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?

Welcome!

Welcome to the Grass Roots Blog, where you'll hear from the staff about favorite books and music, new titles, news from the literature world, and goings-on about the store.

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~April and the other Grass Rooters