Grass Roots Books and Music — 227 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis OR 97339 — 541-754-7668
January 17, 2013
Contents
Newest Books
New in Paperback
Featured Books for Young Readers
Music
Events
News
This Week's Puzzle
Reading Group Selection
On Our Nightstands
Grass Roots Online — Contact Us
 
 

Hello, friends!

Where on earth does the time disappear to? All of our calendars are on their final sale this weekend, so if you haven't gotten a grid to help you keep track of 2013 yet, you'd better grab one soon. (If you find my lost time, please let me know.)

We are also busy setting up our event schedule for the next few months. The Events listing in our newsletter has certainly grown, and there are more to come. Need more news? We are eagerly anticipating the arrival of the Kobo Arc next week, introducing another piece of reading technology to ourselves and our customers. Of course there's also new books and music this week, in addition to more staff Nightstand reviews. This is why I need a calendar—to keep up with it all!

See you in the bookstore!

Pamela.

 
Newest Books

The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?

Jared Diamond

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs, and Steel) explores traditional societies to consider how modern life is linked to millions of years of human existence. With decades of field work in the Pacific islands and New Guinea —in addition to evidence from Inuit, Amazonian Indians, Kalahari San people, and others—he considers what the differences between the past and the present mean for our lives today.

“A symphonic yet unromantic portrait of traditional societies and the often stirring lessons they offer.” –Kirkus Reviews Starred Review

Hardcover, $36.00

Publisher: Viking Books; ISBN: 9780670024810

The Last Runaway

Tracy Chevalier

Honor Bright is a modest English Quaker in 1850 when her fianc� breaks their engagement to marry outside the faith, and she decides to travel to the United States with her sister Grace, who is engaged to marry a man in Ohio. Unfortunately Grace dies en route, and Honor is forced to depend on the kindness of strangers. In her new home, she finds that principles count very little, even within a religious community meant to be committed to human equality. Her own principles draw her into helping on the Underground Railroad, eventually challenging her to act on what she believes in, whatever the personal costs.

Hardcover, $26.95

Publisher: Dutton Books; ISBN: 9780525952992

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My Beloved World

Sonia Sotomayor

The first Hispanic and third woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor has become an instant American icon. Growing up in a Bronx housing project, Sotomayor knew at an early age that she wanted to be a lawyer, and her extraordinary determination took her from her precarious childhood to valedictorian at her Catholic High School, graduating with honors from Princeton, and into Yale Law School. Her professional career began in the New York District Attorney’s office, and she was appointed to the Federal District Court before the age of 40.

“Sotomayor offers an intimate and honest look at her extraordinary life and the support and blessings that propelled her forward.” –Booklist Starred Review

Hardcover, $27.95

Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group; ISBN: 9780307594884

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Here, There, Elsewhere: Stories from the Road

William Least Heat-Moon

“Acclaimed travel writer Least Heat-Moon (Blue Highways) wanders off in every direction in this scintillating collection of short writings. Culled from 30 years of magazine articles, these pieces roam across terrain both familiar and exotic. Many find magic in mundane patches of America, from improbably delicious fried-fish stands on Minnesota's Lake Superior shore to oddly idyllic Gulf Coast industrial canals and Seattle's rebel micro-breweries. Others survey stranger climes: tiny Japanese garden farms crowded with bawdy roadside gods; Mayan villages in the Yucatan, their ancient fertility dances and traditional sorcery barely varnished by Catholicism. . . There is a dazzling variety of places, people and curiosities, linked by a highway of funny, perceptive, generous prose.” –Publishers Weekly Starred Review

Hardcover, $29.99

Publisher: Little Brown and Company; ISBN: 9780316110242

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The Aviator's Wife

Melanie Benjamin

Historical novelist Melanie Benjamin explores the marriage of Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh through Anne’s eyes. Anne met Charles shortly after his celebrated 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic, and following their marriage felt overshadowed by him despite her own achievements.

“Intimately depicting their marriage of duty and partnership in the air, as well as the horrific kidnapping and murder of first child Charles Jr., this is less love story than voyeuristic glimpse at one of the 20th century's most captivating men through the eyes of the woman who knew him best. In true Benjamin style, it's Anne who captures us all in this exquisite fictional take on an iconic marriage.” –Publishers Weekly Starred Review

Hardcover, $26.00

Publisher: Delacorte Press; ISBN: 9780345528674

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New in Paperback

The Age of Miracles

Karen Thompson Walker

Julia is dealing with things many sixth graders do: her parents’ troubled marriage, her own anguish of first love, and her grandfather’s bizarre behavior while he’s convinced that there’s a government conspiracy. In this near future, however, she awakes one morning to discover that the earth’s rotation has started slowing. At first she and her family attempt to maintain normalcy, but as the earth continues to slow, it becomes evident that everything has changed.

“Julia's life is shaped by what happens in the larger world, but it is the only life she knows, and Walker captures each moment, intimate and universal, with magical precision. Riveting, heartbreaking, profoundly moving.” –Kirkus Reviews Starred Review

Paperback, $15.00

Publisher: Random House Trade; ISBN: 9780812982947

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The Lifeboat

Charlotte Rogan

“Rogan's elegantly written debut draws the reader into the confidences of Grace Winter, a 22-year-old newlywed then widow fighting for her life. In 1914, during a transatlantic crossing, the ship carrying Grace and her husband suffers a crippling explosion and begins to sink. Henry secures a place for his wife on an overcrowded lifeboat, but once among the debris and wreckage, the survivors realize that the boat is unstable. Some passengers will have to die so others can live. The castaways begin to battle the sea and the weather while engaging in a psychological battle of wills against one another.” –Library Journal

Paperback, $14.99

Publisher:Reagan Arthur Books; ISBN: 9780316185912

 
Music

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Christopher Owens

Lysandre

Genre: Pop/Folk

As heard on NPR: “Christopher Owens came into prominence as one-half of the indie rock group Girls. This debut solo album features more folk-themed songs, inspired by a woman he met while on tour in France.” ($13.95)

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Whitehorse

The Fate of the World Depends On This Kiss

Genre: Pop/Folk

Whitehorse features two of Canada's foremost singer-songwriters. Husband and wife Luke Doucet and Melissa McLelland collaborate on these songs with a definite Americana and alt-country leaning. ($17.95)

Yo La Tengo

Fade

Genre: Pop/Folk

One of indie rock's longest lasting bands defies expectations with their long awaited new album. On Fade, the band known for taking a "kitchen sink" approach to their recordings steps back and releases the quietest album of their long career. ($14.95)

The Tenors

Lead With Your Heart

Genre: Classical

As seen on PBS: "The Tenors —Victor Micallef, Clifton Murray, Remigio Pereira and Fraser Walters —have inspired millions of music lovers with their rich harmonies, addictive charm and powerful songs. This dazzling new concert takes place in the breathtaking 2,050-seat Reynolds Hall at The Smith Center, where The Tenors perform music from their newly released sophomore album Lead With Your Heart." ($13.95)

 
Events

Thursday, Jan. 24 at 7 p.m.

First Alternative Co-Op
South Store Meeting Room
[This has changed! Please note new venue.]

1007 SE 3rd Street, Corvallis

Rob Dietz

Enough Is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources

Grass Roots Books & Music will host Corvallis writer Rob Dietz, co-author of Enough Is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources with Dan O’Neill, for a book discussion and signing at the First Alternative Co-op South Store, in their meeting room. In the book, Dietz and O’Neill lay out a visionary but realistic alternative to the perpetual pursuit of economic growth —an economy where the goal is not more but enough.They explore specific strategies to conserve natural resources, stabilize population, reduce inequality, fix the financial system, create jobs, and more —all with the aim of maximizing long-term well-being instead of short-term profits.

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Please Note: The event venue has changed!

Saturday, Feb. 2 at 2 p.m.

Grass Roots Books & Music

227 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis

Tom Titus

Blackberries in July: A Forager’s Field Guide to Inner Peace

Biologist Tom Titus returns to his native Oregon in search of old orchards, bay clams, wild mushrooms, spawning salmon, and home. This poetic year-long hunting and gathering of his spirit reunites him with the land and traditions of four generations and leads to a profound reordering of values and priorities. Humor and compelling personal insight illuminate the emotional pitfalls and spiritual payoffs of the conscious pursuit of place.

“Whether stalking an abandoned orchard or wrestling salmon in well-known waters, Tom Titus gives witness to the joys, trials, and mysteries of tramping in the wild. Writing from within his community of many species, he becomes interfused with the weather and the woods. These fine essays delve deep into the meaning of our relation to place.” —Charles Goodrich, author of Going to Seed: Dispatches From the Garden

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Saturday, Feb. 9 at 2 p.m.

Grass Roots Books & Music

227 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis

Poetry Reading
What the River Brings: Oregon River Poems
Edited by Kathryn Ridall

What the River Brings is a collection of poems celebrating rivers by 56 Oregon poets. This afternoon we will be joined by Charles Goodrich, Donna Henderson, Claudia Lapp, Kathryn Ridall, and Tim Whitsel.

What the River Brings is a great gift to all of us who love rivers. Carry this gift in your canoe or daypack or the pocket of your raincoat; its sentences will shimmer with reflected sky and dive to depths you had not imagined. There is no greater pleasure than sitting by the water when the cottonwoods are sweet and coming to know the river anew through the minds and hearts of Oregon’s most wonderful poets.” —Kathleen Dean Moore, author of Riverwalking and Wild Comfort

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Saturday, Feb. 16 at 2 p.m.

Grass Roots Books & Music

227 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis

Poetry Reading: Constance Eggers
Reliquary

Celebrate the release of local poet Constance Egger’s first chapbook, Reliquary, with an afternoon poetry reading at Grass Roots.

“Pilgrim, saint, a sweltering teenage mother, a stubborn teenage daughter, the Blessed Virgin, a fable’s scrub-maid, a fairy tale’s queen: all quicken within these vibrant lyrics. On page after page of Reliquary, Constance Eggers offers us arresting, archetypal females. Her poems are resonant songs for the kind of ‘spiky, sharp women’ she claims as her kin.” —Paulann Petersen, Oregon Poet Laureate

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Thursday, Feb. 21 at 7 p.m.

Main Meeting Room,
Corvallis-Benton County Public Library

645 NW Monroe Avenue, Corvallis

Kim Stafford

Reading, conversation, and book signing

100 Tricks Every Boy Can Do: A Memoir

Co-Sponsored by Grass Roots Books & Music, Friends of the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, and The Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word.

Kim Stafford joins us to read from and discuss his memoir 100 Tricks Every Boy Can Do.

Bret and Kim Stafford, the oldest children of the poet and pacifist William Stafford, were pals. Bret was the good son, the obedient public servant, Kim the itinerant wanderer. Growing up, there was a code of silence in the family, not to talk about the hard things. Against a backdrop of the 1960s—puritan in the summer of love, pacifist in the Vietnam era—Bret became a casualty of his interior war and took his life in 1988. In this book, through a brother's devotions, the lost saint teaches us about depression, the tender ancestry of violence, the quest for harmonious relations, and finally the trick of joy.

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Upcoming Events

We have many more events coming up in the next few months! For a complete list of all of our upcoming events, please visit our website.

 
Community Events

Community Events

Darkside Cinema: Movies showing Jan. 18 to 24, showtimes daily, Darkside Cinema, Corvallis. Visit their website for showtimes.

  • ANNA KARENINA –R: Set in late-19th-century Russia high-society, the aristocrat Anna Karenina enters into a life-changing affair with the affluent Count Vronsky. With Keira Knightley, Jude Law.
  • RUST AND BONE –R (French): Put in charge of his young son, Ali leaves Belgium for Antibes to live with his sister and her husband as a family. Ali's bond with Stephanie, a killer whale trainer, grows deeper after Stephanie suffers a horrible accident.
  • BROOKLYN CASTLE –NR: Amidst financial crises and unprecedented public school budget cuts, Brooklyn Castle takes an intimate look at the challenges and triumphs facing members of a junior high school's champion chess team.
  • CHASING ICE –PG-13: Follow National Geographic photographer James Balog across the Arctic as he deploys time-lapse cameras designed for one purpose: to capture a multi-year record of the world's changing glaciers.

Literary Events: Visit our Community Calendar for details on these events and others in the area.

  • Nye Beach Writers Series presents former governor Barbara Roberts, Up the Capitol Steps: Saturday, Jan. 19, 7 p.m., Newport Visual Arts Center, Newport.
  • Writers on the River: Linda Elin Hamner presents “In the Beginning: The Importance of Your Opening Pages”: Monday, Jan. 21, 6:30 p.m., First Presbyterian Church, Corvallis.
  • Albany William Stafford Birthday Celebration: Tuesday, Jan. 22, 6 p.m., Albany Public Library, Albany.
  • Aria Minu-Sepehr presents “Iran: A Fragile Future”: Thursday, Jan. 24, 6:30 p.m., Corvallis-Benton-County Public Library, Corvallis.
  • Corvallis William Stafford Birthday Celebration: Saturday, Jan. 26, 1 p.m., Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, Corvallis.

Opportunities:

  • Poetry Marquee Submissions: The next time you are strolling along the Corvallis downtown waterfront, be sure to take a peek at the Madison Street side of the Great Harvest Bread building – you’ll be treated to periodically-rotating examples of local poetry.Submissions are being considered by The Arts Center of Corvallis for brief poems (a maximum of six lines) to appear on the Midway Theater marquee at the corner of Southwest First Street and Madison Avenue. Visit The Arts Center website for more information.
  • Inklings, an open critique group, is seeking new members. The group meets on 1st & 3rd Sundays from 11 am to 1 pm in the upstairs meeting room at Market of Choice on 9th Street and Circle Boulevard in Corvallis. Please contact Dinaz Rogers at [email protected] or 541-967-1911 if you have any questions.

Ticket Sales: Grass Roots sells tickets for local music events. Check our Community Calendar for upcoming events that we have available.

Friday, Jan. 18 at 7:30 p.m.

Main Floor Rotunda, Valley Library

Oregon State University Campus, Corvallis

Literary Northwest Series

Poetry Reading with Clemens Starck and John Daniel

 

Northwest poets Clemens Starck and John Daniel will read from their collections, with a book signing to follow.

Daniel’s newest poetry collection Of Earth: New and Selected Poems, was published in Sept. 2012 by Lost Horse Press. Daniel’s collection of personal essays, The Far Corner: Northwestern Views on Land, Life, and Literature, won the 2011 Oregon Book Award in Creative Nonfiction.

Starck has worked mostly as a carpenter and construction foreman on the West Coast. His first book of poems, Journeyman’s Wages, received the 1996 Oregon Book Award as well as the William Stafford Memorial Poetry Award from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association. A new book of poems, Rembrandt, Chainsaw, was published in the fall of 2011. He lives in the country outside of Dallas.

The Literary Northwest Series is sponsored by the OSU Beaver Store and the OSU School of Writing, Literature, and Film, and celebrates regional literary achievement. This event is also co-sponsored by The Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word. Grass Roots Books & Music will have books available to purchase at the event.

 

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Saturday, Feb. 9,
8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

LaSells Stewart Center, OSU

875 SW 26th Street, Corvallis

Insights into Gardening

Insights into Gardening is a day-long seminar offering practical, hands-on learning for home gardeners and gardeners-to-be. Whether you are an experienced or novice gardener, new to the area or an Oregon native, you will find plenty of ideas to make your gardening easier, more enjoyable, and more successful. Raffles, exhibits, and a catered lunch will also be available at the event. Grass Roots Books & Music will have books available to purchase at the event. For more information online, visit the Extension Office website or call Pami Opfer at the Benton County OSU Extension Office at 541-766-6750.

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Thursday, Feb. 21, 2 to 4 p.m.

Main Meeting Room,
Corvallis-Benton County Public Library

645 NW Monroe Avenue, Corvallis

Kim Stafford
Lecture & Writing Workshop:
100 Tricks: Writing Big Stores in Little Chapter

Co-Sponsored by Friends of the Corvallis-Benton County Library and Grass Roots Books & Music.

In this workshop we will explore the opportunity to write a work of any length, give creative solitudes of any brevity, by designing a cell-like structure of short chapters for a big story. We will discuss this approach as exemplified in the book 100 Tricks Every Boy Can Do, and by writing exploratory drafts for work in progress by participants. Who knows? Maybe you will begin your story this day.

Preregistration is required. Call library Adult Reference at 541-766-6793 to sign up. Books will be available to purchase from Grass Roots Books & Music.

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News

Book Awards

Oregon Book Award Finalists: Literary Arts announced the finalists for the 2013 Oregon Book Awards and Fellowship winners last week. Two Corvallis authors were among the finalists: Aria Minu-Sepehr’s memoir We Heard the Heavens Then is nominated for the Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction, and Katie Kacvinsky’s novel First Comes Love is nominated for the Leslie Bradshaw Award for Young Adult Literature. Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on April 8. For a complete list of finalists, please visit the Literary Arts website. (And congratulations Aria and Katie! Both books will be available in paperback this spring, so look for events at Grass Roots later this year!)

Featured in the Store

Friends of Mystery Top Picks for 2012: Mystery fans should consider these titles if they’re looking for something new to read, provided by the Friends of Mystery, headquartered in Portland. They represent the top picks for 2012 by authors in the Pacific Northwest:

Calendars

Last Chance Calendar Sale: All 2013 calendars are on sale this weekend, 30 to 50% off. They'll be gone before you know it, so stop in the store soon to grab the calendar you've been waiting for!

Coming Soon!

Kobo Arc Available Soon: Grass Roots will soon have the Kobo Arc tablet available in the store. The Arc allows user to create their own ideal experience by customizing pages, books, music, and movies thematically, and provides personalized recommendations based on your interests. It offers a vivid, colorful reading experience, forward-facing speakers for use with multimedia, a front-facing camera for video chats, built-in wi-fi, and the Android platform with access to over 600,000 apps with Google Play, plus Android’s multi-tasking power. They are expected to arrive next week—stay tuned!

wbn

World Book Night 2013: It's your last week to sign up!

Applications are now being taken for Volunteer Book Givers for the 2013 World Book Night on April 23, 2013. This is a great opportunity to share your love of reading, and to put wonderful books into the hands of light or non-readers in your community. For more information, and to apply to be a 2013 book giver, please fill out the online application on the World Book Night Website. You will be asked what your first, second, and third book choices are, why you wish to share these books, and where you will go to personally hand out the books. Deadline to apply is January 23, 2013.

 
This Week's Puzzle



Solve this week's jigsaw.
 
Reading Group Selection

Tuesday, Feb. 5, 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Glaciers

Alexis Smith

Charne� leads this month’s Reading Group discussion of Glaciers by Portland author (and former Powell’s bookseller) Alexis Smith.

Isabel is a single, twentysomething thrift-store shopper and collector of remnants, things cast off or left behind by others. Glaciers follows Isabel through a day in her life in which work with damaged books in the basement of a library, unrequited love for the former soldier who fixes her computer, and dreams of the perfect vintage dress move over a backdrop of deteriorating urban architecture and the imminent loss of the glaciers she knew as a young girl in Alaska.

Publisher: Tin House Books

ISBN: 9781935639206

Paperback

Regular price: $10.95

On sale for $9.31 until 2/5/13.

 

 

On Our Nightstands

Linda

Silent Spring

Rachel Carson

Fifty years after Rachel Carson's publication of her book Silent Spring (1962), it is amazing to realize how exacting and true her words, warnings, and observations were. From the very start, mankind's dabblings in the chemical insecticides and pesticides we have developed and chosen to use on our crops, lawns, and living areas, have proven unsafe and lethal to not only earth's animals, but ourselves as well. This might seem obvious, but Carson recorded these occurrences early on and the importance of her book is now not only attributed to helping the environmental movement, but holds true, and wakes us up, still today.

Paperback, $14.95

Publisher: Mariner Books; ISBN: 9780618249060

10 Pamela

The Snow Child

Eowyn Ivey

This book was perfect for the last weeks of the holiday season, to be read under the blanket of winter. Our reading group discussion earlier this month revealed that there was much to discover in this book beyond a cozy little read, and in some cases questions were left unanswered and interpretations were different. It was one of my favorite discussions, to be honest. Overall the book left me with a curiosity for Russian fairy tales, a strong desire to see frontier Alaska, and the pleasant feeling that I’d been reading old friends, similar to the way I felt after rereading the Little House books last year.

Paperback, $14.99

Publisher: Reagan Arthur Books; ISBN: 9780316175661

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Marissa

Sorry Please Thank You: Stories

Charles Yu

In this high-concept collection of short fiction, the line between sci-fi alternative reality and our perceived reality becomes blurred. I found stories like “Standard Loneliness Package” and “Troubleshooting” to be both playful and uncommonly astute, toying with emotions as corporate commodities, poking fun at the tropes of geekdom, and deconstructing pop culture and social roles of the present (and imagined future). Yet because the complexities, follies, and experiences of humanity are a central theme, Yu’s depth of imagination is equally moving as it is entertaining, marking him as a promising up-and-coming novelist.

Hardcover, $24.95

Publisher: Pantheon Books; ISBN: 9780307907172

 
Grass Roots Online — Contact Us