|
|
|
|
| Feb. 5, 2015 |
|
Dear Readers,
February is off to an exciting start. Make sure you look below for details on all the literary events coming up, where we will be providing books and/or author signings.
With Valentine's Day being a key feature of the month we'd like to draw attention to some sweet offerings in the store. Please note that the Store News section features Melarova Baking, Corvallis' new Community Supported Baking program, and the bakery's Hugs and Kisses cookie offerings (with samples in the store beginning Friday, Feb. 6, through Sunday, Feb. 8.!). Full details are below.
Also, we are now carrying Brigittine Monks' Assorted Chocolate Truffles! These are perfect for your sweeties, each package containing 6 truffles in flavors like Dark Chocolate, Maple, Amaretto, and Raspberry, and made in Amity, OR by the venerable Brigittine Monk Order; these are a unique Valentine's gift for anyone. Also, we're still carrying their fudge! You might need to get a couple boxes. =)
(Brigittine Monk Truffles!)
Have a great weekend,
Jenny
|
New Hardcovers
|
|
|
by Nick Hornby
[Fiction]
 "Barbara Parker of 1960s Blackpool is a big fish in a small pond beautiful, astute, and with aspirations of making it in television like her idol Lucille Ball. Upon moving to London, Barbara changes her name to Sophie and gets her big break. She walks in to an audition she's not suited for and leaves with the writers excited to pen a show specifically for her. The majority of Hornby's clever novel follows Sophie and her creative circle of friends through the success of the subsequent program on BBC. . ." - Publishers Weekly
Hardcover; $27.95
Publisher: Riverhead Books; ISBN: 9781594205415
|
|
by Daniel Handler
[Fiction]
 "Why do pirates appeal? Because, as 14-year-old Gwen Needle puts it, when you're a pirate, you can 'go anyplace' and 'do whatever you want.' Compelling ideas to Gwen and her friend Amber, whose supervised lives (Gwen is not even allowed to take the bus alone) are the opposite of pirate freedom. The pirate lore comes from Amber's grandfather, Errol, who's just as trapped, in his case by Alzheimer's and an old-age home he loathes. While Gwen and Amber visit Errol and plot kidnap and ruin together, Gwen's father, Phil, tries to make it big in radio, which might be consolation for a wife who doesn't like him much, a house he can't afford, and a very angry daughter. . ." - Publishers Weekly
Hardcover; $26.00
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC; ISBN: 9781608196883
|
|
by Charles Baxter
[Fiction]
 "Baxter follows his new and selected short story collection, Gryphon (2011), with a book of subtly connected tales pegged to five virtues and five vices. These accomplished stories of precarious marriages and family strife are so laced with paradox and the unexpected and so psychologically intricate, one turns them over and over in one's mind, seeking patterns and gleaning insights. In Bravery, we meet Elijah, a pediatrician growing increasingly distraught over the suffering of his young patients. Elijah serves as the link between characters in the other tales. . . Baxter's stories are literary koans, riddling tales that embed moral and spiritual questions in the lives of people who are suddenly confronted by inexplicable troubles. . ." -Booklist, Starred Review
Hardcover; $24.00
Publisher: Pantheon Books; ISBN: 9781101870013
|
|
by David Treuer
[Fiction]
 Set in northern Minnesota mostly during and right after World War II, this thoughtful and engaging novel by Treuer. . . reveals the different worlds inhabited by whites and Native Americans in the area. Dr. Washburn and his wife own a small resort on the edge of a lake, where a Native American veteran of World War I named Felix works year-round as handyman. [Their] son, Frankie, is about to go off to war himself and is meeting his parents and friends on the lake for a farewell celebration. When a German POW escapes from a nearby camp, Frankie and some friends join in on the search, firing upon a noise in the brush and tragically killing one of two fugitive Native American girls hiding there. . ." - Library Journal
Hardcover; $27.95
Publisher: Riverhead Books; ISBN: 9781594633089
|
|
by Katherine Heiny
[Fiction]
 "In this funny and heartfelt debut story collection, few characters are single and even fewer are carefree--though most long to be. Instead, they are remorseful about their disloyalties, torn between spouses and secret lovers, and guilt-ridden over the betrayals they commit in the name of love. In the title story, we encounter Maya as she faces the death of her beloved dog, Bailey, contemplates leaving her boyfriend of five years (she is sadder about the dog), and confronts her feelings for her alluring veterinarian. Maya, who appears in several more stories in various stages of life and love, is one of many captivating characters expertly imagined by Heiny. . ." - Library Journal
Hardcover; $23.95
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group; ISBN: 9780385353632
|
New Paperbacks
|
|
|
by Carol Wall
[Non-Fiction]
 "In this moving memoir chronicling the many lasting rewards garnered from an unexpected friendship, writer Wall enlists a neighbor's gardener, a man from Kenya, to help her maintain her garden. What begins as a purely professional relationship, with Wall hoping to learn more about gardening, blossoms into an intimate friendship. Wall, a breast cancer patient, admits that, before she met Giles Owita, her outlook on life was less than sunny. Always an introvert and prone to social gaffes, Wall was dealing at the time with her parent's decline. Slowly, over three years, Owita, a quiet and unassuming man, transforms Wall's unkempt lawn into a living masterpiece, showing Wall the beauty inherent in everyday life. . ." - Publishers Weekly
Paperback; $16.00
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group; ISBN: 9780425273838
|
|
by Mark Kurlansky
[Fiction]
 "Prolific author Kurlansky is mostly known for his nonfiction, often writing about the history of exploitation of wildlife and other natural resources. To address the issue of wild animals dwelling among humans, however, he has written 14 suspense-filled short stories. In each, the fates of humans and animals are bound together, though the people may not even notice the crows, coyotes, or alligators that study them. Kurlansky includes elements of magic in some stories. . . readers will be torn between cheering for the animals and for the humans. It is an eat-or-be-eaten world. Be careful going out at night." -Booklist
Paperback; $16.00
Publisher: Riverhead Books; ISBN: 9781594485879
|
|
by Samantha Ellis
[Non-Fiction]
 "Jo March. Lizzy Bennet. Scarlett O'Hara. Marjorie Morningstar. These women and many more figures from literature have shaped Ellis' approach to life since she was young. In this winning memoir, she revisits favorite literary characters from her reading life, describing what they meant to her when she first met them and examining how well they hold up on further review. This is a book for book lovers, who will likely come away with a fresh take on old favorites from Ellis' endearing but exacting examinations. . " - Booklist, Starred Review
Paperback; $14.95
Publisher: Vintage; ISBN: 9781101872093
|
|
by Adam Braun
[Non-Fiction]
 "Despite the subtitle, just a few pages into this exuberant testimony to the power of idealism, readers will realize that Braun is not an ordinary person. Raised in affluent Greenwich, Conn., by parents who embraced noncomformity and charity as sidelines to a good job and six-figure income, Braun struggled to reconcile the materialistic and spiritual. After graduating from Brown University, he worked at a prestigious consulting firm in New York City and at age 25, in the fall of 2008, started Pencils of Promise (PoP), a nonprofit organization that partners with local communities in Asia, Latin America, and Africa to build schools, train teachers, offer scholarships, and supply educational materials. The memoir consists of 30 chapters titled for lessons he learned while developing PoP. . ." - Publishers Weekly
Paperback; $16.00
Publisher: Scribner Book Company; ISBN: 9781476730639
|
|
by B.J. Novak
[Fiction]
 "Novak's high-concept, hilarious, and disarmingly commiserative fiction debut stems from his stand-up performances and his Emmy Award-winning work on the comedy series, The Office. . . . Accordingly, his more concise stories come across as brainy comedy bits, while his sustained tales covertly encompass deep emotional and psychological dimensions. An adept zeitgeist miner, Novak excels at topsy-turvy improvisations on a dizzying array of subjects, from Aesop's fables to tabloid Elvis to our oracular enthrallment to the stock market. . . Novak's ingeniously ambushing stories of longing, fear, pretension, and confusion reveal the quintessential absurdities and transcendent beauty of our catch-as-catch-can lives." -Booklist, Starred Review
Paperback; $14.95
Publisher:Vintage; ISBN: 9780804169783
|
New For Young Readers
|
|
|
by Elana K. Arnold
[Fiction]
Ages 8 to 12
 "Sixth-grader Iris hates her new home in rainy Corvallis, Oregon. The move from Southern California was ostensibly because of her mother's new job. But another compelling motivation was the accidental death of Iris' best friend. . . Iris finally makes a friend in Corvallis: Boris, a quirky nerd who is, just barely, better than nothing. Then Iris learns something astounding about Boris. He was not expected to live when he was born, but a group of nuns, dedicated to making Pope Paul a saint, prayed to him, and Boris was cured. . . Do miracles really happen? Who gets a miracle and who decides? And perhaps Iris' sense that Sarah is still around her may be the beginning of a miracle. . ." - Booklist, Starred Review
Hardcover; $16.99
Publisher: Harcourt Brace and Company; ISBN: 9780544334649
|
|
by Kallie George
[Fiction]
Ages 7 to 10
 "The Magical Animal Adoption Agency series gets off to a promising start, introducing a girl named Clover whose self-professed bad luck shows signs of improving when she snags a volunteer gig with an agency devoted to finding good homes for cursed toads, miniature fairy horses, and other outside-the-norm creatures. After a witch sneaks into the agency and cuts off a unicorn's tail, it's the beginning of a whirlwind adventure for the resourceful and determined Clover, an easy heroine to root for. George's warm storytelling and Boiger's equally inviting pencil illustrations quickly establish the story's enchanting and sometimes dangerous setting. . ." - Publishers Weekly
Hardcover; $14.99
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion; ISBN: 9781423183822
|
New Music
|
|
Events at Grass Roots
|
|
|
Karen McPherson and Tim Shaner
Karen McPherson
Thursday, February 12, at 7 p.m.
Grass Roots Books and Music
227 SW 2nd St.
Corvallis, OR
The poems in Karen McPherson's
Skein of Light pull and gather toward horizons of reflection in language that repeatedly reveals what it can and cannot do. The poet maps landscapes of memory where sharp-edged questions disturb the stillness and where the personal and human are threaded through a natural world made legible in flights of birds, bending grasses, rock striations
Karen McPherson is the author of the chapbook Sketching Elise and the 2014 volume of poems Skein of Light. A professor of French at the University of Oregon, she has also published two scholarly monographs and a book-length translation of the poetic essays of Quebec poet Louise Warren.
Tim Shaner's
Picture X is a journey through the "poethics" of  nature writing in a time marked by the catastrophes of war and impending environmental collapse. Rather than heed Thoreau's admonishment to leave the domesticated world behind on one's walks through the Wild, Shaner does the opposite, bringing the schizophrenic chatter of postmodernity into the built environment of the park.
Tim Shaner is the author of Picture X (Airlie Press 2014). He has an MA in Creative Writing from Antioch University (London) and a Ph.D. from SUNY-Buffalo's Poetics Program. From 2008-2014, Shaner curated A-New Poetry Reading Series @ DIVA in Eugene. He teaches writing at Lane Community College.
|
|
LBCC Writers' Workroom 10th Anniversary Celebration
Thursday, February 19, at 7 p.m.
Grass Roots Books and Music
227 SW 2nd St.
Corvallis, OR
Since the inception of The Writers' Workroom in 2004, many stories critiqued in the LBCC Benton Center class are now award-winning and/or published. Instructor C. Lill Ahrens is celebrating the 10th anniversary of her class by emceeing a gala reading by several of the award-winning, published authors: C. Lill Ahrens, Lois Jean Bousquet, Lisa Burchett, Michael Coolen, Harry Demarest, Gary Gibson, Linda Hamner, Ken Holt, Valerie Lake, Genny Lynch, Lois Rosen, Dee Roy, Patricia Smith, and Dick Weinman.
|
Community Events
|
|
|
Darkside Show Times for 2/6/-2/12
-She's Beautiful When She's Angry -NR
-Awake: The Life Of Yogananda -NR Indian Swami brought yoga and meditation to the West in the 1920s.
-Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts-NR Five Oscar Noms.
-Interstellar-PG-13 A team of explorers travel through a wormhole in an attempt to ensure humanity's survival. Mathew McConaughey.
-Whiplash -R Oscar Nom for Best Picture.
-Big Muddy -NR Martha Barlow, a modern day outlaw, must reconcile her dark past after her teenage son commits a horrible crime.
Arts/Literary Events
-"De-extinction and Synthetic Biology: Rescue or Boondoggle?"
Thursday, February 5, 2-4:30 pm
MU Journey Room
Horning Endowment in the Humanities will host an interactive panel on de-extinction:
Presenters include: Susan Haig, ornithologist, USGS/ OSU Fisheries and Wildlife; Luis Campos, Associate Professor of History of Science, University of New Mexico; Carrie Friese, Lecturer in Sociology, London School of Economics and Political Science; and George Estreich, writer, blogger for Biopolitical Times.
-Eco-Film Festival Fri, February 6, 6 p.m. - 9 p.m. 223 SW 2nd Street Odd Fellows Hall Corvallis, Oregon; The Eco-Film Festival takes place every Friday in February at Odd Fellows Hall, 223 SW 2nd St. (above New Morning Bakery). Doors open at 6:30pm, and the program begins at 7pm. Snacks from New Morning Bakery and beer from Oregon Trail Brewery will be available for purchase. Local experts will be on hand after each film for a brief panel discussion and audience Q & A. A suggested donation of $5 - $10 per person is requested.
2015 Eco-Film Festival Movies
February 6
Open Sesame: An innovative look at the issues surrounding the ownership of seeds and the people who are fighting to keep them free.
February 13
Sand Wars: A riveting documentary about one of the most widely used but under considered resources in the world.
February 20
Bringing It Home: A critical look at the possibilities and pitfalls of industrial hemp in America.
February 27
What Rivers Are Worth: Short films from the Willamette River and beyond with local director Jeremy Monroe.
-Sweet Home Public Library and the Willamette Writers on the River are co-hosting an Open-Mic Event Bring your stories and poems -Read for applause-All skill levels and genre welcome! Thursday, February 12th, 6:30-7:30 p.m. Guidelines for Reading:
*Sign up table begins at 6:15 pm.
* First to sign up is first to read. Total number
of readers will be limited by available time.
* Time limit per reader is 7 minutes.
* Only one prose piece is allowed during the 7-minute time frame.
Or Join the Audience. If you don't care to read, please come hear some talented writers present their work!
-David Wood, "Mission to Earth"
Land Art and Sustainability
Wednesday, February 18, 2015 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
The way we are living is unsustainable. We cannot go on like this. If art allows us to see things anew, can it also help reshape our dwelling on earth? David Wood will look at the legacy of earth art, and discuss his own IntraTerrestrials project and other recent work.
David Wood is W. Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University, a well-known scholar in Continental and Environmental Philosophy, and in the last year also an appreciated environmental artist who combines his philosophical perspective with environmental and land art.
-Friends of the Library BIG Book Sale
Sat., Feb. 21 9:00-5:00 p.m. The Friends of the Library HUGE annual sale of used books at the Benton County Fairgrounds, with all proceeds benefitting the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library. A wide assortment of books at very affordable prices. Sale continues on Saturday and Sunday. Come early for the best selection! Benton County Fairgrounds, 110 SW 53rd Street, Corvallis. Friends of the Library members will be allowed early entry on Friday Feb 21 at 4 p.m.
Opportunities
More next week!
|
|
Community Events with Grass Roots
|
|
|
Insights Into Gardening
Sat. Feb. 7, 8 a.m.-4 p.m.
LaSells Stewart Center
875 S.W. 26th Street
Corvallis, OR
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.
More choices this year! Choose from 12 exceptional gardening classes and 3 hands-on workshops. Also new this year... keynote speaker Lucy Hardiman will kick off the event with a presentation on the use of color in the garden.
Register at the door for $40.
Grass Roots will be selling books at this event.
|
|
Melissa Hart and Elena Passarello
Elena Passarello
Sat. Feb. 21, 7:00 p.m.
Corvallis Public Library
645 Northwest Monroe Avenue
Corvallis, OR
From Farinelli, the eighteenth century castrato who brought down opera houses with his high C, to the recording of "Johnny B. Goode" affixed to the Voyager spacecraft,
Let Me Clear My Throat dissects the whys and hows of popular voices, making them hum with significance and emotion. There are murders of punk rock crows, impressionists, and rebel yells; Howard Dean's "BYAH!" and Marlon Brando's "Stella!" and a stock film yawp that has made cameos in movies from A Star is Born to Spaceballs. The voice is thought's incarnating instrument and Elena Passarello's essays are a riotous deconstruction of the ways the sounds we make both express and shape who we are-the annotated soundtrack of us giving voice to ourselves.
Melissa Hart, a desperately lonely young divorcée and L.A. transplant, finds herself stranded in rainy Eugene, Oregon, working from home in the company of her two cats and two large mutts. At the local dog park, she meets a fellow dog owner named Jonathan: a tall, handsome man with a unibrow and hawk-like nose. When he invites her to accompany him on a drive to  Portland to retrieve six hundred pounds of frozen rats and a fledgling barred owl, sparks fly!
Grass Roots will be selling books at this event.
|
Edited by Marjorie Sandor
Thursday, Feb. 26 7:30 p.m.
Oddfellows Hall
223 SW 2nd St
Corvallis, Oregon
Join us for the launch of The Uncanny Reader: Stories from the Shadows, edited by Marjorie Sandor. Doors open at 7 pm. Uncanny Performances begin at 7:30, followed by dancing. Cash bar, live music, and refreshments. Uncanny attire and masks highly encouraged.
From the deeply unsettling to the possibly supernatural, these thirty-one border-crossing stories from around the world explore the uncanny in literature, and delve into our increasingly unstable sense of self, home, and planet. The Uncanny Reader: Stories from the Shadows opens with "The Sand-man," E.T.A. Hoffmann's 1817 tale of doppelgangers and automatons--a tale that inspired generations of writers and thinkers to come. Stories by 19th and 20th century masters of the uncanny--including Edgar Allan Poe, Franz Kafka, and Shirley Jackson--form a foundation for sixteen award-winning contemporary authors, established and new, whose work blurs the boundaries between the familiar and the unknown. These writers come from Egypt, France, Germany, Japan, Poland, Russia, Scotland, England, Sweden, the United States, Uruguay, and Zambia--although their birthplaces are not always the terrains they plumb in their stories, nor do they confine themselves to their own eras. Contemporary authors include: Chris Adrian, Aimee Bender, Kate Bernheimer, Jean-Christophe Duchon-Doris, Mansoura Ez-Eldin, Jonathon Carroll, John Herdman, Kelly Link, Steven Millhauser, Joyce Carol Oates, Yoko Ogawa, Dean Paschal, Karen Russell, Namwali Serpell, Steve Stern and Karen Tidbeck.
Grass Roots will be selling books at this event.
|
|
Oregon Small Farms Conference
Saturday, Feb. 28
LaSells Stewart Center
875 SW 26th St
Corvallis, Oregon
This daylong event is geared toward farmers, agriculture professsionals, food policy advocates, students and managers of farmers markets.
Twenty-four sessions will be offered on a variety of topics relevant to Oregon small farmers including small farm profitability, meat processing, orcharding and much more! This year will also include a track in Spanish.
Speakers will include farmers, OSU Extension faculty, agribusiness representatives and more.
Register for the event online here.
Grass Roots will be selling books at this event.
|
Store News
|
|
|
Congrats to the 2015 ALA award winners for the following awards:
2015 Caldecott Medal goes to Dan Santat for The Adventures of Beekle.
2015 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award to Donald Crews for "a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children"; author of Freight Train and Truck.
2015 Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults goes to Sharon M. Draper, author of Tears of a Tiger and Forged by Fire.
|
Community Supported Baking
 Valentine's Hugs & Kisses
Friday, February 13th
This Valentine's Day give your sweetie a new kind of sweet!
Melarova Baking is launching its 2015 Community Supported Baking (CSB) program at Grass Roots for Valentine's Day. For this special occasion we have delectable chocolate and orange shortbread packaged in either beautiful gift boxes or resealable bakery bags. We call them Hugs & Kisses. Purchase on-line by February 11th (not sold through Grass Roots ) for in store pick-up on February 13th!
Not sure? How about a free sample? Starting tomorrow and going through the weekend (Feb. 6 - 8th) receive a free sample cookie with a Grass Roots purchase. Once you try them, we're sure you'll be hooked. After all, it's impossible to have too many hugs and kisses in this life. Come on in and taste for yourself!
To learn more about Melarova Baking and/or place your Valentine's order by Feb 11th, go to www.melarovabaking.com.
|
|
Elizabeth Kolbert at LaSells
Great turnout for Elizabeth Kolbert's Sixth Extinction talk last this past Monday at the LaSells Stewart Center! Over 600 people showed up to hear the environmentalist discuss the world's fate due to climate change. Sponsored by the Spring Creek Project, several nonprofit environmentalists' tables were set up during the event, and Kolbert proved to be as charismatic as her book is insightful.
|
|
In the News:
Our own Jack Wolcott will be speaking at the next Corvallis City Club's meeting on the future of publishing! Check out the Gazette Times' article for all the details here. |
Jigsaw
|
|
Reading Group Selection
|
|
|
 Join Tiffany as she leads our March Book Group with Ann Patchett's This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage. "This is the story of how best-selling novelist Patchett (State of Wonder, 2011) became a writer. As a young child in California and, after her parents' divorce, Nashville, she knew she had to write, and she was fortunate, as she so warmly and vividly explains, in her writing teachers Allan Gurganus, Grace Paley, and Russell Banks, and in her success supporting herself by writing nonfiction for magazines and newspapers, beginning with Seventeen and extending to the New York Times Magazine, GQ, Vogue, and Gourmet. Patchett now assembles a retrospective set of 22 sterling personal essays to form an episodic, piquant, instructive, and entertaining self-portrait. . ."-Booklist, Starred Review
Regular Price: $15.99
On sale for:$13.59
Until Tuesday, March 3
Publisher: Harper Perennial
ISBN: 9780062236685
|
Night Stands
|
|
|
Kendall
by Steve Martin
[Fiction]
 When you hear the name Steve Martin, you may think comedian or banjo-king, but you probably don't think about him as a writer. It is time to start. In this perfectly crafted novel, Martin showcases his talent for balancing comedy, sorrow, and hope. The Pleasure of My Company follows Daniel, a man with severe OCD, as he ventures out of the small life he has occupied for years. With his trademark wit, Martin constructs a simple, believable world that is equal parts touching, relatable, and delightful. You may be in mourning after finishing this intensely human story, but luckily, it's short enough to read again!
Paperback; $11.99
Publisher: Hyperion Books; ISBN: 9780786888016
|
|
Claire
by Laurie Halse Anderson
[Fiction]
 Laurie Halse Anderson wrote Speak, a book that will always hold a special place in my heart, so when I learned she had a new book, I jumped on it. The Impossible Knife of Memory shows protagonist Hayley Kincain struggling with a difficult situation at home while attempting to get through school. This YA novel is heartbreaking and honest about the difficulties some teenagers face while growing up.
Hardcover; $18.99
Publisher: Viking Children's Books; ISBN: 9780670012091
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
