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Grass Roots Books and Music
— 227 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis OR 97339 — 541-754-7668 |
| February 14, 2013 |
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Happy Valentine's Day from your book-loving friends at Grass Roots! |
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| Newest Books |
My Brother's Book
Maurice Sendak
Maurice Sendak finished this book shortly before his death, a beautiful homage to his brother Jack.
“Combining lushly beautiful art in the manner of Blake and Fuseli with a text reconfigured from Shakespeare's Winter's Tale, Sendak's richly imagined book offers a magical and mysterious tribute to his beloved older brother, Jack, who died in 1995. The story follows the respective plights of two brothers, Jack and Guy, who are seemingly separated by a new star's smashing into the earth. . . Will the brothers survive to be reunited in love and peace? Distinguished by its pervasive sense of longing and informed by extraordinary art—some of Sendak's most beautiful—My Brother's Book is a celebration of the enduring love of two brothers.” –Booklist Starred Review
Hardcover, $18.95
Publisher: HarperCollins; ISBN: 9780062234896 |
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Vampires in the Lemon Grove: Stories
Karen Russell
“There are only eight stories in Russell's new collection, but as readers of Swamplandia! know, Russell doesn't work small. She's a world builder, and the stranger the better. Not that she writes fantasy, exactly: the worlds she creates live within the one we know but sometimes they operate by different rules. . . . Russell's great gift—along with her antic imagination—who else would give us a barn full of ex-presidents reincarnated as horses? —is her ability to create whole landscapes and lifetimes of strangeness within the confines of a short story.” –Publishers Weekly Starred Review
Hardcover, $24.95
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group; ISBN: 9780307957238X |
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House of Earth
Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie completed this novel in 1947, and it is now available for the first time, providing a powerful portrait of Dust Bowl America. Tike and Ella May Hamlin struggle to plant roots in the arid land of the Texas Panhandle, living in a precarious wooden shack, but they dream of a better life and yearn for a sturdy house to protect them from the treacherous elements. Thanks to a five-cent government pamphlet, Tike has the know-how to build a simple adobe dwelling, a structure made from the land itself—a house of earth. Due to larger forces beyond their control—including ranching conglomerates and banks—their adobe house remains painfully out of reach.
Hardcover, $25.99
Publisher: Harper; ISBN: 9780062248398 |
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Unleash the Power of the Female Brain: Supercharging Yours for Better Health, Energy, Mood, Focus, and Sex
Daniel G. Amen
Dr. Daniel Amen—one of the world’s leading experts on how the brain works—provides a program for women to achieve greater health, energy, and lasting happiness by harnessing the power of the female brain. With insight on the unique characteristics and needs of the female brain and a practical, prescriptive program targeted specifically for women to help them thrive, Dr. Amen addresses the issues women ask about the most including fertility, pregnancy, menopause, weight, stress, anxiety, insomnia, and relationships.
Hardcover, $26.00
Publisher: Harmony; ISBN: 9780307888945 |
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Jungleland: A Mysterious Lost City, a WWII Spy, and a True Story of Deadly Adventure
Christopher S. Stewart
Theodore Morde* was a 1930s explorer and adventurer who went on to become a WWII spy and would one day attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. In April of 1940, he set out to discover the fabled and mysterious Ciudad Blanca deep in the jungles of Honduras. Nearly 70 years later, journalist Christopher Stewart, armed with Morde's personal notebooks and the enigmatic coordinates etched on his well-worn walking stick, Stewart sets out to test the jungle himself—and to test himself in the jungle. What begins as a passing interest slowly turns into an obsession as Stewart pieces together the whirlwind life and mysterious death of Morde.
*Theodore Morde was the uncle of local poet and gallery owner Susan Shumway, and she contributed to Stewart’s research.
Hardcover, $27.99
Publisher: Harper; ISBN: 9780061802546 |
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| New in Paperback |
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Contents May Have Shifted
Pam Houston
Pam Houston’s second novel is a collection of 144 vignettes: the story of one woman’s search for a place to land disguised as a travelogue. As she travels the globe, the narrator’s tale is revealed forward and back through time surrounded by a shifting cast of characters that includes wise friends, a dead-end relationship, and a possible new romance, complete with its own baggage.
“Unapologetic and empowering, Houston's book hammers home the idea that if you don't have problems, you probably aren't living. Or, to use her metaphor, we all have baggage, so we might as well get used to traveling with it.” –Booklist Starred Review
Paperback, $14.95
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; ISBN: 9780393343489 |
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The Chemistry of Tears
Peter Carey
Grieving the sudden death of her colleague and married lover, Catherine Gehrig struggles to keep the depth of her anguish to herself. The one other person who knows Catherine's secret—her boss—arranges for her to be given a special project to bring back to life a nineteenth-century mechanical bird, and to read a series of notebooks written by the mechanical creature's original 19th-century owner. Through the clockwork bird, Henry and Catherine will confront the mysteries of creation, the power of human invention, and the body’s astonishing chemistry of love and feeling.
Paperback, $15.00
Publisher: Vintage Books; ISBN: 9780307476081 |
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The Newlyweds
Nell Freudenberger
Amina Mazid is 24 when she moves from her native Bangladesh to marry the 10-year-older George in Rochester , NY, after meeting him online. They enter the arranged marriage for different reasons, but both of them are holding secrets from their past that threaten their future. When Amina travels back to Bangladesh to collect her parents and bring them back to America, old family conflicts threaten to ensnare her.
“This classic tale of missed chances, crushing errors of judgment, and scarring sacrifices, all compounded by cultural differences, is perfectly pitched, piercingly funny, and exquisitely heartbreaking.” –Booklist Starred Review
Paperback, $15.95
Publisher: Vintage Books; ISBN: 9780307388971 |
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| Featured Books for Young Readers |
Prodigy: A Legend Novel
Marie Lu
Young Adult
In this sequel to Legend, June and Day arrive in Vegas just as the unthinkable happens: the Elector Primo dies, and his son Anden takes his place. With the Republic edging closer to chaos, the two join a group of Patriot rebels eager to help Day rescue his brother and offer passage to the Colonies. They have only one request—June and Day must assassinate the new Elector. But as June realizes this Elector is nothing like his father, she's haunted by the choice ahead. What if Anden is a new beginning? What if revolution must be more than loss and vengeance, anger and blood—what if the Patriots are wrong?
Hardcover, $17.99
Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group; ISBN: 9780399256769 |
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| Music |
Carrie Rodriguez
Give Me All You Got
Genre: Pop/Folk
Carrie Rodriguez's first original album since 2008 finds the fiddling songwriter pairing once again with her mentor, Chip Taylor. As co-writer of most of the songs, Rodriguez adds more power to these tunes, including a healthy dose of electric instrumentation. ($12.95) |
Frontier Ruckus
Eternity of Dimming
Genre: Pop/Folk
This Michigan band's third album is a double concept CD, exploring memories of growing up in 1990s Detroit. With their quick-fire lyrical wordplay and carefully layered instrumentation, Frontier Ruckus might remind listeners of Okkervil River as crossed with early Wilco. ($15.95) |
Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison
Cheater's Game
Genre: Pop/Folk
While they've been married for several years, this marks Willis and Robison's first non-holiday album recorded as a duo. Cheater's Game features Robison's original Americana, as well as occasional covers by artists such as Hayes Carll and Dave Alvin. ($12.95) |
Mark O'Connor
America On Strings
Genre: Classical
Mark O'Connor has been performing for 40 years, and has just released his 40th album. The music on America On Strings began in support of a series of violin method books authored by the master. Songs on the album run the gamut from jazz and classical to ragtime and folk. ($11.95) |
Heather Masse & Dick Hyman
Lock My Heart
Genre: Jazz/Blues
Lock My Heart brings together legendary jazz pianist Dick Hyman with Wailin' Jennys vocalist Masse. The collection offers a range of romantic tunes, from Masse's originals to classic jazz standards. ($17.95) |
Otis Taylor
My World Is Gone
Genre: Jazz/Blues
From Colorado, Otis Taylor composes intelligent and eclectic music for the banjo. While earlier albums have focused on the historical plight of African Americans, from slavery to civil rights, My World Is Gone switches perspective to Native American colonization. ($18.95) |
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| Events |
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 Eggers' 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
*Please note that the Writing Workshop with Kim Stafford is full, but there is a waiting list. Please call the library Adult Reference at 541-766-6793 with questions.. |
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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Saturday, Feb. 23 at 2 p.m.
Grass Roots Books & Music
227 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis |
E. A. Channon
Ballad of a Bagpiper
Ballad of a Bagpiper is a rambling, rollicking recollection of E.A. Channon’s real life adventures as he bagpiped his way around the globe. He’s performed at over 2000 weddings and events in many locales, and he has many more stories to tell. Just pick the category—animal wedding, nudist wedding, vampire wedding—or how about a funny funeral? The book is an amalgam of jolly good times as Channon recounts some of his memories of not so elegant affairs featuring rearing white horses, racing dogs and raining cats; or you could just call it the funny side of bagpipes. |
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Saturday, Mar. 2 at 7 p.m.
Corvallis-Benton County Public Library
645 NW Monroe Avenue, Corvallis |
Literary Event
Edges and Divides: New Northwest Nature Writing
Co-Sponsored by Grass Roots Books & Music; The Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word; and the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library
Join us for a unique evening of nature writing in prose and poetry. Authors featured in the essay collection A Natural History of Now: Reports from the Edge of Nature and poets from These Mountains that Separate Us: An East/West Dialogue Poem will come together for a reading, celebrating new northwest nature writing in different forms.
A Natural History of Now is a collection of new nature writing—short fiction and essays—that challenges the genre — edgy, humane, deeply implicated in the dying world that is renewing itself around us daily. Rick Borsten, David Oates, and Adrienne Ross will be reading from the book.
These Mountains that Separate Us is the result of a poetic dialogue that circulated between a variety of poets residing on opposite sides of the Cascades that circulated between 2005-2011. Poets reading at the event are Bette Husted, Pamela Steel, M.E. Hope, Charles Goodrich, and Erik Muller. |
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Saturday, Mar. 9 at 2 p.m.
Grass Roots Books & Music
227 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis |
Lynda King
Boomerang: Kate Taylor Story #2
Local author Lynda King joins us for an afternoon reading and book signing of her latest book, Boomerang, in the Grass Roots Loft.
In this sequel to Aftermath, Kate Taylor, assassin and covert op, reluctantly returns to the Company and the US, her hope for a new life dashed. One goal keeps her going: revenge, revenge against the man responsible for her imprisonment and torture in East Germany, and revenge against the man who blackmailed her into returning to the Company. Things don't go according to plan as she is thrust into the middle of dangerous conflicts not her own. To survive, Kate must learn to trust new friends and accept a truce with an old adversary. But. . . she never forgets her goal and will do anything to achieve revenge. |
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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. |
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| Community Events |
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Community Events
Darkside Cinema: Movies showing Feb. 15 to 21, showtimes daily, Darkside Cinema, Corvallis. Visit their website for showtimes.
- Amour – PG-13 (Subtitled French): A really good French film nominated for every Oscar, ever. Really.
- Hyde Park On Hudson –R: When Bill Murray's shows his presence on screen, you will not be able to look away. His portrayal of Franklin D. Roosevelt is absolutely perfect.
- Hitchcock –PG-13: Filmed with lots of style and a macabre sense of humor the master himself would have enjoyed. Anthony Hopkins, Helen Merrin, Scarlett Johansson.
- Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts! –NR: Fresh Guacamole, Adam and Dog, Head Over Heels, Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare, Paperman.
- Chasing Ice –PG-13: Held over for 738 weeks!!!
Visit our Community Calendar for details on these events and others in the area.
Literary Events:
- OSU MFA Reading, featuring Afsheen Farhadi, Clare Braun, Michael Wasson, and Sally Parrish: Thursday, Feb. 14, 7:30 p.m., New Morning Bakery, Corvallis.
- OSU Visiting Writers Series presents Paisley Rekdal: Friday, Feb. 15, 7:30 p.m., Memorial Union Journey Room, OSU, Corvallis.
- Nye Beach Writers Series presents Cindy Williams Gutierrez: Saturday, Feb. 14, 7 p.m., Newport Visual Arts Center, Newport.
- Third Saturday Readers Series featuring Kelly Eastland, Joy McDowell, and Jon Labrousse: Monday, Feb. 18, 5 p.m., Tsunami Books, Eugene.
- Writers on the River host Bryan Bliss: Monday, Feb. 18, 6:30 p.m., First Presbyterian Church, Corvallis.
- Windfall Reading Series, featuring Eliot Treichel and Jose Angel Araguz: Tuesday, Feb. 19, 5:30 p.m., Eugene Public Library, Eugene.
Opportunities:
- Writers on the River Workshop: Novelist Elizabeth Eslami will present a writing workshop titled “Light Across the Borders: How To Write Your Way To the End” on Saturday, May 25. The full day (10am-6pm) workshop will be held at Imagine Coffee House, (Philomath Blvd. and 53rd Street) in Corvallis on Saturday, May 25, 2013. WotR members may register before April 1, 2013 and receive an "early bird" discounted admission of $45.00. The cost for the workshop for non-members and registered members after April 1, will be $55. Registration with payment will secure your spot as there will be a maximum of 12 participants. In this workshop, we’ll focus on pushing beyond the borders in our work. We will look at examples of strong endings in a range of stories and novels, and we’ll read our own work and offer helpful, guided critiques in workshop. Let’s talk about the endings of our own stories and novels-in-progress, even if those endings seem so far away we need a high powered telescope to see them. Our goal is to dream to life an ending that dazzles, one that illuminates in all directions. Interested? Want to sign up? Send your check to: WotR, P.O. Box 784, Corvallis, OR 97339-0784. Indicate "Eslami Workshop" on the check. We will fill the workshop on a first come, first serve basis.
- Call for Submissions: For the summer 2013 issue of Oregon Humanities magazine, we want ideas, arguments, theories, and stories about "skin," as in: The one you're in. The color of yours. What it takes to get under it, to be comfortable in it. You have two chances to contribute to this discussion. Proposals and drafts of long-form (1,500 to 4,000 words) nonfiction writing, including scholarly essays, journalistic articles, and personal essays, are due on March 11. Shorter responses (400 words) for our Posts section are due May 13. Visit our website to read the full call for feature and Posts submissions.
- William Stafford Writing Contest: Teachers can mail submissions of their students’ work to Ooligan Press through April 2013. Selected student entries will be published in a book titled We Belong In History. The anthology will be released in January 2014 to help launch the yearlong celebration of William Stafford’s birth. Please visit the Contest website for additional information.
- Oregon Poetry Association Adult Contest: The deadline for submissions for the Spring 2013 OPA Adult Contest is Mar. 1. Details and a complete set of rules can be found on the OPA website.
- Nature of Words Rising Star Writing Competition: The Rising Star Creative Writing Competition, sponsored by the University of Oregon, is open to emerging writers age 15 and above living in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. The deadline for writing entries is Mar. 10, 2013. All entries must be submitted through The Nature of Words online submission site.
- 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 drogersor@msn.com 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.
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Saturday, Mar. 2, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
LaSells Stewart Center, OSU Campus
875 SW 26th Street, Corvallis |
Oregon Small Farms Conference
The daylong event is geared toward farmers, agriculture professionals, food policy advocates, students and managers of farmers markets. Twenty-one sessions will be offered on a variety of topics relevant to the Oregon small farmer. Speakers will include farmers, OSU Extension faculty, agribusiness, and more. This year’s keynote is Greenhorns & Grayhorns. Speakers are Sarahlee Lawrence, Josh Volk, Cory Carman, and Teresa Retzlaff, small farmers representing the growing youth movement in agriculture, and authors featured in the book Greenhorns: 50 Dispatches from the New Farmers’ Movement. The panel will be moderated by “grayhorn” Frank Morton of Wild Garden Seed in Philomath. The session will include readings, lessons learned, wisdom and more than a few laughs. Pre-registration is required. For more information and to register, please visit the conference website.
Books will be available to purchase from Grass Roots Books & Music. |
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| News |
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2013 Grammy Awards
The Grammy Awards were Sunday night, and they delivered their usual variety of entertainment. The well-respected awards show honored several of our favorite artists at Grass Roots, including:
- Album of the Year: Babel by Mumford & Sons
- Best Pop Instrumental Album: Impressions by Chris Botti
- Best Americana Album: Slipstream by Bonnie Raitt
And there’s more! So much more. . . For the complete list of winners, visit the website of the GRAMMY Awards. |
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| This Week's Puzzle |
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| Reading Group Selection |
Tuesday, Mar. 5, 6:30 to 8 p.m
The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance
Edmund de Waal
Tiffany leads our March discussion of The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance.
Edmund de Waal is a renowned ceramicist and the fifth generation to inherit a collection of Japanese ivory carvings known as netsuke. Entranced by their beauty and mystery, he determined to trace the story of his family through the story of the collection. Charles Ephrussi, a cousin of de Waal’s great-grandfather, purchased the collection in Paris in the 1870s. The collection was presented to a Vienna cousin as a wedding present in Vienna, survived Nazi occupation when a loyal maid secretly smuggled it in her mattress, and years later was returned to the family she’d served even in their exile.
“As today's keeper of the storied netsuke, famed artist and curator de Waal tells a spellbinding and perceptive tale of extraordinary accomplishment and loss, beauty and terror, reinvention and survival in an intricately dimensional, profoundly involving first book, a sensitive and astute inquiry into culture and family, inheritance and preservation, and the secret life of objects.” –Booklist Starred Review |
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Publisher: Picador USA
ISBN: 9780312569372
Paperback
Regular price: $16.00
On sale for $13.60 until Mar. 5.
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On Our Nightstands |
 Marissa
True Love: A Practice for Awakening the Heart
Thich Nhat Hanh
If there is one book I would carry with me at all times, it may very well be True Love. Its simple wisdom has guided me and made me a whole and better person. It has reinforced my consciousness and appreciation of love, what I feel makes my life one worth living. And what better way to say thank you to those I love than through practice of these mantras – the necessity of maintaining presence. That love is not just a feeling, but a state of being. That compassion is a gift.
Paperback, $6.99
Publisher: Shambhala Publications; ISBN: 9781590304044 |
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Linda
The Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Pacific Northwest
Lorene Edwards Forkner
This new book on vegetable gardening in the PNW is the perfect guide to pick up right now to get started on our gardens! Forkner (Pacific Horticulture editor) has done a superb job of gathering pertinent information for this fantastic growing area and the types of vegetables we can plant here. There is a full month by month section to guide us through, and an excellent section that covers growing, harvesting, and varieties of particular vegetables. It is wonderful to have so much good information presented in one volume!
Paperback, $19.95
Publisher: Timber Press; ISBN: 9781604693515 |
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Pamela
Vintage Wedding Style: More Than 25 Simple Projects and Endless Inspiration for Designing Your Big Day
Elizabeth Demos
I consider myself a woman of simple tastes, and as I plan my wedding I try to keep that in mind. A loving couple and a beautiful venue don’t really need much to gussy them up, but that doesn’t keep me from drooling over this book. Every couple has their own style, and this book features 12 real weddings incorporating vintage details into artfully styled weddings. From "Farmhouse Fete" to "Vintage Glam", there’s something for everyone, including 25 simple projects. (And if you’re planning your own wedding, do NOT proceed without reading A Practical Wedding by Meg Keene. Seriously.)
Hardcover, $30.00
Publisher: Chronicle Books; ISBN: 9781452102092 |
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