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Aug. 28, 2014
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Hello!

It's coming up on Labor Day Weekend, so we'll mention here that our store hours on Monday, September 1 will be from 11 to approximately 4 p.m.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Community and Stafford Poetry Night. Claire and I had a blast, thoroughly enjoying all the talent. 

This week in release news we have new hardcovers from Louise Penny and Susan Vreeland; Thomas Pynchon and Richard Dawkins in paperback; a new Captain Underpants installment; and music from The New Pornographers. 

There's more--oh, so much more. But you'll have to read on to find out the rest...

Enjoy the long weekend!

~Jenny


New HardcoversNHardcovers

Lisette's List
by Susan Vreeland
[Fiction]
"Since the elegantly conceived The Girl in Hyacinth Blue, Vreeland has written a string of best sellers that typically blend art and history with strong character study, and her new book is no different. At the time of the Vichy regime, a young Parisian ends up in Provence, caring for her husband's grandfather. Through the works of Cezanne, Pissarro, Chagall, and Picasso, she uncovers the glories of Provence despite wartime hardships. Not just art history, this book evokes key ethical questions, including the currently timely question of art stolen during World War II." -Library Journal

Hardcover; $27.00

Publisher: Random House; ISBN: 9781400068173

The Long Way Home: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel (Chief Inspector Gamache Novel #10)
by Louise Penny
[Fiction]
"Still grieving over the carnage that wreaked havoc with those he loves and with Three Pines itself (How the Light Gets In, 2013), Gamache reluctantly agrees to come to the aid of his friend, artist Clara Morrow, who is worried about her husband, [Peter], who has failed to return to Three Pines after their agreed-upon one-year separation. Gamache and his former assistant, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, follow Peter's trail to Europe and back to Toronto, where he visited his former art teacher, and on to the remote mouth of the St. Lawrence River. In search of artistic inspiration, Peter may have found something very different and much more lethal. . ." -Booklist, Starred Review

Hardcover; $27.99

Publisher: Minotaur Books; ISBN: 9781250022066

 The Miniaturist
by Jessie Burton
[Fiction]
"Late 17th-century Amsterdam is the sumptuous backdrop for this debut novel about a young Dutch girl from the village of Assendelft, Nella Oortman, who is chosen to be the bride of Johannes Brandt, a wealthy merchant with a shocking secret. Not long after Nella's arrival in the city, her enigmatic husband presents her with a beautifully wrought cabinet, an exact replica of the house in which they live with Brandt's sister, Marin, and their loyal servants. Nella engages a miniaturist to fill it and begins to encounter mysteries no one is willing to explain, secrets in which everyone in the household is implicated. . ." 
-Publishers Weekly

Hardcover; $26.99

Publisher: Ecco Press; ISBN: 9780062306814

Fives and Twenty-Fives 
by Michael Pitre
[Fiction]
"Pitre's suspenseful debut, influenced by his combat experience in the Iraq War, follows a Marine Corps road crew searching for hidden bombs on the treacherous highways encircling Baghdad. Three men, now home after a catastrophic incident, relate their memories of the sweltering days that brought them together and tore them apart. Two Americans, a lieutenant awarded the Bronze Star and a medic discharged other than honorably, struggle to start new lives in Louisiana while coping with feelings of intense shame. And a young, wisecracking Iraqi interpreter, obsessed with American pop culture, seeks asylum in the U.S. as the Arab Spring erupts around him. In Iraq, where every pothole contains an explosive device, tension builds toward a life-changing episode." -Booklist

Hardcover; $27.00

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC; ISBN: 9781620407547

 Friendswood
by Rene Steinke
[Fiction]
"Lee and her family had to abandon their Texas home after hot-to-the-touch sludge, waste from an irresponsible chemical company, oozed up from the ground. Their lovely daughter contracted a rare and deadly blood cancer; many others became ill, and the town was declared a Superfund site. Years later a developer starts building new homes, and no one wants to listen to Lee's objections, even though she has evidence proving that the land remains unsafe. Hal, her born-again, reformed-alcoholic, struggling real-estate-agent neighbor, is desperate to get in on this opportunity even as the insidious toxins continue to sicken Friendswood in strange ways. . . Alarmed and frustrated, Lee weighs the merits and risks of an outlaw protest. . ." -Booklist

Hardcover; $ 27.95

Publisher: Riverhead Books; ISBN: 9781594632518

New PaperbacksNPaperbacks

by Thomas Pynchon
[Fiction]
It is 2001 in New York City, in the lull between the collapse of the dot-com boom and the terrible events of September 11th. Maxine Tarnow is running a nice little fraud investigation business on the Upper West Side, chasing down different kinds of small-scale con artists. She used to be legally certified but her license got pulled a while back, which has actually turned out to be a blessing because now she can follow her own code of ethics. Otherwise, just your average working mom--life as normal as it ever gets in the neighborhood--till Maxine starts looking into the finances of a computer-security firm and its billionaire geek CEO, whereupon things begin rapidly to jam onto the subway and head downtown.
Paperback; $17.00

Publisher: Penguin Books; ISBN: 9780143125754

by Richard Dawkins
[Non-Fiction]
"In the first volume of a projected two-volume memoir, evolutionary biologist and ethologist Dawkins (fellow, emeritus, New College, Univ. of Oxford; The God Delusion) looks back on his life from childhood through the publication of his first and most famous book, The Selfish Gene, in 1976. It's a mixture of lighthearted anecdote. . . , straightforward narrative, and the author's opinions, of which Dawkins has never been short. On almost any issue. . .Dawkins's skeptical mind works away, laying out rationales for his judgments. Ultimately, this is a self-portrait of an intensely alive man whose radical positions are the logical outgrowth of his skeptical, science-based approach to almost everything." 
-Library Journal
Paperback; $15.99 

Publisher: Ecco Press; ISBN: 9780062225801

 The Thing about December
by Donal Ryan
[Fiction]
"Johnsey Cunliffe is an only child so cosseted by his loving parents that he's naive about the ways of the world and called an eejit in his small Irish town. But when his parents die his father from cancer, his grieving mother soon after, he's bereft, confused, and lonely. . . Then the classmate who bullied him for years engineers a brutal beating of Johnsey, leaving him temporarily blind and hospitalized. . . Home from hospital, Johnsey lands in the midst of controversy precipitated by the rezoning of his family farm, leading to him being portrayed as money-grubbing when he wants only to protect his legacy rather than sell it to spur the town's economy. . ." -Booklist, Starred Review
Paperback; $15.00

Publisher: Steerforth Press; ISBN: 9781586422288

by Bob Deutsch
[Non-Fiction]
Bob Deutsch (neuroscientist, anthropologist, and entrepreneur) has found that many of us settle for less, both personally and professionally. We just don't believe we are supposed to be as great as we can be. However, with the 5 essentials--Curiosity, Openness, Sensuality, Paradox, and Self-Story--we can find the path leading to outstanding success. Here Deutsch provides stories and interviews with highly successful people, and demonstrates how we can harness our own five inner resources to lead happy, creative, and dynamic lives.
Paperback; $16.00

Publisher: Plume Books; ISBN: 9780142181102

[Non-Fiction]
"In this excursion into techno-optimism, Thompson discusses computerized, interconnected social activity. Relying on journalism's staple of the human-interest story, he describes individuals' experiences of exploring the Internet in pursuit of their interests. In Thompson's examples, those pursuits range from retrieving a personal memory to critiquing TV shows to finding a house for sale to researching proteins to organizing political movements. The commonalities Thompson finds among all those searches are prodigious data storage-and-retrieval capacities and the latent presence in cyberspace of someone interested in what you're interested in. . ." -Booklist
Paperback; $17.00

Publisher: Penguin Books; ISBN: 9780143125822

New For Young ReadersYReaders

  Quest 
by Aaron Becker
Ages 4 to 8
[Fiction]
"Becker continues the loving and gorgeous homage to imagination he began in Journey (2013) with this direct sequel. No sooner has our intrepid female protagonist returned home along with her purple-crayon-wielding friend than adventure taps her on the shoulder again, this time literally. An orange-tinted king, pursued by enemy knights, hands over a precious map that reveals locations for a rainbow of drawing implements that match the power of the girl's own red crayon. The two kids cross over once again, and this time Becker expands his world from the complex castle-city of the previous volume to include vast double-page spreads of underwater ruins, dense jungles, precarious towers, and frosted mountaintops. . ." -Booklist, Starred Review

Hardcover; $15.99

Publisher: Candlewick Press; ISBN: 9780763665951

 365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne's Book of Precepts
by R. J. Palacio
Ages 8 to 12
[Fiction]
"Thomas Browne, fifth-grade teacher from Palacio's best-selling Wonder (2012), returns in a companion volume offering a collection of inspiring precepts. . . At the beginning of each month, Mr. Browne writes a new precept on the board, students copy it in their notebooks, discuss it in class, and write paragraphs and essays inspired by the precepts. This volume includes a year's worth of Mr. Browne's precepts chosen from 10 years of teaching, as well as some submitted by young people in a contest held by the author." -Kirkus Reviews

Hardcover; $14.99

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf; ISBN: 9780553499049

 Captain Underpants and the Tyrannical Retaliation of the Turbo Toilet 2000 (Captain Underpants #11)
by Dav Pilkey
Ages 7 to 11
[Fiction]
"What do you get when you mix toilet monster villains, pterodactyl hamster heroes, Super Diaper Baby comic strip interludes, and a glow-in-the-dark, time-traveling Robo-Squid suit? A Captain Underpants adventure about saving the planet from impending doom! In this engaging installment in the now nearly iconic series, the text directly addresses the reader ('Remember back in chapter 1?'), and young superhero fans can team up with George, Harold, and Captain Underpants (aka the hypnotized principal of their school), as well as guest illustrator, Timmy Swanson (age four) . . . and Nana Gertrude (age seventy-one), for the battle of the century. . ." -Booklist

Hardcover; $9.99

Publisher: Scholastic Inc.; ISBN: 9780545504904

 The Rule of Thoughts (Mortality Doctrine, Book Two) (Mortality Doctrine) 
by James Dashner
Young Adult
[Fiction]
"A trio of gaming teens battles a corrupt computer program that is hellbent on leading a virtual army into our reality. Upon completing the Path in The Eye of Minds (2013), Michael discovered he's nothing more than a Tangent, a stray bit of computer code that has gained sentience. Now downloaded into the brain of teenager Jackson Porter, Michael must find his friends and get ahead of Kaine, the villainous Tangent that has discovered the ability to invade the real world by corrupting human bodies with Tangent consciousnesses. . ." -Kirkus Reviews

Hardcover; $18.99

Publisher: Delacorte Press; ISBN: 9780385741415

New MusicNMusic


Genre: Jazz/Blues

The Night Tripper's new record pays tribute to the music of Louis Armstrong. Rather than offering straight covers of Armstrong's songs, Dr. John updates the sound with new arrangements, funk grooves, and contemporary beats.
($16.95)

 New Pornographers
Brill Bruisers
Genre: Pop/Folk

This longstanding Canadian supergroup features members like Neko Case, AC Newman, Dan Bejar, and more. The ensemble's 6th album focuses on upbeat songs, trading in indie, rock, and classic pop structures.  
($14.95)

Shovels & Rope
Swimmin' Time
Genre: Pop/Folk

As Shovels & Rope, husband and wife duo Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst were recognized with an Americana Music Award for their debut record. This follow-up boasts a darker, more guitar-centric sound.
($13.95)

James Taylor
One Man Band
 Genre: Pop/Folk

Originally released in 2007, One Man Band has been remastered and reissued. On DVD and CD, Taylor's collection is a live, acoustic take on the bard's greatest hits.
($15.95)

Genre: Irish/Celtic

This Celtic rock band's debut CD was released in 1998, garnering critical and popular praise. More than a decade later, the group has evolved, and is issuing their first greatest hits collection.
($13.95)
Events at Grass RootsEventsGRR

Kate Dyer-Seeley 
Thursday, August 28 at 7 p.m.
227 SW 2nd St.
Corvallis, OR
 
Scene of the Climb is a new adult mystery, featuring a young reporter, Meg Reed, who is fresh out of college and crashing on her best friend's couch in Portland, Oregon. She embellishes her outdoor skills in order to land a gig writing for Northwest Extreme Magazine, when in reality her idea of sport is climbing onto the couch without spilling
her latte. The magazine sends her out to the ruggedly beautiful Columbia River Gorge to cover an adventure race. She claws her way to the top of a cliff only to witness a body falling off the summit. From there things just get worse for Meg.

Kate Dyer-Seeley writes the Pacific Northwest Mystery Series featuring the rugged landscapes of the Columbia River Gorge and a young journalist who bills herself as an intrepid adventurer in order to land a gig writing for Northwest Extreme. She lives in Vancouver where you can find her hitting the trail, at an artisan coffee shop, or at her favorite pub.
 
Community EventsCommunityEvents

Darkside Show Times for 8/29-9/4

-Calvary -R Led by a brilliant performance from Brendan Gleeson, Calvary tackles weighty issues with humor, intelligence, and sensitivity.

-Land Ho -R Gently amusing and agreeably modest in scale, Land Ho! uses its stars' warm chemistry to impart its poignant, quietly effective message.

-One I Love -R A romantic comedy with a sharp, sci-fi bent; it manages to be both funny and cerebral. Elisabeth Moss, Mark Duplass.

-American Wine Story -NR There are plenty of obsessions in the world, but few endeavors attract as much devotion as wine. LOCAL FILM!

-Magic In The Moonlight -PG-13 Love makes the magic in Woody Allen's latest movie, and it helps to have such likable stars as Colin Firth and Emma Stone in the leading roles.



Literary/Arts Events

-Random Reviews Wednesday, September 10, 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. Corvallis Public Library The Fault in Our Stars by John Green Reviewer: Alison Clement

-Majestic Readers Theatre August 31, 2014 Sylvia at 3:00 and 7:00 p.m. The Majestic Theatre 115 Southwest 2nd Street Corvallis, OR $6 - $8 The Majestic Readers Theatre Company offers high quality staged readings on the last Sunday of every month. The Company will offer a production in the "reader's theatre" style: trained actors, with scripts in hand, make the play come alive through vocal talent, facial expressions, and minimal staging. Reader's theatre plays are a fun, accessible way to experience contemporary works by famous modern playwrights that might not otherwise be performed. Find full details here. 
 
-First Monday Whiteside Theatre Tour September 1, 2014 @ 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. Whiteside Theatre 361 Southwest Madison Avenue, Corvallis, OR, Members free, $5 non-members. All tours of the Whiteside Theatre start promptly on time. Once a tour enters the building the doors are closed and joining the tour is not permitted. Videography of any kind is not permitted.
To reserve your space simply send an email to reservations@whitesidetheatre.org
with your name, any special arrangements, and the number in your group. Admission will be paid at the door on the day of the tour. If space is available, tickets for the tour may be purchased at the door on the day of the tour.

-Friends of the Library FALL FESTIVAL BOOK SALE Saturday, Sept. 27 9:00-10:00 Friends of the Library members only (become a member for just $10!)
Saturday September 27, 10-4:00PM. Open to the public Sunday, September 28, 12:00-4:00, Main Meeting Room, Corvallis-Benton County Public Library Lots of lightly used top-quality paperback books at very reasonable prices. Sponsored by the Friends of the Library. All proceeds are used to benefit the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library system.
Prices slashed from 3:00-4:00 PM Sunday, September 28.
Contact Katherine Inman (541-753-0078) for more information.


Opportunities

-Margaret Atwood, Zsuszi Gartner Judge The Thomas Morton Memorial Prize! Online submission deadline: September 30, 2014
The Puritan is still accepting entries to The Third Annual Thomas Morton Memorial Prize in Literary Excellence. The prize is awarded to the single best submission in the respective categories of poetry and fiction. The prize is open for submissions until September 30th through our online manager. The judges for this year's prize are celebrated writers Margaret Atwood (poetry) and Zsuzsi Gartner (fiction). In addition to publication in Issue 27: Fall 2014, each winning author receives $1000 as well as a prize pack of books drawn from 18 donating publishers, each valued at approximately $800+. Entry fee is $15. Find details here. 

 
-The Jane Lumley Prize for Emerging Writers is now open! Online submission deadline: November 30, 2014
Hermeneutic Chaos Literary Journal announces its first annual Jane Lumley Prize for Emerging Writers. The contest seeks to recognize the works of writers who have yet not published a full length book. The prize alternates each year between poetry and prose, and this year we seek to recognize an exceptional piece of poetry. There is no entry fee for the contest. The winner will receive a prize of $300 and publication in our January 2015 issue. Publication will also be awarded to the first two semi-finalists. Find full details here. We can't wait to read your poems!
Submit here. 

-New Delta Review Short Fiction Contest, Online submission deadline: October 4, 2014
New Delta Review seeks entries for the second annual Ryan R. Gibbs Award for Short Fiction, a contest judged by the amazing Roxane Gay, author of An Untamed State and Bad Feminist. We are looking for a full narrative in a small package (1500 words or less). Winner will receive a $500 prize and publication in the winter issue of New Delta Review. All submissions will be considered for publication. Deadline for entry is October 4, 2014. Enter with $10 fee through Submittable here.
 


Community Events with Grass Roots

More coming soon...
Store NewsStoreNews

Academy of American Poets Awards

The organization's annual poetry prizes have been announced! Winners include:

Robert Hass, winning the Wallace Stevens Award for "outstanding and proven mastery in the art of poetry."

Rigoberto Gonz�lez, winning the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for Unpeopled Eden, ""the most outstanding book of poetry published in the United States in the previous year."

W.S. Merwin, winning the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award for Selected Translations

Brian Blanchfield, winning the James Laughlin Award for A Several World

Find all the winners on their website here.

Community Poetry Night and Stafford Reading

This year we combined poetry forces for a double-dose of powerful verse. There was a lovely mix of Stafford poems interspersed amongst local pieces, and every poem read that night had its place. With twenty readers and a few in the crowd who simply wished to listen, the evening was a success. It was wonderful and supportive gathering for the written word. We want more like it.



JigsawJigsaw

Solve this week's jigsaw!
Reading Group SelectionReadingGroup

by Lorrie Moore
Tuesday, Sept. 2 at 6:30-8 p.m.

Join Adam as he leads the September Reading Group with Who Will Run the Frog Hospital by Loorie Moore.

The summer Berie was fifteen, she and her best friend Sils had jobs at Storyland in upstate New York, where Berie sold tickets to see the beautiful Sils portray Cinderella in a strapless evening gown. They spent their breaks smoking, joking, and gossiping. After work they followed their own reckless rules, teasing the fun out of small town life, sleeping in the family station wagon, and drinking borrowed liquor from old mayonnaise jars. But no matter how wild, they always managed to escape any real danger until the adoring Berie sees that Sils really does need her help and then everything changes.

 

Regular Price: $14.95
On sale for:$12.71
Until: Monday, Sept. 1
Publisher: Vintage Books
ISBN: 9781400033829

Night StandsNightStands

Kendall

 The Illusion of Separateness
by Simon Van Booy
[Fiction]
It is rare that my grandmother demands I read a book, but as soon as she finished Illusion of Separateness, my sister and I both received a text instructing us to read it as soon as possible. Luckily, we had a copy in the store, so I was able to start right away. It's a book that artfully weaves together many lives over many years in a way that sets itself apart from other novels of its like. It is beautiful, touching, and contemplative. I have to agree with my grandmother that everyone should read this relatively short and entrancing book. 

 

Paperback; $14.99

Publisher: Harper Perennial; ISBN: 9780062248459

Claire

Isla and the Happily Ever After
by Stephanie Perkins
[Fiction]
This YA novel is a lot of fun, taking on the traditional unrequited love story and giving ita twist. Isla and Josh are characters from Perkins' previous novels, but she develops them beautifully for their own story and you don't have to read the others to appreciate her characterization here. Isla and Josh fall in love like we all do, in a real and complicated way. Despite the overall focus on their love story, Isla's relationship with Kurt, her autistic best friend, is pure and just as meaningful as that with Josh.

Hardcover; $17.99 

Publisher: Dutton Books; ISBN: 9780525425632

Tiffany

Paris Letters
by Janice MacLeod
[Non-Fiction]
For anyone who's ever dreamed of launching off in a brave new direction, Janice MacLeod provides inspiration and, even more useful, a how-to model, in Paris Letters. Unfulfilled by a middle management job in advertising, MacLeod saved enough money to buy a year's freedom, quit her job, and moved to Paris. Once there, she immersed herself in her new world, fell in love, and found a way to keep the lifestyle she worked so hard to attain. Even if you're perfectly satisfied with your own life (as I am!), this memoir provides enjoyable armchair traveling...and the encouragement to try something new.

 

Paperback; $14.99

Publisher: Sourcebooks; ISBN: 9781402288791

Erika

The Forever Flowers
by Michael J. Rosen
[Fiction]
The Forever Flowers by Michael J. Rosen is a tender story about a loving friendship between a grouse, spaniel, and woman. The story discusses the seasons and the beauty of waiting and rejoicing when they arrive. Written beautifully, The Forever Flowers shares many wisdoms about loving, letting go, and patience. The illustrations by Sonja Danowski are stunning! This new picture book has a timeless message and pictures that accompany it. Just lovely!

 

Hardcover; $18.99

Publisher: Creative Editions; ISBN: 9781568462738

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