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Grass Roots Books and Music
— 227 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis OR 97339 — 541-754-7668 |
| February 28, 2013 |
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Read Across America
Dr. Seuss is one of the most beloved children’s authors and illustrators, and his birthday on Mar. 2, marks the day set aside by the National Educational Association to celebrate Read Across America. According to the NEA, “Motivating children to read is an important factor in student achievement and creating lifelong successful readers. Research has shown that children who are motivated and spend more time reading do better in school.” At Grass Roots we love books and reading, and want to share that passion with the next generation of readers. To encourage reading, we’re offering a coupon this week on books in our children’s department. See you in the bookstore!
Read Across America
Saturday & Sunday, Mar. 2 & 3
20% OFF one book
from our children's department.
(
25% OFF for I-Card members.)
Limited to stock on hand and prepaid special orders. Not combinable with other discounts. Discounted items are not eligible for I-Card stamps.
Please mention coupon READ ACROSS AMERICA at checkout.
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| Newest Books |
Benediction
Kent Haruf
“Colorado native Haruf returns to his fictional town of Holt, on the high plains of eastern Colorado. As Dad Lewis, a central figure in the community, lies dying, he looks out from his bedroom window over the familiar wheat fields and pastures dotted with black cattle. His wife, Mary, is constantly by his side, and daughter Lorraine has left a lackluster romance in Denver to come help. Only the Lewises' relationship with their absent son, Frank, clouds Dad's blessed life. Numerous neighbors stop by to keep Dad's spirits up despite being burdened with their own cares. . . As Dad's life slips away, these neighbors forge indelible bonds.” —Library Journal Starred Review
Hardcover, $25.95
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group; ISBN: 9780307959881 |
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Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures
Virginia Morell
“Animals not only have minds, but personalities and emotions. They make plans, calculate, cheat and even teach, writes veteran science writer Morell in this delightful exploration of how animals think. Until 50 years ago, most scientists—but not Darwin—believed that blind instinct governed animal behavior; thinking was unnecessary and therefore absent. . . Although human cognition remains uniquely profound, evolution guarantees that it has a long history, and Morell makes a fascinating, convincing case that even primitive animals give some thought to their actions.” –Kirkus Reviews Starred Review
The Spring Creek Project welcomes Virginia Morell on Thursday, Mar. 7, at 7 p.m. in the C&E Auditorium at LaSells Stewart Center. Visit the Spring Creek website for more information.
Hardcover, 26.00
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY); ISBN: 9780307461445 |
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Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World
Matthew Goodman
Inspired by the lofty, fictional triumph of Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in 80 Days, Nellie Bly—a crusading young reporter for the New York World—set out to circle the globe in a record-setting 75 days in 1889. Elizabeth Bisland, a writer for a monthly magazine in New York, set out the same day with the same goal, but headed in the opposite direction. The dramatic race that ensued would span twenty-eight thousand miles, captivate the nation, and change both competitors' lives forever. Offering a glimpse into technology and travel in the Victorian age, it is the story of two ground-breaking women racing into history.
Hardcover, $28.00
Publisher: Ballantine Books; ISBN: 9780345527264 |
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| New in Paperback |
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The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation
Jon Gertner
Bell Laboratories thrived from the 1920s to the 1980s, a citadel of science, scholarship, and creative thinking funded by AT&T. Jon Gertner unveils the magic of Bell Labs through the eyes and actions of its scientists, learning how radar, lasers, transistors, satellites, mobile phones, and much more came to be along the way. Bell Labs combined the best aspects of the academic and corporate worlds, hiring the brightest and usually the youngest minds, creating a culture and even an architecture that forced employees in different fields to work together, setting a model for both researchers and business leaders to incorporate magic into their own work.
Paperback, $17.00
Publisher: Penguin Books; ISBN: 9780143122791 |
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Ten White Geese
Gerbrand Bakker
“Disappearing geese and an inexplicably hostile badger inhabit an otherwise eerily depopulated Welsh landscape in Bakker's second novel (after the award-winning The Twin), which probes the inner landscape of its protagonist to equally mysterious effect. As a Dutch woman who calls herself Emilie, perhaps misleadingly moves around her rented farmhouse and the adjacent property, she has unsettling encounters with the local wildlife, and awkward encounters with town locals, who refuse to believe her story about being attacked by the badger. . . Bakker's spare prose gradually builds a sense of urgency beneath this haunting novel's deceptively placid surface.” –Publishers Weekly Starred Review
Paperback, $15.00
Publisher: Penguin Books; ISBN: 9780143122678 |
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When Women Were Birds: Fifty-Four Variations on Voice
Terry Tempest Williams
In fifty-four chapters that unfold like a series of yoga poses, Williams creates a lyrical and caring meditation of the mystery of her mother's journals.
“Williams, the sensitive author of Refuge, is shocked to discover her deceased mother’s unwritten memoirs: shelves worth of blank pages. Under such unpromising circumstances commences a kaleidoscopic celebration and palimpsest —all metaphorical clichés but apt —on finding a voice and woman’s identity beyond the silenced, selfless existence informed by children and a husband, even a family brimming with love. The empty pages of a journal manifest a hermeneutics of suspicion: the white upon which to project a lifelong journey of self-discovery.” –Publisher’s Weekly Starred Review
Paperback, $15.00
Publisher: Picador USA; ISBN: 9781250024114 |
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The Suitors
Cecile David-Weill
The Ettinguer family has been summering at their summer retreat, L’Agapanthe, since Laure and Marie were children, and they are distressed that their parents are planning to sell it. Reluctant to let go of what they consider a necessary part of their character, their lifestyle, and their past, the sisters scheme to attract a wealthy suitor who can afford to purchase the French estate. Thus begins a comedy of errors as a parade of carefully selected summer visitors come to L’Agapanthe to exercise perfect etiquette, attend elegant dinners with carefully arranged menus and seating charts, and engage in intellectual conversations about culture. Or not.
Paperback, $16.95
Publisher: Other Press; ISBN: 9781590515730 |
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The Dance of the Seagull
Andrea Camilleri
Before leaving for vacation with Livia, Montalbano witnesses a seagull doing an odd dance on the beach outside his home, when the bird suddenly drops dead. Stopping in at his office for a quick check before heading off, he notices that Fazio is nowhere to be found and soon learns that he was last seen on the docks, secretly working on a case. Montalbano sets out to find him and discovers that the seagull's dance of death may provide the key to understanding a macabre world of sadism, extortion, and murder.
Paperback, $15.00
Publisher: Penguin Books; ISBN: 9780143122616 |
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| Featured Books for Young Readers |
Mistakes Were Made (Timmy Failure #1)
Stephan Pastis
Ages 8 to 12
Eleven-year-old Timmy Failure is CEO of the best detective agency in town, possibly the nation. At least in his own mind.
“Timmy is a classic comic type: the person who's arrogant for no good reason. But Pastis keeps him from becoming unbearable by turning him into Walter Mitty. He's a lonely boy whose mother is dating a bowler, and he dreams of being the world's greatest detective. Who wouldn't? The Pearls Before Swine cartoonist's frequent black-and-white illustrations help to cast Timmy's adventure in an appropriately ironic light. Timmy may not be one of the great children's-book characters, but he has greatness in him. Just like all of us.” –Kirkus Reviews
Hardcover, $14.99
Publisher: Candlewick Press; ISBN: 9780763660505 |
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Maggot Moon
Sally Gardner
Young Adult
“In an unnamed country of obvious allegorical weight, the totalitarian government of the Motherland keeps the impure in ghettos where they live off scraps and hope not to be dragged away to camps. Standish, 15, lives in Zone 7, a nasty place from which school is no respite. . . . Standish, however, knows a secret. . . Gardner snatches elements from across history to create something uniquely her own: a bleak, violent landscape of oppression, as well as the seeds of hope that sprout there, revealed in Standish's tenacious, idiosyncratic voice over 100 short chapters.” –Booklist Starred Review
Hardcover, $16.99
Publisher: Candlewick Press; ISBN: 9780763665531 |
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| Music |
Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell
Old Yellow Moon
Genre: Pop/Folk
Harris and Crowell are musical partners from way back when he served as part of her Hot Band more than 35 years ago. In addition to four new Crowell compositions, the pair duet on tracks originally by Roger Miller, Matraca Berg, Hank Devito, and others. The years passed only add to the poignancy of these recordings, their respective voices weaving together so elegantly. The album's cornerstone is a recording of "Bluebird Wine" which Crowell originally penned for Harris’s 1975 solo debut. ($18.95) |
Beausoleil
From Bamako to Carencro
Genre: Pop/Folk
The first new Beausoleil release in almost five years draws a connection between its native Louisiana and the musical sounds of Mali, West Africa. "It's not just your smiling 'let's go eat some crawfish,' Cajun album," remarks bandleader Michael Doucet. "We're getting deeper into the layers in the psyche of the culture. It's maturation." ($17.95) |
Ivan & Alyosha
All the Times We Had
Genre: Pop/Folk
This marks Ivan & Alyosha's first full length album, following a pair of well received EPs. Named after two characters from a Dostoevsky novel, the upbeat folk rock is actually made by a group of four Seattle residents. ($13.95) |
Clannad
Live At Christ Church Cathedral
Genre: Celtic
The basis for a PBS special, this recording marks a live celebration of the legendary Celtic band's 40th anniversary. Featuring songs from throughout Clannad's celebrated career, the album also marks the first recording in 20 years featuring the band's five founding members. ($14.95) |
The Slide Brothers
Robert Randolph Presents:
The Slide Brothers
Genre: Jazz/Blues
"The first studio album by pedal steel icons the Slide Brothers incorporates the sacred steel tradition in gospel music with rock, funk, and blues. The quartet and like-minded co-producers John McDermott and Robert Randolph — the pedal steel guitarist and leader of the Family Band — embrace the philosophy that traditional gospel and secular music should not be divided but celebrated." —Allmusic.com ($14.95) |
Sweet Honey in the Rock
Tribute: Live! Jazz At Lincoln Center
Genre: Jazz/Blues
The landmark vocal group celebrates their 40th year with this concert recorded at the legendary concert venue. Over the years, the members have toured widely, mixing the spiritual with the political, the social and the personal in their eclectic music. ($19.95) |
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| Events |
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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Monday, Mar. 18 at 7 p.m.
Grass Roots Books & Music
227 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis |
Scott Nadelson
The Next Scott Nadelson: A Life in Progress
This evening we welcome Scott Nadelson—a graduate of the MFA program at Oregon State University—back to Corvallis to for a reading and book signing of his new memoir, The Next Scott Nadelson.
Beginning in the summer of 2004, Scott Nadelson's life fell apart. His fianceé left him a month before their planned wedding for another woman who made her living performing as a drag king. He moved into a drafty attic. His car's brakes went out. He learned that his cat was dying. Over the next two years, he'd struggle, with equivocal and sometimes humiliating results, to get back on his feet, in the process re-examining his past to understand his present circumstances. |
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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 Mar. 1 to 7, showtimes daily, Darkside Cinema, Corvallis. Visit their website for showtimes.
- Argo –R: Best Film of the Year Oscar!
- Amour – PG-13 (Subtitled French): Best Foreign Film of the Year Oscar!
- Escape Fire –NR: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare. 3 Days Only!
- John Dies at the End –R: Nominated for no Oscars.
- 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 740 Weeks!!!
Literary Events: Visit our Community Calendar for details on these events and others in the area.
- Poetry in Performance event, featuring A. Molotkov, and open mic: Tuesday, Mar. 5, 7 to 9:30 p.m., IKE Box, Salem.
- Virginia Morell, Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of our Fellow Creatures: Thursday, Mar. 7, 7 to 9 p.m., LaSells Stewart Center, OSU, Corvallis.
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.
- 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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Featured in the Store
Get Gardening: Dream beyond the gloom and start planning your garden with Grass Roots. We have a broad range of gardening books, covering everything from tiny container gardens to small farms. Beginning vegetable gardeners will love the Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Pacific Northwest by Lorene Edwards Forkner. The book provides a month by month gardening guide, offering the best vegetable varieties and helpful tutorials. Use that book to develop a plan, and then consult Starting Seeds: How to Grow Healthy, Productive Vegetables, Herbs, and Flowers from Seed by Barbara Ellis to get a jump on the growing season. If you’re hoping for something that only feeds you but also looks beautiful, The Beautiful Edible Garden: Design A Stylish Outdoor Space Using Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs by Leslie Bennett and Stefani Bittner will help you lay out a design, and decide what to plant with your tomatoes. Want to bring in more decorative elements to your living creation? The Revolutionary Yardscape: Ideas for Repurposing Local Materials to Create Containers, Pathways, Lighting, and More by Matthew Levesque provides creative ideas for repurposing materials around the house or salvaged locally to bring some character to your yard. Come into Grass Roots, take a look, and let’s talk (and read) some plants! |
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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
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
Max Brooks
Let me preface by saying: I know what you're thinking. Another take on zombies? But once I read it, it became more than a cliche. This bestseller is a fictional documentary-style narrative about war on a global scale, yet it reads as real as any historical perspective. Themes range from the personal to the political, but always central is that of humanity’s enduring will to survive. Though the film adaptation appears to glamorize it, the book actually presents a relevant sociological and cultural study, waxing philosophical. Who knew the undead could be so dead serious?
Paperback, $14.95
Publisher:Three Rivers Press; ISBN: 9780307346612 |
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Linda
Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History
Antonio Mendez and Matt Baglio
This intriguing book chronicles in depth and detail a CIA operation taken out during the hostage crisis in Iran at the end of the Carter administration. This true story, extremely imaginative and daring in its execution, captured my interest from the start, for a friend of the family was one of the 53 other hostages known to be held. The book runs like a fast moving train through background history, character depth, and detailed events, making it thoroughly interesting. It is quite an amazing story.
Hardcover, $26.95
Publisher: Viking Books; ISBN: 9780670026227 |
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Pamela
Brooklyn Makers: Food, Design, Craft, and Other Scenes from a Tactile Life
Jennifer Causey
Sometimes I waste time on the internet simply “looking for something beautiful.” On one of those forays I stumbled across photographs by Jennifer Causey, and they led me to the book Brooklyn Makers. I don’t live in Brooklyn, and I don’t particularly want to go there, but I do consider myself a Maker. Causey documents 30 of Brooklyn’s makers in pictures and through brief interviews, and it is her images and their inspirations and work that I love. Books like this inspire my own work, make me smile, and bring me joy.
Paperback, $24.95
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press; ISBN: 9781616890742 |
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