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Grass Roots Books and Music
— 227 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis OR 97339 — 541-754-7668 |
| February 6, 2014 |
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Does anyone else wish they had booked that last minute flight to Maui right now?
The snow is lovely to look at, and I sincerely hope you're all hunkered in and being safe and reading lots of books. Now is a great chance to browse and make a list of the books you want to read next. Fortunately for you, Grass Roots is here, and our website is available 24 hours a day for easy shopping from home, complete with eBooks to keep you sated. If you're ready to venture out into the wintry wonderland, wander downtown and find a welcoming chair at Grass Roots!
Be safe, be cozy, and happy reading, friends!
The GR Elf.
*Please note the change of venue for the Gary Young reading as part of the Visiting Writers Series on Friday, Feb. 7. The event will be at the Arts Center, 700 SW Madison Ave., Corvallis. The event will still begin at 7:30 p.m. |
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| Newest Books |
I Always Loved You
Robin Oliveira
The young Mary Cassatt never thought moving to Paris after the Civil War to be an artist was going to be easy, but when, after a decade of work, her submission to the Paris Salon is rejected, Mary's fierce determination wavers. Her father is begging her to return to Philadelphia to find a husband before it is too late, her sister Lydia is falling mysteriously ill, and worse, Mary is beginning to doubt herself. Then one evening a friend introduces her to Edgar Degas and her life changes forever.
Hardcover, $27.95
Publisher: Viking Books; ISBN: 9780670785797 |
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Lincoln's Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, and the War for Lincoln's Image
Joshua Zeitz
John Hay and John Nicolay were President Lincoln’s personal secretaries, witnesses to his ascent to the presidency and his experiences through the Civil War. Following Lincoln’s assassination, Hay and Nicolay assumed the responsibility of establishing his legacy, using their unparalleled access to Lincoln’s personal and professional papers. Two decades of extensive research resulted in a 10-volume biography that remains the interpretation of Lincoln’s life as we know it today. As Joshua Zeitz reveals, Lincoln’s image is very much the result of Hay and Nicolay’s work.
Hardcover, $29.95
Publisher: Viking; ISBN: 9780670025664 |
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One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories
B. J. Novak
B. J. Novak, an actor best known for his work on The Office, presents a debut collection of short stories that has at its heart the most human of phenomena: love, fear, hope, ambition, and the inner stirring for the one elusive element just that might make a person complete. Across a range of subjects, themes, tones, and narrative voices, the many pieces in this collection are like nothing else, but they have one thing in common: they share the playful humor, deep heart, sharp eye, inquisitive mind, and altogether electrifying spirit of a writer with a fierce devotion to the entertainment of the reader.
Hardcover, $24.95
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group; ISBN: 9780385351836 |
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Glitter and Glue: A Memoir
Kelly Corrigan
The author The Middle Place reflects back on an earlier period in her life, when she set off to travel the following her college graduation. She ran out of money in a matter of months and took a job as a nanny to two young children whose mother has passed away. Certain that that the stoic voice of her own mother would remain background chatter through the rest of her life, she instead found it was suddenly everywhere, nudging and advising, cautioning and directing, escorting her through a terrain as foreign as any she had ever trekked.
Hardcover, $26.00
Publisher: Ballantine Books; ISBN: 9780345532831 |
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Dancing Fish and Ammonites
Penelope Lively
Novelist Penelope Lively takes an intimate look back at a life or writing and reading in her second memoir. At 80, Lively traces the arc of her life, from a childhood in Egypt to today, reflecting on aging and what life looks like from where she now stands.
"Lively looks out at the world and then back at herself in it, examining everything through the scrim of a prodigious intelligence and a memory that is 'the mind's triumph over time.' . . . Dancing Fish and Ammonites is chock full of anecdote, opinion, insight, lore and the sheer delight of a life lived fully." —Shelf Awareness
Hardcover, $26.95
Publisher: Viking Books; ISBN: 9780670016556 |
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The Free
Willy Vlautin
“Vlautin creates a community of survivors through a handful of well-wrought characters, each linked to the others through the attempted suicide by Leroy Kervin, a disabled Iraq war veteran who seizes a moment of clarity to escape his irreparable life. Freddie is a night caretaker at the group home where Leroy lives with his fear while fighting desperation at not being able to support his family. At the hospital, Pauline nurses him and another new patient, Jo, a runaway from a harsh world beyond her comprehension. The broken, the poor and the desperate fill this book—with dignity. Each one cares for another with grace and humility.” –Kirkus Reviews
Paperback, $14.99
Publisher: Harper Perennial; ISBN: 9780062276742 |
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The Testament of Mary
Colm Toibin
“Mary, the mother of Jesus, sits in uncooperative silence in the ancient biblical town of Ephesus as she is hounded by her son's apostles, who are desperate for memories she can share with them to aid in their intention to write about Jesus' life (in what, of course, will become the four Gospels of the New Testament). Mary insists that she remembers nothing. The truth is, she is flooded by memories, and with great articulation and introspection, she supplies us with a first-person narrative that will surprise and fascinate readers used to a more traditionally kind and gentle Virgin Mary. . . A stunning interpretation that is as beautiful in its presentation as it is provocative in its intention.” –Booklist Starred Review
Paperback, $13.00
Publisher: Scribner Book Company; ISBN: 9781451692389 |
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A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
Anthony Marra
“Marra's sobering, complex debut intertwines the stories of a handful of characters at the end of the second war in bleak, apocalyptic Chechnya. [The] story traces five days in 2004 following the arrest of Dokka, a villager from the small Muslim village of Eldar. His eight-year-old daughter escapes, and is rescued by Dokka's friend Akhmed, the village doctor, who entrusts her to the care of Sonja, the lone remaining doctor at a nearby hospital. Why Akhmed feels responsible for Haava and chooses Sonja, an ethnic Russian keeping a vigil for her missing sister, as her guardian is one of many secrets. . . Marra's deliberate withholding of narrative detail makes the characters opaque, until all is revealed, in a surprisingly hopeful way. . .” –Publishers Weekly Starred Review
Paperback, $15.00
Publisher: Hogarth; ISBN: 9780770436421 |
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The Woman Upstairs
Claire Messud
Nora Eldridge, an elementary school teacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts, long ago compromised her dream to be a successful artist, mother and lover. She has instead become the "woman upstairs," a reliable friend and neighbor always on the fringe of others' achievements. Then into her life arrives the glamorous and cosmopolitan Shahids—her new student Reza Shahid, a child who enchants as if from a fairy tale, and his parents: Skandar, a dashing Lebanese professor who has come to Boston for a fellowship at Harvard, and Sirena, an effortlessly alluring Italian artist. Nora is drawn deep into the complex world of the Shahid family; she finds herself falling in love with them, separately and together.
Paperback, $15.00
Publisher: Vintage Books; ISBN: 9780307743763 |
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Amity & Sorrow
Peggy Riley
Amaranth escapes with her daughters Amity and Sorrow from their polygamist, doomsday community, driving for four days before crashing—exhausted— near an almost-deserted gas station in rural Oklahoma. Sorrow, convinced she is God’s chosen one and has conceived Jesus with her father, locks herself in the gas station bathroom and miscarries, while Amity wavers between the life she’s known at the compound, and the possibility of a different future. Bradley, a farmer and the gas station owner, takes these three women in, eventually forming a new kind of family.
Paperback, $15.00
Publisher: Back Bay Books; ISBN: 9780316220873 |
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| Featured Books for Young Readers |
Big Rig
Jamie A. Swenson
Ages 2 to 5
Come along for the ride as Frankie the big rig truck takes us on the job, driving past kiddie cars (school buses) and land yachts (RVs). Hear the horn blow and the wipers schwat the windshield clean. But, BANG! SHHUUU! Uh-oh: a blow-out! Don't worry, a service truck saves the day so we can get the job done and make a very special delivery. Every kid will love to learn the truck driver lingo in the story, and shout out their own sound effects as they return for another ride, read after read.
Hardcover, $16.99
Publisher: Disney Press; ISBN: 9781423163305 |
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Seven Wild Sisters: A Modern Fairy Tale
Charles de Lint
Ages 8 to 12
Sarah Jane Dillard may have thought she wanted to meet the fairies of the Tanglewood Forest, but that was before she knew the truth about them. When Sarah Jane discovers a tiny man wounded by a cluster of arrows, she and her reclusive Aunt Lillian quickly find themselves ensnared in a war between rival fairy clans, and Sarah Jane's six sisters have been kidnapped to use as ransom. Her only choice is to go after them and escape the fairy feud before she and her sisters are trapped in their world forever. This companion novel to The Cats of Tanglewood Forest is an adventure about magic, family, and the power of believing in both.
Hardcover, $18.00
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; ISBN: 9780316053563 |
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Nick and Tesla's Robot Army Rampage: A Mystery with Hoverbots, Bristle Bots, and Other Robots You Can Build Yourself
Bob Pflugfelder and Steve Hockensmith
Ages 9 to 12
When a rash of robberies hits the town of Half Moon Bay, 11-year-old sleuths Nick and Tesla are determined to catch the criminals—but to do so, they'll have to build a host of new gadgets and gizmos! In this robot-themed follow-up to Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab, the brother-and-sister duo build four different droids out of ordinary household objects. Can Nick and Tesla catch the criminal mastermind—and foil his army of rampaging robots—before it's too late?
Includes illustrated instructions throughout the story, so you can build your own!
Hardcover, $12.95
Publisher: Quirk Books; ISBN: 9781594746499 |
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| Music |
Big Head Todd & the Monsters
Black Beehive
Genre: Pop/Folk
Colorado's popular jam-blues-rock band returns with their first original recording in a number of years. Whereas recent releases have seen Big Head Todd celebrating his blues roots, Black Beehive turns his attention to more rock and Americana faire.
($15.95) |
Scott H. Biram
Nothin' But Blood
Genre: Pop/Folk
Biram began his career as a "dirty old one man band", publishing lo-fi tapes of harsh country blues. The years have seen Biram become a more skilled songwriter, and he has also allowed a diversity of other instrumentalists on his records.
($15.95) |
Lone Justice
This Is Lone Justice:
the Vaught Tapes 1983
Genre: Pop/Folk
L.A.'s Lone Justice was one of the foremost proponents of "cow-punk" in the 1980s. Set to tape in 1983, these are the earliest formal recordings of the band's country leaning tunes. ($16.95) |
Tony Trischka
Great Big World
Genre: Pop/Folk
The banjo master's new album is his first in more than five years. On songs mixing bluegrass, jazz, and folk music, Trischka is joined in the studio by Mike Barnett, Mike Compton, Aoife O'Donovan, and more. ($15.95) |
Various Artists
This Is the Town:
A Tribute to Nilsson, Vol. 1
Genre: Pop/Folk
Harry Nilsson passed away in 1994, leaving behind a great collection of masterful songwriting. This tribute features Nilsson's tunes performed by Langhorne Slim, Willy Mason, Dawn Landes, and more.
($14.95) |
Dirk Powell
Walking Through Clay
Genre: Pop/Folk
The fiddle/banjo/accordion player comes from a long lineage of masterful musicians. Powell's new record finds his exploring everything from old timey folk to bluegrass and jazz.
($15.95) |
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| Community Events |
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Community Events
Darkside Cinema: Movies showing Feb. 7 to 13, showtimes daily, Darkside Cinema, Corvallis. Visit their website for showtimes.
- Inside Llewyn Davis –R: The Coen brothers have crafted another unique period piece.
- Oscar Nominated Shorts: Live Action and Animated.
- Why We Ride –PG: Motorcycle People Unite!
- All Is Lost–PG-13: Robert Redford.
- The Invisibile Woman –R: Charles Dickens meets a younger woman who becomes his secret lover until his death. Ralph Fiennes.
- 12 Years A Slave –R: Golden Globe Best Picture of 2013.
Literary Events:
Opportunities:
- Academy for Lifelong Learning welcomes Oregon poet laureate Paulann Petersen, “Anyone’s Domain: Everyday Life of Poetry”: Thursday, Feb. 20 at 1:30 p.m.
First Congregational Church, 4515 SW West Hills Rd., Corvallis. Paulann Petersen was appointed as Oregon’s sixth poet laureate by Gov. Kulongoski for a two-year term and renewed by Gov. Kitzhaber. She queries, “Is poetry the domain of just a few, and the realm of the select, the elect?” Petersen resounds a fervent no! Poetry is as near and accessible as our own breath and heartbeat. She will be reading an array of her penned poems and divulging duties as Oregon’s poet laureate. Petersen will reveal the everyday life of poetry in locales ranging from the Caledonian Games in Athena, to Ione’s one-building K-12 Community School. Please join her to find out the active life of poetry in our state capitol’s legislative sessions and in the dedication of Oregon’s newest state park. Academy for Lifelong Learning is a program of the OSU Alumni Association, though membership is open to everyone. There is no charge to a sampling a class, and pre-registration is not required. For more information, please visit the ALL website.
Ticket Sales: Grass Roots sells tickets for local music events. Please call or stop by the store to see what's currently available.
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Friday, Feb. 7 at 7:30 p.m.
*Due to weather conditions, this event will now be held in the Arts Center
700 SW Madison Ave., Corvallis |
Visiting Writers Series presents Gary Young
The Visiting Writers Series is sponsored by the OSU MFA Program.
Gary Young is a poet and artist whose honors include grants from the NEH, the California Arts Council, and two fellowship grants from the NEA. He’s received a Pushcart Prize, and his book, The Dream of a Moral Life, won the James D. Phelan Award. He is the author of Hands, Days, Braver Deeds, (Peregrine Smith Poetry Prize), No Other Life, (William Carlos Williams Award), Pleasure, and Even So: New and Selected Poems. His print work is represented in collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum and The Getty Center for the Arts. In 2009 he received the Shelley Memorial Award from the PSA. He teaches creative writing, and directs the Cowell Press at UC Santa Cruz.
The event is free and open to the public and followed by a Q & A and book-signing. Books will be available to purchase from Grass Roots Books & Music.
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Saturday, Feb. 8
LaSells Stewart Center
OSU, Corvallis |
Insights into Gardening
This event is sponsored by the Benton County Master Gardeners Association and Oregon State University Extension Service.
Insights into Gardening is a day-long seminar offering practical, hands-on learning for home gardeners and gardeners-to-be. Whether you are an experienced or novice gardener, new to the area or an Oregon native, you will find plenty of ideas to make your gardening easier, more enjoyable and more successful. Please visit the Insight into Gardening website for registration information.
Books recommended by event speakers and general gardening books will be available to purchase from Grass Roots Books & Music. Discounts are available on select items. The onsite bookstore will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
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Feb. 14 & 15
LaSells Stewart Center
OSU, Corvallis |
Spring Creek Project Winter Symposium: Transformation without Apocalypse: How to Live Well on an Altered Planet
This event is sponsored by the Spring Creek Project. Featuring Tim DeChristopher, Ursula K. LeGuin, Kim Stanley Robinson, Kathleen Dean Moore, Rob Nixon and other speakers. Please visit the Spring Creek Project website for more information.
Humans will be living differently in the very near future, perhaps occasioned by catastrophes brought on by overpowering forces of greed and climatic disintegration. But it’s also conceivable that we will choose, by acts of imagination and collective will, to create new narratives of how to inhabit the planet. This will require a radical re-imagining of who we are in relation to the world and how we ought to live. We have to be doing everything possible to end dependence on fossil fuels, stop the privatization of water, seeds, and the very atmosphere, and arrest climate chaos. But that work will fare better if we have tangible visions of new / old ways to live that promise thriving without exhausting the Earth. This symposium will engage the essential experiment, testing a different sets of ideas about how to live on Earth.
Books will be available to purchase from Grass Roots Books & Music.
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Saturday, Feb. 22
LaSells Stewart Center
OSU, Corvallis |
Oregon Small Farms Conference
This daylong event is geared toward farmers, agriculture professionals, food policy advocates, students and managers of farmers markets. Twenty-four sessions will be offered on a variety of topics relevant to the Oregon small farmers. This year there will be a session track in Spanish. Speakers will include farmers, Oregon State University Extension faculty, agribusiness, and more. For more information and to register, please visit the Small Farms website.
Books will be available to purchase from Grass Roots Books & Music.
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| News |
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New at Grass Roots
Chukar Cherries: Just in time for Valentine’s Day, we are offering some new sweets for your sweet! Made in Washington with fruits from the Pacific Northwest, Chukar's vision is simple: Start with local fruits and the finest ingredients, Make and ship only fresh goods, Listen to our customers and coworkers. . . and have fun! That fun is evident in their delicious products that make the perfect gift, or a delicious snack for yourself. Stop in and see our complete selection of chocolate covered nuts and dried fruits.
Sand Pictures: Sand Pictures are interactive, ever-changing, mesmerizing and versatile art pieces. Put them on your desk and watch them evolve with a new creation with each turn. Transform your workspace into a soothing environment with a beautiful Sand Picture. Each is handcrafted, blending water, air, and sand within a frame to create an ever-shifting work of art. Watch a movie of the Deep Sea and Midnight moving sand pictures, then come into the store to see the wonder for yourself!
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Featured in the Store
February is National Haiku Writing Month: It’s February, the shortest month of year, fitting for celebrating the shortest genre of poetry! Join us in celebrating National Haiku Writing Month by writing a Haiku for each day of the month. Need some inspiration? Browse a selection of haiku collections and writing guides on the Grass Roots website and in store, and visit The Haiku Foundation’s website.
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GR Bestsellers
We know your book stack isn't big enough yet. (We also know you will never read all the way through it. Just like us.) Add some of these local best sellers to the top of your stack:
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Ebook Specials
The perfect way to find something new to read when you’re snowed in? Kobo eBooks from your local bookstore! Publishers have some great specials right now, including in fiction, cooking, Storey’s Fresh Picks, and more. Visit the Grass Roots website for details, and to do all of your eBook shopping! |
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| This Week's Puzzle |
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| Reading Group Selection |
Tuesday, Mar. 4, 6:30 to 8 p.m.
Lionel Asbo: State of England
Martin Amis
Kendall heads the state of our March Reading Group discussion of Lionel Asbo: State of England by Martin Amis, an exuberant, acidic satire of modern society and celebrity culture—by a renowned author at the height of his powers.
Lionel Asbo, a terrifying yet weirdly loyal thug, has always looked out for his ward and nephew, the orphaned Desmond Pepperdine. He provides him with fatherly career advice (always carry a knife, for example) and is determined they should share the joys of pit bulls (fed with lots of Tabasco sauce), Internet porn, and all manner of more serious criminality. Des, on the other hand, desires nothing more than books to read and a girl to love (and to protect a family secret that could be the death of him). But just as he begins to lead a gentler, healthier life, his uncle—once again in a London prison—wins 140 million in the lottery and upon his release hires a public relations firm and begins dating a cannily ambitious topless model and "poet." Strangely, however, Lionel's true nature remains uncompromised while his problems, and therefore also Desmond's, seem only to multiply.
"At heart an old-fashioned novel. . . . Amis is, like Dickens, an insistently moral writer, satire being an edifying genre with a noble cause: the improvement of society." —The New York Times Book Review
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Publisher: Vintage Books
ISBN: 9780307948083
Paperback
Regular price: $15.00
On sale for $12.75 until Mar. 4.
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On Our Nightstands |
 Linda
Mandela: The Authorized Biography
Anthony Sampson
Anthony Sampson has written an expansive biography of Nelson Mandela, true to the largeness and wonders of the man himself. Starting in the small hometown of Mandela's birth, the setting is clear to mind from recent echoes of his funeral service. With detail and personal acknowledgement from the author (Sampson had known Mandela since 1951), this great man's remarkable life opens to the reader. It is (still) with awe that one follows through the incredible obstacles and barriers that Mandela lives through to eventually become the president of South Africa and the leader against apartheid.
Paperback, $21.00
Publisher: Vintage Books; ISBN: 9780679781783 |
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Neé
GreenCraft Magazine
Printed on 100% recycled paper
I can’t say enough good things about GreenCraft Magazine! I love dabbling in new craft techniques and creating new things, and I love being able to do it on a tight budget. GreenCraft allows me to do just that, with the added benefit of supporting and helping the environment. The magazine’s motto is “creating today, preserving tomorrow”, meaning each issue is packed with fabulous way to upcycle commonly discarded items into eco-friendly, chic treasures. My favorite projects from this issue include: transforming an old suitcase into a chalkboard sign and repurposing colanders, wine corks, and vinyl records into beautiful jewelry.
Magazine, published quarterly: $14.99
Publisher: Stampington & Company, same publishers as Somerset Studio |
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