February 14, 2008
|  |  | phone: 541-754-7668 address: 227 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis, OR
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| | Five (+1) Good Books
| | | | The Palace of Illusions
The Age of American Unreason
Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West
The Soul Thief
World Made by Hand
Song Yet Sung
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Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Recasting the Indian epic Mahabharata from the perspective of Princess Panchaali, the author has created an inventive companion to the renowned poem. Born from fire and marked with the prophecy that she will change the course of history, the strong-willed Panchaali declares early on that she won't spend her life merely supporting the men around her. Relevant to today’s war-torn world, The Palace of Illusions provides a rare feminist interpretation of an epic story. Hardcover, $23.95
Publisher: Doubleday Publishing, ISBN-13: 9780385515993
| | | | | | The Age of American Unreason Susan Jacoby
Combining historical analysis with contemporary observation, Susan Jacoby dissects an American cultural phenomenon that is at odds with our heritage of reason and secular knowledge. With wit, she surveys an anti-rationalist landscape extending from pop culture to a pseudo-intellectual universe of "junk thought." Jacoby offers an unsparing indictment of the American addiction to infotainment and cites this dependency as the major element distinguishing our current age of unreason from earlier outbreaks of American anti-intellectualism and anti-rationalism. Hardcover, $26.00
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group, ISBN-13: 9780375423741
| | | | | | Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West Benazir Bhutto
Completed just days before her assassination, Reconciliation is Benazir Bhutto's assessment of the nature of Pakistan's relationship with the West, Islam, and extremism. In this important book, Ms. Bhutto demonstrates that extremism is not inherent to Islam, but that various factors, including policies of the West, have empowered Islamic fundamentalists. Bhutto argues that democracy, economic development, moderation and modernity offer the greatest protection against international terrorism. Hardcover, $27.95
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers; ISBN-13: 9780061567582
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Charles Baxter
Baxter's novel tells the story of graduate-student Nathaniel Mason, who encounters a mysterious man named Jerome Coolberg. Coolberg becomes obsessed with Mason, stealing his notebooks, clothes, girlfriend, and, finally, his memories and identity. Though the novel's menacing academic setting recalls Donna Tartt's brainy thriller, The Secret History, this is really a doppelganger tale infused with 1970s nostalgia. Hardcover, $20.00
Publisher: Pantheon Books; ISBN-13: 9780375422522
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James Howard Kunstler
Kunstler is mostly associated with nonfiction works (he was a keynote speaker at DaVinci Days speaking on his The Geography of Nowhere). In this novel, his 10th, he visits a future in which the oil wells have run dry and the world economy has collapsed. This vision of life after the fall of civilization is poignant and personal, offering a look at how people and communities would survive without the modern economic infrastructure upon which we rely. Hardcover, $22.00
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.; ISBN-13: 9780871139788
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James McBride
Autographed copies just arrived!The slave-owning culture of Maryland's eastern shore in the 1850s is the setting for McBride's second novel (following Miracle at St. Anna, 2002, and the bestselling memoir The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother, 1996). In this explosively dramatic novel, McBride has fashioned a myth of retribution and sacrifice. Hardcover, $25.95
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA), ISBN-13: 9781594489723
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| | New in Paperback
| | | | The Cleft
The Double Bind
The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring
Moral Disorder and Other Stories
The Essential Chomsky
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Doris May Lessing
Eminent novelist Lessing offers an alternative origin story for the human race. Suggesting that that the first human was female rather than male, Lessing invents a cult of ancient women called the Clefts, an ancient community of women living in an Eden-like coastal wilderness. The story confronts the themes that inspired much of her early writing: how men and women manage to live side by side in the world, and how the troublesome particulars of gender affect every aspect of our existence. Paperback, $13.95
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers; ISBN-13: 9780060834876
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Chris Bohjalian
Chris Bohjalian has earned a reputation for writing novels that examine important issues of our time. Double Bind engages issues of homelessness and mental illness through the character of Bobbie, a destitute, unstable man who is befriended by Laurel, a young woman working at his homeless shelter. When she discovers that Bobbie was previously a very successful photographer, Laurel begins a search into his history. The story combines the suspense of a thriller with the emotional depths of the most intimate drama. Paperback, $14.95
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group; ISBN-13: 9781400031665
| | | | | | The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring Richard Preston, Andrew Joslin (Illustrator)
Until recently, redwoods were thought to be impossible to ascend, and their canopy was unexplored. In The Wild Trees, Preston presents the story of a tiny group of daring botanists and amateur naturalists that found a lost world above California — a world that is dangerous and hauntingly beautiful. Preston’s account of this amazing world, by turns terrifying, moving, and fascinating, is an adventure story told in novelistic detail by a master of nonfiction narrative. Paperback, $16.00
Publisher: Random House Trade; ISBN-13: 9780812975598
| | | | | | Moral Disorder and Other Stories Margaret Atwood
Atwood's latest set of stories chronicle 60 years of a Canadian family, from postwar Toronto to a farm in the present. The stories begin as Tig and Nell, an elderly couple, face an uncertain future. The narrative goes back in time to Nell's childhood and moves chronologically forward toward the present, tracing stages of her life and the lives intertwined with it. Paperback, $13.95
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group; ISBN-13: 9780385721646
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Noam Chomsky
For the past forty years, Noam Chomsky's writings on politics and language have established him as a preeminent public intellectual and as one of the most original and wide-ranging political and social critics of our time. Among the seminal figures in linguistic theory over the past century, he has secured a place as one of the leading dissident voice in the United States. The Essential Chomsky assembles the core of his most important writings in a comprehensive overview of his ideas. Paperback, $19.95
Publisher: The New Press; ISBN-13: 9781595581891
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| Music
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The Heavy Circles $16.95
Genre: Folk/Pop
The Heavy Circles are a duo consisting of singer/songwriter Edie Brickell, who has a history going back to her platinum-selling work with the New Bohemians in the late '80s, and her stepson, Harper Simon, a son of Paul Simon. Featured on NPR this weekend, the project developed largely as a series of in-studio improvisations and features contributions by Sean Lennon, Martha Wainwright and Cibo Matto.
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Carrie Newcomer $17.95
Genre: Folk/Pop
This is Carrie's first release since 2005, and it showcases her mature and intelligent songwriting. Her music frequently focuses on non-denominational faith and the grace of everyday life. From Mary Chapin Carpenter: " Geography of Light is full of gorgeous arrangements that frame her soulful vocals, and the song Geodes will make you catch your breath with its wisdom and beauty."
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Armik $16.95
Genre: New Age
Barcelona showcases nuevo flamenco guitarist Armik and his melodic, Latin-tinged rhythms.
| Soundings Global Rhythm Collection Dean Evenson $16.95
Genre: New Age
The Soundings of the Planet label promises "peace through music". On this collection, featured artist Evenson is joined by an eclectic mix of artists (Deva Premal, Jai Uttal, etc) for a rhythmic sampling especially composed for use in yoga, meditation and sacred movement.
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| More Music
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Omar Sosa $21.95
Genre: World/Ethnic
Pianist Sosa continues to define what contemporary world music can be as he blends music from his native Cuba with contemporary jazz. For Afreecanos, Sosa collected an impressive group of musicians from around the world.
| Traditions and Transformations: Sounds of Silk Road Chicago Yo-Yo Ma, Chicago Symphony Orchestra $21.95
Genre: Classical
This live album features cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble in concert with the Chicago Symphony.
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Martin Hayes & Dannis Cahill $17.95
Genre: Celtic/Irish
Welcome Here Again is Hayes and Cahill's first new studio album in almost ten years. Hayes is considered one of Ireland's foremost traditional fiddlers, "redefining traditional music without compromising its essential nature."
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Puppini Sisters $13.95
Genre: Jazz
Following last year's popular Betcha Bottom Dollar, Rise & Fall features more of the Italian trio's jazzy vocals.
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| Reviews@Roots
| | | | |  Last week's newsletter announced our new web page that lets you submit your own reviews. Here are two reviews submitted by members of our Grass Roots community. Thank you, Pat and John, for sharing your ideas and impressions. You can submit a review by visiting
www.grassrootsbookstore.com and clicking Reviews@Roots in the navigation menu.
The Echo Maker
Richard Powers
Genre: Fiction
Reviewer: Pat  It was sometimes difficult to wade through the technical facts about the mind, since the author uses medical terms profusely. Still, the medical information is part of the story; each character has issues of the mind and the soul. The author entwines these issues into a connection with the Sandhill Crane's return each year to the Nebraska plains. At once mystery and love story, it explores who we are, and whether we have the right to change those we love and this earth we were given to live on and take care of. I found the book to be thought provoking and a good read.
Hardcover, $15.00
Publisher: Picador USA; ISBN-13: 9780312426439
The Abstinence Teacher
Tom Perrotta
Genre: Fiction
Reviewer: John Lopez Jr.
 This novel convincingly personalizes politics and religion in the lives of two ordinary people who are both single parents leading manic lives, raising bratty daughters. Ruth is a secular-liberal teacher and Tim is a "born again" Christian. Their initial conflict at a youth soccer game (she the parent, he the coach) becomes an elusive romance that is rife with tension as she confronts her new abstinence-only curriculum and he is disillusioned with his pastor's overbearing righteousness. These emotionally charged issues meld into a reassuring tale of our human capacity for empathy that serves as testimony for love, faith and spirituality.
Hardcover, $24.95
Publisher: St. Martin's Press; ISBN-13: 9780312358334
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| Reading Group News
| | | | | Next meeting: Tuesday March 4, 6:30-8:00 pm, in the cozy Grass Roots loft.
Book: Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu No experience or membership necessary: first-timers always welcome! Seventeen years ago, Sepha Stephanos came to the United States after fleeing the Ethiopian Revolution. Now he runs a grocery store in a poor neighborhood in Washington, D.C. Told in a haunting and powerful first-person narration that casts the streets of Washington, D.C., and Addis Ababa through Sepha's eyes, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears is a deeply affecting and unforgettable debut novel about what it means to lose a family and a country —and what it takes to create a new home.  Paperback, $14.00
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA), ISBN-13: 9781594482854
On sale for $11.90 until March 4.
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| February Independence Card
| | | | | I-card discounts for February: For the entire month of February, I-card holders receive 10% off + stamps on: - Books from our Gardening section. (Save $$ now, plant later!)
- Notions: Oriental Carpet Creations bookmarks and mousepads.
Always on sale for I-card holders: 10% off + stamps on:
- Selected BookSense picks.
- All DVDs and Spoken Word Audio CDs. (We can special order DVDs and receive them in a few days. You can use the handy online order form at grassrootsbookstore.com.)
The 2008 Independence Card costs $10, and we transfer last year's unredeemed stamps to your new card. If you didn't complete your first 2007 I-card, your 2008 card is free.
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| | Special Events
| | | | | Meet The Author
February 21, 7PM, Library Meeting Room
Wendy Madar aka Ashna Graves, Death Pans Out, Sponsored by Friends of the Library. View the event poster
Grass Roots Reading Group
Tuesday March 4, 6:30-8:00 pm, Grass Roots loft
Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu
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| Current Survey
| | | | | The survey on special events is still running. As always, the data we've already collected is fascinating (we'll share it next week), but you know how it is with data...more is better. So, if you havent' taken in yet, please take a minute or two (it's VERY short) to help us learn what types of events you'd like. 
If clicking the image doesn't work, please copy this address into your browser: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=6wg38F1YEZ_2btHhih_2bBJ4xQ_3d_3d Thank you!
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| On Our Nightstands - What We're Reading
| | | | | - Jack - Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington: Understanding Political Doublespeak through Philosophy and Jokes by Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein
Hardcover $18.95 - Sandy - Your Inner Fish : A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year-History of the Human Body by Neil Shubin
Hardcover $24.00 - Tiffany - L.A. Outlaws by T. Jefferson Parker
Hardcover $24.95 - Melody - Blood King by Gail Martin
Paperback $7.99
- Deborah - Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow
Hardcover $22.95
- Anna - Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler
Hardcover $24.95 - Michael - Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk
Hardcover $24.95 - Linda - The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood
Paperback $13.95
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Zen Ties
