September 20, 2007
|  |  | phone: 541-754-7668 address: 227 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis, OR
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| | Survey Results Summary
| | | | | Our "Survey on Surveys" showed that you liked surveys better when you could learn the results. Here's a brief summary of the Survey on Surveys: - How do you feel about Grass Roots doing customer surveys?
I'm happy to participate: 77%
neutral: 20%
- How much time are you willing to spend on a survey?
1-3 minutes: 45%
3-5 minutes: 38% - Which option would you prefer for a series of surveys?
Every other week, 4-6 questions: 25%
Once a month, 7-10 questions: 51% - How much would a discount coupon motivate you to take a survey?
No difference: 64%
Helpful: 32% - Are you more likely to complete a survey if you can see the final results?
Yes: 75% - Which topics would interest you in a survey? (Percentage of people replying "I'm interested")
Types of books we cary: 86%
Store services: 81%
Special events we present: 68%
Types of music we carry: 63%
Biographies of authors: 62%
Contents of the newsletter: 52%
Book clubs: 46%
General demographics: 40%
Information about the book business: 39%
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| Five Good Books
| | | | The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World
What on Earth Have I Done?: Stories, Observations, and Affirmations
Other Colors: Essays and a Story
Teachings of the Earth: Zen and the Environment
Rumi: Bridge to the Soul
| | The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World Alan Greenspan
When Alan Greenspan speaks, the entire world listens. During his 18-year tenure (1987-2006) as Federal Reserve Board chairman, he presided over the American economy. In The Age of Turbulence, Greenspan shares the story of his life and the extraordinary amount of history he has experienced and shaped. But his other goal is to draw readers along the same learning curve he followed, so they can acquire his own understanding of the underlying dynamics that drive world events. After providing the reader with conceptual tools, he embarks on a magnificent lesson on understanding the global economy. Hardcover, $35.00
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA), ISBN-13: 9781594201318
| | | | | | What on Earth Have I Done?: Stories, Observations, and Affirmations Robert Fulghum
Bestselling author Robert Fulghum doesn't disparage planning, but he does believe that what makes us most human are spontaneous moments. In this collection, the author of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten discusses exceptional experiences we can all appreciate. The book is an armchair tour of everyday life by a man who "has two feet planted firmly on the earth, one eye on the heavens and, at times, a tongue planted firmly in his cheek." Hardcover, $22.95
Publisher: St. Martin's Press, ISBN-13: 9780312365493
| | | | | | Other Colors: Essays and a Story Orhan Pamuk, Maureen Freely (Translator)
Novelist Orhan Pamuk has been awarded a Nobel Prize for literature and been prosecuted in his own country for "insulting Turkishness." Other Colors is a dazzling collection of essays on his life, his city (Istanbul), and his work. He opens a window on his private life, from his boyhood dislike of school to his daughter’s precocious melancholy, from his successful struggle to quit smoking to his anxiety at the prospect of testifying against some clumsy muggers who attacked him during a visit to New York City. From ordinary obligations such as applying for a passport to extreme moments such as surviving a cataclysmic earthquake, he exposes his most basic hopes and fears. Hardcover, $27.95
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group; ISBN-13: 9780307266750
| | | | | | Teachings of the Earth: Zen and the Environment John Daido Loori
According to Zen teaching, everything in the universe exists interdependently, so valuing the welfare of one being over another, or of humans over the planet, makes no sense. John Daido Loori reveals the underlying environmental ethic animating these teachings and shows how it can be a wellspring for our appreciation of the earth in the new millennium. He is the abbot of the Zen Mountain Monastery in Mount Tremper, New York. Paperback, $12.95
Publisher: Shambhala Publications, Inc.; ISBN-13: 9781590304907
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Coleman Barks
2007 is the "Year of Rumi," and this great poet's 800th birthday. Barks, who was recently awarded an honorary doctorate in Persian language and literature by the University of Tehran for his thirty years of translating Rumi, has collected and translated ninety new poems, most of them never published before. The "bridge" in the title refers to the Khajou Bridge in Isphahan, Iran, which Barks visited on a trip that in many ways prompted this book. The "soul bridge" also suggests Rumi himself, who crosses cultures and religions and brings us all together to listen to his words, regardless of origin or creed. Hardcover, $17.95
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers; ISBN-13: 9780061338168
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| Music
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Jake Shimabukuro 16.95
Jake Shimabukuro has been defying uke expectations for years now, playing everything from heavy metal to pastoral reveries. Japan's #1 movie, "Hula Girls" has received rave reviews at numerous international film festivals. The soundtrack is an instrumental masterpiece, recently earning a Japanese Academy Award for Best Sound Recording.
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Mary Gauthier $13.95
Between Daylight and Dark is Mary Gauthier's (pronounced Go-Shay) sixth album. It has a deeply centered, almost organic sound. One reviewer wrote: "Gauthier is a monster songwriter, but she is also an iconoclast because she's a poet by virtue of her gift."
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Mark Knoffler $18.95
Mark Knopfler's star hasn't shined this bright since his Dire Straits days. After 2004's well recieved Shangri-La, and two collaborations with Emmylou Harris, Knopfler releases this entirely new set of songs.
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Diana Krall $13.95
Diana Krall's first-ever career retrospective captures the artistry of the prolific jazz chanteuse. The set is bostered by three previously unreleased tracks, including Tom Waits's "The Heart of Saturday Night."
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KT Turnstall $18.95
Turnstall is a Scottish singer-songwriter. Drastic Fantastic is adult pop record that doesn't stay in one place; it bounces between sparkly, insistent pop, sweet and gentle slow tunes. The songs are strong, making the album "a rare beast: a pop album with a songwriter's heart."
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| Remembering Robert Jordan
| | | | | Robert Jordan (pen name of James Oliver Rigney, Jr.), was best known as the author of the popular The Wheel of Time fantasy series. He also wrote under the name Reagan O'Neal. He died this week from amyloidosis and cardiomyopathy at age 59. Jordan served two tours of duty in Vietnam (1968-70), earning the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Bronze star. After Vietnam, he entered the Citadel military college, where he received a degree in physics. Jordan believed that physics was a good background for a fantasy writer. "You can't study quantum mechanics without a feel for fantasy," he said. "Schrodinger's Cat alone will kill any logical person dead." After college, he was employed as a nuclear engineer. At one point, while hospitalized for an injury, he had time to catch up on this reading. According to him, he quickly ran out of satisfactory material and thought he could probably write as well as the authors he had been reading. The Wheel of Time is the result. There are 11 books in The Wheel of Time series. Books 8-11 have each reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, and most of the books have been on the list at one time or another. The series has sold over 30 million copies worldwide. It is loved for its extreme dense storylines, the intricate detail of its imaginary world and constructed languages, and the complexity of relationships among the characters. Jordan repeatedly said that the series would conclude with the twelfth book, given the working title A Memory of Light. A family member says that that the entire story has been recorded (by word processor or audio) and that they intend to follow through on Jordan's wish that it be published. To learn more about The Wheel of Time, visit: www.tor.com/jordan/ | | | | ^ back to Table of Contents | |
| Update on "Into the Wild"
| | | | | Editor's note: Author Jon Krakauer grew up in Corvallis. Sean Penn's interpretation of the wonderful book Into the Wild will be released in a few days. (Penn directed the movie and wrote the screenplay.) I can't vouch for the movie, but its release is a reminder of an eloquent book with a haunting, true story. Chris McCandless was a young man who abandoned his possessions, hitchhiked to Alaska, and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. Four months later, his decomposed body was found in an old dilapidated bus by a moose hunter. In the book, Krakauer retraces the young man's route and probes the motivations and life experiences that drew McCandless to his journey. I read the book when it first came out in hardcover, and I count it as one of the books that grabbed me while I was reading it and left behind a sad poignancy when I was done. Later, I went to hear Krakauer speak about it. (This was prior to In Thin Air, so he was not drawing the large crowds he does today.) It was obvious that Krakauer chose to tell the story because of his own personal history and his sense of connection to this young man he never met. The book has been reissued with a new, movie-based cover. However, there are still copies available with the original cover – an ivocative winter photograph of the bus and its surroundings. - Anna
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| | Looking Ahead
| | | | | These new titles are due out next week:
- The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War
David Halberstam
Hyperion, $35, 9781401300524
- Playing For Pizza: A Novel
John Grisham
Doubleday, $21.95, 9780385525008
- Bad Dogs Have More Fun: Selected Writings on Family, Animals, and Life
John Grogan for the Philadelphia Inquirer
Vanguard Press, $18.95, 9781593154684
These titles will be released in paperback next week:
- The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir
Bill Bryson
Broadway, $14.95, 9780767919371
- Cross
James Patterson
Grand Central, $9.99, 9780446619059
- Thunderstruck
Erik Larson
Three Rivers Press, $14.95,
9781400080670
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