Next Event

Aviva Kempner - Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg

September 2, 2010 - 7:00pm
September 2, 2010 - 8:00pm
Kempner’s film uses vintage clips, behind-the-scenes-footage, and interviews to trace the life and work of Gertrude Berg, who wrote, starred in, and produced the first successful American sitcom, “The Goldbergs,” which ran from 1949 to 1956, and earned Berg the first Best Actress Emmy. We will be screening parts of the more than two hours of extras included on the DVD. Kempner will be joined by Susan Stamberg, NPR special correspondent and a contributor to the film. Copies of the DVD will be for sale.
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, directed by Aviva Kempner

Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, directed by Aviva Kempner

$29.95
Model: 767685223222
Availability:
Location: 
Politics and Prose
5015 Connecticut Ave. NWWashington, D.C. 20008

Upcoming Events

September Changes are Coming

 

Cookbooks

 

MEMBER DISCOUNTS THIS MONTH

As a benefit to our members, all cookbooks on our shelves will be 20% off throughout the month of September. Don't forget that our usual fall storewide member sale will take place Friday-Sunday, September 10-12, and members receive a 20% discount on nearly every book and 15% off nearly CD and DVD in the store that weekend.

NAIBA LEGACY AWARD
Eileen Dengler, president of the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association, wrote a very nice tribute about us last week with additional contributions from Rick Atkinson and Howard Norman. Thank you, Eileen and NAIBA members! Click here to learn more.

PARKING LOT TO BE RESURFACED
Our landlord will be resurfacing the parking lot behind the building on Sunday, September 5.  Therefore, it will be generally unavailable to customers on that day. All cars must be off the lot on Saturday evening, after close-of-business at 10 p.m. Very early on Sunday morning, the work team will remove the bike rack and planters.  The surface will be laid that morning and needs sufficient time to dry.  Probably by 2 p.m. on Sunday, it will be firm enough for pedestrian traffic, but not cars.  By Monday morning at 8 a.m., we expect that it should be ready for vehicular traffic.

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Classes at Politics and Prose

Next Class

  • Thursday, September 30, 2010
    Chekhov Class

    Chekhov in English

    Thursdays, September 30 - November 4, 2 to 3:30 p.m. 

    The time is past that we must identify Chekhov with the picturesque decline of Russia under the Tsars or with the distorted image of his work projected by the Soviets.  Chekhov has become an honorary world citizen, read and performed widely, studied, admired and imitated by writers and thinkers in many languages. 

    Chekhov opposed theory and made fun of people who expected a better world to follow abstract principles.  But his understanding of a vast range of characters is based on a definite attitude to life.  “Pitiless” he was called, also tender and compassionate.  Can we discern in the stories and the plays a definite moral attitude?  He was able to observe and laugh at the foolishness and blindness of many different kinds of people, all struggling to survive, some forced to give up consoling images of themselves.  We will be looking for the steely moral backbone that allowed him to pass through judgment to acceptance, and for insights into the stories which will help us to see how he created a new kind of writing for the theater. 

    We will discuss a selection of Chekhov’s stories and then read together "The Cherry Orchard".  The text will be THE PORTABLE CHEKHOV (Penguin, $18). 

    You can register for the class at Politics & Prose or by clicking below. 

    The cost is $80 for members and $100 for non-members. 

    For the first class you should read "The Name-Day Party". 

    PENNY du BOIS’s bio:

    I have always been a student of literature, at Harvard and Cambridge Universities, have taught at Harvard, Barnard College, in Belgium at the university in Namur, Catholic University in Washington, and for a long time in private groups.  The modern period - i.e. early 20th century - and English are my 'field' but I have taught what I wanted to learn, a huge variety from classical writers to present day avant-garde writers with special favorites Homer, Naipaul, Coetzee, Elizabeth Bishop, Kleist, Sebald, Nabokov and Vasily Grossman but this leaves out a lot of time spent on French authors and poets Spanish, English and Polish. My teaching concentrates on the particular experience and task of reading responsively to an individual author, thus on the complexity of reading itself.

     

    Please note: Selecting "Pay at Store" will NOT reserve your registration.
    Please submit a credit card payment to complete your enrollment.

    Promotional Period: 
    Sep 30 2010

    The Portable Chekhov (Paperback)

    By Anton Chekhov, Avrahm Yarmolinsky (Editor), Avrahm Yarmolinsky (Introduction by)
    $18.00
    ISBN-13: 9780140150353
    Availability: On Our Shelves Now
    Published: Penguin (Non-Classics), 08/01/1977

    Chekhov in English

    $100.00
    Model: chekhov-class
    Enter the name of the primary household member listed on the membership

Booknotes

Russian Reads


We are currently highlighting our display - Around the World with Books - featuring novels for travelers. This week we want to draw your attention to Russian classic fiction.

RussiaThough implausible, the most chortlingly funny book I’ve read in years is about graduate school. Elif Batuman - blogger, New Yorker writer, and madcap academic - is a disarming story-teller; her relentless enthusiasm for books is contagious. In the seven essays of THE POSSESSED: My Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $15), Batuman recaps her immoderate enamorment with Russian literature and how this love leads her to Stanford’s Comp Lit department and a cohort which she likens to the spiraling madness of Dostoevsky’s Demons (a. k. a. The Possessed). Her love also takes her farther afield, to a mystifying summer in Samarkand studying Old Uzbek epics; to an International Tolstoy Scholars Conference and suspicions of foul play; and to the Neva River to investigate the curiously sinister backstory of an ice palace for The New Yorker. Familiarity with Babel and Bakunin aren’t prerequisites; Batuman’s book is a clever treatise on the reasons we read. - Lila Stiff

In July, she appeared (along with John Waters) on Michael Silverblatt's program "Bookworm" on KCRW, to offer her top ten list of Russians to read. Click here to see her selections on our website. The Possessed was one of our 2010 Summer Favorites and is discounted 20% to P&P members.

Click here to see more our booksellers' recommendations, sorted by regions of the world.

And it so happens that Penny du Bois is teaching a class this fall on Chekhov!

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Bestsellers

P&P Members always save 20% on our top twelve FICTION and NON-FICTION hardcover bestsellers.

Click the titles to read more about these books and to buy them from Politics & Prose.

Fiction Bestsellers

FICTION

  1. Comedy in a Minor Key, by Hans Keilson (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $22)
  2. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, by Stieg Larsson (Knopf, $27.95)
  3. Super Sad True Love Story, by Gary Shteyngart (Random House, $26)
  4. The Cookbook Collector, by Allegra Goodman (Dial, $26)
  5. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, by David Mitchell (Random House, $26)
  6. The Invisible Bridge, by Julie Orringer (Knopf, $26.95)
  7. Faithful Place, by Tana French (Viking, $25.95)
  8. Three Stations, by Martin Cruz Smith (Simon & Schuster, $25.99)
  9. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, by Helen Simonson (Random House, $25)
  10. My Hollywood, by Mona Simpson (Knopf, $26.95)
  11. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett (Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam, $24.95)
  12. The Rembrandt Affair, by Daniel Silva (Putnam, $26.95)

Non Fiction Best

NONFICTION

  1. Composed, by Rosanne Cash (Viking, $26.95)
  2. Let's Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship, by Gail Caldwell (Random House, $23)
  3. The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam, by Eliza Griswold (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27)
  4. Four Fish, by Paul Greenberg (Penguin, $25.95)
  5. Ill Fares the Land, by Tony Judt (Penguin, $25.95)
  6. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot (Crown, $26)
  7. Silk Parachute, by John McPhee (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $25)
  8. Morning Miracle: Inside the Washington Post A Great Newspaper Fights for Its Life, by Dave Kindred (Doubleday, $26.95)
  9. The Twilight of the Bombs: Recent Challenges, New Dangers, and the Prospects for a World Without Nuclear Weapons, by Richard Rhodes (Knopf, $27.95)
  10. Lyndon B. Johnson: The American Presidents Series: The 36th President, 1963-1969, by Charles Peters (Times Books, $23)
  11. The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, by John Vaillant (Knopf, $26.95)
  12. Through a Dog's Eyes, by Jennifer Arnold (Spiegel & Grau, $25)

NEW IN PAPERBACK

New Paperbacks

New Paper

These titles were store favorites when they were in hardcover.

A PARADISE BUILT IN HELL (Penguin, $16) is the most intellectually invigorating book I've read since college. With the sharp eye of a scholar and the passion of an activist, Rebecca Solnit explores the tiny, evanescent utopias that arise in the aftermath of disasters. She argues that our natural response to catastrophes like the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Hurricane Katrina, and 9/11 is a fleeting joy and heightened, altruistic sense of purpose (rather than the looting and mayhem the media portrays). Most intriguingly, she suggests that post-disaster behavior lets us glimpse alternative ways of living. Solnit seeks to challenge and unsettle the reader, and this powerful work succeeds on every page. - Elizabeth Sher

WOLF HALL (Picador, $16), the latest Booker Prize-winner opens in 1527, as Henry VIII is trying to get rid of his wife of sixteen years, Katherine. He is interested in Anne Boleyn, a well-connected young woman at court who has kept him interested by refusing to consummate their relationship until they are married.  Thomas Cromwell is the King's man to move things along. Cromwell's eye is on the main chance. "You don't get on by being original. You don't get on by being bright. You don't get on by being strong. You get on by being a subtle crook." Although society no longer burns people at the stake or beheads them, jockeying for political position and religious hysteria endure. The book's appeal is not only in its oft-told story, but Hilary Mantel's particular telling of the story. Humor and horror are close together—that is a characteristic of Mantel's writing and what gives her narrative so much power. - Mark LaFramboise

In THE FAMILY ALBUM (Penguin, $15) Penelope Lively paints a wonderful portrait of an ostensibly perfect family. Parents Alison and Charles, six children, and one au pair live at Allersmead, a shabby-genteel, sprawling Edwardian edifice where the huge kitchen is the heart of the home. Alison prides herself on her mothering, cooking, and homemaking and frets when family life is beyond her control. Her husband Charles remains aloof, constantly locked in his study while he researches and writes books. Most of the family scenes are presented in flashback as each of the adult children returns to the childhood home; thus memory is of keen interest here, along with a dark secret from the past. - Barbara Meade

Click FICTION or NON-FICTION to buy these books and to browse a more complete selection of recent paperback releases.

ROUND HOUSE THEATER

Upcoming Bookgroups

Ulysses, Chapter 17

Thursday, September 2, 7:30 p.m.
Capital James Joyce Book Group
Promotional Period: 
Sep 2 2010

Ulysses (Gabler Edition) (Paperback)

By James Joyce
$21.00
ISBN-13: 9780394743127
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage, 05/01/1986
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Children and Teens

Children and Teens' Department

 

Please join us when story time resumes after Labor Day on Monday, September 13, 10:30 a.m. BearSong, the Guitar Man, will be back after several years' hiatus, leading stories, songs, finger plays, and more for children from birth to 4 years old and their caregivers.

Teachers - from pre-school through grade 12 - and school and public librarians are eligible for Politics & Prose's educator's discount program.  To qualify for a 20% discount on books purchased for your classroom or library and a 10% discount on personal purchases, please bring a current ID for the 2010-2011 academic year to the children's and teens' department to update your file.

dark

CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK

(20% off through 09/08/2010)
Intricate, gorgeous moths flit across the page. Snails feed in the growing darkness. A spider's web sparkles in the moonlight. These are just a few of the scenes depicted in Joyce Sidman's (Red Sings from Treetops, Ubiquitous)newest book of nature poems. DARK EMPEROR: And Other Poems of the Night (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $16.99) tells the tales of the woodland animals that emerge as the sun sets. Rick Allen's breathtakingly detailed woodcut illustrations illuminate Sidman's verse. A must-have for lovers of poetry and nature alike, this beautiful book includes informational side panels about nocturnal creatures. Ages 5 and up - Amy Kane

Read about - and buy - more of our favorite books for children by clicking here. 

Music

Next Offsite Event

MARTHA GRIMES - THE BLACK CAT

Promotional Period: 
Sep 16 2010

Thursday, September 16, 7:30 p.m.

New Paper

Friendship Heights Village Center
4433 S. Park Ave.
Chevy Chase, MD

MARTHA GRIMES
THE BLACK CAT (Viking, $25.95)
The prolific writer Martha Grimes presents her latest murder mystery as the inimitable Richard Jury returns in a thrilling tale of mystery, madness, and mistaken identity. A young woman has been murdered behind the local pub. The only witness is the establishment's black cat, who gives neither crook nor clue as to the girl's identity or her killer's. Please sign up in advance for this FREE event by calling the Village Center at 301-656-2797.


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Upcoming Offsite Events

Remaindered or Markdown Books

Newly Arrived Remainders

Click here to browse more remainders that have recently become available.

DVD of the Week

Ugetsu

UGETSU (Criterion Collection, $39.95)

Weaving together two well-known fables, Kenji Mizoguchi's Ugetsu, is a work of stunning beauty. The movie takes place in sixteenth century Japan, amid an ongoing and bloody civil war. Genjuro, a potter, and Tobei, a peasant, leave their families to go on a dangerous trip into the city to sell their pottery in the hopes of achieving their separate dreams of riches and increased status. What they find, however, is that these dreams of lust, and this obsession for power and fame, only lead to tragedy. Mizoguchi's film traverses a fine line between the dreamworld and reality, mixing the supernatural easily with the misfortunes of life. This Criterion Collection production also includes a full length documentary on Kenji Mizoguchi and a booklet which includes an essay and the stories on which Ugetsu is based. This is a movie which will leave you stunned, amazed, and completely awestruck. Highly recommended. - Adam Waterreus

Modern Times Coffeehouse

For more news from the coffeehouse, visit the Modern Times blog.