Grass Roots Reader 
June 13, 2014 

 

 Hello, Readers!

  

Quickly, we would like to apologize for the delay in this week's newsletter. Due to some technical difficulties, things were held back a bit, but we're working hard to get everything back on track as quickly as possible. Our format might look a little different than the past couple months, but the information is just as good as always, though you will probably notice there is no jigsaw puzzle this week. =(

  

Onward and upwards. Especially with this bit of exciting news concerning our latest Genre Reading Challenge!

  

We at Grass Roots are as excited for summertime as a kid just out of school! Sometimes it feels like we never grew up, so in honor of this nostalgia we have a summer reading challenge for the kids! If you or your child are between the ages of 5-12, stop by the store and pick-up a challenge sheet. On it you'll find a list of book genres to enjoy reading or listening to this summer. Return your sheet between June 15th - August 15th with 4 different genres completed and you'll get a 20% off coupon good towards any one children's book and a raffle ticket for a chance to win prizes.

Want more raffle tickets? Keep reading! If you complete 8 genres you'll get a second ticket, and if you complete all 10 you'll get a third! Happy summer reading!

 

~Jenny

  

  
 New in Hardback

  

Hard Choices

Hillary Rodham Clinton 

Hillary Rodham Clinton's inside account of the crises, choices, and challenges she faced during her four years as America's 67th Secretary of State, and how those experiences drive her view of the future. In the aftermath of her 2008 presidential run, she expected to return to representing New York in the United States Senate. To her surprise, her former rival for the Democratic Party nomination, newly elected President Barack Obama, asked her to serve in his administration as Secretary of State. This memoir is the story of the four extraordinary and historic years that followed, and the hard choices that she and her colleagues confronted. 

 

Hardback; $35.00

Publisher: Simon & Schuster; ISBN:9781476751443

   

 

 

Written in My Own Heart's Blood

Diana Gabaldon

Continuing the story that author Diana Gabaldon began with Outlander, Written in My Own Heart's Blood picks up in 1778 amongst a background of history-making political events: France declaring war on Great Britain; the British army leaving Philadelphia; and George Washington's troops leaving Valley Forge. Meanwhile, domestic drama has erupted on the home front of Jamie Fraser (presumed dead), most astonishingly the fact that his wife has married his best friend. The Frasers feel solace in knowing, at the very least, their daughter Brianna is safe in Scotland, but the truth is she is being pursued by the kidnapper of her own son, a man determined to learn the family secrets.
  
  

Hardback; $35.00

Publisher: Delacorte Press; ISBN:9780385344432

 

Outside

Barry Lopez
"A new edition of six previously published stories by Lopez, with engravings by Moser. Lopez's fiction, like his nonfiction, is steeped in the natural world. 'Desert Notes,' the first story in the collection, focuses on the elemental and largely silent world of the Mojave Desert. There's no plot to speak of-just a narrator calling our close attention to a series of natural images. The main character in the second story, 'Twilight,' is a pattern rug woven by Ahlnsaha, a Navajo woman, in 1934. We follow the ownership of this rug as it's transferred from character to character. . . [All] other stories also feature the natural world prominently, as Lopez endows his landscape with light and lyricism. . . " -Kirkus Reviews
 

Hardcover; $18.95

Publisher: Trinity University Press; ISBN:9781595341891

 

 Unchopping a Tree 

W.S. Merwin
"W.S. Merwin, the Pulitzer-winning former U.S. poet laureate, captures the essence of treeness in the delightful and insightful Unchopping a Tree. . . From the delicate process of sorting out fallen leaves and tiny twigs, to the chips and sawdust scattered on the ground, to the scaffolding required to steady the broken trunk as the tree is uprighted, Merwin's words linger, causing the reader to pause and reflect on the majesty embedded in a tree and the nature that surrounds it. . . " -Shelf Awareness

Hardcover; $14.95

Publisher: Trinity University Press; ISBN:9781595341877

 

The Rise & Fall of Great Powers
 Tom Rachman

"Rachman follows up the debut success of The Imperfectionists with a suspenseful novel that whisks readers around the world, from Sydney to Bangkok to New York. This coming-of-age story focuses on the life of fiercely independent late-bloomer Tooly Zylberberg, who, in her early 30s, opens a ramshackle bookstore in the small Welsh town of Caergenog. Jumping between three decades, the global-scale mystery surrounding Tooly slowly unravels. It begins in 2011, when Tooly's ex-boyfriend contacts her about her dying former caretaker, whom he believes is her father. The novel weaves a critique of modern society through Tooly's odyssey, with a cast of characters grappling with the mundane realities of the 21st century. . . " -Publishers Weekly
 

Hardcover; $27.00

Publisher: Dial Press; ISBN:9780679643654

 

 New in Paperback

The Bone Season

Samantha Shannon 

"Shannon offers up a richly imagined debut, opening a projected seven-book series about clairvoyants used as catspaws in the year 2059, two centuries after mysterious events changed the world. Paige Mahoney possesses the illegal and extremely rare power of dreamwalking, using it to serve a criminal syndicate in a London controlled by the organization known as Scion. She's captured and sent to Sheol I, a hidden penal colony established in Oxford and maintained by the extradimensional Rephaim. Claimed by the enigmatic Warden Arcturus, she's trained to be a weapon, all the while dreaming of rebellion and escape. When Paige is drawn into schemes both political and far-reaching, she must fight for her life. . . " -Publishers Weekly  

Paperback; $17.00

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC; ISBN:9781620402658

   

 

 

On Sal Mal Lane
Ru Freeman

Sal Mal Lane is a peaceful neighborhood in Sri Lanka when the Herath family settles there. They meet their neighbors, the children play and fight and develop crushes, and there is still a sense of normalcy despite ethnic, religious, and political differences. But in the coming days, the first rumblings of civil war will change that. Personal life-the innocence of childhood, sharply contrasted with the trivial prejudices of the adults in charge-inevitably clashes with the political, creating a richly imagined, heartrending remembrance of a volatile era.

"[In] fictionalizing Sri Lankan history, Freeman accomplishes what reportage alone cannot: she blends the journalist's loyalty to fact with impassioned imagination." -Booklist
  

Paperback; $16.00

Publisher: Graywolf Press; ISBN:9781555976767

 

The Longest Road: Overland in Search of America, from Key West to the Arctic Ocean  

Philip Caputo
Taking a journey across America, Philip Caputo had a question in mind: how does the United States, with its vast geography and diverse people, remain united? To find the answer, he interviewed everyday Americans for their distinct perspectives - Christian evangelicals, a Native American shaman, a Missouri farmer, volunteers and more - covering the 16,000 miles from Florida to Alaska. Their surprising and inspiring responses inform us about our country's modern issues, divisions, and commonalities.

"Injecting misadventures into the narrative, Caputo recounts an overland voyage that emphasizes the people he meets. . . [snaring] reading devotees of a classic American theme, the road trip." - Booklist Starred Review

Paperback; $16.00

Publisher: Picador USA; ISBN:9781250048745

 

Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt 

Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco
"The first of our country's sacrifices to the common greed, writes Hedges, were the Native Americans ravaged in the U.S. western expansion from the 1700s onward. Channeling the late Howard Zinn (A People's History of American Empire), Hedges and Sacco visit four modern 'sacrifice zones' where corporate interests have left tire treads all over the environment, the local economy, and the quality of life. Pine Ridge, South Dakota's exploited and impoverished Native American reservation; the ravaged urban slum life of Camden, New Jersey; the Appalachian degradation wrought by coal mines in Welsh, WV; and the near-slavery conditions of immigrant farm workers in Immokalee, FL, all testify to laissez-faire policies gone foul and the burden economic forces place on every American. . . " -Library Journal

Paperback; $16.99

Publisher: Nation Books; ISBN:9781568588247

 

Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health  

William Davis M.D.
Cardiologist William Davis believes he has found the primary culprit for Americans' obesity epidemic: wheat. Discovering numbers such as 100 million Americans experiencing adverse health effects ranging from rashes to high blood sugar to stomach bulges, Dr. Davis decided to research further. Once he treated over 2,000 patients via wheat abstinence he came to the conclusion optimal health can be achieved by this deceptively unwholesome grain's elimination. By dually exposing how agribusiness companies genetically modify what is sold as "wheat" and providing user-friendly step-by-step plans for how the average American can give up wheat, Dr. Davis eases us all into this fairly revolutionary lifestyle change.
 

Paperback; $16.99

Publisher: Rodale Press; ISBN:9781609614799

 

Young Readers

 

 Andy Griffiths 

Ages 4 to 7 

From the creators of the popular  The Cat on the Mat Is Flat collection comes an adapted version for beginning readers. Hilarious and silly, Ed and Ted and Ted's Dog Fred brings a full return of the dynamic duo that is author Andy Griffiths and illustrator Terry Denton. The text is tongue-twisting, kid-pleasing, and the drawings are zany and just a little off-beat. Goofy and enchanting for kids looking for a good laugh!


 

Paperback; $3.99

Publisher: Square Fish; ISBN:9781250044488


Dreamwood

Heather Mackey 

Ages 10 and Up 

"An original fantasy for middle-grade readers plaits together science, the supernatural and deep ecology. Lucy Darrington, 12 1/2, is a spunky girl who has escaped the stultifying atmosphere of a San Francisco finishing school to reunite with her beloved father, a scientist whose livelihood as a ghost clearer has diminished with the spreading, turn-of-the-20th-century popularity of electricity. Lucy arrives at the fictional city of Pentland-in an alternate Pacific Northwest where American settlements are embedded within lands still owned by indigenous peoples-only to find her father gone from his rooming house. . . " -Kirkus Reviews

 

Hardcover: 16.99

Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group; ISBN:9780399250675 

New Music

First Aid Kit

Stay Gold  

From Sweden, sisters Johanna and Klara Soderberg gained notoriety for their You Tube song interpretations. Produced by Bright Eyes' Mike Mogis, the duo's third full length album features all originals in an indie folk/Americana style.


Pop/Rock; $11.95


Passenger

Whispers  

UK songwriter Mike Rosenberg performs under the moniker Passenger. His new record features a more upbeat take on his folk music, as well as more cinematic arrangements.



Pop/Rock; $13.95 


Jack White

Lazaretto 

White's career has followed him from his stint as one-half of White Stripes to collaborations with artists from Brendan Benson to Loretta Lynn. His second solo record proves equally eclectic, ranging from gritty blues to moody pop moments.


Pop/Rock; $11.95

Store Events 

Tuesday, June 17 at 7 p.m.  


Kelly Kittel
Breathe: A Memoir of Motherhood, Grief, and Family Conflict

Grass Roots Books & Music

227 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis  

A mother's heartbreaking account of losing two sons in the span of nine months-and of learning how to embrace love, honesty, and joy even in the face of tragedy.

This is the story of a girl who dreamed of having a large, loving family, and it's the story of the struggles she survived as a woman to realize that dream. It's also the universal tale of the forces that can tear a family apart. 
Kelly Kittel tells the story of her sons, not always pleasant but not without moments of joy. This book is proof that truth is stranger than fiction.  

Kelly Kittel is a fish biologist and an author. She is married with five living children, whom she admits with joy are her best work beyond compare. She lives with her husband and their two youngest children in Rhode Island but her favorite writing space is in their yurts on the coast of Oregon. She has been published in magazines and anthologies and has written many notes to teachers, but Breathe is her first book   


 

Tuesday, June 24 at 7 p.m.

 

Jana Zvibleman, Rick Borsten, Ann Staley

The Knotted Bond

 

Grass Roots Books & Music

227 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis 

Sisters are sometimes born into the same family; they can be also be chosen over time and space. In this anthology, sisters  of all types share or withhold nurturing and secrets;  they celebrate and miss each other; they witness each other's moods, successes, and deaths. Most of the poets in this anthology are, naturally, women. yet Kim Stafford and other brothers reveal relationships with their sisters. The laughing toddlers, knobby kneed girls, defiant teens, regretful adults, and proud elders in this book can touch us all.

 

Corvallis poets represented are Rick Borsten, Ann Staley, and Jana Zvibleman; others include outgoing Oregon Poet Laureate Paulann Petersen,  Dorianne Laux, Penelope Scambly Schott, and Ingrid Wendt. 

 

Thursday, June 26 7:00 p.m.  

 

Rebecca Gordon

Mainstreaming Torture

 

Grass Roots Books & Music

227 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis 

In Mainstreaming Torture Rebecca Gordon argues that institutionalized state torture remains as wrong today as it was on the day before the terrible attacks of September 11. Furthermore, U.S. practices during the "war on terror" are rooted in a history that began long before September that day, a history that includes both support for torture regimes abroad and the use of torture in American jails and prisons.
 

Torture is still an urgent moral issue. This is a book for anyone who cares about how institutionalized torture affects its victims, its practitioners, and the nation that gives it a home.
 

Rebecca Gordon teaches Ethics at the University of San Francisco Prior to her academic career, she spent a few decades working in various national and international movements for peace and justice: for women's liberation and LGBT rights; for racial justice in the United States and the anti-apartheid movement in the United States and South Africa; and against U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. She is also the author of Letters from Nicaragua, about the six months she spent living in the war zones of Nicaragua in 1984. 

In the Community

Darkside for 6/13-6/19

  • The Grand Budapest Hotel-R Wes Anderson once again using ornate visual environments to explore deeply emotional ideas.
  • Fed Up-PG Compelling and troubling in equal measure, Fed Up is an advocacy documentary that earns its outrage.
  • For No Good Reason-R An interesting look at the work of Steadman, whose grotesque, ink-splattered art provided the ideal complement to Thompson's gonzo writing.
  • Half Of A Yellow Sun-R Strikes an admirable balance between drama and history and adapts Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel with committed performances and narrative nuance.
  • Filth-R James McAvoy gives it his all, fearless, energetic, and lunatic.  

Literary Events

  • Writers on the River: June 16 Summer Reading at 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on June 17; Dennis Hall at the First Presbyterian Church, 114 SW 8th St., Corvallis, OR 97333; 
    Readings Guidelines for Readers:
    - Sign up table begins at 6:15 p.m. (recent readings have been packed)
    - First to sign up is first to read
    - Reading is limited to 7 minutes per reader
    - Only one prose piece is allowed during the 7 minute time frame
    - Number of readers is limited to 8 given our one hour program format
    - Please no graphic violence, sex or hate speech
    - Please tell the audience if your piece is fiction or non-fiction, if it is a part or whole
    - Each reader will introduce the next reader on the list
    The event is free and open to the public. 
    Visit their website for full details.  
  • Meditative Journaling Workshop, Saturday, June 21 | 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. | Corvallis-Benton County Public Library; Join Dr. Mary Ann Iyer as she leads individuals into a quiet introspective place of self-awareness and poses relevant questions. Insights often arise that are new and illuminating. We will then journal with this material. As Dr. Iyer says, "They are delicious groups to be a part of!" Please bring paper and pens and be prepared to reflect deeply within yourself. Advanced registration is requried for this free workshop; please call 541-766-6793 or email [email protected], or stop by the 2nd floor reference desk to register 

Opportunities    

 

  • The Black Box Poetry Prize Email submission deadline: June 30, 2014; Rescue Press invites submissions for the 2014 Black Box Poetry Prize, a contest for full-length collections of poetry open to poets at any stage in their writing careers. Submissions will be accepted during the month of June 2014. This year's judge is Maggie Nelson; see our website or blog for submission guidelines and previous winners.

     
  • 2014 NANO Prize Online submission deadline: September 1, 2014 The sixth annual NANO Prize, awarding publication and $500 to a previously unpublished work of fiction 300 words or fewer, is open and this year's contest will be judged by Kim Chinquee! All entrants will receive a one-year subscription to NANO Fiction and winners will be announced in mid-September. Visit website here

     
  • Black Warrior Review Contest Online Submission deadline: September 1, 2014 nnouncing Black Warrior Review's Tenth-Annual Contest for Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry! Grand prize in each genre: $1000 and publication; Runner-up prize in each genre: $100 and publication. Cost to enter: $20 (comes with one-year subscription). This year we are honored to have Richard Siken (Poetry), Lily Hoang (Fiction/Prose), and Kiese Laymon (Nonfiction) as our guest judges. The entry fee covers one 7,000 word fiction or nonfiction submission, or one packet of up to three poems. Send us your best work today; we can't wait to read it! Visit website here.   
  • Store News

    Bloomsday

    Happy upcoming Bloomsday from Grass Roots! As you might or might not be aware, June 16 has become a nearly international holiday in the literary world to honor James Joyce's modernist masterpiece Ulysses. All over the world, as if straight out of Dublin, Joyce enthusiasts give marathon, dramatic readings of the entire novel (lasting sometimes up to 36 hours!), dress up as characters from the novel, and hold Irish festivals in the streets. If you are a die-hard Joycian yourself and have suggestions for a Grass Roots Bloomsday event NEXT year, email us and let us know your ideas. ([email protected]).   

    Author Interview

    Hilary Rodham Clinton

    In anticipation of former Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton's latest book Hard Choices (out this week in hardback at Grass Roots), the New York Times decided to grill her on some of her favorite writers and books. You might be thinking, as you read through the litany of writers Clinton rattles off, How in the world does she find time to keep up with such a wide variety of writers and be a major political figure? That was my reaction. Everyone from John le Carr� to Barbara Kingsolver to Pablo Neruda. Goodness! Read the whole fascinating interview here.  

    Grass Roots Reading Group

    Tuesday, July 1, 6:30-8:00 p.m.

     
    Never Let Me Go

    Kazuo Ishiguro



     Grass Roots Books & Music
    227 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis

     

    Jenny will be leading our July reading group discussion with Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. 

     

    Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were pupils at Hailsham-an idyllic establishment situated deep in the English countryside. The children there were tenderly sheltered from the outside world, brought up to believe they were special, and that their personal welfare was crucial. But for what reason were they really there? It is only years later that Kathy, now aged 31, finally allows herself to yield to the pull of memory. What unfolds is the haunting story of how Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy, slowly come to face the truth about their seemingly happy childhoods-and about their futures. Never Let Me Go is a uniquely moving novel, charged throughout with a sense of the fragility of our lives.

     

    Paperback; $15.95

    Publisher: Vintage Books; ISBN: 9781400078776

     

    On sale for $13.56 until June 30, 2014.

    Night Stands
    Ne�
    Nature's Nether Regions: What the Sex Lives of Bugs, Birds, and Beasts Tell Us about Evolution, Biodiversity, and Ourselves
    Menno Schilthuizen
    Genitals are our unmentionables; seemingly taboo but also wondrous things that I enjoy talking and learning about. Thankfully, Menno Schilthuizen agrees and has written a delightful, curiosity-satisfying book about sex organs across the animal kingdom. I urge you to forget social stigma and carry this gem with you during your next coffee shop reading session. Nowhere else will you learn about the staggering variation in genitals, as well as the intriguing and alien behaviors that accompany them. This book beckons you to ponder our own abilities to pass our genes on, and also how incredibly normal our bedroom antics are compared to Damselflies, slugs, and octopuses - oh my!

     

    Hardcover; $28.95

    Publisher: Viking Books; ISBN:9780670785919

    Jenny
    No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State
    Glenn Greenwald
    As a lover of fiction, I still have a huge appreciation for non-fiction, especially when a book seems particularly prescient or fascinating. Glen Greenwald's latest on Edward Snowden, the NSA revelations, and his experience as the journalist to break the story delivers on both counts. Greenwald reminds us that the personal IS the political (especially when it comes to our privacy!) with writing that never lends itself towards conspiracy theory histrionics. He's a champion for investigative journalism, our constitutional rights, and a humane world for each individual. It's a timely, and ultimately hopeful book for our turbulent political environment.

     

    Hardcover; $27.00

    Publisher: Metropolitan Books; ISBN:9781627790734

    Linda
    Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
    Laura Hillenbrand

    This engaging book has been recommended to me often, and I am thankful that I have finally read it. Unbroken is the truly remarkable life story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner who survived drifting at sea after his bomber went down in WWII, to be captured and interned in several Japanese POW camps. It is difficult to realize the horror this man (and others), went through, and inspiring to read of his remarkable survival and subsequent embracing of life. Zamperini's courage, resilience, and strength is boundless. A photo of him skateboarding at 81 years shows a true survivor!

     

    Hardcover; $28.00

    Publisher: Random House; ISBN:9781400064168

     
    Adam
    Mason Currey 

    The daily lives of creative types are nothing if not idiosyncratic. For proof, look no further than Daily Rituals, a collection of habits and habituals of more than 160 artists, musicians, writers, scientists and philosophers. Compiled from journals, interviews and autobiographies, the book is a fascinating look into minds as different as Carl Jung and Stephen King, or Voltaire and Georgia O'Keefe. The only thing that seems universal in all the entries is a compulsive need to work.  

     

     

    Hardcover; $24.95

    Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group; ISBN:9780307273604


    Grass Roots Books and Music
    227 SW 2nd Street
    Corvallis OR 97333
    541-754-7668

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