Grass Roots Books and Music — 227 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis OR 97339 — 541-754-7668
February 21, 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
 
Newest Books

See Now Then

Jamaica Kincaid

Fiction and autobiography blend in the story of one marriage’s unraveling, examining the ways in which the passing of time operates on the human consciousness. Kincaid inhabits each of her characters—a mother, a father, and their two children, living in a small village in New England—as they move, in their own minds, between the present, the past, and the future: for, as she writes, "the present will be now then and the past is now then and the future will be a now then." Kincaid attempts to make clear what is unclear, and to make unclear what we assumed was clear: that is, the beginning, the middle, and the end.

Hardcover, $24.00

Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux; ISBN: 9780374180560

All Natural*: *A Skeptic's Quest to Discover If the Natural Approach to Diet, Childbirth, Healing, and the Environment Really Keeps Us Healthier and Happier

Nathanael Johnson

“In his debut, journalist and This American Life contributor Johnson examines aspects of medicine, food and the environment to encourage informed decisions among readers caught between the nature-vs.-technology argument. The author personalizes his topics by filtering them through accounts of his upbringing during the 1980s as the son of then-countercultural parents who embraced natural living and through his journey into parenthood. Though he admits to a romanticism that favors a 'natural aura,' he remains open to contrary evidence and allows that both camps can be valid at different times. Johnson examines controversies with choice anecdotes, research and interviews. . .” —Kirkus Reviews

Hardcover, $26.99

Publisher: Rodale Press; ISBN: 9781605290744

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Calling Me Home

Julie Kibler

“Kibler, in alternating first-person narrations, delivers a rousing debut about forbidden love and unexpected friendships over the span of six decades. Dorrie, an African-American hairstylist in East Texas, is asked by one of her regular clients, Isabelle, a woman in her 80s, for a strange favor, a ride to Cincinnati. On the road, Dorrie learns of Isabelle's painful past. Both in conversations in the car and via flashback from her teenage years, Isabelle reveals her former childhood of white privilege in a prejudiced Southern town and her love affair with her maid's brother, Robert, a black man.” –Publishers Weekly

Hardcover, $24.99

Publisher: St. Martin's Press; ISBN: 9781250014528

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Little Known Facts

Christine Sneed

“Sneed's debut novel offers a glimpse beyond Hollywood's glamorous facade; fans constantly clamor for a connection with a superstar, parasitic opportunists exploit their heroes, and wealth causes issues. The Hollywood legend in this case is Renn Ivins, a handsome, highly successful movie star who has tried his best to maintain a semblance of family life. . . The story is told in the voices of various players, many whose egos are fed by ever-shifting relationships and betrayals. Each one struggles to find a moral compass in a city where morality is highly relative.” –Library Journal

Hardcover, $25.00

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC; ISBN: 9781608199587

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Ghostman

Roger Hobbs

“An armored car heist at an Atlantic City casino goes wrong. Marcus, the brutal criminal mastermind who planned it, asks Ghostman —who owes Marcus after a botched heist in Kuala Lumpur five years earlier —to retrieve the money taken by one of the fleeing robbers. This has to happen fast: the money is tagged with an ink bomb that will go off in 48 hours, destroying the cash. As the clock ticks down, Hobbs inserts suspenseful flashbacks to that old job, where Ghostman was mentored by Angela, who taught him to cut off his ‘last ties with the normal world and how to live like a ghost.’” –Shelf Awareness

Hardcover, $24.95

Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group; ISBN: 9780307959966

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New in Paperback

The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say about Us

James W. Pennebaker

“Why does a truth-teller use the pronoun I more frequently than a liar? By exploring this sort of question—and relying on potent new computer technologies for analyzing language—Pennebaker transforms simple words (pronouns, prepositions, articles) into revealing windows into the emotions and social relations of speakers and writers using them. Readers learn why men use more prepositions but fewer pronouns than women, why upper-class speakers use more nouns but fewer verbs than working-class speakers, and why people with strong social skills rely heavily on conjunctions. More broadly, readers see how simple function words (stealth words) create the threads that both hold our social fabric together and create tensions in that fabric.” —Booklist

Paperback, $18.00

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC; ISBN: 9781608194964

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Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948

Madeleine Albright

“Albright learned, when secretary of state under President Bill Clinton, that her ancestry was Jewish and that many of her relatives perished in the Holocaust. Impelled to research her family history, she here integrates her discoveries and a historical narrative of Czechoslovakian politics in the WWII era, focusing on why we make the choices we do. Born in 1937 to a Czech diplomat, Albright recalls her earliest memories of German-bombed England, to which her family had escaped from their Nazi-conquered homeland. . . No reader will close her memoir unmoved.” —Booklist Starred Review

Paperback, $15.99

Publisher: Harper Perennial; ISBN: 9780062030344

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The House of Velvet and Glass

Katherine Howe

Sibyl Allston is living a life of quiet desperation in an elegant Boston townhouse in 1915, seemingly trapped there with her taciturn father and scandal-plagued brother. Reeling from the loss of her mother and sister on the Titanic, she seeks solace and answers from the depths a medium’s crystal ball. When her brother is suddenly kicked out of Harvard and falls under the sway of a strange young woman, Sibyl turns to psychology professor Benton Jones for help. Together they work to solve a mystery, while their long-simmering spark flares to life.

Paperback, $15.99

Publisher: Hyperion Books; ISBN: 9781401342005

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Girlchild

Tupelo Hassman

In a 1980s Reno trailer park, Rory Hendrix, struggles to survive family dysfunction and sex abuse to come of age and make a better life for herself. She takes the Girl Scouts Handbook as her manual to life, checking it out from the library so often that her name fills all the lines on the checkout card. Determined to escape the hopeless and destructive path blazed for her by her mother and grandmother, she must deal with the mixed blessing of being too smart for her own good, wanting to escape the trailer park and trying not to alienate her mother.

Paperback, $15.00

Publisher: Picador USA; ISBN: 9781250024060

The Starboard Sea

Amber Dermont

Jason Prosper’s life is one of elite privilege in the years surrounding the stock market crash of 1987, populating Manhattan penthouses, Maine summer estates, and old-boy prep schools, but he maintains a healthy and humorous disdain for the lifestyle. During his junior year at Kensington Prep, his roommate and sailing partner commits suicide, leaving Jason devastated by the loss. Jason transfers to Bellingham for his senior year, where he meets a fellow student with her own troubled past, and they embark on a tender and awkward romance. When her unexpected death during a hurricane is ruled a suicide, Jason takes a closer look at the truth of his privileged new friends.

Paperback, $14.99

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; ISBN: 9781250023438

 
Featured Books for Young Readers

Bad Kitty School Daze

Nick Bruel

Ages 6 to 10

Bad Kitty and Poor Puppy are out of control! Their owners have had enough of their howling and chasing, and ship them off to Diabla Von Gloom’s School for Wayward Pets. Along with their classmates—a cat-hating bulldog named Petunia and a little bunny who claims to be a “diabolical mutant supervillain” named Dr. Lagomorph—they spend the day with their teacher, the kind and understanding Miss Dee. Can Kitty learn to follow the rules and make friends with the other students or will she bring chaos to the classroom?

Hardcover, $13.99

Publisher: Neal Porter Books; ISBN: 9781596436701

Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #01)

Marissa Meyer

“First in the Lunar Chronicles series, this futuristic twist on Cinderella retains just enough of the original that readers will enjoy spotting the subtle similarities. . . Cinder is a talented teenage mechanic and cyborg part human, part robot who has been living in New Beijing with a demanding adoptive mother and two stepsisters, ever since her late stepfather took Cinder in after a hovercraft accident. Several events abruptly turn Cinder's world upside down: a chance meeting with the handsome Prince Kai has her heart racing; a plague pandemic threatens her beloved sister Peony; Cinder learns she is immune to the plague; and the evil Lunar Queen Levana arrives on Earth, scheming to marry Kai.” –Publishers Weekly Starred Review

Hardcover, $9.99

Publisher: Square Fish; ISBN: 9781250007209

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Music

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Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Push the Sky Away

Genre: Pop/Folk

This album marks Nick Cave's first release with his Bad Seeds in over five years. As with Cave's other recent work, Push the Sky Away finds a careful balance between stately hymns and dark, dirty visions. For every moment of menace, there is an equally striking note of beauty. ($12.95)

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Townes Van Zandt

Sunshine Boy: The Unheard Studio Sessions & Demos

Genre: Pop/Folk

This double album collection features a remarkable selection of unheard tracks from the Texas legend. Recorded during 1971 and 1972, the sound is clear as a bell, and the notoriously troubled troubadour is in fine form vocally and as a guitarist. ($19.95)

Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside

Untamed Beast

Genre: Pop/Folk

From Portland, the debut album from Sallie Ford and her band was a surprise hit in 2011. This sophomore effort continues to showcase Ford's retro-rockabilly hiccup of a voice, as well as her band's garage take on pop and Americana. ($11.95)

Samantha Crain

Kid Face

Genre: Pop/Folk

The Oklahoma singer-songwriter's fourth album is produced by California indie rocker John Vanderslice. Crain's literate tunes stand with one foot each in Americana and indie rock territory, brought to life by her original, charismatic voice. ($12.95)

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Celtic Thunder

Mythology

Genre: Celtic

As seen on PBS, Celtic Thunder brings together artists from the traditional and the contemporary sides of Irish music. The group's six male vocalists perform on both solo and ensemble numbers ranging from familiar traditional songs to re-imagined versions of contemporary rock hits. ($13.95)

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R. Carlos Nakai & Will Clipman

Awakening the Fire

Genre: Native American

“The ancient call of Native American cedar flute and the vibration of African, Native American and Asian rhythms connect to our innermost essence and finely tune the awakening energies inside each of us nourishing inner balance and harmony.” ($15.95)

 
Events

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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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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Wednesday, Mar. 13 at 7 p.m.

Grass Roots Books & Music

227 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis

Ashna Graves

No Angel

Corvallis author Ashna Graves brings journalist Jeneva Leopold back to the page in a sequel to Death Pans Out. Join us for a reading and book signing event.

The murder of a homeless man known as Angel draws journalist Jeneva Leopold into worlds she had no idea existed in her sweet little Oregon town. Two more deaths soon follow. Her search for explanations leads to involvement with a strangely wise homeless woman who feeds cats, a sculptor with an attitude and a dubious history, an assistant police chief who considers Leopold Public Enemy No. 1, a violent street punk known as Quickie, and a girl skater called Pet. Neva’s confidence in her own insight and competence are deeply shaken by the outcome.

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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 Feb. 22 to 28, showtimes daily, Darkside Cinema, Corvallis. Visit their website for showtimes.

  • Argo –R: Nominated for all the Academy Awards. Yep. The other movies should just go home.
  • John Dies at the End –R: This film should carry a warning: caution consumption of this film may induce hallucinations, impair your ability to see the world as you once did, and cause outbursts of uncontrollable laughter. Nominated for no Oscars.
  • 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.
  • Chasing Ice –PG-13: Held over for 739 weeks!!!

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

  • Poetry Performance: Myrlin Hepworth: Friday, Feb. 22, 7:30 p.m., Memorial Union Journey Room, OSU, Corvallis. Presented by the Roger Weaver Poetry Activities Fund and the School of Writing, Literature, and Film at OSU.
  • 12th Annual Wild Women, Recite! Reading, featuring Stephanie Lenox and Maren Bradley Anderson: Saturday, Feb. 23, 7 p.m., River Gallery, Independence.
  • Silverton Poetry Association Open Mic: Sunday, Feb. 24, 4 p.m., Green Store (aka Earth Caf�), Silverton.

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. 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. 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 [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.

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

eBook Specials

It is time again to stock your eReader with great deals on a plethora of books. There is a fresh listing of publisher specials on Kobo eBooks on the Grass Roots website. Take a look and grab a deal today!

Oscar Reading List

The 2013 Academy Awards are on Sunday, and beyond providing us with great movies to add to our queues, this year is notable for the number of movies nominated for Best Picture that are based on books. If you’re in the mood to curl up with a good book instead of settling in the recliner to watch a movie, try one of these Oscar nominee inspirations:

 
This Week's Puzzle



Solve this week's jigsaw.
 
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.

 

 

On Our Nightstands

Charne�

Paranormal: My Life in Pursuit of the Afterlife

Raymond Moody

Dr. Raymond Moody is the world’s leading expert on near-death experiences and an authority on the afterlife, and his life is full of peculiar experiences from a very early age: the resurrection of deceased pets, a surgeon for a father who freely spoke of bringing people “back from the dead”, to Dr. Moody’s own near-death experience (by way of attempted suicide). Beyond the fact that the subject of his research is outstandingly fascinating, I find whatever it is that makes such a man tick even more intriguing. Even if the subject of his research is out of your comfort zone, this personal, gripping memoir is worth the read!

Paperback, $15.99

Publisher: HarperOne; ISBN: 9780062046437

10 Tiffany

The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance

Edmund de Waal

I chose Edmund de Waal’s memoir for our March book group selection because I wanted to read nonfiction, and several customers had recommended it. Ceramicist de Waal inherits a fabulous collection of Japanese netsuke (small ornaments used to attach items to a kimono sash) and sets out to trace their time in his family from nineteenth century Paris, through WWII, to post-war Japan, and back to Europe. As he researches and recounts the netsuke’s history, he relates his family history: their rise from Russian Jewish grain merchants to Parisian and Viennese banking millionaires and subsequent downfall due to anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. Throughout, he considers the significance objects hold in our lives. Reading, I find myself immersed in a fascinating world of art, history, and a bit of mystery.

Paperback, $16.00

Publisher: Picador USA; ISBN: 9780312569372

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Tami

An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarian Action for the Twenty-First Century

James Orbinski

Orbinski is the past president of Doctors Without Borders. He writes, “This book is a series of stories. I ask again and again, ‘How I am to be, how are we to be in relation to the suffering of others?’” He has witnessed famine, epidemics from preventable diseases, war, the crimes of war and genocide. He shares his stories and insights and his humanity. I left this book feeling like I had learned something, and it gave me a new perspective to events I had witnessed only through my television and through the political lens of my own country and its interests at that time.

Paperback, $20.00

Publisher: Walker & Company; ISBN: 9780802717627

 
Grass Roots Online — Contact Us