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June 16, 2016
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We've made it, Readers!

Summertime is just around the corner...and that means the return of Find Waldo Local! For all the details on this month-long July event, and for a chance to win an assortment of awesome prizes from local businesses, scroll down to Store News. 

This week's releases: the Oregon Trail illustrated, bestselling fiction in paperback, animal books for kids, new music from Sarah Jarosz, and much more.

Join us tomorrow evening for an adventurous memoir reading and signing with author Susan Conrad. And don't forget to kick off your summer in style this weekend -- stop in the store for the freshest summer reads.

Happy reading, 

~Marissa
New HardcoversNHardcovers

by Annie Proulx
[Fiction] 

In the late 17th century, two penniless young Frenchmen, Rene Sel and Charles Duquet, arrive in New France. Bound to a feudal lord, a "seigneur," for three years in exchange for land, they become wood-cutters -- barkskins. Rene suffers extraordinary hardship, oppressed by the forest he is charged with clearing. But Duquet, crafty and ruthless, runs away from the seigneur, becomes a fur trader, then sets up a timber business. Proulx is one of the most formidable and compelling American writers, and Barkskins is her greatest novel, a magnificent marriage of history and imagination.

Hardcover; $32.00
Publisher: Scribner Book Company; ISBN: 9780743288781
by John Powell
[Non-Fiction]

Music plays a hugely important role in our emotional, intellectual, and even physical lives. It impacts the ways we work, relax, behave, and feel. It can make us smile or cry, it helps us bond with the people around us, and it even has the power to alleviate a range of medical conditions. In Why You Love Music, scientist and musician John Powell explores all aspects of music psychology, from how music helps babies bond with their mothers to the ways in which music can change the taste of wine or persuade you to spend more in restaurants.

Hardcover; $26.00
Publisher: Little Brown and Company; ISBN: 9780316260657
by Francis Parkman
[Non-Fiction]
 
The Oregon Trail wasn't intended to be a book from the onset, and its pages comprise 21 installments that originally ran in The Knickerbocker, a New York City-based literary magazine, in 1849. The book was assembled two years after the first dispatch in the magazine. Brought back into the public eye for the first time in this handsome, fully illustrated edition, The Oregon Trail recreates the untamed West through the eyes of adventure-thirsty Parkman, who was a revered historian, a horticulturalist, and author, offering beautifully written profiles the American West in the days before the expansion of Eastern settlers into the Western United States.

Hardcover; $35.00
Publisher: Zenith Press; ISBN: 9780760350249
by Tig Notaro
[Non-Fiction]

In the span of four months in 2012, Tig Notaro was hospitalized for a debilitating intestinal disease called C. diff, her mother unexpectedly died, she went through a breakup, and then she was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer. Hit with this devastating barrage, Tig took her grief onstage with a sophomore album, Live, which sold one hundred thousand units in just six weeks and was later nominated for a Grammy. Now, the wildly popular star takes stock of that no good, very bad year -- a difficult yet astonishing period in which tragedy turned into absurdity and despair transformed into joy.

Hardcover; $26.99
Publisher: Ecco Press; ISBN: 9780062266637
by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
[Fiction]

2070-71. Nearly six decades after Step Day, a new society continues to evolve on the Long Earth. The Next -- the hyper-intelligent post-humans -- realize that the missive contains instructions for kick-starting the development of an immense artificial intelligence known as The Machine. But to build this computer the size of an Earth continent, they must obtain help from the more populous and still industrious worlds of mankind. Meanwhile, on a trek in the High Meggers, Joshua Valiente is saved from death when a troll band discovers him, and learns something profound about life and its purpose in the Long Earth . . .

Hardcover; $25.99
Publisher: Harper; ISBN: 9780062297372
New PaperbacksNPaperbacks

by Stephanie Clifford
[Fiction]

It's 2006 in the Manhattan of the young and glamorous. Money and class are colliding in a city that is about to go over a financial precipice and take much of the country with it. At 26, bright, funny, and socially anxious Evelyn Beegan has long felt like an outsider to her privileged peers, until she gets a job at a social network aimed at the elite. Recruiting new members for the site, Evelyn steps into a promised land of Adirondack camps, Newport cottages and Southampton clubs thick with socialites and Wall Streeters. Evelyn finds the lure of belonging intoxicating, and starts trying to pass as old money herself. . .

Paperback; $15.99
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; ISBN: 9781250077509
by Sarah Hall
[Fiction]

What does it mean to live on the edge, outside of. . .one's comfort zone? In prize-winner Hall's (The Beautiful Indifference) new novel, zoologist Rachel Caine, estranged from her family in England's Lake District, is in Idaho monitoring the status of wolves as part of a wildlife recovery program when she learns that her mother, Binny, a tough and emotionally distant old bird, is dying. . .Hall also addresses touchy political issues, such as the public acquisition of private land, environmental restoration, and the Scottish independence movement. . .Hall has created an absorbing portrait of a woman and her conflicted relationships with family, homeland, and identity." - Booklist

Paperback; $15.99
Publisher: Harper Perennial; ISBN: 9780062208484
by Milan Kundera and Linda Asher
[Fiction]

"After over a decade away from writing novels, Kundera (Ignorance) returns with this slight lark about four laissez-faire Parisians. In the tradition of existential comedies, the drama is in the dialogue. The four characters -- Alain, Ramon, Charles, and Calibana spend their days in Paris's gardens, museums, and cafes, chatting and philosophizing [about] disparate, seemingly random issues: Stalin's decision to rename a German town Kaliningrad, a marionette play that Charles imagines, a fake language Caliban invents for dinner parties. . .This novel is a fitting bookend to Kundera's long career intersecting the absurd and the moral. . ." - Publishers Weekly

Paperback; $13.99
Publisher: Harper Perennial; ISBN: 9780062356901
by Aspen Matis
[Non-Fiction]

"Matis' world was turned on its head on her second night at Colorado College, when she was raped by a fellow student. When the college did nothing about the assault, save for moving her assailant out of her dorm, Matis. . .[drops] out in favor of hiking the famous Pacific Crest Trail. . .When Matis starts out in 2008, she's full of grief and anger over the assault and steeped in resentment toward her family for their failure to support her after the rape. . .readers who decide to accompany Matis on the PCT will find themselves in for an engrossing, often suspenseful journey with a rewarding outcome." - Booklist

Paperback; $15.99
Publisher: William Morrow & Company; ISBN: 9780062291073
by Aspen Matis
[Non-Fiction]

The author of the international bestseller Happiness makes a passionate case for altruism -- and why we need it now more than ever. It is, he believes, the vital thread that can answer the main challenges of our time: the economy in the short term, life satisfaction in the mid-term, and environment in the long term. Ricard's message has been taken up by major economists and thinkers, including Dennis Snower, Amartya Sen, Joseph Stiglitz, and George Soros. Ricard makes a robust and passionate case for cultivating altruistic love and compassion as the best means for simultaneously benefitting ourselves and our society.

Paperback; $19.99
Publisher: Back Bay Books; ISBN: 9780316208239
New For Young ReadersYR

by Lane Smith
[Fiction]
Ages 4 to 8

When a young boy embarks on a journey alone, he trails a colony of penguins, undulates in a smack of jellyfish, clasps hands with a constellation of stars, naps for a night in a bed of clams, and follows a trail of shells, home to his tribe of friends. If Lane Smith's Caldecott Honor Book Grandpa Green was an homage to aging and the end of life, There Is a Tribe of Kids is a meditation on childhood and life's beginning. Whimsical, expressive, and perfectly paced, this story plays with language as much as it embodies imagination.

Hardcover; $18.99
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press; ISBN: 9781626720565
by Spencer Quinn
[Fiction]
Ages 8 to 12

There is trouble brewing in the Louisiana swamp -- Bowser can smell it. Bowser is a very handsome and only slightly slobbery dog, and he can smell lots of things. Like bacon. And rawhide chews! And the sweat on humans when they're lying. Birdie Gaux, the girl Bowser lives with, also knows something is wrong. It's not just that her grammy's stuffed prize marlin has been stolen. It's the weird rumor that the marlin is linked to a missing treasure. When Birdie and Bowser start digging into the mystery, Bowser knows it up to him to sic 'em.

Paperback; $7.99
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.; ISBN: 9780545643320
New Bargain BooksNewBargain

More coming soon!
New MusicMusic


Luke Bell
Luke Bell
Pop/Folk

Like Pokey Lafarge or Big Sandy, Luke Bell sounds like a man from an age long passed. Bell's voice is custom made for the trad country and honky tonk he plays with good humor.
($12.98)

Elizabeth Cook
Exodus of Venus
Pop/Folk

During her first couple records, East Nashville's Cook wrote with tongue-in-cheek humor about the realities of married life. Following a tough couple years and a messy divorce, her new record is a bit darker, and more grounded.
($12.98)

Case/lang/Veirs
Case/lang/Veirs
Pop/Folk

Welcome to a supergroup trio that few people saw coming! Case/lang/Veirs pairs Neko Case with chanteuse kd lang and singer-songwriter Laura Veirs, blending songwriting talent as well as voices.
($13.98)

Sarah Jarosz
Undercurrent
Pop/Folk

From Sugar Hill Records: "Undercurrent reflects the unique way Jarosz combines her early roots-based background with new influences stemming from a recent move to NYC and a diverse group of musical colleagues. The album encapsulates a true artist during the process of personal evolution and discovery, and should firmly secure her spot as one to watch. "
($15.98)
Events at Grass RootsEventsGRR

Susan Conrad
Friday, June 17, at 7:00 p.m.
Grass Roots Books & Music
227 SW 2nd St. 
Corvallis, OR

Inside: One Woman's Journey Through the Inside Passage is a plucky adventure memoir of the sea and soul told by a woman on a big adventure in a small boat along the coast of western North America. In Spring 2010, with her world scaled down to an 18-foot sea kayak and the 1,200 mile ribbon of water called the Inside Passage, Susan Conrad launched a journey that took her north to Alaska. On the way, she forged friendships, lived her dream, and discovered the depths of her own strength and courage.

Susan Marie Conrad grew up on a small farm near Woodbourne in upstate New York. By dint of exploring the mountains of Colorado, Oregon, and Montana, she eventually discovered the dynamic and addictive environment of coastal British Columbia and Washington State, where she thrives as an adventure-seeker. Susan is a writer, photographer, personal trainer, kayak instructor, and outdoor enthusiast. The author will be reading and signing books at this event.
Bill C. Hall
 
Wednesday, June 22 at 7:00 p.m.
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.
Barbara Quinn 
 
Wednesday, June 29 at 7:00 p.m.
Grass Roots Books & Music
227 SW 2nd St. 
Corvallis, OR

Quinn-Essential Nutrition is your trustworthy manual for eating -- and enjoying! -- healthful food as you live your life in the real world. Inspired by her widely distributed newspaper column, Quinn On Nutrition, registered dietitian Barbara Quinn thoughtfully unpacks and delivers reliable answers to over 100 current nutrition topics. From pregnancy to old age, sports to diabetes, Quinn-Essential Nutrition is your user guide to healthful eating -- no matter what your circumstance.

Barbara Quinn, MS, RDN, CDE is a registered dietitian nutritionist and certified diabetes educator affiliated with the Diabetes and Nutrition Therapy program at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula. Quinn is also certified Health and Wellness coach. The author will be reading and signing books at this event.
Maximilian Uriarte
   
Monday, July 18 at 7:00 p.m.
Grass Roots Books & Music
227 SW 2nd St. 
Corvallis, OR

The White Donkey is the first graphic novel about the war in Iraq written and illustrated by a veteran. Originally funded by a Kickstarter campaign that received major national news coverage and went viral on social media, Uriarte's first printing of 3,000 paperback copies sold out in 36 hours and has been unavailable since then. Little, Brown and Company has now re-released the book in a new, hardcover edition. A vivid and moving look at war and PTSD, The White Donkey follows young Marines as they experience the ugly, pedestrian, and often meaningless side of military service in rural Iraq. 

Maximilian Uriarte enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 2006 at the age of nineteen and served for four years. In 2010 Uriarte created the popular comic strip Terminal Lance while still on active duty. Uriarte has a bachelor's degree from California College of the Arts. The author will be reading and signing books at this event.
Orgyen Chowang Rinpoche
   
Tuesday, July 19 at 7:00 p.m.
Grass Roots Books & Music
227 SW 2nd St. 
Corvallis, OR

In Our Pristine Mind, a Tibetan Buddhist master shows us how to go beyond mindfulness with meditation and journey deep into ultimate happiness, transforming every area of our lives. Orgyen Chowang empowers us to gradually experience our mind as pure awareness -- free from the feelings, thoughts, and other mental events that obscure its true nature. Using simple language, he provides precise, experiential instructions that make this life-transforming realization attainable for all, whether we are just seeking a happier life or are pursuing the spiritual journey all the way to enlightenment.

Orgyen Chowang Rinpoche, a meditation master in the Nyingma lineage of the Buddhist tradition, has a passion for presenting teachings in a practical and experiential way for modern audiences. His primary teacher was Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche, one of the greatest Dzogchen masters of the last century. The author will be reading and signing books at this event.
Community EventsCommunityEvents

Darkside Show Times for 6/17-6/23

-Dark Horse -PG-13 A barmaid in a poor Welsh mining village convinces fellow residents to pool their resources to compete in the "sport of kings" with a racehorse they would breed and raise. Richly layered, unpredictable, deeply affecting.

-The Lobster -R In a dystopian society, single people must find a mate within 45 days or be transformed into an animal of their choice. The odd kind of movie you love us for. Colin Farrell, John C. Riley, Rachel Weisz. 

-Maggie's Plan -R Maggie's plan to have a baby on her own is derailed when she falls in love with John, a married man, destroying his volatile marriage to the brilliant Georgette. Ethan Hawke, Julianne Moore. 

-The Man Who Knew Infinity -PG-13 In 1913 a self-taught Indian mathematics genius forged a bond with his brilliant, eccentric mentor professor at Trinity College, Cambridge. The true story of a friendship that forever changed mathematics. Jeremy Irons, Dev Patel.

-Clown -R A loving father dons a clown suit for his son's birthday party, only to realize that it is not a suit at all. Horror film with lots of good old-fashioned gore.

Arts/Literary Events

Willamette Writers on the River: Quarterly Reading

Monday, June 20, at 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. (sign-up at 6:15)
First Presbyterian Church
114 SW 8th St.
Corvallis, OR

These quarterly readings are free and open to everyone. The number of readers is limited by the available time. First to sign up is first to read. Time limit per reader is 7 minutes. No graphic violence, sex, or hate speech. If you don't want to read, please come hear some talented writers present their work. 

Community Events with Grass Roots CEGR

Dr. Jean Moule
 
Thursday, July 14, at 7:00 p.m.
Corvallis Multicultural Literacy Center
128 SW 9th St.
Corvallis, OR

Nurturing Grandchildren: Black, White & In-Between, is Dr. Jean Moule's poignant, cautionary, and heart-warming collection of short essays and magazine columns discussing racial identity, expectations, and relationships within interracial families. The book is a valuable resource that helps adults encourage and support multicultural children to play a positive role in the complicated racial relations in our nation. It also explores racial identity issues that we face during childhood and beyond via the author's personal experiences and academic discussion. Moule's book aims to help the nation's children, including her multi-ethnic grandchildren, live in culturally competent communities and families.

Jean Moule is an emerita faculty member at OSU, whose most popular class is "Racial and Cultural Harmony in the K-12 Classroom." At OSU, she created a unique immersion program for preparing educators to teach in bilingual and highly diverse settings. She and her husband Robbie raised three biracial children in rural Oregon. Grass Roots will be selling books at this event.
Store NewsStoreNews

Find Waldo Local 2016

Where's Waldo? In Corvallis, of course! The famous children's book character in the striped shirt and black-rimmed specs is visiting 20 different local businesses throughout our community this July. Those who spot him can win prizes, including stickers, book coupons, gift certificates, and more. From American Dream Pizza to Tried & True Coffee, from The Inkwell Home Store to Grass Roots Books & Music, Waldo figures will be well hidden in local business establishments. Find Waldo is a great summer vacation activity, and a wonderful way for residents to support local business and the Buy Local First movement. The search for Waldo will be from July 1st -31st (all month long). 

To participate, pick up a "Find Waldo Local in Corvallis!" passport at Grass Roots with the names of all the participating businesses, and then get your passport stamped or signed for each Waldo you spot. The first 100 Waldo seekers to get their passports stamped or signed at 10 or more sites can bring their passports back to Grass Roots to collect prizes. For 18 or more stamps, you'll be entered into a grand prize drawing on August 1, at Grass Roots at 1:30 p.m.

This year, participants can also #ColorWaldoAndWin: when you share a completed coloring sheet of Waldo on Instagram, you'll be entered into a drawing to be one of five lucky winners of a deluxe prize pack. 
 
Full list of participating businesses:

American Dream Pizza 
Animal Crackers
Burst's Chocolates 
Fingerboard Extension
Footwise
Francesco's
Gracewinds Music
Grass Roots Books & Music
The Inkwell Home Store
Irene's Boutique
Kaleidoscope Studios (Day Dreamers) 
Many Hands Trading 
Mod Pod Decor 
New Morning Bakery
Northern Star 
Peak Sports 
Second Glance 
Second Glance: The Annex
Second Glance: The Alley
Sedlak's Shoes
Sibling Revelry 
The Toy Factory
Tried & True Coffee
JigsawJigsaw

Click to solve this week's jigsaw!
Reading Group SelectionReadingGroup

Tuesday, August 2, at 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.

Join our newest bookseller Donovan as she leads our August reading group with The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Please note that due to the length of the book, we will take an extra month to read!

Theo Decker, a 13-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by his longing for his mother, he clings to the one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the underworld of art. As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love -- and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle. 

Regular Price: $20.00
On sale for: $17.00
Until Tuesday, August 2

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
ISBN: 9780316055444
Night StandsNightStands

Marissa
by Angela Duckworth
[Non-Fiction] 

Using recent data and stories from real high achievers, psychologist Duckworth offers the insight that success is not measured by talent and luck so much as the compulsion to succeed. Those with "grit" factors -- who make an effort, who practice deliberately, who view their work as a "calling" -- are often twice as likely to be more productive and reach their goals than those with what we consider raw talent. This book will inspire anyone with a passion in life to push on, even despite perceived odds. It is an excellent gift for a graduate!

Hardcover; $28.00
Publisher: Scribner Book Company; ISBN: 9781501111105
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Grass Roots Books and Music | 227 SW 2nd Street | Corvallis | OR | 97330