May 12. 2007
|  |  | phone: 541-754-7668 address: 227 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis, OR
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| | A Note from Jack
| | | | | Hello Friends! May brings milder weather and a wealth of guests and good books to GrassRoots. We will host the incomparable Susan Vreeland on May 22nd at ArtCentric; she has planned an event you won't want to miss. We will close the month with a reading by Arizona author Michael Yates, who has some things to tell us about his travels. Details are included below. We hope you will join us. Independence Card holders receive a 10% discount on cookbooks this month. Stop in to browse our selection or, if you have a title in mind, place a special order at the counter. We'll offer some tempting suggestions in our next newsletter. You will notice that this issue of the GrassRoots Reader includes a double handful of music suggestions as well as Five Good Books. As always, Scott Foley's insight and expertise make shopping for new music a pleasure. If you see anything intriguing, please come down and give our new music a listen. Fans of Harry Potter, we still have room in our 7 Questions Club. All ages are welcome (though the focus is on kids) and this is an excellent way to review the many, many threads Rowling has spun into her story. If you are interested in an official membership (including club pin, collectors bookmarks, and VIP Potter Party status, contact Sarah at sarahdavisfarrell@yahoo.com. Please read our special announcement (below) about our new web forum! Please also visit our website, grassrootsbookstore.com for monthly bestseller's lists, in-store author events, staff favorites and more! Enjoy this, the greenest of seasons,
Jack | | | ^ back to Table of Contents | |
| Five Good Books
| | | | The Yiddish Policemen’s Union
Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
Luncheon of the Boating Party
The Good Husband of Zebra Drive
| | The Yiddish Policemen’s Union Michael Chabon
They are the "frozen Chosen," two million people living, dying and kvetching in Sitka, Alaska, the temporary homeland established for displaced World War II Jews in Chabon's ambitious and entertaining new novel. It is—deep breath now—a murder-mystery speculative-history Jewish-identity noir chess thriller. Meyer Landsman, a drunken rogue cop, wakes in a flophouse to find that one of his neighbors has been murdered. With his half-Tlingit, half-Jewish partner and his sexy-tough boss, who happens also to be his ex-wife, Landsman investigates a fascinating underworld of Orthodox black-hat gangs and crime-lord rabbis. Chabon's "Alyeska" is an act of fearless imagination, more evidence of his soaring talent. $26.95 Hardcover. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780007149827.
| | | | | | Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey Chuck Palahniuk
Buster Casey, destined to live fast, die young and murder as many people as he can, is the rotten seed at the core of Palahniuk's comically nasty eighth novel. Set in a future where urbanites are segregated by strict curfews into Daytimers and Nighttimers, the narrative unfolds as an oral history comprising contradictory accounts from people who knew Buster. This dark religious parable from the master of grotesque excess may not attract new readers, but it will delight old ones. $24.95 Hardcover. Doubleday. ISBN 9780385517874.
| | | | | | Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life Barbara Kingsolver with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver
With some assistance from her husband, Steven, and 19-year-old daughter, Camille, Kingsolver (Prodigal Summer, 2000, etc.) elegantly chronicles a year of back-to-the-land living with her family in Appalachia. Their aim, she notes, was to "live in a place that could feed us," to grow their own food and join the increasingly potent movement led by organic growers and small exurban food producers. Readers frustrated with the unhealthy, artificial food chain will take heart and inspiration here. $26.95 Hardcover. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780060852559.
| | | | | | Luncheon of the Boating Party Susan Vreeland
Once again--to the delight of her legion of fans--the best-selling author of Girl in Hyacinth Blue (1999) and The Passion of Artemesia (2002) imaginatively uses art history as the basis for a carefully constructed historical novel. Vreeland turns this time to French impressionist master Auguste Renoir's famous painting Luncheon of the Boating Party , There are three levels of "atmosphere" swirling through the pages of this riveting, complex novel: Renoir's issues in composing the painting, the separate and interconnected lives of the 14 individuals appearing in it, and the spirit of la vie moderne , the new modes of living, thinking, and expressing as conducted by the French arts community at the time. $25.95 Hardcover. Penguin. ISBN 9780670038541
| | | | | | The Good Husband of Zebra Drive Alexander McCall Smith
Smith once again combines a loving depiction of ordinary life in modern Botswana with memorable characters and an engaging mystery in the eighth installment in his beloved No. 1 Ladies Detective series. The author's subtlety of touch and humane portrayal of figures at all levels of society will continue to win him new readers even as his deepening of the ties binding the main figures will satisfy those who have followed the lady detectives from their first recorded case. $21.95 Hardcover. Pantheon. ISBN 978-0375422737 | | | | | | | | ^ back to Table of Contents | |
| New Music
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*Feist ~ Reminder
Confessional pop, jazzy folk and lounge-y
vocalizations from Canadian singer-songwriter Leslie Feist. A
followup to 2004's very successful Let It Die, her third release comes from the same well of quiet, appealing songwriting, and delicate vocalizations. *Angelique Kidjo ~ Djin Djin
Popular afro-pop vocalist (from Benin) adds more pop
polish, along with guest stars Carlos Santana, Joss
Stone, Peter Gabriel and others. The release is a bewitching amalgam. Kidjo, her salty-sweet voice in top form, moves confidently. *Cliff Eberhardt ~ High Above and Down Below $17.95
The first new album from this contemporary folk
singer songwriter since 2002. His songs display the highest level of craftsmanship, his guitar playing is superb and his singing rings true. *Bright Eyes ~ Cassadega $13.95
Supposedly their most produced, accessible album yet,
with special guests M Ward, Gillian Welch, Maria
Taylor and more. The folk/country elements of It's
Wide Awake are in full swing here, alongside the
group's usual indie pop. *Tinariwen ~ Aman Iman: Water is Life $18.95
One of today's hottest world music ensembles. The key to its appeal is that, as well as the circular Touareg vocals, chanting and rhythms, there are bluesy guitar licks and an unruly energy that create sound like the raw elements of rock and roll. | | | ^ back to Table of Contents | |
| More New Music
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*Martin Sexton ~ Seeds $16.95
The eclectic singer-songwriter's first album in seven
years features a typical mix of contemporary folk,
soul and pop. Sexton is thought to have one of the
most expressive, soulful voices in folk music. *Paul Motian ~ Time and Again $17.95
With longtime guitarist Bill Frisell and saxman Joe
Lovano, jazz drummer Motian (former percussionist for
Thelonius Monk) releases his umpteenth album of
classy, challenging jazz. *Joshua Bell ~ The Essential Joshua Bell $24.95
Romantic violin retrospective collection from one of the
biggest names in contemporary crossover classical
music. 2 Disc set. *Gina Villalobos ~ Miles Away $16.95
Strong-voiced alt-country singer, with a raspy, whiskey
soaked voice like Lucinda Williams, except louder. Songs include "Miles Away", "Face on the Sheets", and "Somewhere to Lay Me Down". *John Prine & Mac Wiseman - Standard Songs for Average People
Acoustic stringed instruments sit nicely with piano, organ, electric guitar, pedal steel, harmonica, accordion and drums to create a sound reminiscent of the 1950s. You're listening to two new pals having what seems to be the time of their life. | | | ^ back to Table of Contents | |
| GrassRoots Book Groups
| | | | | This month, the GrassRoots Sensible Sustainability focus group will read Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble, by Lester R. Brown. Brown addresses the grand challenges of our age: population, exhaustion of existing fuels, destruction of ecosystems, corruption of the atmosphere. He makes meticulously researched economic arguments in language accessible to all literate persons. The book, 352 paperback pages for $16.95, is currently available from GrassRoots at a 15% discount. In June, the GrassRoots Readers will meet on the first Tuesday of the month to discuss Plum Wine, by Angela Davis Gardner. In this novel, bottles of homemade plum wine link two worlds, two eras, and two lives through the eyes of Barbara Jefferson, a young American teaching at a Tokyo university. When her surrogate mother, Michi, dies, Barbara inherits an extraordinary gift: a tansu chest filled with bottles of homemade plum wine wrapped in sheets of rice paper covered in elegant calligraphy-one bottle for each of the last twenty years of Michi's life. Why did Michi leave her memoirs to Barbara, who cannot read Japanese? Seeking a translator, Barbara turns to an enigmatic pottery artist named Seiji, who will offer her a companionship as tender as it is forbidden. But as the two lovers unravel the mysteries of Michi's life, a story that draws them through the aftermath of World War II and the hidden world of the hibakusha, Hiroshima survivors, Barbara begins to suspect that Seiji may be hiding the truth about Michi's past-and a heartbreaking secret of his own. The book, $13.00 paperback, is currently available to all GrassRoots customers at a 15% discount. Lastly, several customers have asked about starting a Mystery Reading Group through the store. If you are interested, please e-mail Gina Rivera at seegigiwrite@yahoo.com.
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| New Grass Roots Web Forum
| | | | | We are excited to announce the unveiling of our online community forum, GrassRootsWeb.freeforums.org! We realize that many people would like to be a part of the Grass Roots community, but time constraints and scheduling conflicts just don't allow for it. This forum allows community members to discuss favorite books & music, current book group books, post reviews or blurbs for our shelves from the comfort of your homes, whenever you have spare time. The goal of this website is to not only bring passionate people together, but to strengthen the bond between the community and Grass Roots while we at Grass Roots learn how better to reflect the community's needs. With your dedication and commitment, this forum will grow into its namesake, a grassroots community effort creating a web of knowledge for the greater good. We chose this forum partially because it does not have ads. If you have any problems accessing it, please notify us at grootsweb@gmail.com. | | | ^ back to Table of Contents | |
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