to Cambodia, her marriage, and her activism; Ung is a national spokesperson for the Campaign for a Landmine Free World and Veterans International, Cambodia.
Wednesday, April 25, 7 p.m.
Eric Alterman - The Cause: The Fight for American Liberalism from Franklin Roosevelt to Barack Obama (Viking, $32.95)
With co-author Kevin Mattson, Alterman, The Nation media columnist and author of What Liberal Media?, traces post-war liberal ideals through multiple segments of American society. Focusing on politicians as well as activists, intellectuals, visionaries, and outspoken members of the entertainment industry, the book conveys liberals’ passion for change.
Thursday, April 26, 7 p.m.
Ron Rash - The Cove (Ecco, $26.99)
The eponymous cove of this evocative novel, by the author of Serena, is near the Appalachian town of Mars Hill, site of superstition and xenophobia. As World War I winds down, Laurel Shelton, believed by her neighbors to be a witch, heals a stranger she finds in the woods. Mute and mysterious, he excites the townspeople’s suspicion.
Thursday, April 26, 7:30 p.m.
Guy Delisle - Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City (Drawn and Quarterly, $24.95)
Author and artist of Burma Chronicles and Pyongyang, Delisle continues to stretch the boundaries of graphic narrative with this account of a year his family spent in Israel. While his wife worked with Doctors without Borders, Delisle talked to young Israelis and Palestinians, observed checkpoints, and witnessed the bloody Gaza War.
This event will take place on the lower level in the P&P Remainder Room.
Guy Delisle's appearance is cosponsored by SPX. Everyone who buys a copy of the book and gets it
signed this evening will receive a free day pass to SPX 2012. Click here for details.
Friday, April 27, 7 p.m.
Michael J. Sandel - What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $27)
How far can market values go? How far should they go? Should students be paid for good grades? Is money fair compensation for subjects who risk their health in drug studies? Sandel, the Harvard government professor whose popular course on justice led to the influential book on the same topic, seeks to define the proper role of markets in a democratic society.
Saturday, April 28, 1 p.m.
Paul French - Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China (Penguin Press, $26)
Peking, 1937. With the Japanese invasion imminent, two detectives are racing to find out who killed Pamela Werner. The theories range from a Japanese soldier to a madman to the fox spirits. In this recreation of pre-war China, French, a historian and Shanghai-based business advisor and analyst, richly evokes a momentous historical moment.
Saturday, April 28, 5 p.m.
Michael Duffy and Nancy Gibbs - The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity (Simon & Schuster, $32.50)
Co-authors of The Preacher and the Presidents, the authors examine the question of whether there is life for former presidents outside the White House. Combining history, psychology, and politics, Duffy and Gibbs look at what presidents have done after completing their terms, how they have related to each other, and what they still can offer the country.
Saturday, April 28, 8 p.m.
Rachel Maddow – Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power SOLD OUT (Crown, $25)
The host of the Emmy Award-winning “Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC, argues that we’ve drifted away from America’s original ideals and become a nation weirdly at peace with perpetual war, with all the financial and human costs that entails.
Maddow takes us from the Vietnam War to today’s war in Afghanistan, along the way exploring Reagan’s presidency, the rise of executive authority, the outsourcing of our war-making capabilities to private companies, and the plummeting percentage of American families whose children fight our constant wars for us. Ultimately, she shows just how much we stand to lose by allowing the priorities of the national security state to overpower political discourse.
This is ticketed event is sold out. Click here for more information or to order a signed book.
Sunday, April 29, 3 p.m.
Jane Shore - That Said: New and Selected Poems (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $22)
Since 1977 when Eye Level, won the Juniper Prize, followed by the Lamont Poetry Prize in 1986 for her second collection, Minute Hand, and on to the accomplished work of Music Minus One, Happy Family, and A Yes-or-No Answer, Shore has deftly chronicled family life—telling stories and exploring emotions, with wit and a fine-honed lyricism in the vein of Elizabeth Bishop. Her new book contains work from each of her earlier collections along with new poems.
Sunday, April 29, 5 p.m.
Madeleine Albright - Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948 (HarperCollins, $29.99)
Albright’s family history is inescapably a history of Europe during the Second World War. In this memoir of her early years, the former secretary of state and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations looks back to the Nazi invasion of her native Prague, then traces her family’s responses to war and the Holocaust, examining the options available at the time and reflecting on difficult decisions made.
Albright will be in-conversation with Leon Wieseltier of The New Republic.
This is a ticketed event. Click here for more information and to order books.
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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.
Monday, April 23, 6 p.m.
 Human Rights Campaign - Equality Talks: A New Speaker Series from HRC
Equality Center
1640 Rhode Island Avenue, NW
Diane Ehrensaft
Gender Born, Gender Made: Raising Gender Nonconforming Children (The Experiment, $16.95)
This brand new HRC series kicks off with a conversation with developmental and clinical psychologist Diane Ehrensaft, Ph.D., Director of Mental Health of the newly formed Child and Adolescent Center in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Dr. Ehrensaft will discuss the need to listen carefully to children who live outside traditional binary gender boxes and the responsibilities we have to construct gender affirmative environments for all our children – at home, at school, in the community and in the halls of government.
Click here for more information and to RSVP for this free event.
Sunday, May 6, 3 p.m.
 Sixth & I
600 I Street, NW
Metro: Gallery Place/Chinatown
Sissy Spacek
My Extraordinary Ordinary Life (Hyperion, $26.99)
From Badlands, to her Oscar-nominated performance in Carrie, to her Academy Award-winning portrayal of country singer Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner’s Daughter, to this year’s hit The Help, Spacek’s career has spanned over 40 years in film. In her memoir My Extraordinary Ordinary Life, Spacek opens up about her personal, as well as professional, life. It is a story of perseverance, talent, and grace, and how the characters Spacek met and stories she heard while growing up in Quitman, Texas, informed the rest of her life and work.
Spacek will be interviewed by Sara Nelson, the Books Editor of O, The Oprah Magazine.
The cost is $15 for 1 ticket; $30 for 1 book + 1 ticket; $37 for 1 book+ 2 tickets. Click here for tickets and more information. If you have questions, call 202.408.3100.
Monday, May 7, 7:30 p.m.
 Sixth & I
600 I Street, NW
Metro: Gallery Place/Chinatown
Frank Deford
In Conversation with NPR’s Morning Edition Host Steve Inskeep
Over Time: My Life as a Sportswriter (Atlantic, $25)
Over Time: My Life as a Sportswriter is as wide-ranging as Deford’s remarkable career. After joining Sports Illustrated in 1962, Deford has been America’s leading chronicler of sports’ heroes and characters. He’s been named National Sportswriter of the Year six times. In Over Time, Deford traces the entire arc of American sportswriting, from the lurid early days of the Police Gazette to ESPN.
Deford is a senior contributing editor at Sports Illustrated, a weekly commentator on NPR’s Morning Edition, and a correspondent on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. He’s written 18 books and is winner of a Peabody and an Emmy award.
Tickets are $12, or receive 2 FREE tickets with the purchase of the book through Sixth & I ($25). Click here to purchase tickets. If you have 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 April 25)
Step right up to witness the three pigs who believe – perhaps mistakenly – that Wolf Won’t Bite! (Simon & Schuster, $16.99). These pigs attempt to profit from their capture of a formerly big, bad wolf, whom they subject to a circus of humiliations: they tie a bow around his neck! They ride him like a horse! They make him jump through hoops – and still, Wolf doesn’t bite! But have they pushed their luck too far when they place their heads between his gnashing teeth? Find out in this delightfully illustrated picture book by Emily Gravett. Ages 2-5. –Kerri Poore
Children’s Blast from the Past
(20% off for Members through April 25)
After growing up in a cozy house with their mother, the three little wolves struck out on their own. They started their lives in a house of brick, but then the big bad pig came along and he huffed and puffed and – he tore their house down with a sledgehammer! The three little wolves escaped to build stronger and stronger houses, but they were no match for the big bad pig’s destructive streak. Finally, the three little wolves manage to find an ingenious and beautiful solution to their piggy problems. Eugene Trivizas’s The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig (Aladdin, $7.99), illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, is a perfect read-aloud that turns the classic story of pig versus wolf upside down. Ages 4-7. –Dana Chidiac
Summer Classes
Join us this summer for three great classes for children and teens! Want to spend a week playing Dungeons and Dragons? How about polishing your fantasy writing with a group of other teens? Or you can turn your scribbles into comics in a comic workshop! -
Dave Burbank, who has worked for the Takoma Park Library for over 15 years and created the SummerQuest interactive reading game, will teach two classes at the store this summer:
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Dungeons & Dragons (July 9-13, 10 a.m. to noon) , for ages 10 and up, is a great way to inspire literacy without requiring a great deal of reading, and has proven a great motivator for intelligent and creative kids who may suffer from reading disabilities.
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and Comics Jam & Scribblers’ Cabal (August 20-24, 10 a.m. to noon), for ages 8 and up, is a read-aloud session and drawing free-for-all, like a book club for comics fan, but heavy on the fun.
- Lori Steel, a librarian and educator in Bethesda, will teach a Fantasy Writing Workshop for teens, grades 9-12. (August 6-10, 10 a.m. to noon) Participants will learn about the different forms of fantasy and will engage in exercises to develop craft and creativity. This class is geared toward those with work in progress as well as those just getting started.
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.
Days of Remembrance (April 15-22)
The Children and Teens Department is commemorating the Days of Remembrance (April 15-22) of the Holocaust with a special display. Come peruse books embodying this year's theme, Choosing to Act: Stories of Rescue.
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Markdown Books
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Lucette Lagnado’s The Man in the Sharkskin Suit: My Family’s Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World introduced both a fine writer and a fascinating story. Not just witnessing historic events but having their lives completely turned around by them, the Lagnados, upper-class Egyptian Jews under King Farouk, lost everything—status, wealth, and home—when Nasser took power and nationalized industry. The family fled Cairo for Paris and then New York; as Lagnado chronicles the difficulties they faced, she paints vivid portraits of both despair and courage. Don’t miss Lagnado at P&P on Sunday: she’ll be here for the paperback release of her second memoir, The Arrogant Years. Available in hardcover, $6.98.
Randy Frost and Gail Steketee have treated hundreds of people suffering from compulsive hoarding; they estimate there are over six million individuals in this country who hoard. Their fascinating investigation of this disorder, Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things, draws on case studies that make hoarding’s various manifestations clear and even reasonable. At the same time, the authors discuss the meaning objects have for us, whether we collect antiques, prize souvenirs, or simply enjoy being surrounded by familiar things or things we might need someday. Available in hardcover, $5.98.
Mention Henry David Thoreau, and what kind of man do you picture? An iconic figure for both American environmentalists and social activists, Thoreau may seem like a tree-hugging recluse or a dour ascetic—admirable, but off-putting. Robert Sullivan asks us to reconsider this received image. In The Thoreau You Don’t Know: What the Prophet of Environmentalism Really Meant, Sullivan counters the humorless historic waxwork (largely a legacy of Emerson’s views on his friend) and introduces a complex man of warmth, quirks, contradictions, and even humor. Available in hardcover, $5.98.
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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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.
 Jenny Scheinman, Mischief & Mayhem (Jenny Scheinman Recordings, $11.98) – Over the last few years, violinist Jenny Scheinman has written beautiful melodic tunes that skirt both jazz and a pastoral Americana. She also plays in guitarist Bill Frisell’s group (such as on his John Lennon project, …All We Are Saying), as well as touring with Bruce Cockburn and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. Ms Scheinmann gathered three jazz/rock colleagues (guitaris Nels Cline from Wilco, bassist Todd Sickafoose, and ultra-kinetic drummer Jim Black) on her latest project. It’s full of great tunes and some great playing.
Listen to a concert by Mischief & Mayhem here (http://www.npr.org/event/music/139490042/jenny-scheinmans-mischief-and-mayhem-live-at-the-village-vanguard )
Alabama Shakes, Boys and Girls (ATO, $13.98) – Every generation brings out new layers in soul and R&B, but the Alabama Shakes, with lead singer Brittany Howard, dig deep at the roots of soul, and do it with a vengeance. Their sound is raw with buzzy electric guitars and snapping snare drums; above it all is Howard’s deep-soul voice. Check them out.
 Matthias Goerne & Christoph Eschenbach, Schubert: Schwanengesang & Sonata D. 960 (Harmonia Mundi, 2 CDs, $19.98) – The National Symphony Orchestra’s conductor, Christoph Eschenbach, started his career as a piano soloist, and besides his many conducting duties, he makes time to get back to the keyboard, especially in an accompanying role. Last month at the Kennedy Center, Eschenbach and baritone Matthias Goerne presented Schubert’s Winterreise. On their new CD, they take on the monumental Scwanengesang. Eschenbach also plays Schubert’s Piano Sonata D. 960. This is the latest volume of Goerne’s ongoing Schubert lieder project.
John Adams: Harmonielehre & Short Ride in a Fast Machine (SFS Media, SACD, $24.98) – Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas has been the orchestral champion for contemporary American music (as well as for rebels from the past such as Charles Ives and Carl Ruggles). He just finished a four-concert series “American Mavericks” at Carnegie Hall. On his latest recording, MTT programs John Adams’s 1985 breakthrough “Harmonielehre” with a fanfare from 1986, “Short Ride in a Fast Machine.”
 Loudon Wainwright III, I’m Older Than My Old Man Now (2nd Story Records, $15.99) – For over forty years, Loudon Wainwright III has been writing and singing the most self-revealing of songs, his couplets often full of deadpan humor. On his latest CD, many of Wainwright’s songs reflect on the deaths of his father (an editor and writer for Life Magazine) and his ex-wife, singer/songwriter Kate McGarrigle. There are special guest appearances by Dame Edna (“I Remember Sex”), Ramblin’ Jack Elliott (“Double Lifetime”), and Wainwright’s four musical children.
Amadou & Mariam, Folila (Nonesuch, $15.98) – The Malian musician couple Amadou & Mariam had an international breakthrough with 2005’s Dimanche à Bamako, produced by Manu Chao. The collaborations continue on Folila, with American, French, and English guests, along with plenty of Malian musicians.
Click here for more news and reviews.
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Book Groups
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Sunday, April 22, 3:30 p.m.
Teen Book Group
My Family for the War, by Anne C. Voorhoeve
May 27 selection: TBD at the meeting
Monday, April 23, 7:30 p.m.
Public Affairs Book Group
The Healing of America, by T. R. Reid
May 28 selection: Winner-Take-All Politics, by Jacob Hacker & Paul Pierson
Tuesday, April 24, 7:30 p.m.
Poetry Book Group
The Dance Most of All, by Jack Gilbert
May 22 selection: April 2012 edition of Poetry Magazine
Thursday, April 26, 7:30 p.m.
Fascinating History Book Group
Age of Wonder, by Richard Holmes
The group will meet this week in the staff meeting room adjacent to the cafe.
May 24 selection: The Fiery Trial, by Eric Foner
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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On display at Modern Times through May:
Sharp Shirter is dedicated to creating products that revolve around the relationship between animals and humans. We are intrigued by the way in which humans group animals into different categories. Some we eat, some we protect, some we own, and some we fear. Similarly, animals have a range of intentions when dealing with humans. Some are fearful of us while others love and protect us. Still others will attack us and view us as a threat to their existence.
We don’t attempt to give answers to any of these relations but rather we are satisfied with questions that we create.
Click here for more news from the Modern Times blog or to follow them on Twitter.
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