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| April 28, 2016 |
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Greetings, Readers,
Two poets will be gracing the store tonight! Join us for a reading and signing with Clemens Starck and Donald Levering at 7:00 p.m., and send off National Poetry Month in true fashion. Please enjoy our last featured poem here in today's Reader, too!
Coming to the shelves this week: brand new chronicles from renowned journalists, Sally Mann's bestselling memoir Hold Still in paperback, and new adventures from Rick Riordan (reserve an autographed copy of The Trials of Apollo, Book One: The Hidden Oracle, to be released May 3).
Independent Bookstore Day is THIS SATURDAY! Celebrate your local, independent bookstore since 1971, and stop by Grass Roots all day for cake, raffles, and bookish fun.
We'll see you then!
~Marissa
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New Hardcovers
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by Jane Hamilton
"Hamilton has anchored her writing life to her family's Wisconsin apple orchard, and in her warm, funny, and incisive seventh novel, she creates a veritable cosmos out of a Wisconsin family farm. . .The Lombards, a colorful, dissonant clan of cousins, are seen through the omnivorous eyes of young Frankie (Mary Frances), a fourth-generation Lombard so enchanted by their land and way of life, so adoring of her brother and father, she plans on dwelling in this humble paradise forever. Yet she knows that conflicts roil between households and that money is tight. . .[a] blissful, sporadically traumatic, often-hilarious coming-of-age. . . " - Booklist, Starred Review
Hardcover; $26.00
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; ISBN: 9781455564224
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by Elizabeth J. Church
[Fiction]
"Meridian Wallace grew up wanting to study birds. As a student at the University of Chicago in the 1940s, she falls in love with and marries an older physics professor, Alden Whetstone, who leaves her side temporarily to work on the Manhattan Project. . . As the decades pass, Meri resigns herself to a marriage devoid of passion. Then, in 1970, she meets Clay Griffin, a geology student and Vietnam veteran who, at 26, is young enough to be her son. Meri resolves to keep her distance from the disarmingly straightforward young man, but is drawn back to him time and again. . ." - Publishers Weekly
Hardcover; $25.95
Publisher: Algonquin Books; ISBN: 9781616204846
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by Joe Drape
[Non-Fiction]
History was made at the 2015 Belmont Stakes when American Pharoah won the Triple Crown, the first since Affirmed in 1978. As magnificent as the champion is, the team behind him has been all too human while on the road to immortality. Written by an award-winning New York Times sportswriter, American Pharoah is the definitive account not only of how the ethereal colt won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes, but how he changed lives. Covering everything from the flamboyant owner's successful track record to the jockey's earlier heartbreaking losses, Drape paints a stirring portrait of a horse for the ages and the people around him.
Hardcover; $27.00
Publisher: Hachette Books; ISBN: 9780316268844
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by Janine di Giovanni
[Non-Fiction]
 The documentary Seven Days in Syria (with di Giovanni) bears witness to one of the most brutal, internecine conflicts in recent history. Drawing from years of experience covering Syria for Vanity Fair, Newsweek, and the front pages of the New York Times, award-winning journalist di Giovanni now gives us a masterpiece of war reportage, all told through the perspective of seven ordinary people -- among them a doctor, a nun, a musician, and a student. What emerges is an extraordinary picture of the devastating human consequences of armed conflict, one that charts an apocalyptic but at times tender story of life in a jihadist war zone.
Hardcover; $25.95
Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation; ISBN: 9780871407139
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by Andrew Solomon
[Non-Fiction]
From the winner of the National Book Award and the National Books Critics' Circle Award, a riveting collection of essays about places undergoing seismic shifts -- political, cultural, and spiritual. Far and Away chronicles his stint on the barricades in Moscow in 1991; his 2002 account of the rebirth of culture in Afghanistan following the fall of the Taliban; his insightful appraisal of a Myanmar slowly, fitfully pushing toward freedom; and many other stories of profound upheaval. Solomon demonstrates both how history is altered by individuals, and how personal identities are altered when governments alter, in stories always intimate and often both funny and deeply moving.
Hardcover; $30.00
Publisher: Scribner Book Company; ISBN: 9781476795041
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New Paperbacks
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by Anne Tyler
[Fiction]
The Whitshanks are one of those families that radiate togetherness: an indefinable, enviable kind of specialness. But they are also like all families, in that the stories they tell themselves reveal only part of the picture. Abby and Red and their four grown children have accumulated not only tender moments, laughter, and celebrations, but also jealousies, disappointments, and carefully guarded secrets, their lives unfolding in and around the sprawling, lovingly worn Baltimore house that has always been their anchor. A Spool of Blue Thread brims with all the insight, humor, and generosity of spirit that are the hallmarks of Anne Tyler's work.
Paperback; $16.00
Publisher: Ballantine Books; ISBN: 9780553394399
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by Brendan Jones
[Fiction]
Tara Marconi has made her way from Philly to the Rock, a remote island in Alaska governed by the seasons. Her mother's death left her unmoored, with a seemingly impassable rift between her and her father. But in this majestic, rugged frontier, she works her way up the commercial fishing ladder from hatchery assistant all the way to king crabber. Disciplined from years as a young boxer, she learns anew what it means to work, to connect, and through an unlikely old tugboat, how to make a home she knows is her own.
"The compelling tale of a woman's journey from hopeless anger to genuine empowerment." - Kirkus Reviews
Paperback; $14.95
Publisher: Mariner Books; ISBN: 9780544325265
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by Craig Johnson
[Fiction]
When Jen, the largest, most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever found surfaces in Sheriff Walt Longmire's jurisdiction, it appears to be a windfall for the High Plains Dinosaur Museum until Danny Lone Elk, the Cheyenne rancher on whose property the remains were discovered, turns up dead, floating face down in a turtle pond. With millions of dollars at stake, a number of groups step forward to claim her, including Danny's family, the tribe, and the federal government. Walt is determined to find out who would benefit from Danny's death and a sixty-five million year old cold case that's heating up fast.
Paperback; $16.00
Publisher: Penguin Books; ISBN: 9780143108184
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by Sally Mann
[Non-Fiction]
A revealing and beautifully written memoir and family history from acclaimed photographer Sally Mann, with the page-turning drama of a great novel but firmly rooted in the fertile soil of her own life. In this unique interplay of narrative and image, Mann's preoccupation with family, race, mortality, and the storied landscape of the American South are revealed as almost genetically predetermined, written into her DNA by the family history that precedes her. Sorting through boxes of family papers and yellowed photographs, she finds more than she bargained for: deceit and scandal, alcohol, domestic abuse, car crashes, bogeymen, clandestine affairs, dearly loved and disputed family land.
Paperback; $18.99
Publisher: Back Bay Books; ISBN: 9780316247757
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by Matthew Pearl
[Fiction]
"In the days before e-books, self-publishing, and fan fiction, publishing was an even riskier undertaking -- or so Pearl ( The Dante Club) makes an entertaining case for in his latest, ingenious literary caper. The author imagines the life of 19th-century manuscript thieves called bookaneers, who unscrupulously published others' novels on their own, thereby depriving authors of their financial due. . .[Pearl] imaginatively conjures up two such bookaneers, Pen Davenport and his assistant, Edgar Fergins, who embark on one last mission. . .And so the race is on to take Robert Louis Stevenson's purloined manuscript and return with it to New York. . ." - Publishers Weekly
Paperback; $16.00
Publisher: Penguin Books; ISBN: 9780143108092
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New For Young Readers
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by Dan Santat
[Fiction]
Ages 4 to 8
 Caldecott Medalist Dan Santat takes readers on the road trip of a lifetime! Let's face it: everyone knows that car rides can be boring. And when things get boring, time slows down. In this book, a boy feels time slowing down so much that it starts going "backward" -- into the time of pirates! Of princesses! Of dinosaurs! When time flies, who knows where -- or "when" -- he'll end up. After reading this astonishingly inventive new book (that even turns upside down for several pages!), you'll never look at being bored the same way again.
Hardcover; $17.99
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; ISBN: 9780316199995
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by Rick Riordan
[Fiction]
Ages 8 to 12
 Magic, monsters, and mayhem abound when Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase meet Carter and Sadie Kane for the first time. Weird creatures are appearing in unexpected places, and the demigods and magicians have to team up to take them down. As they battle with Celestial Bronze and glowing hieroglyphs, the four heroes find that they have a lot in common -- and more power than they ever thought possible. But will their combined forces be enough to foil an ancient enemy who is mixing Greek and Egyptian incantations for an evil purpose? Rick Riordan wields his usual storytelling magic in this adrenaline-fueled adventure.
Hardcover; $14.99
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion; ISBN: 9781484732786
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by Sean McGinty
[Fiction]
Young Adult
FUN -- the latest in augmented reality -- is fun, but it's also frustrating, glitchy, and dangerously addictive. Just when everyone else is getting on, 17-year-old Aaron O'Faolain wants off. But first he has to complete his Application for Termination, and in order to do that he has to deal with his History -- not to mention the present, including his grandfather's suicide and a series of clues that may (or may not) lead to buried treasure. Sean McGinty's strikingly profound debut unearths a world that is eerily familiar, yet utterly original. Discover what it means to come to the end of fun.
Hardcover; $17.99
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion; ISBN: 9781484722114
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New Bargain Books
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| A new shipment of bargain books is arriving tomorrow! Stop by soon for the best selection. |
New Music
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John Doe
The Westerner
Pop/Folk
John Doe came onto the scene as a founding member of X and the Knitters. As a solo artist, he combines his punk spirit with dusty Americana and roots rock.
($13.98)
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The Jayhawks
Paging Mr. Proust
Pop/Folk
One of the founding alt.country bands, this release features four of the group's original members. Paging Mr. Proust blends elements of pop, Americana, and country.
($13.98)
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Yo-Yo Ma
Sing Me Home
Classical
Sing Me Home is the sixth album by the Grammy-nominated Silk Road Ensemble and its founding member and guiding light, Yo-Yo Ma. It examines the ever-changing idea of home, with original and traditional tunes composed or arranged by members of the Ensemble's unique collective of global artists.
($11.96)
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Events at Grass Roots
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Clemens Starck and Donald Levering
reading from their new poetry collections
Thursday, April 28, at 7:00 p.m.
Grass Roots Books & Music
227 SW 2nd St.
Corvallis, OR
The thoughtful design of Old Dogs, New Tricks, printed on creamy paper in an oversize format and accented with Kevin Clark's woodblock prints, perfectly complements the unsentimental beauty of the poems within. Clemens Starck is a Princeton dropout, a former merchant seaman, a retired union carpenter and construction foreman, and the author of five books of poems -- three times a finalist for, and once a recipient of, the Oregon Book Award for Poetry. His books are Journeyman's Wages, Studying Russian on Company Time, China Basin, Traveling Incognito, and Rembrandt, Chainsaw. His poetry has been featured in The Oregonian and on NPR's The Writer's Almanac. He lives outside of Dallas in the foothills of the Coast Range.
Coltrane's God is a book of poetry about music, primarily jazz, blues, and bluegrass. Donald Levering is a former NEA Fellow in poetry and the author of seven full-length poetry books and six chapbooks. His previous book, The Water Leveling with Us, placed 2nd in the National Federation of Press Women competition in creative verse. He has been a featured poet in the Academy of American Poets online forum and a Duende Series Reader.
This event is sponsored by the Spring Creek Project. The poets will be reading and signing books at this event.
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Independent Bookstore Day Celebration
Saturday, April 30, at 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Grass Roots Books & Music
227 SW 2nd St.
Corvallis, OR
Join us at the bookstore for our 2nd annual celebration of Independent Bookstore Day, complete with reader- approved special deals and treats throughout the day:
- Cake and punch refreshments
- Free raffles with great prizes (enter all day, raffle pulled at 4:00 p.m.)
- Extra raffle tickets with purchase
- Free Litograph temporary tattoo (while supplies last)
- Free books for children attending
- Free Indies First shopping bags to the first 15 to make a purchase
- Grass Roots T-shirts on sale at 25% off, while they last
We'll see you there!
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Lawrence A. Landis
 Sunday, May 1, at 2:00 p.m.
Grass Roots Books & Music
227 SW 2nd St.
Corvallis, OR
A School for the People tells the story of OSU's nearly 150 years as a land grant institution through more than 500 photographs, maps, documents, and extensive captions. In-depth chapters focus on themes such as campus development, the growth of academics, the evolution of research as a major focus of the university, campus life and organizations, and, of course, athletics. A capsule history includes many of the iconic photographs associated with the university. Written by a longtime archivist at OSU's Special Collections & Archives Research Center, it tells the full, dynamic story of this multi-faceted and living university.
Lawrence A. Landis has been an archivist at Oregon State University since 1991. During that time, he has served as assistant university archivist, university archivist, and since 2011, director of the Libraries' Special Collections & Archives Research Center. He has researched many aspects of OSU's history, particularly its built environment.
The author will be reading and signing books at this event.
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A.E. Sullivan
 Saturday, May 7, at 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.
Grass Roots Books & Music
227 SW 2nd St.
Corvallis, OR
After having children, Ami Sullivan started paying much closer attention to the words we commonly use as society and felt horrified at the concepts we almost unconsciously inundate our children with. The Truly Terrible C Word is the first book in this series -- a fun, over-the-top way to raise our awareness of potentially damaging language. Through this engaging story, young readers learn more about the word that can stop people from doing anything and it must be stopped! It will definitely stunt a person's growth! Are you ready to change your lexicon to achieve your dreams?
Ami Sullivan is a full-time mom and non-profit consultant for people with developmental disabilities. She has an active family life with her husband, Dan, and their two home-schooled sons and two boxers. On the weekend they can be found hiking the Saddle and enjoying life in Corvallis, Oregon. The author will be reading and signing books at this event.
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Bill C. Hall
 POSTPONED: New date TBD
Grass Roots Books & Music
227 SW 2nd St.
Corvallis, OR
McCallandia is a novel that imagines a world where Oregon's colorful, iconic Governor, Tom McCall, becomes president of the United States. In the pages of McCallandia, you'll visit a world where Tom McCall is Richard Nixon's successor. President McCall brings his unique style, candor, and environmental ethic to Washington, and the world changes. For the better. McCallandia features an outside cast of supporting characters, including Hunter Thompson, Ken Kesey and Steve Prefontaine. Publisher Matt Love calls McCallandia "The best political novel ever written about Oregon."
McCallandia is the first novel by Lincoln County Commissioner Bill Hall, who, like Tom McCall, made the transition from journalism to politics. Bill is a native Oregonian and met Tom McCall in 1978, when he volunteered for his ill-fated comeback campaign. Hall lives in Newport. The author will be reading and signing books at this event.
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Community Events
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Darkside Show Times for 4/29-5/5
- Everybody Wants Some -R
Richard Linklater's loose and hilarious followup to Boyhood is an achingly perceptive retro-sociology lesson. A team of '80s college baseball players wastes a longish weekend together. Blake Jenner, Tyler Hoechin, Wyatt Russell, Ryan Guzman.
-April and the Extraordinary World -PG Paris, 1941, governed by steam and Napoleon V, where scientists vanish mysteriously. Ten years, on, teenage Avril (Marion Cotillard) and her talking cat go in search of her missing parents. Beautifully animated. Subtitled French. 97% on RT!
-Born to Be Blue -R Ethan Hawke lights up the screen as legendary jazz trumpeter Chet Baker, whose tumultuous life is thrillingly reimagined with wit, verve, and style to burn. This semi-factual, semi-fictional treatment is set in the late 1960s during his comeback.
-Rams -R In a remote Icelandic farming valley, two brothers who haven't spoken in 40 years have to come together in order to save what's dearest to them -- their sheep. Subtitle Icelandic. Un Certain Regard Award at Cannes! 97% on RT!
Arts/Literary Events
Reviewed by Rebecca Terry; sponsored by Friends of the Library
Wednesday, May 11, at 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. Corvallis-Benton County Public Library 645 NW Monroe Ave. Corvallis, OR
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Community Events with Grass Roots
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Lauret Savoy
Wednesday, May 4, at 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. 
Corvallis Multicultural Literacy Center
128 SW 9th St.
Corvallis, OR
In a review of her memoir Trace, New York Magazine says, "Savoy is a geologist at Mount Holyoke, but this sui generis creation, wherein John McPhee meets James Baldwin, dissolves all academic boundaries. Trace is a memoir, a meditation on landscape and identity, and a travelogue with a mission.' Join us for a shared inquiry into how places are made and remade, how present and past remained tangled in the land.
Lauret Edith Savoy is a woman of African American, Euro-American, and Native American heritage. She writes about the stories we tell of the American land's origins and the stories we tell of ourselves in this land. Her other books include The Colors of Nature: Culture, Identity and the Natural World; Bedrock: Writers on the Wonders of Geology; and Living with the Changing California Coast. She is a professor of environmental studies and geology at Mount Holyoke College.
This event is sponsored by the Spring Creek Project. Grass Roots will be selling books at this event.
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Store News
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National Poetry Month: This week's featured poem
Poem, do not raise your voice
by Wendell Berry
Poem, do not raise your voice.
Be a whisper that says "There!"
where the stream speaks to itself
of the deep rock of the hill
it has carved its way down to
in flowing over them, "There!"
where the sun enters and the tanager
flares suddenly on the lighted branch,
"There!" where the aerial columbine
brightens on it's slender stalk.
Walk, poem. Watch, and make no noise.
Poet, novelist, and environmentalist Wendell Berry lives on a farm in Port Royal, Kentucky near his birthplace, where he has maintained a farm for over 40 years. From riverfront and meadows to grass fields and woodlots, every inch of this hillside farm lives in these poems, as do the poet's constant companions of memory and occasion, family and animals, who have with Berry created his Home Place with love and gratitude. He is the author of over 40 books of poetry, fiction, and essays.
Paperback, $20.95
Publisher: Counterpoint LLC; 9781619024366
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Jigsaw
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Reading Group Selection
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Tuesday, May 3, at 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.
Join Amber as she leads our May reading group with Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng.
"Lydia is dead. But they don't know this yet." So begins this exquisite novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia's body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos. A profoundly moving story of family, secrets, and longing, Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait.
Regular Price: $16.00
On sale for: $13.60
Until Tuesday, May 3
Publisher: Penguin Books
ISBN: 9780143127550
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Night Stands
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by Krista Tippett
[Non-Fiction]
Krista Tippett, host of NPR's On Being, presents five concepts -- words, the body, love, faith, and hope -- that she suggests compose the building blocks for what she calls "the superstar virtues...love, compassion, forgiveness." In this insightful book, Tippett converses with poets, artists, activists, theologians, and scientists to explore these essential human qualities. In doing so, she shares how we can lead more compassionate, hopeful, and truly meaningful lives.
Hardcover; $28.00
Publisher: Penguin Press; ISBN: 9781594206801
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by Peter Frankopan
[Non-Fiction]
Author Peter Frankopan tilts the center of gravity of world history to the East, looking specifically at economic ties between the East and the West, and how those ties affected civilizations. We think of globalization as a more modern phenomenon, but we learn that from the beginning, nations were engaged and learning from each other in remarkable ways. If you enjoy a different perspective on world history, and also like economics, than this might be the book for you.
Hardcover; $30.00
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group; ISBN: 9781101946329
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