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Grass Roots Books and Music
— 227 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis OR 97339 — 541-754-7668 |
| September 5, 2013 |
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Greetings friends!
It's been an odd few weeks in the bookstore environment. Maybe we were just all ready for thunderstorm to come along and wash us clean. I needed those "booms" to shake up my spirit. Wasn't it wonderful. . . ?
The season marches forward, with plenty of changes in the bookstore. We were sad to bid Tami adieu, who was the quiet force working in our stock room the last year. However we are thrilled to welcome a new receiver, and a new bookseller. You'll hear more about them in the coming weeks!
One thing that doesn't change at Grass Roots? Most of us love to eat. We follow that theme in our Nightstand reviews this featuring cookbooks. We hope you'll always find good times and good food at Grass Roots.
I hope you're safe and cozy, and enjoying today's unusual weather. We'll be waiting to see you at the bookstore soon!
Pamela. |
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| Newest Books |
MaddAddam
Margaret Atwood
MaddAddam concludes the trilogy Atwood started with Oryx and Crake, and continued with Year of the Flood.
“Toby, a God's Gardener and key character in the second book, narrates the third installment, in which a few survivors, including MaddAddamites, God's Gardeners, Jimmy, and the Crakers, navigate a postapocalyptic world. Toby is reunited with Zeb, her MaddAddamite romantic interest in Year of the Flood, and the two become leaders and defenders of their new community. The survivors are a traumatized, cynical group with harshly tested self-preservation skills, but they have the capacity for love and self-sacrifice. . . . [Atwood’s] vision is as affirming as it is cautionary, and the conclusion of this remarkable trilogy leaves us not with a sense of despair at mankind's failings but with a sense of awe at humanity's barely explored potential to evolve.” –Publishers Weekly Starred Review
Hardcover, $27.95
Publisher: Nan A. Talese; ISBN: 9780385528788 |
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Salinger
David Shields and Shane Salerno
Salinger is a global cultural event, based on eight years of research and exclusive interviews with more than 200 people, and published in coordination with the international theatrical release of a major documentary film. Especially in the three years since Salinger’s death, the authors interviewed people on five continents, many of whom had previously refused to go on the record about their relationship with Salinger. Provided unprecedented access to never-before-published material, readers will feel they have, for the first time, gotten beyond Salinger’s meticulously built-up wall. The result is the definitive portrait of one of the most fascinating figures of the last century.
Hardcover, $37.50
Publisher: Simon & Schuster; ISBN: 9781476744834 |
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Shaman
Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim Stanley Robinson’s new novel shifts from science fiction in the near-future to a prehistoric world, where 14-year-old Loon sets out on a journey of spiritual self-discovery as a shaman apprentice. He has mixed feelings about this role; while he’s not very good at the traditional ways of magic and storytelling, he does have a gift for cave painting. As the next shaman, he is determined to find his own path.
“Robinson's expert worldbuilding and lyrical prose offer Jack London-esque pleasures as they depict the stark beauties of the icy landscape—its desolation, dangers and the desperate choices it forces people to make when pushed to the edge of existence.” –Kirkus Reviews
Hardcover, $27.00
Publisher: Orbit; ISBN: 9780316098076 |
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The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism
Naoki Higashida
Written by Naoki Higashida, a thirteen-year-old boy with autism, it is a one-of-a-kind memoir that demonstrates how an autistic mind thinks, feels, perceives, and responds in ways few of us can imagine. Parents and family members who never thought they could get inside the head of their autistic loved one at last have a way to break through to the curious, subtle, and complex life within. In his introduction, bestselling novelist David Mitchell writes that Naoki's words allowed him to feel, for the first time, as if his own autistic child was explaining what was happening in his mind: ". . . The Reason I Jump allowed me to round a corner in our relationship."
Hardcover, $22.00
Publisher: Random House; ISBN: 9780812994865 |
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Night Film
Marisha Pessl
On a damp October night, beautiful young Ashley Cordova is found dead in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan. Though her death is ruled a suicide, veteran investigative journalist Scott McGrath suspects otherwise. As he probes the strange circumstances surrounding Ashley's life and death, McGrath comes face-to-face with the legacy of her father: the legendary, reclusive cult-horror-film director Stanislas Cordova—a man who hasn't been seen in public for more than thirty years. For McGrath, another death connected to this seemingly cursed family dynasty seems more than just a coincidence. The last time he got close to exposing the director, McGrath lost his marriage and his career. This time he might lose even more.
Hardcover, $28.00
Publisher: Random House; ISBN: 9781400067886 |
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| New in Paperback |
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This Is How You Lose Her
Junot Diaz
Pulitzer Prize-winner Junot Diaz offers up a short story collection centering on the lives of Dominican immigrants and the haunting, impossible power of love. At the heart of these stories is the irrepressible, irresistible Yunior, a young hardhead whose longing for love is equaled only by his recklessness— and by the extraordinary women he loves and loses: artistic Alma; the aging Miss Lora; Magdalena, who thinks all Dominican men are cheaters; and the love of his life, whose heartbreak ultimately becomes his own.
Paperback, $16.00
Publisher: Riverhead Books; ISBN: 9781594631771 |
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Hidden America: From Coal Miners to Cowboys, an Extraordinary Exploration of the Unseen People Who Make This Country Work
Jeanne Marie Laskas
Award-winning journalist Jeanne Marie Laskas dives deep into her subjects and emerges with character-driven stories about the people who make our lives run every day—and yet we barely think of them. She explores the hidden worlds of a mining company in Ohio, an Alaskan oil rig, a migrant labor camp in Maine, the air traffic control center at LaGuardia Airport in New York, a beef ranch in Texas, a landfill in California, a long-haul trucker in Iowa, a gun shop in Arizona, and the Cincinnati Bengals cheerleaders, mere footnotes in the moneymaking spectacle that is professional football. Delving beyond job descriptions, Laskas paints a revealing and authentic portrait of humanity.
Paperback, $16.00
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group; ISBN: 9780425267271 |
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Insane City
Dave Barry
Seth Weinstein is a slacker, amazed to find that Tina—rich, beautiful, and driven—has agreed to marry him. On his way to the wedding in Florida being paid for by Tina’s disapproving parents, everything goes wrong, beginning with a prank by his Groom Posse at the airport. In the next several hours, he and his friends will become embroiled with rioters, Russian gangsters, angry strippers, a pimp as big as the Death Star, a very desperate Haitian refugee on the run with her two children from some very bad men, and an eleven-foot albino Burmese python named Blossom. And there're still two days to go before the wedding.
Paperback, $16.00
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group; ISBN: 9780425264720 |
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Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction
Tracy Kidder and Richard Todd
Good Prose is an inspiring book about writing—about the creation of good prose—and the record of a warm and productive literary friendship. The story begins in 1973, in the offices of The Atlantic Monthly, in Boston, where a young freelance writer named Tracy Kidder came looking for an assignment. Richard Todd was the editor who encouraged him. From that article grew a lifelong association. Good Prose explores three major nonfiction forms: narratives, essays, and memoirs. Kidder and Todd draw candidly, sometimes comically, on their own experience—their mistakes as well as accomplishments—as well as the works of other writers.
Paperback, $16.00
Publisher: Random House Trade; ISBN: 9780812982152 |
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Garment of Shadows: A Novel of Suspense Featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes
Laurie R. King
Laurie R. King's bestselling novels of suspense featuring Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, are one of today's most acclaimed mystery series. Now, in their newest and most thrilling adventure, the couple is separated by a shocking circumstance in a perilous part of the world, each racing against time to prevent an explosive catastrophe that could clothe them both in shrouds. As Holmes searches for his wife who has gone missing, and Russell searches for her "self," each tries to crack deadly parallel puzzles before it's too late for them, for Africa, and for the peace of Europe.
Paperback, $16.00
Publisher: Bantam; ISBN: 9780553386769 |
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| Featured Books for Young Readers |
The Wee Hours
Stephanie Elaine Watson
Late, late, late, when you are fast asleep, wondrous things happen. One by one, small creatures called the Wee Hours come out to play. They dance and clap and sing and create. Their adventures are the things of your dreams. Wee readers will delight in finding numbers, clocks, and other surprises hidden in the artwork by the illustrator of the Harry Potter books on every page of this dreamy book.
Hardcover, $16.99
Publisher: Disney Press; ISBN: 9781423140382 |
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| Events |
Saturday, Sept. 21,
3:30 to 7 p.m.
Downtown Corvallis
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Rhapsody in the Vineyard
Stop by Grass Roots Books & Music to sample wines from an Oregon winery during the Downtown Corvallis Association’s Rhapsody in the Vineyard event. The event features several Oregon wineries, offering tastes of their finest vintages at participating downtown retailers. Drop in and tell us about your favorite tastings of the evening, and sample a wonderful wine while browsing our shelves. |
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Saturday, Oct. 12 at 2 p.m.
Corvallis-Benton County Public Library
645 NW Monroe Ave., Corvallis |
Ian Doescher
William Shakespeare's Star Wars
Co-Sponsored by Friends of the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library and Grass Roots Books & Music
Worlds collide in Ian Doescher’s William Shakespeare's Star Wars. The author joins us this afternoon to read from and discuss his Shakespearean rendition of Star Wars, followed by a book signing.
Return once more to a galaxy far, far away with this sublime retelling of George Lucas's epic Star Wars in the style of the immortal Bard of Avon. The saga of a wise (Jedi) knight and an evil (Sith) lord, of a beautiful princess held captive and a young hero coming of age, Star Wars abounds with all the valor and villainy of Shakespeare's greatest plays. 'Tis a tale told by fretful droids, full of faithful Wookiees and fearsome Stormtroopers, signifying. . . pretty much everything. |
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| Community Events |
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Community Events
Darkside Cinema: Movies showing Sept. 6 to 12, showtimes daily, Darkside Cinema, Corvallis. Visit their website for showtimes.
- Still Mine —PG-13: James Cromwell and Genevičve Bujold are outstanding in this tender, affecting, insightful drama about the bonds and sacrifices of marriage.
- Blackfish –PG-13: Blackfish is an aggressive, impassioned documentary that will change the way you look at performance killer whales. 98% on Rotten Tomatoes!
- Blue Jasmine –PG-13: Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine finds the director in peak late-period form — and benefiting from a superb cast led by Cate Blanchett. In Digital in 2 auditoriums (sort’a)!
- The Way, Way Back –PG-13: Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell. What else do you need?
Opportunities:
- Call for Submissions: Ooligan Press seeks creative nonfiction and personal essays from LGBTQ writers of the Pacific Northwest for the anthology More than Marriage (working title), edited by Carter Sickels. The anthology will add fresh voices to an ongoing conversation about queer equality with the understanding that the national focus on gay marriage may not answer the most pressing concerns for many members of the community. Please submit personal essays or creative nonfiction of no more than 5,000 words. Authors should identify as LGBTQ, and submissions should have some relationship to the Pacific Northwest. Deadline: November 15, 2013. For more information, please visit the Ooligan Press website.
- 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 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, Sept. 7,
8:15 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Dallas High School
1250 SE Holman Avenue, Dallas |
OSU Master Gardeners of Polk County Fall Fling
The OSU Master Gardeners of Polk County are hosting their eleventh annual Fall Fling: A Gardening Festival, featuring presentations, workshops, and a vendor faire that is open to the public. This year’s presenters include Karen Chapman, co-author of Fine Foliage; Jessi Bloom, author of Free-Range Chicken Gardents, and Rebecca Sweet, co-author of Garden Up! Smart Vertical Gardening for Small & Large Spaces. Complete information and a registration form is available on the Polk County Master Gardeners’ website.
Books will be available to purchase from Grass Roots Books & Music. |
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| News |
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Book Awards
Hugo Awards: The 2013 Hugo Award winners were announced this week at LoneStarCon 3, the 71st World Science Fiction Convention. Presented annually since 1955, the Hugo Awards are science fiction’s most prestigious award, and honor excellence in the field of science fiction and fantasy. This year’s winners include:
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eBook Specials
Rainy days, football games, and autumn harvests are ahead! With so much to keep you away from your favorite bookstore, you should fill your eReader now with great books to read! Publishers have added more great deals on Kobo eBooks, and they can be loaded to your Sony Reader, Nook, iPhone, iPad, or Android device for easy access! Visit the eBook Specials page on our website for the current list of wonderfully-priced titles, and support your local bookstore while you shop! |
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| This Week's Puzzle |
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Solve this week's jigsaw.
Inspired by today's rain, I tried something a little different this week. Good luck! (It's really challenging!) |
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| Reading Group Selection |
Tuesday, Oct. 1, 6:30 to 8 p.m.
The Art of Hearing Heartbeats
Jan-Philipp Sendker
Kendall leads her first Reading Group discussion with The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker. A poignant and inspirational love story set in Burma, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats spans the decades between the 1950s and the present, as a young woman from New York journeys to a small village in search of her missing father.
“Sendker's debut is a lush tale of romance and family set in mid-twentieth-century Burma. Four years after her father mysteriously disappeared, Julia Win traces him to the small town of Kalaw after finding a love letter among his possessions addressed to a woman named Mi Mi. In Kalaw, an old man named U Ba approaches her, promising to tell her the story of her father's life before he came to New York and met her mother. . . A beautiful tale bound to enchant readers on this side of the Atlantic.” –Booklist |
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Publisher: Other Press
ISBN: 9781590514634
Paperback
Regular price: $14.95
On sale for $12.70 until Oct. 1.
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On Our Nightstands |
 Pamela
Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round
Marisa McClellan
I have been eating the sweetest, juiciest local peaches lately. I will be dreamy about them in a few months unless I do one important thing: make jam! I picked up Food in Jars looking for fresh inspiration, and was delighted with Marisa McClellan’s recipes and writing. The recipes are suitable for small batches (which is all I can handle right now!), and she offers suggestions for new uses and unique flavorings. Now I only have to decide if it will be Peach Jam or Peach Butter I spread on my toast. Maybe both. . .
Paperback, $23.00
Publisher: Running Press Book Publishers; ISBN: 9780762441433 |
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Neé
Cupcake Decorating Lab: 52 Techniques, Recipes, and Inspiring Designs for Your Favorite Sweet Treats!
Bridget Thibeault
As a science geek, this is the sweetest lab I’ve ever been to! The Cupcake Decorating Lab is everything a garnishing novice could want. There are even some advanced tips and trick to test when you’re feeling brave. The layout is clean and well-organized, with simple easy-to-follow directions. The author (who owns her own bakery) offers up some of her favorite recipes and a wonderful selection of fun, beautiful, and whimsical cupcake themes for any occasion. I am definitely adding this one to my repertoire as I venture deeper into the world of baking and decorating!
Paperback, $24.99
Publisher:Quarry; ISBN: 9781592538317 |
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| Grass Roots Online — Contact Us |
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