Grass Roots Books and Music — 227 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis OR 97339 — 541-754-7668
August 8, 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

The Cuckoo's Calling

Robert Galbraith

“Lula Landry, a celebrity model rumored to have a drug problem, falls to her death one snowy night. Even though the police rule it a suicide, Lula's brother asks struggling London PI Cormoran Strike to investigate. Cormoran knows what he's up against: the rich are famously good at blockading information sharing. Nonetheless, he and his new assistant, Robin, forge an effective partnership as they interview fashion insiders, jealous boyfriends, and dysfunctional family members. The results are devastating. Cormoran's own celebrity roots and status as a wounded veteran (he lost his leg in Afghanistan) color a fascinating tale that explores the lifestyles of the rich and the unhappy.” –Library Journal Starred Review

The Cuckoo’s Calling is the “debut” of author Robert Galbraith, recently revealed to be a pseudonym for J. K. Rowling. This column in the Memphis Daily News sums up the delightfully sordid drama nicely.

Hardcover, $26.00

Publisher: Mulholland Books; ISBN: 9780316206846

Paris Was the Place

Susan Conley

From acclaimed author Susan Conley, a novel that gives us a luminous emotional portrait of a young woman living abroad in Paris in the 1980s and trying to make sense of the chaotic world around her as she learns the true meaning of family. When Willie Pears agrees to teach at a Parisian center for immigrant girls who have requested French asylum, she has no idea it will utterly change her life.

Hardcover, $26.95

Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group; ISBN: 9780307594075

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Telling Our Way to the Sea: A Voyage of Discovery in the Sea of Cortez

Aaron Hirsh

Accompanied by his wife, Veronica Volny (a biologist), and his friend Graham Burnett (a science historian), biologist Aaron Hirsh traveled with 12 college students to a remote Mexican fishing village for a field course on evolutionary biology and the ecology of the area. Hirsh weaves the area’s history, knowledge of the present-day villagers, and the day-to-day activities of the group into his story of the Sea of Cortez and its ecology.

"In prose that marries lush scientific details and poetic languag. . . Hirsh delivers an important work about the power of place and the power of stories—scientific, historical, and personal—to shape our understanding of the world." —Publishers Weekly

Hardcover, $28.00

Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux; ISBN: 9780374272845

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Gravity of Birds

Tracy Guzeman

Legendary artist Thomas Bayber calls reliable art historian Dennis Fincher and eccentric art authenticator Stephen Jameson to task them with an errand. Although Bayber stopped painting years ago, and his artwork has been extensively documented, he shows them a never-before-seen central panel in a triptych that depicts himself as a young man posed with two sisters, Alice and Natalie Kessler. He wants Dennis and Stephen to find the other two panels of the painting that he gave to the sisters, who seem to have vanished without a trace in 1972.

Hardcover, $25.00

Publisher: Simon & Schuster; ISBN: 9781451689761

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The Purchase

Linda Spalding

In 1798, Daniel Dickinson brings his five children and new bride out of Pennsylvania and into southwestern Virginia. A recent widower, Daniel has been cast out of the Quakers for marrying his family's Methodist servant, Ruth, a 15-year-old orphan. The work is unrelenting and arduous; they have no experience building a homestead or farming. When Daniel unintentionally purchases a slave boy, Onesimus, his abolitionist beliefs slowly evaporate in the face of economic necessity and the need to protect him, or so he rationalizes. With prose that echoes the bleak environment, Spalding demonstrates how one snip of a people's moral fabric can cause their values to unravel.

Hardcover, $25.95

Publisher: Pantheon Books; ISBN: 9780307908414

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Snow Hunters

Paul Yoon

After surviving the Korean War, Yohan spends another year in a prisoner-of-war camp south of the new border that splits the country in two. Rather than return north, where no one awaits him, Yohan begins life anew in a faraway coastal Brazilian village as a Japanese tailor's apprentice.

“In large part, Yoon's debut novel is a meditation on the passage of time as much as it is on Yohan's monklike life as Yoon chronicles the slow transformation of Yohan from a refugee to a treasured and essential part of village life.” —Kirkus Reviews

Hardcover, $22.00

Publisher: Simon & Schuster; ISBN: 9781476714813

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New in Paperback

Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis

Timothy Egan

Edward Curtis was dashing, charismatic, a passionate mountaineer, a famous photographer —the Annie Liebowitz of his time. And he was thirty-two years old in 1900 when he gave it all up to pursue his great idea: He would try to capture on film the Native American nation before it disappeared. At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, Egan's book tells the remarkable untold story behind Curtis's iconic photographs, following him throughout Indian country from desert to rainforest as he struggled to document the stories and rituals of more than eighty tribes.

Paperback, $15.95

Publisher: Mariner Books; ISBN: 9780544102767

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The Bartender's Tale

Ivan Doig

Tom Harry and his 12-year-old son Rusty make their own odd little family in the Gros Ventre, MT, where Tom owns the local watering hole. In the summer of 1960 new people in town are about to bring changes as the past comes back to haunt Tom, and Rusty struggles to make sense of the adult landscape of the bar where he spends his time with his father and his new best friend Zoe.

"Highly textured and evocative. . . Doig gives us a poignant saga of a boy becoming a man alongside a town and a bygone way of life inching into the modern era." —Publishers Weekly Starred Review

Paperback, $16.00

Publisher: Riverhead Books; ISBN: 9781594631481

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Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness

Susannah Cahalan

When 24r-year-old Susannah Cahalan woke up alone in a hospital room, strapped to her bed and unable to move or speak, she had no memory of how she’d gotten there. Days earlier, she had been on the threshold of a new, adult life—at the beginning of her first serious relationship and a promising career at a major New York newspaper. Now she was labeled violent, psychotic, a flight risk. What happened? In a swift and breathtaking narrative, Susannah tells the astonishing true story of her descent into madness, her family's inspiring faith in her, and the lifesaving diagnosis that nearly didn’t happen.

Paperback, $16.00

Publisher: Simon & Schuster; ISBN: 9781451621389

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Let Me Tell You a Story: A New Approach to Healing Through the Art of Storytelling

Jorge Bucay

Demian is a highly strung young man, curious about the world and himself. He struggles with life's everyday problems, including work, his love life, and relationships with friends and family. He is eager to know more about himself and to learn how to confront life with gusto and serenity. In short, he wants what all of us want: to be happy and fulfilled. Demian finds Jorge, an unconventional psychoanalyst who approaches Demian's dilemma in an unconventional way. Every day, Jorge tells Demian a story that has been revisited and reshaped by the analyst to help his young friend. They are, in short, stories that can help all of us better understand our lives.

Paperback, $15.00

Publisher: Europa Editions; ISBN: 9781609451233

The Stockholm Octavo

Karen Engelmann

Life is close to perfect for Emil Larsson, a self-satisfied bureaucrat in the Office of Customs and Excise in 1791 Stockholm. He is a true man of the Town —a drinker, card player, and contented bachelor —until one evening when Mrs. Sofia Sparrow, a fortune-teller and proprietor of an exclusive gaming parlor, shares with him a vision she has had: a golden path that will lead him to love and connection. She lays an Octavo for him, a spread of eight cards that augur the eight individuals who can help him realize this vision —if he can find them.

Paperback, $14.99

Publisher: Ecco Press; ISBN: 9780061995354

 
Featured Books for Young Readers

The Surprise Attack of Jabba the Puppett: An Origami Yoda Book

Tom Angleberger

Ages 8 to 12

Dark times have fallen on McQuarrie Middle School. Dwight's back—and not a moment too soon, as the gang faces the FunTime Menace: a new educational program designed to raise students' standardized test scores. Instead, it's driving everyone crazy with its obnoxious videos of Professor FunTime and his insidious singing calculator! When Principal Rabbski cancels the students' field trip—along with art, music, and LEGO classes—to make time for FunTime, the students turn to Origami Yoda for help. But some crises are too big for Origami Yoda to handle alone. Form a Rebel Alliance the students must. United, can they defeat the FunTime Menace and cope with a surprise attack from Jabba the Puppett?

Hardcover, $12.95

Publisher: Amulet Books; ISBN: 9781419708589

If You Could Be Mine

Sara Farizan

Young Adult (Ages 14 and up)

Seventeen-year-old Sahar has been in love with her best friend, Nasrin, since they were six. But Iran is a dangerous place for two girls in love. They carry on in secret until Nasrin’s parents announce that they’ve arranged for her marriage. Nasrin wants to go on as they had before, but Sahar dreams of loving Nasrin exclusively and openly. Desperate, she decides to have sex-reassignment surgery to become a man so that she can marry her friend. Surprisingly, such surgery is legal in Iran and even partly paid for by the government. As a man, Sahar could be the one to marry Nasrin, but is saving her love worth sacrificing her true self?

Hardcover, $16.95

Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill; ISBN: 9781616202514

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Music

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Hugh Laurie

Didn't It Rain

Genre: Jazz/Blues

Hugh Laurie continues his exploration of American blues, a journey he began with Let It Rain, heavily influenced by New Orleans. This time he branches further into the musical genres of the Southern U.S. and South American, including jazz, R&B, and tango. Accompanied by the Copper Bottom Band, Laurie once again plays piano and guitar, and provides some vocals. ($18.95)

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The Civil Wars

The Civil Wars

Genre: Pop/Folk

As heard on NPR: "Joy Williams and John Paul White enjoyed a meteoric rise three years ago with their debut, Barton Hollow — an album built around their urgent, plaintive harmonies. . . But last year, in the middle of a tour, the band abruptly canceled the rest of its dates, citing 'internal discord and irreconcilable differences of ambition.' The two musicians haven't appeared together since. And it's in that chilly climate that they're releasing their second album, simply titled The Civil Wars." ($11.95)

KT Tunstall

Invisible Empire//Crescent Moon

Genre: Pop/Folk

As heard on NPR: Originally from Scotland, singer-songwriter Tunstall is best known for her upbeat tunes like "Suddenly I See" and "Black Horse & the Cherry Tree". Her new album features more introspective pieces, produced by Howe Gelb of Giant Sand. ($13.95)

Amanda Shires

Down Fell the Doves

Genre: Pop/Folk

Fiddler and vocalist Amanda Shires got her start at 15 years old, invited to join the legendary Texas Playboys. She also played with Thrift Store Cowboys before setting off on her own. Her new husband Jason Isbell joins her on guitar. ($12.95)

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Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion

Wassaic Way

Genre: Pop/Folk

Guthrie is the daughter of Arlo, and has paired with Americana artist Johnny Irion for three albums. Produced by members of Wilco, Wassaic Way adds a pop element to the duo's roots mix. ($14.95)


Although we specialize in new releases, Grass Roots can usually get you any album that's still available.

 

 

Ask at the the store!

 
Events

Thursday, Aug. 29 at 4 p.m.

Grass Roots Books & Music

227 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis

Josh Gross

The Hack

Josh Gross returns to Grass Roots to sign copies of his new book, The Hack, while in Corvallis touring with his band.

Hamilton Brownstone’s father died when he was six. At the funeral he met a strange, angry boy named Gardner: the brother from another family that neither he nor his mother had known aboutSince then, Gardner won the lottery and has used the money on a campaign of self-destruction, largely through his hobby of applying for minimum wage jobs. Faced with no accomplishments of note, Hamilton has decided to live out the lives of famous writers in order to channel them and write a book. Hamilton bizarrely decides the only way he’ll be able to finish his book is in prison. And there’s only one person willing to help Hamilton end up there: his brother Gardner.

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Community Events

Community Events

Darkside Cinema: Movies showing Aug. 9 to 15, showtimes daily, Darkside Cinema, Corvallis. Visit their website for showtimes.

  • Fruitvale Station –R: The performance by Michael B. Jordan is authentic and convincing, and helps us stay engaged in a film that wants to be mundane until its explosive finale.
  • Lovelace –R: A strong cast topped by a quite fine Amanda Seyfried as the infamous 1970s porn star helps make this period piece both breezy and weighty at the same time, no easy feat.
  • Much Ado about Nothing –PG-13: Lighthearted to a fault, Much Ado About Nothing's giddy energy and intimate charm make for an entertaining romantic comedy — and a Shakespearean adaptation that's hard to resist.
  • 20 Feet from Stardom –PG-13: Rich, insightful, and occasionally heartbreaking, 20 Feet from Stardom is an energetic tribute to the passion, talent, and hard work of backup singers.
  • Kings of Summer –R: Deserves recognition for its light, often hilarious depiction of summertime boyhood and the impatience to become an adult. Nick Offerman.

Opportunities:

  • Call for Submissions: Wild in the Willamette is now seeking unpaid contributions of outdoor writing to create this field guide for everyone wanting to explore wild places within the eight major watersheds of the mid-Willamette Valley — by foot, by kayak or canoe, and by bicycle. For more details, please see the WITW website.
  • 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.

 
News

Summer Books for Young Readers

Lists of recommendations for books to read over the long summer break are long, plentiful, and constantly expanding as more new and wonderful books are published every year. This year NPR polled their audience to create one more: The Ultimate Backseat Bookshelf: 100 Must-Reads For Kids 9-14. Reading down this list was a walk through my own literary halls of memory. (“Caddie Woodlawn! I loved Caddie Woodlawn. . . Anne of Green Gables! Yes. . . Misty of Chincoteague! I knew thee well. . . ”) My internal dialogue aside, take a look at the list to rediscover great titles to share with the young readers in your life.

 
This Week's Puzzle



Solve this week's jigsaw.
 
Reading Group Selection

Tuesday, Sept. 3, 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain

David Eagleman

Ne� leads an exploration of the brain with Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman, a renowned neuroscientist.

If the conscious mind accounts for only a tiny fraction of the brain's function, what is all the rest doing? Eagleman navigates the depths of the subconscious brain to illuminate surprising mysteries, showing the ways in which we are not the ones “driving the boat.” The emerging understanding of the brain drastically changes our view of ourselves, shifting us from an intuitive sense that we are at the center of the operations, to a more sophisticated, illuminating, and wondrous view of the situation.

Publisher: Vintage Books

ISBN: 9780307389923

Paperback

Regular price: $15.95

On sale for $13.56 until Sept. 3.

 

 

On Our Nightstands

Ne�

Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality

Jacob Tomsky

This book is laugh-out-loud, disturb all of those around you with ruckus laughter, funny! Jacob Tomsky is a fabulously gifted storyteller. You don’t feel like you’re reading a book, more like you’re having a conversation, sitting next to him on a barstool trading life stories. He gives you a peek into the life of a humble servant in the hotel business. His writing is raw, honest (sometimes way too honest), at time harsh, but overall hilarious and humanizing. He puts a human face on the customer service industry and invites us all to smile a little brighter at our next check-out!

Paperback, $15.00

Publisher: Anchor Books; ISBN: 9780307948342

10 Pamela

Keeping the Castle

Patrice Kindl

Young Adult

I first encountered this title on a list of “Under the Radar” recommendations from Nancy Pearl as part of NPR’s Summer Books programming, and was reminded of it again when a customer ordered a copy. I was not disappointed. It is a Young Adult novel, but grown-ups will enjoy it, too, especially fans of Jane Austen. It is a “nice” book, but it is peopled with spirited characters and humor. Patrice Kindl also uses the English language beautifully, painting pictures in my imagination. It is charming and delightful and funny, a sweet palate-cleanser perfect for summer reading.

Paperback, $8.99

Publisher: Speak; ISBN: 9780142426555

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