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Grass Roots Books and Music
— 227 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis OR 97339 — 541-754-7668 |
| May 8, 2014 |
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May is where it's at. Not only are there tons of exciting events taking place right here in the bookstore like tonight's poetry reading with Elizabeth McLagan and Anita Sullivan, and later in the month Jenny Milcham's reading of her novel Ruin Falls, but the community events are ramping up as well with Tobias Wolff's visit to the OSU campus on May 22. We mustn't forget that it's also Children's Book Week this month (we've still got coupons going!), AND Geek Month (which we are prepared for with a charming little display). This is a month for reading and book appreciation, so enjoy reading the newsletter for all the details and come by the store real soon!
*May* the Force Be With You,
~Jenny~
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| Newest Books |
The Last Kind Words Saloon
Larry McMurtry
"McMurtry of Lonesome Dove fame returns to fiction (after Custer) with this uneven portrayal of the frontier friendship between Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. McMurtry is a master of colorful character development and snappy dialogue, both nicely showcased here as Wyatt and Doc meander through Texas and Colorado to Arizona, drinking, gambling, whoring, and debating whether or not they ought to shoot folks who annoy them. As these two lethal saddle pals wander the West, McMurtry introduces other real-life figures in side-plots [like] cattleman Charlie Goodnight; Quanah, the Comanche chief; Satanta, the Kiowa chief; and Buffalo Bill, whose adventures provide some action and humor. . . " -Publishers Weekly
Hardcover, $24.95
Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation; ISBN: 9780871407863 |
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The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery
Sam Kean
"Science writer Kean (The Disappearing Spoon) delves into the strange ways we've learned about the workings of our brains, rejuvenating with invigorating detail anecdotes that otherwise receive only brief textbook mention. Even his organization, with each chapter devoted to a particular scientific discovery, is assembled to be most effectively processed by the brain and its capacities for chunking smaller units of information. Reading this collection is like touring a museum of neuroscience's most dramatic anomalies, each chapter taking us to a different place and time. . . " -Publishers Weekly
Hardcover, $27.00
Publisher: Little Brown and Company; ISBN: 9780316182348 |
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The Snow Queen
Michael Cunningham
"Like By Nightfall (2010), Cunningham's elegant and haunting new novel examines the complex dynamics among a couple and a brother. In this configuration, Barrett Meeks, a poetically minded man in his late thirties. . . shares a Brooklyn apartment with Tyler, his older musician-bartender brother, and Beth, Tyler's great love. . . Beth is undergoing full-throttle treatment for cancer. Tyler is struggling to write the perfect love song for their wedding, and breaking his promise not to do drugs. Barrett. . . remains in an altered state after seeing a strangely animated celestial light over dark and snowy Central Park. . . Cunningham's beautiful novel is as radiant and shimmering as Barrett's mysterious light in the sky, gently illuminating the gossamer web of memories, feelings, and hopes. . . " -Booklist, Starred Review
Hardcover, $26.00
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux; ISBN: 9780374266325 |
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Delicious!
Ruth Reichl
When Billie Breslin, 21 and new to the food scene, gets a position at the fictional New York gourmet magazine Delicious!, she encounters a charming and warm cast of characters who challenge her professional and personal development. Often feeling in the shadow of her more successful sister, Billie pushes herself to meet people in the downtown food scene. When Delicious! is suddenly shut down, Billie stays on as a hotline operator for complaining customers. Then, a discovery in the magazine's old library: letters written to legendary chef James Beard from Lulu, a 12-year-old during World War II. These letters inspire Billie to come to terms with some life hurtles, which leads to an exciting gourmet creation of her own.
Hardcover, $27.00
Publisher: Random House; ISBN: 9781400069620 |
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American Spring: Lexington, Concord, and the Road to Revolution
Walter R. Borneman
"Borneman. . . takes on the oft-examined topic of the Revolutionary War and zooms in on the events and months leading up to the rebellion the 'American' spring, as it were, of 1775, up until Monday, July 3, 1775, when George Washington officially takes command of the Continental Army. Borneman takes on this important moment in history in a broad and all-encompassing manner, providing details on both the major players and events of the time as well as the ways revolution was affecting the quotidian routine of ordinary colonial settlers. . . " -Publisher's Weekly
Hardcover, $30.00
Publisher: Little Brown and Company; ISBN: 9780316221023 |
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| New in Paperback |
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The Knotted Bond�Oregon Poets Speak of Their Sisters
Uttered Chaos, Liz Nakazawa (Ed.)
This anthology was conceived, and is edited, by Liz Nakazawa. She obtained poems from Oregon poets, including Corvallis' own Rick Borsten, Ann Staley, and Jana Zvibleman. The anthology also features Diane Averill, Marie Buckley, Deb Casey, Margaret Chula, Angela Decker, Cindy Williams Guti�rrez, Quinton Hallett, Ruth F. Harrison, Dorianne Laux, Laura LeHew, Dorothy Blackcrow Mack, Amy MacLennan, Lisa Maier, Carolyn Martin, Amy Miller, and many more! These poets deliver their unique and compelling perspectives on sisters and sisterhood.
Paperback, $15.00
Publisher: Uttered Chaos; ISBN: 9780988936621 |
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Inferno
Dan Brown
When Harvard professor Robert Langdon awakens in an Italian hospital, he mysteriously cannot remember the last 36 hours. Not surprisingly, more suspicious things have happened, including the appearance of a strange object in his belongings that he has never seen before. With his doctor Sienna Brooks, he decides to flee whilst being pursued by a female assassin. Codes, mad scientists, parallels to Dante's Inferno�this latest Dan Brown novel makes for another fine suspense-thriller from which he gets his authorial acclaim.
Paperback, $16.00
Publisher: Anchor Books; ISBN: 9780804172264 |
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Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?
Alan Weisman
"Intrepid planetary journalist Weisman put our minds in a whirl with his best-selling The World Without Us (2007), a vivid projection of what would happen if humankind suddenly vanished. Here he asks a really tough question: What will happen on the warming earth if our population continues to grow? Aware that population control is a treacherous subject, Weisman boldly traveled to more than 20 diverse countries, from India to Italy to Japan, instigating remarkably candid conversations with religious leaders, scientists, and public-health experts. Spirited descriptions, a firm grasp of complex material, and a bomb defuser's steady precision make for a riveting read. . . " -Booklist, Starred Review
Paperback, $18.00
Publisher: Back Bay Books; ISBN: 9780316097741 |
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The World's Strongest Librarian: A Book Lover's Adventures
Josh Hanagarne
"Josh Hanagarne, a 6'7" gentle giant who tears phone books for fun, tends to catch the eye (or ear) at his job at the Salt Lake City Public Library, even when his Tourette Syndrome is not acting up. His memoir explores these contradictions and oddities, in his remarkable journey from idyllic childhood to painfully jerky young adulthood to a contented family and work life. The adult who relates his story is happy and stable...but his journey through years of battling Tourette's and depression has been arduous. As he relates his stranger-than-fiction story...[Hanagarne] muses eloquently about the role of libraries in society, and their future possibilities." -Shelf Awareness
Paperback, $17.00
Publisher: Gotham Books; ISBN: 9781592408771 |
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| Featured Books for Young Readers |
Chengdu Could Not, Would Not, Fall Asleep
Barney Saltzberg
Ages 3 to 7
"In a twist on numerous picture books about little animals who are determined to stay awake, Chengdu the panda is trying his hardest to get to sleep. Droll illustrations accompany spare, lulling text, leading to Chengdu's success and a humorous surprise near the book's end. The cover art is an immediate draw: The small panda's oversized paws cling to a tree branch as his expressive, sleep-deprived face stares at readers, expertly matching the 'could not, would not fall asleep' of the title. . . " -Kirkus Reviews
Hardcover, $16.99
Publisher: Disney Press; ISBN: 9781423167211 |
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| Music |
Ben & Ellen Harper
Childhood Home
Genre: Pop/Folk
Folk/blues guitarist Ben Harper has collaborated with many musicians during his career. His newest partner happens to be his mother, Ellen, who had a hand in writing some of the tracks on this intimate record.
($15.95) |
Nikki Lane
All or Nothin'
Genre: Pop/Folk
Lane's third record was produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys. In addition to a duet, Auerbach and Lane collaborate on a collection of retro-sounding Americana pieces.
($13.95) |
Sarah McLachlan
Shine On
Genre: Pop/Folk
McLachlan's first album since 2010 was created in the wake of her father's passing. The tunes range from a strummy country number to ethereal ballads, each rendered in McLachlan's celebrated voice.
($13.95) |
Natalie Merchant
Natalie Merchant
Genre: Pop/Folk
This self-titled record is Merchant's first original solo album for adults in more than a decade. Produced by Merchant herself, the CD features both electric and acoustic moments, as well as contributions from John Medeski, Elizabeth Mitchell, and others.
($18.95) |
Jenny Scheinman
Littlest Prisoner
Genre: Pop/Folk
Portland's violinist/songwriter Scheinman has recorded albums in several genres, including jazz, classical, folk, and pop. Littlest Prisoner marks her first fully Americana record, a collaboration with Tucker Martine, Bill Frisell, Bruce Cockburn, and more.
($11.95) |
Willie Watson
Folk Singer Vol. 1
Genre: Pop/Folk
Watson is best known as a founding member of Old Crow Medicine Show. His first solo album is a stripped-down collection of traditional folk covers, produced by David Rawlings.
($15.95) |
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| Events |
Thursday May 8, 7:00 p.m.
Grass Roots Books & Music
227 SW 2nd St.
Corvallis, OR |
Elizabeth McLagan and Anita Sullivan
In the White Room and Garden of Beasts
Elizabeth McLagan and Anita Sullivan will read poetry from their books, In the White Room and Garden of Beasts respectively, and will sign copies after.
Elizabeth McLagan's In the White Room is a book haunted by memory, by enclosures that root the present to the past. �Turn the pages of In the White Room, and you're met by beguiling surprises: quirky narratives, the heartfelt voice, jazzy soliloquy, lyric meditation, the landscape of dream. These poems feel pressured into being by what remains invisible, just out of sight, and reading them, we may feel how �life/ struggles onward drinking freedom/ in sometimes bitter gulps� " (Nance Van Winckel).
Anita Sullivan�s Garden of Beasts contains poems from a world charged with natural magic. Animals, people, birds, and the landscape itself are continually crossing one another's boundaries in whimsical or sometimes urgent ways. Her poems come directly from her experiences with piano tuning, gardening, traveling, translating, and reveling in the sheer physicality of language.
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Wednesday, May 28, 7:00 p.m.
Grass Roots Books & Music
227 SW 2nd St.
Corvallis, OR |
Jenny Milcham
Ruin Falls
In a suspenseful follow-up to her critically acclaimed Cover of Snow, Jenny Milchman ratchets up the tension with this edge-of-your-seat story of a mother determined to find her missing children.
Liz Daniels has every reason to be happy about setting off on a rare family vacation, leaving her remote home in the Adirondack Mountains behind for a while. Instead, she feels uneasy. Her children, eight-year-old Reid and six-year-old Ally, have met their paternal grandparents only a handful of times. But Liz�s husband, Paul, has decided that, despite a strained relationship with his mother and father, they should visit the farm in western New York where he spent his childhood.
On their way to the farm, the family stops at a hotel for the night. In the morning, when Liz checks on her sleeping children, all of her anxiety from the day before comes roaring back to life: Ally and Reid are nowhere to be found. Blind panic slides into ice-cold terror as the hours tick by without anyone finding a trace of her kids. Soon, Paul and Liz are being interviewed by police, an Amber Alert is issued, and detectives are called in.
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Wednesday, June 4, 7 p.m.
Grass Roots Books & Music
227 SW 2nd St.
Corvallis, OR |
Dr. Cristina Eisenberg
The Carnivore Way: Conserving and Coexisting with America�s Carnivores
Our tangled history with large carnivores has ranged from a close spiritual bond during pre-European settlement of North America to reviling these species as a threat to our livelihood. Today we are in the process of rewilding America by enabling the return of grizzly bears, wolverines, wolves, lynx, cougars, and jaguars to landscapes from which they had long been missing.
In The Carnivore Way: Conserving and Coexisting with America�s Carnivores, Dr. Cristina Eisenberg explores these species� fascinating natural history, ecology, and conservation status. Each of the species profiled in The Carnivore Way tells the evocative story of our struggles to rewild ecosystems and live more ethically on this earth.
Cristina Eisenberg conducts trophic cascades research focusing on wolves in Rocky Mountain ecosystems. She teaches ecological restoration and public policy in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University and is a Smithsonian Research Associate. Her first book, The Wolf�s Tooth: Keystone Predators, Trophic Cascades and Biodiversity, was published in 2010 by Island Press.
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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 5/9-5/15, showtimes daily, Darkside Cinema, Corvallis. Visit their website for showtimes.
- Under The Skin�R Subtly strange and surreal, appealing to avant-garde art-house audiences searching for something different. Scarlett Johansson.
- Cesar Chavez�PG-13 With Pe�a, the question is this: Are the movies brave enough to give him the chance he deserves? He's a wonderful Cesar Chavez.
- Finding Vivan Maier�NR A penetrating exploration of the link between art and obsession and a major discovery of a 20th-century master. 97% on RT!
- The Lunchbox�PG Charming and whimsical, it's a feast for the eyes. Subtitled Hindi. 97% on RT!
- The Wind Rises�PG-13 This animated film is one of the most rapturously beautiful that Miyazaki has made. Subtitled Japanese.
Literary Events:
- Random Review Wednesday, May 14th, 2014, 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m., Corvallis Library Main Meeting Room, Antarctica: An Intimate Portrait of a Mysterious Continent by Gabrielle Walker. Reviewed by Andrew Thurber. Sponsored by the Friends of the Library.
- OSU MFA Reading Series at New Morning Bakery, Thursday May 15, 2014, 7:30 p.m., featuring Adrian Stumpp, Rachel Ratner, Phillip Brown, and Maya Polan.
- Writers on the River, Monday, May 19, 2014, 6:30-8:30 p.m. in Dennis Hall at the First Presbyterian Church, 114 SW 8th St., Corvallis, OR 97333 with Thomas Bunker "A Journey into the World of Fictional Characters Presented"-Please join us for a fascinating and fun journey into the world of fictional characters. The road-map for our journey will be the real-world personality framework of Personalysis, an organizational behavior analysis tool created by James R. Nolan of Houston, Texas. For more information, visit Writers on the River's blog.
- Book Club at the Corvallis Public Library on Saturday, May 21 at 7 p.m. in the Library Board Room. Discussion will focus on Annie Leonard's The Story of Stuff. The director of The Story of Stuff Project tracks the life of the "stuff" we use every day, transforming how we think about our patterns of consumption. This book is based on the author's 2007 internet film, The Story of Stuff.
Opportunities:
- Call for Submissions, Campus Creature Census: We invite students, faculty, staff, and community members to explore campus as a natural environment where sequoias and gray squirrels, rhododendrons and chickadees, lichens, spiders, garter snakes and moss co-create the OSU ecosystem. Register for your creature by April 28, submit your Census entry by May 10. Please check the Campus Creature guidelines for details here.
- Summer Fishtrap Gathering of Writers 2014: Registration is still open! Join fellow writers July 7-13, 2014 for a week of writing and conversation filled with generative workshops, afternoon breakout sessions, open mic events, evening readings and panel discussions all in the beautiful setting of Wallowa Lake. Our theme this year is What the River Says: The Art of Listening in a Turbulent World as we will celebrate the themes and ideals of poet William Stafford on the centennial of his birth. Workshops still open include: Kim Barnes (fiction/non-fiction), Marv Ross (songwriting), John Daniel (poetry, prose, with an activist bent), Robert Wrigley (poetry), and Amy Minato (a workshop for youth). For full details, see their website here.
- 2014 Lois Cranston Memorial Poetry Prize through Calyx Journal Please submit up to three unpublished poems (six pages maximum). Open from March 1 - June 30, 2014, postmarked. Simultaneous submissions are discouraged. The CALYX editorial collective reads all manuscripts first, then selects 10-20 finalists to send to the final judge. See website for full guidelines.
- Short Story Writing Workshop Saturday, May 17th, 2014, 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., Corvallis Library Main Meeting Room. This workshop is offered in anticipation of Tobias Wolff�s visit to Corvallis on Thursday, May 22, when he will receive the Stone Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement. We will read and discuss samples of Wolff�s fiction and nonfiction and engage in writing exercises focusing on Wolff�s craft and style. Sean Crouch, Keith Scribner, & Dahlia Seroussi of Oregon State University will lead this interactive workshop. For more information, visit the library's website here.
- Midlife College Weekly Short Story Contest sponsors a free-entry, weekly writing contest of midlife short stories. U.S. citizens and legal residents age 40 and older may enter. The Editor selects five stories for publication on our website each week. Readers leave comments and Facebook likes urging the Judges to choose a contest winner. Readers also send the Judges their opinions of the best story on our Closing Arguments page. The contest period is Monday through Sunday noon PT. The first-place story enters the Winner�s Circle and receives a cash prize of $50. Winners of a $50 cash prize are eliglble for a $100 contest, which we run quarterly. For full submission guidelines visit their website here.
- 2014 Raymond Carver Short Story Contest Online/Postmark submission deadline: May 15, 2014-This is the 15th anniversary of the contest and to celebrate we are offering our biggest grand prize yet: $1500! The Raymond Carver contest attracts stories from around the world and is known to award top prizes to virtual unknowns and never-been-published writers. Many prizewinners often credit placing in the contest as the springboard for their career as a writer. All winners published in the fall 2014 issue in mid-October and considered for representation by Rees Literary Agency, Folio Literary Management, and Sobel Weber Agency. This year�s guest judge is Aimee Bender.
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, May 16, 7 p.m.
Corvallis Public Library
Main Meeting Room
645 NW Monroe Ave. |
Amy Schutzer
Spheres of Disturbance
Amy will read from and answer questions about her newly published novel (April 2014), Spheres of Disturbance�a haunting, sensual, and brilliantly cunning novel exploring how we can bear to approach, or even choose, our inevitable end. Amy Schutzer�s first novel, Undertow (Calyx Books, 2000), was a Lambda Literary Award finalist, a Violet Quill Award finalist, and a Today�s Librarian �Best of 2000� Award-winner. She is the recipient of an Astraea Foundation Grant for Fiction and a grant from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. Finishing Line Press published Taking the Scarecrows Down, a chapbook of poetry, in 2011. She has worked as a U.S. Postal Carrier, a cashier, a bookkeeper, a legal assistant, and a Nabisco factory worker. She lives in Portland, Oregon.
Grass Roots will be selling books at this event. |
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Thursday, May 22, 7:30 p.m.
CH2M Hill Alumni Center
725 SW 26th Street |
Tobias Wolff
Stone Award
Tobias Wolff will be presented with the Stone Award at the Portland Art Museum on May 21, and will visit the Oregon State campus in Corvallis on May 22 to give a public reading at the CH2M Hill Alumni Center Ballroom (725 SW 26th Street). In the spring, OSU Master of Fine Arts program students will lead �Everybody Reads� programs featuring a selected book by Wolff.
The biennial award is given to a major American author who has created a body of critically acclaimed work and who has�in the tradition of creative writing at OSU�mentored young writers.
Wolff is best known for his work in two genres: the short story and the memoir. His first short story collection, In the Garden of the North American Martyrs, was published in 1981. Wolff chronicled his early life in two memoirs, In Pharaoh�s Army (1994) and This Boy�s Life (1989), which was turned into a 1993 movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro. He is also author of the novel Old School (2003).
Grass Roots will be selling books at the May 22 reading. |
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| News |
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Color to Connect
May 12-18 is Children's Book Week and to celebrate the 95th anniversary, we'd like to invite the kids down to the store to help us decorate our shop windows! On the weekends of May 3-4, and 10-11, children of all ages are encouraged pick up a stained glass coloring page from one of our Stained Glass Coloring books and color it for a 20% coupon off any one children's book in the store. We will have a coloring station set up, and provide the decorating materials. If the weekends are too busy to stop by, parents can come into the store during the weekdays of May 5-9 and pick up a page for home. We'd like to have all the pictures back by May 11 so we can display them during Children's Book Week. Happy CBW!
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| This Week's Puzzle |
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| Reading Group Selection |
Tuesday, June 3, 6:30-8:00 p.m.
The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards
Kristopher Jansma
Kendall will be leading our June reading group discussion with The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards by Kristopher Jansma.
"This canny, seductive, and utterly transfixing tale about the magic of storytelling and the misery of writing is told by an itinerant, chameleonic writer who calls himself Nobody. The fatherless son of a flight attendant, he relies on and cares for his rich, gay, and unstable best friend, who turns out to be a truly gifted novelist, and falls hopelessly in love with an actress so beautiful that princes propose marriage. Like a magician pulling a seemingly endless string of colorful scarves from a hat, Jansma streams stories-within-stories-within-stories, each a diabolically clever homage. As Nobody juggles false identities and survives near-catastrophes in New York, Las Vegas, Iceland, Luxembourg, Dubai, Ghana, and Sri Lanka, readers will detect riffs on Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Truman Capote, Bob Dylan, Tolstoy, Salinger, Borges, Kipling, and many more. . . " -Booklist, Starred Review
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Publisher: Penguin Books
ISBN: 9780143125020
Paperback
Regular price: $16.00
On sale for $13.60 until June 3.
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On Our Nightstands |
 Kendall
Gone Girl
Gillian Flynn
I am not usually a mystery reader, but after a friend told me he had read this book in one sitting, I couldn�t resist giving it a try and I�m so glad I did. Maybe the fact that I found a book which starts off with murder intensely relatable isn�t a good thing, but Flynn writes so beautifully and with such earnest humanity, it is hard not to feel connected to the characters. Switching between the voices of a married couple in each chapter, this book will keep you on your toes and absolutely never knowing where the story will go.
Paperback, $15.00
Publisher: Broadway Books; ISBN: 9780307588371 |
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Tiffany
The Plover
Brian Doyle
I loved Brian Doyle�s first novel Mink River. So much that I was a little afraid to begin his next. I needn�t have worried. From the first sentence, it plunged me into a sea-faring adventure aboard the Plover, Declan O�Donnell�s boat. Declan sets off from the coast of Oregon to escape the world and everyone in it (including himself). Instead of solitude, he finds the company of a motley crew of castaways who will open his heart in unexpected ways. The writing left me rapt and wrapped up in its rhythm and poetry. And the story satisfied my yearning for a rollicking good read, with the perfect dash of magic and philosophy stirred in.
Hardcover, $24.99
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; ISBN: 9781250034779 |
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Erika
Have You Seen My Dragon?
Steve Light
Ages 3-5
Have You Seen My Dragon by Steve Light is a great picture book for those imaginative little ones learning to count. The story guides you through a large city by counting colorful big city items and looking for his dragon. Each page is a different part of the city; I�m guessing New York since the author/illustrator resides there. I really enjoyed the pen & ink illustrations with the bold colors to count. This book is visually striking and offers much to discuss about city life.
Hardcover, $16.99
Publisher: Candlewick Press; ISBN: 9780763666484 |
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