Winter Solstice is Upon Us

Today is the first day of winter and the darkest day of the year. One of our oldest observed celebrations, the winter solstice has been recognized by souls for tens of thousands of years. Enjoy your day, observe the sky, and pray for the return of the sun.

Acoustic sounds for the holidays

Thanks to all you dedicated book enthusiasts who made the trek through yesterday’s ice and freezing rain to our cozy store, we were delighted to see you all!
We have a fantastic selection of holiday music from your favorite artists. Some of my favorite seasonal albums have a very organic, acoustic sound, distinct from the jingles commonly heard in shopping centers at this time of year. My particular favorite is “American Noel”, a blend of artful folk originals and traditional carols lovingly performed by the late, great Dave Carter and the inimitable Tracy Grammer. With a slightly more produced sound, “Simple Gifts: A Small Town Christmas” featuring Billy McLaughlin, offers a warm and intimate approach to familiar Christmas songs. And in “A Midwinter Night’s Dream”, Loreena McKennett brings elaborately beautiful Celtic-inspired instrumentation and her distinctively clear voice to old time carols like “The Holly and Ivy”. Visit our listening station and find the perfect soundtrack to your special holiday traditions!

A Poem for You Today

We have this beautiful poetry collection on our shelf. Maybe you have heard of it? It is called Long Journey: Contemporary Northwest Poets and it is edited by David Biespiel.

I finally opened it today, after weeks of temptation, and this is what I found.


OLD AGE

It surprises me each time
I see a horse lie down in a field

a protest

in the bend and fold:
the way a body relinquishes its hold
as it sinks, unguarded,
to the earth.

by Eve Joseph


SHADOW

To lie on one side of a tree
then another, over rough or smooth.

To feel cool along one's whole body
lengthening without intent,
nothing getting in the way.

To give up on meaning,
To never wear out or mar.

To move by increments like
a beautiful equation, like the moon
ripening above the golden city.

To be doppelganger,
the feathered underside of wings,
the part of cumulus that slides
thin promises of rain across the wheat.

To disappear. To be blue
simply because snow has fallen
and it's the blue hour of the day.

by Lorna Crozier

Thanksgiving and Giving Thanks

I like Thanksgiving. Not because it’s a chance to overeat or reexamine history, but because it’s a holiday we can distill, in ways we each choose, to a celebration of thankfulness itself. When I began putting together a Thanksgiving display for our front table, I wanted to make sure it represented more than just cookbooks, so I had to do a little sleuthing in sections ranging from poetry to nature writing to spirituality. A few books I came across took me by special surprise. Here are some I'm especially excited about.

Earth Prayers From Around the World: 365 Prayers, Poems, and Invocations for Honoring the Earth, edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon
This wonderful little anthology is collected into eleven parts including The Ecological Self; Blessings and Invocations; Praise and Thanksgiving; Benediction for the Animals; Cycles of Life; and The Daily Round. Inclusions range from Walt Whitman, Wendell Berry, Dylan Thomas and Thich Nhat Hanh, as well as pieces from the Chinook, Aivilik Eskimos, Navajo, Teton Sioux, Zuni, Masai, and more.

Holy Ground: A Gathering of Voices Caring for Creation edited by Lyndsay Moseley and the staff of Sierra Club Books. Every time I see this little book I am fascinated. This collection of nearly three dozen essays examines earth stewardship from the perspectives of the world's faith religions. Includes "Grace" by Gary Snyder, "Heaven and Earth Meet" by Pope Benedict XVI; and "The Shalom Principle" by Peter Sawtell. Other familiar names include Terry Tempest Williams, Wendell Berry and Janisse Ray.

Stonewall Kitchen Winter Celebrations: Special Recipes for Family and Friends by Jonathan King, Jim Stott, and Kathy Gunst
Preparing food is a holy act. Possibly made holier with recipes like "butternut squash soup with curried pecans, apple, and goat cheese" or "thin green beans with brown butter and roasted chestnuts." Wow. Poetry in the titles alone... I wouldn't recommend entirely displacing such simple acts of divinity as cornbread, but I wouldn't pass over some indulgence, either.

A Poem for You Today

Wendell Berry published a new collection of poetry, Leavings, on November 1st. We've nearly sold out! Why? Because it is so, so, so, so good.

Here's a quick preview.



LIKE SNOW
Suppose we did our work
like the snow, quietly, quietly,
leaving nothing out.




SABBATH XI.
My young grandson rides with me
as I mow the day's first swath
of the hillside pasture,
and then he rambles the woods beyond
the field's edge, emerging
from the trees to wave, and I wave back,

remembering that I too once
played at a field's edge and waved
to an old workman who went mowing by,
waving back to me as he passed.

New Shadow Magnets!

We have a new line of magnets in our store! Full of personality, these characters are $9.95 each, but are 10% this month for everybody who has a Grass Roots Icard (stamp card).Click here to see all 12 Shadow Magnet characters!

Books You Might Otherwise Not See

Don't neglect these books! Just because they aren't displayed in our front window doesn't mean they don't deserve some careful love and attention. You'll find all three of them, in fact, shelved in our "Staff Favorites" section.

Evidence of Evolution
by Susan Middleton and Mary Ellen Hannibal
As much an art book as a science book, the photographs in this book will keep you mesmerized. I want a copy for my coffee table, nightstand, backpack, bookshelf, car, bicycle basket, and breakfast table. The four major sections cover Darwin and Galapagos; Processes of Evolution; Patterns of Evolution; and The Unending Synthesis, all fantastically illustrated in photographs. Exquisite!

Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities
by Frank Jacobs
The contents of this book are bizarre and wide-ranging and include inverted maps; upside-down maps; maps of jelly; the United States as 38 states; the United States as 16 New American Nations; Thomas Jefferson's conception of the 10 states that never were; and Italy on the Atlantic.

Censored 2010: The Top 25 Censored Stories of 2008-09
Edited by Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff with Project Censored
I took this book to lunch with me and was more than a little shocked. The further I delved, the more intrigued I became.

"Required reading for broadcasters, journalists, and well-informed citizens." -Los Angeles Times

"Buy it, read it, act on it. Our future depends on the knowledge this collection of suppressed stories allows us." -San Diego Review

~April

Fleshing Out Philosophy

The NEW Great Ideas Series from Penguin. These slender little volumes are $10 each and are just slim enough to slide into a back pocket. Check out the Great Ideas website to see the other three series available... Let us know if you see one you want that isn't on our list -- we can order it for you!

We have each of the editions listed below.

Plutarch - In Consolation to his Wife
Robert Burton - Some Anatomies of Melancholy
Blaise Pascal - Human Happiness
Adam Smith - The Invisible Hand
Edmund Burke - The Evils of Revolution
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Nature
Søren Kierkegaard - The Sickness Unto Death
Leo Tolstoy - A Confession
William Morris - Useful Work versus Useless Toil
Frederick Jackson Turner - The Significance of the Frontier in American History
Marcel Proust - Days of Reading
Leon Trotsky - An Appeal to the Toiling, Oppressed and Exhausted Peoples of Europe

Several weeks ago two local poets came to read in Grass Roots. I hadn’t had the chance to sit down and enjoy a reading in months. As I listened to their voices fill the room, I relaxed into a state of easy bliss. As the evening passed I found that I was deriving as much joy from simply being read to as I was from the actual poetry itself. Perhaps this contentment comes from the many hours I spent in rapt audience to my parents’ ritual nightly read-alouds, I’m not sure. But I do know that listening to human voices breathe life into written words is one of the most comforting pastimes.

I do a lot of reading aloud (since I'm always coming across passages I want to share), but I don’t as often get a chance to listen in. Lately I’ve been daydreaming about some of the books I’d like to have read to me, particularly by the authors themselves. Here are a few…


The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William KamKwamba – because I'm reading it right now and I love it and I love KamKwamba's voice. It is so evident that Kamkwamba comes from a tradition of oral storytelling – he is magnificent as he describes his parents and childhood. I’m only a quarter of the way in, but I’m spellbound.



The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen – for the obvious reasons if you open the back flap and see the author's fine blue eyes. Well, and the fact that this was one of the most intriguing and fun books I read this year. All variety of unusual maps and diagrams fill the margins of the pages – if somebody reads this book to you, you'll need to peek over their shoulder, for sure.


The Memory of Old Jack by Wendell Berry – because Berry's fiction is some of my favorite and last week a trusted customer told me that this is Berry's best. I've never heard Wendell Berry's voice, but I suspect it adds even more depth to his stories.





And my Two Favorite Poets: Mary Oliver (from her Poetry Handbook) and Maurice Manning (from his Bucolics) -- because I’ve heard recordings of Mary Oliver and I love her reading voice, and because I’ve heard Maurice Manning read in person before and it was sublime. Transcendent? Sure.




What book would you like read aloud to you by its author?
Take our poll at right.
~April

Alexandra Day and Carl Charm Corvallis

What a whirlwind visit we had from Alexandra Day and her star dog Carl! For days prior to her visit we were swamped with phone calls from eager fans... "do you have any Carl books? Will the dog really be visiting with Alexandra? Will Alexandra Day sign more than one book per person?"

The answers to all questions were Yes, Yes, Yes!!!

Video clips of Carl and his magnificent tricks -- coming soon!
~April

NASEEM RAKHA EVENT POSTPONED

Such sad news!

Naseem Rakha, author of The Crying Tree, has taken ill and will not be able to give the reading previously scheduled for Tuesday, October 13th at the Arts Center in downtown Corvallis.

Once Naseem is feeling better we'll reschedule the reading/singing and you'll be the first to know the new dates!

Best wishes to Naseem for a speedy and easy recovery.

~Grass Roots Staff

Alexandra Day Coming to Town

And yes, Alexandra is bringing Carl along...



Alexandra Day and Carl
Book Signing
Tuesday October 13th 4:30-6pm
Grass Roots Books and Music







Alexandra Day and Carl
Discussion and Signing
Wednesday October 14th 7:30-9pm
Corvallis Arts Center
Downtown Corvallis

Books will be available at each event for purchase and signing.

The Joy of Returning, Continued

To continue my post from last night, here are four more of the new books which have grabbed my attention since my return after a week away from the store.

For any techie who loves classic literature:
Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Don't Float: Classic Lit Signs on to Facebook by Sarah Schmelling
It's not often that Gabrielle and I weaken enough to bring books home to our personal bookshelves (working in a bookstore as a book lover requires a definite degree of resolve in order to avoid abject poverty as the result of dedicating our paychecks to supporting our bibliophilia). This book, however, has nearly seduced us. This book is clever! And silly! Written in the format of Facebook news feeds and profiles, this is a series of dialogs between our favorite classic lit authors and characters. Particularly amusing, read the comments characters and authors leave on each others' "walls" (e.g. Tolkein's comments on Shakespeare's news feed, or Bridget Jones' comments to Jane Austen).

This is Not a Book by Keri Smith
This book is so sweet (even if it claims not to be a book)! A playful activity book for grown-ups, finally. Page 156, for example, says "this is a RANDOM ADVENTURE. 1. go outside. 2. Walk until you see something red. 3. Take ten steps. 4. Look down at your feet and describe what you see in detail." Other pages include ethnographic studies, escape capsules, action sculptures, friends, annoyances, dares, secret identities, miniature book factories, and sets of directions. Young adults will love this book, too.

Life in the Boreal Forest by Brenda Z. Guiberson, Illustrated by Gennady Spirin
Hey, this book is beautiful. Have you seen Spirin's artwork before? He's won five gold medals from the Society of Illustrators. Aimed for children aged 5-10, this nonfiction narrative leads readers through the boreal forests of Canada and Russia. Did you know that bears in these forests must accumulate five-inch layers of fat to keep warm through the winter?

I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar: A Collection of Egregious Errors, Disconcerting Bloopers, and Other Linguistic Slip-Ups by Sharon Eliza Nichols
This book is pretty hilarious, particularly if you're a language nut. These photos
of signs, notes, and even icing inscriptions on birthday cakes will make you chuckle, from small watermelons advertised as "personnel watermelons" to "beach access closed do to beach erosion."

The Joy of Returning

I never like to leave the bookstore for long, but last weekend I traveled to Pennsylvania for a quick visit home. Can you imagine how much changes in a bookstore in one week? I returned to Grass Roots this afternoon and was overwhelmed. New beautiful books smiling and leaping into my open arms from every shelf!!!

I was so overjoyed by the new bookstore residents that I had to catalog some of them here for you. Here's a peek at the source of my joy.


The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
I'm always on the lookout for books to recommend to my mother. I can't wait to tell her about this one (and I hope my book group reads it someday). This is the true story of a young man who grew up in Malawi and started building electricity-generating and water-pumping windmills out of scrap metal, tractor parts, and bicycle halves. Kamkwamba has received international attention for his efforts and inventions. Co-authored by journalist Bryan Mealer. Visit this great website to learn more about Kamkwamba and his projects: Moving Windmills Project. I suspect this might be a great follow-up for those folks who loved Three Cups of Tea and Mountains Beyond Mountains.


The Little Prince Deluxe Pop-Up Book; Unabridged Edition, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Ah, ah, ah, this magnificent book is finally here in the store resting on our very own shelves in all its sweetness and glory. The original charming illustrations now try to kiss your nose when you turn the pages! Stop by to delight in this clever adaptation in person.


Prairie Home Companion Pretty Good Joke Book, 5th Edition; introduced by Garrison Keillor
I love Garrison Keillor and I love his annual joke show, partly because it always coincides with my April Fool's birthday. My first impulse is to ship this to my little brother in Chia Yi, Taiwan, since he's my favorite joker, but I wonder who he would share the jokes with, since most of his conversations are in Mandarin? Here's just one:

Did you hear Willie Nelson got hit by a car?
He was playing on the road again.


Signspotting III: Lost and Loster in Translation, compiled by Doug Lansky
This book had me chuckling so much my co-worker came across the store to check on me. This is a snapshot collection of awkward signage... want to make a stop at the Death Valley Health Center? Hang your jacket in the Cloa Kroom? And what does this mean? Octopus is available at the EXIT of the car park!


Bananagrams
This isn't a book - it's a game, and I love it! Imagine lots of scrabble tiles inside a yellow bag that looks like a banana... and imagine a game based around anagrams... and you have bananagrams! I've been playing this with my family and with my housemates and we've all been tickled. You can buy the Bananagrams book separately for some extra challenges.

I'm out of time now, but check back tomorrow for the rest of my list!
~April

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Everybody has been telling me (for aaages) that I MUST read The Book Thief. I may never have gotten around to it except that one of the book clubs I'm a member of decided to discuss it this month.

So, yesterday, on the airplane, I decided to take the plunge and open those pages. Kazaam! I recall now that even my father went out of his way to tell me how much I'd enjoy this book.

The Book Thief is set in Nazi Germany and is narrated by death. Our focus is young Liesel as she navigates the stricken town of Molching, outside of Munich, Germany.

Pick it up, you won't put it down.

Pulitzer Poetry

W. S. Merwin's 2009 Pulitzer Prize winning poetry collection, The Shadow of Sirius, has been released recently in paperback. I picked up a copy this afternoon and was transported instantly. Here's one of the poems:

Nocturne II

August arrives in the dark

we are not even asleep and it is here
with a gust of rain rustling before it
how can it be so late all at once
somewhere the Perseids are falling
toward us already at a speed that would
burn us alive if we could believe it
but in the stillness after the rain ends
nothing is to be heard but the drops falling
one at a time from the tips of the leaves
into the night and I lie in the dark
listening to what I remember
while the night flies on with us into itself

Another collection from a Pulitzer Prize winning poet was on the shelving cart today: A Village Life by Louise Gluck. Here's a poem from Gluck's collection:

Sunset

At the same time as the sun's setting,
a farm worker's burning dead leaves.

It's nothing, this fire.
It's a small thing, controlled,
like a family run by a dictator.

Still, when it blazes up, the farm worker disappears;
from the road, he's invisible.

Compared to the sun, all the fires here
are short-lived, amateurish--
they end when the leaves are gone.
Then the farm worker reappears, raking the ashes.

But the death is real.
As though the sun's done what it came to do,
made the field grow, then
inspired the burning of earth.

So it can set now.

Last Week's Poll Results

Children's picture book winners: Top 4

Where the Wild Things Are

Wynken Blynken, and Nod

The Little Engine that Could

Blueberries for Sal






Story book winners: Top 3

Redwall Series

Anne of Green Gables

Little House Series

Three Good Poetry Anthologies

My home has been filled with verse of late. It started when I contracted a strange condition requiring me to read a poem each morning in order to summon the energy to crawl from bed. This affliction was not born of desire but necessity: only poetry could open the morning for me. This new routine soon extended itself downstairs into the common living area. "Here's a poem," I'd greet my housemates for breakfast, "listen up."

What collections could possibly inspire such imposing behavior? Ah, my favorite poetry anthologies of all time…

Good Poems, collected by Garrison Keillor wins first prize. These poems are arranging into nineteen sections, beginning with "O, Holy," passing through "Music" and "Yellow," and ending with "Resurrection." These pages contain poetry appropriate for every moment (e.g. dragging oneself from bed), from Mary Oliver to William Stafford to Galway Kinnell.

A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry edited by Czeslaw Milosz is another favorite -- many of our customers will attest to its brilliance. See more about it below (I mentioned it several blog posts ago).

Another collection has edged itself within my periphery. I acquired
Beloved: Poems of Grief and Gratitude intending to pass it on to a friend. It remains, however, unrelinquished on my nightstand where it has built a semi-permanent nest of feathers and stones. I fear attempting to dislodge it at this point would prove futile, considering its obvious desire to stay. Despite its gentle appearance, this collection possesses a surprising well of power. Don't be fooled by its mossy plumage and soft murmurs: these poems are the soul of resilience and perseverance. Read them to yourself, read them to the world, read them from the top of a tree, read them anywhere, but do read them.

P.S. On a final note...
My poetry dependence has not been confined to my home; it has followed me to work, as well. Last week a customer, when trying to remember a book title, somehow jolted my mind to Vermont poet David Budbill. I was so excited about Budbill that the customer left without ordering the book he'd originally wanted, and instead went to the library to see if my enthusiasm for Budbill was contagious or not. It was, and he came in a week later to loan me a collection he had since acquired in his newfound delight. Rereading Budbill, years after first discovering him, I find he as just as spectacularly breathtaking as he ever was.

Roald Dahl Funny Prize Shortlist Announced

The Roald Dahl Funny Prize will be announced on November 10th. Two lists of contending titles have been compiled. Which book do you find funniest?

Funniest book for children aged six and under:
The Great Dog Bottom Swap by Peter Bently, illustrated by Mei Matsuoka
Octopus Socktopus by Nick Sharratt
Elephant Joe Is a Spaceman! by David Wojtowycz
Crocodiles Are the Best Animals of All! by Sean Taylor, illustrated by Hannah Shaw
Mr Pusskins Best in Show by Sam Lloyd
The Pencil by Allan Ahlberg, illustrated by Bruce Ingman

The funniest book for children aged seven to 14:
The Galloping Ghost by Hilda Offen
Eating Things on Sticks by Anne Fine, illustrated by Kate Aldous
Grubtown Tales: Stinking Rich and Just Plain Stinky by Philip Ardagh, illustrated by Jim Paillot
The Boy in the Dress by David Walliams, illustrated by Quentin Blake
Purple Class and the Half-Eaten Sweater by Sean Taylor, illustrated by Helen Bate
Ribblestrop by Andy Mulligan

One of our favorite customers just turned us on to this clip from NPR. Listen to Robert Hass read the poem "In a Parish" by Czeslaw Milosz during an interview with Terry Gross. This interview was recorded just a few weeks after September 11th in 2001 but was aired for a second time just a a few days ago.

Click here:
Robert Hass reads Czeslaw Milosz

Czeslaw Milosz is the editor of A Book Of Luminous Things: An International Anthology Of Poetry published in 1998 -- one of the very best anthologies out there.
~April

Two New Polls!!!

Two new polls are up -- scroll down to find them both on the right hand side of the screen. Oh, how difficult it was to narrow down your choices! You can vote on more than one answer, however, so have a ball... Oh, this makes me want to return again to my childhood bookshelf... You know what I left off the poll? My Side of the Mountain, oh, I loved that book! And Hatchet and Rascal (oh, Rascal!) and Where the Red Fern Grows! And Summer of the Monkeys (I remember I lost the library copy for over a year and finally found it underneath my mattress).

What a fantastically lovely genre, hm? Sing the praises, sing them loud, those young adult books are sooooooo good... oh, who remembers The Cay? They're all flooding back to me, now...
~April

Last Week's Poll Results

Last week we asked what book you would recommend to the Obamas...

Transition Handbook 4 votes
The Naked Civil Servant 0 votes
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin 2 votes
One Straw Revolution 1 vote
The Groucho Letters 2 votes
The Worst Hard Time 2 votes
Ulysses 0 votes


The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependence to Local Resilience (by Rob Hopkins) wins!!! Yay -- we love this book (and if you haven't met this book yet, you'll want a copy as soon as you peek inside the front cover).

Thanks for voting!!!

Next Week's Poll

Our poll for next week is going to inquire which picture books AND which story books you favored as a child (or as an adult). Give us suggestions here, in the store, or on our facebook page, so we can come up with with a good representation of titles for the multiple choices.

Some ideas for inspiration...

Picture Books:
Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
Anything by Cooper Edens
The Runaway Bunny
Katie and the Big Snow
The Little Engine that Could
The Story of the Root Children by Van Olfers

Stories:
Swallows and Amazons
Betsy and Tacy
My Father's Dragon
Anne of Green Gables
Wind in the Willows
Watership Down

Let us know! I want to know!!!

A Poem for Today

I love visiting Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac online every day. Today his entry inspired me to post a poem here on our blog. This poem is in honor of the letters my own Papa so diligently mails me (and the leaves from my own Pennsylvanian homeland I have suspended over my pillow). ~April

This poem is excerpted from Poems to Live By in Troubling Times, edited by Joan Murray.

A Comfort Spell
by Maxine Silverman

I.
My father's teeth gap slightly.
Easy to spit seeds,
a natural grace.

II.
"Pa," I write, "I'm low."
"Better soon," he swears. "Soon. Soon.
You're talkin to one who knows."

Lord, it's nearly time. October.
He'll pick some leaves off our sugar maples,
pressed, send them to New York.
Flat dry leaves,
and rusty rich.
Pa stays in Missouri,
bets the underdog each tv game,
and the home team, there or away.

"Lord," he whistles through his teeth,
"that boy's a runnin fool. Mercy me."

He names himself:
Patrick O'Silverman,
one of the fightinest!

Melancholy crowds him spring and fall,
regular
seasonal despair,
his brain shocked, his smile fraught with prayer.
I offer what remains of my childhood.
I offer up this comfort spell.

Whoever you are, run in nearly morning
to the center of the park.
There, rooted in the season,
maples send out flame.
Gather you to the river the furious leaf.
Mercy
Mercy Buck Up
Mercy Me
Mercy
Mercy Buck Up
Mercy Me

"Pa," I call, "what's new?"
"Nothin much. We're gettin on."

"Pa," I sing, "your leaves came today."
"Oh Maggie," he cries, "just want
to share the fall."

Week One Poll Results

Our Week One Polls Were:

Which author would you most prefer to spend an afternoon with?
Mary Oliver 3 votes
Maurice Sendak 2 votes
Barbara Kingsolver 2 votes
David Sedaris 2 votes
Chuck Palahniuk 2 votes
Jonathan Safran Foer 2 votes
Alexander McCall Smith 1 votes
Howard Zinn 2 votes
Jeanette Walls 1 votes
Billy Collins 0 votes

Which genre is most represented on your bookshelf?
Fiction 5 votes
Poetry 3 votes
Biography 1 votes
Science 1 votes
Art 1 votes
Politics
& International Affairs 0 votes
Travel & Adventure 1 votes
Nature Writing 2 votes
Religious & Spiritual 3 votes
Food & Cooking 2 votes
Gardening & Home 2 votes
Humor 1 votes
History & Current Affairs 2 votes
Health 1 votes
Kids & Young Adult 2 votes

Thanks for voting -- vote again this week!!!

What Book Would you Give the Obamas?

Next week's poll is going to be "what book would you give to the Obamas?"

Well, coming up with poll questions isn't terrifically difficult -- it's coming up with the multiple choices that presents a challenge. So what would YOU give the Obamas? We need to come up with a good list of suggestions in time for me to publish the next poll on Thursday.

Comment below -- tell us what you'd like to see the the President -- or the First Lady -- or the kids -- reading.

~April

P.S. Some suggestions already supplied by customers: Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency To Local Resilience by Rob Hopkins; The Naked Civil Servant by Quentin Crisp; the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin; One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka; Groucho and Me by Groucho Marx; The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan; and, as a family read, Ulysses by James Joyce.

Weekend Browsing

Which books do we keep picking up to snoop through? Come bury your nose in these (if you can pry them out of our hands).





Next to Gabrielle's beaming face: Redeemed: Stumbling Toward God, Sanity, and the Peace That Passes All Understanding by Heather King (a biography).
Held happily aloft by Samantha: Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan (a debut novel and an IndieNext pick for August).

In April's adoring arms: Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti by Moore and Prain (remember Guerrilla Gardening? well, these photos elicit similar joy and astonishment).



We hope you're enjoying your weekend as much as we are!

Come visit!!!

New Picture Books!

Working in a bookstore is rather a blessing... we get to look through all of the new books that come in! Today was a particularly good day for new children's books. I wanted to put so many of the new books on our "Favorite Kids' Books" shelf that they wouldn't all actually fit. So I figured I could preview some of them here so you can share in my delight a little.

Cat Dreams by Ursula K. Le Guin, Illustrated by S. D. Schindler
This gorgeous book wanders through kitty dreamland, where mice rain from the sky, catnip trees abound, dogs run away, and fountains run with milk. This sweet little story is written in rhyme and would be great for toddlers as there aren't very many words on each page. Quite wonderful, magical, and lovely. Yawn! Now I want to take a cat nap, too...

Peaceful Heroes by Jonah Winter, Illustrated by Sean Addy
Intended as inspiration for the youngsters of today, this is a collection of short biographies of 14 people who made a peaceful impact in the world. Featured heroes hail from a wide range of cultures, religions, time periods, and conflicts. This book, aimed at 9-12 year-olds, is primarily textual but includes great portrait illustrations by Sean Addy.

All of Me: A Book of Thanks by Molly Bang
Another book for the toddlers! This is very sweet and I love the multi-media illustrations. This book is lots of fun and is easily interactive -- I want to read it with some little kids!

Late Summer Diversions

Summer isn’t over yet!

We still have a few weeks to relish before schedules tighten up as our students and teachers return to school. Meanwhile, berries are in the height of the season; squash remains prolific; night skies are bright and clear; and Sunday afternoons come sweet and warm.

While I've been spending most evenings collapsed at the kitchen table while the pressure canner boils away, I realize that food preservation is not necessarily a universal obsession. For those of you who do love to cook, eat, preserve, and otherwise revel in the bounty of the season, you should definitely visit our current front desk display (oh yes, canning books, berry books, and food books galore).

For those of you seeking diversion beyond your stovetop, what last summer activities will you partake in before fall rolls in with cloudy skies? We’ve set up several little tables around the store displaying our favorite ideas… Here's a sneak peek:

1. Take a local wine and cheese tour (on your bike, perhaps?): Tami Parr’s book of Artisan Cheese has a whole section devoted to the Willamette Valley, as does Steve Roberts’ Wine Trails of Oregon.

2. Get out for some stargazing. Whether you want a hard core planet ID guide; a detailed manual for Oregon stargazing; a quick pocket reference to the constellations; a natural history of the study of falling stars; a constellation guide for your kids; or a rotary-style sky chart, we’ve got it waiting for you.

3. Tune yourself up for the change in seasons: we have great options for any activity level, including gorgeous photograph guides to yoga poses, books on tai chi, chi running, practicing mind/body awareness, karate, and more.

4. Gather the family, neighbors, or strangers for a BBQ in the backyard, front yard, or park. Break out some new and shockingly good recipes (reviewed and endorsed by our very own Oregonian and local grillers). Try out some wood fired cooking while you're at it...

Summer might be winding down, but we’re just winding up, right?

Have a great week (and have some fun).

~April

Books of This Generation?

Several weeks ago I posted the web address of a blogger in the UK who had posed the question of which books and authors are formative for today's young adults. The query has stuck with me and when, last Saturday, I found my house swarming with several dozen 20-somethings, I saw my chance to ask.

"So," I said, "our parents reoriented their lives after reading authors like Kerouac and Vonnegut. What books made an impression on you? Which ones made you reconsider your own lives? What are the books that will define our own generation?

A fairly lengthy silence ensued.

"We all read Harry Potter," somebody volunteered. "Did it have a formative effect on you?" I asked. We decided Harry Potter may not have been life changing, but that it was certainly one of the only books we all had in common. We hashed the conversation in several directions and eventually reached several conclusions (see below) including the significant fact that Kerouac and many other classics are still completely relevant.

With some additional prodding I was able to begin a list of contemporary books important to my generation. When I returned to the store on Monday, I continued my research by interrogating customers.

Here's a peek at my List-In-Progress of the authors and books that have helped shaped my generation:


Chuck Palahniuk: Fight Club. I read this earlier in the spring and was rather blown away. A bit frightening to me, but this book has wide appeal among my peers. His most recent book is Pygmy.

Jonathan Safran Foer: Everything is Illuminated. "Simple, clear, complex, and full of the absurdities of life" says Gabrielle, though she says she liked Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close even better.

Dave Eggers: What is the What. A fictionalized memoir of Valentino Achak Deng, a real-life refugee from the Sudanese civil war. Eggers also wrote A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.

And of course:
John Krakauer (Into the Wild)
Greg Mortenson (Three Cups of Tea)
Leif Enger (Peace Like A River)
Paul Farmer (Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues) (hugely impacted me in high school, though I'm not sure about anybody else)

And Some of the Relevant Classics
Aldo Leopold
Jack Kerouac
Herman Hesse
Helen and Scott Nearing's Good Life (again, a book that changed my life, and possibly some other teens during the early aughts).

What would YOU add to the list?
Let us know -- add a comment below.

As promised above, here are some of the ideas that came up during our conversation:
1. Much of our contemporary fiction is written "like a movie" and focuses too much on keeping us turning the pages.
2. The classics are still relevant
3. So many writers, so many books – can anyone beside Harry Potter reach a wide audience anymore to have an effect across an entire generation?
4. The 60s and 70s saw a lot of liberation and change… are we exposed to as many new or radical ideas as we may have been in the past?