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Where the Love of Books and Music is Always Brewing
227
SW 2nd Corvallis, Oregon 97333 Tel: 541-754-7668
email groots@peak.org
Mon
- Thur: 9am - 7pm; Fri: - 9am - 9pm; Sat:
- 9:30am - 5:30pm; Sun: - 11am - 5pm
After love, book collecting is the most exhilarating sport of all. -- A Book Hunter's Holiday, A. S. W. Rosenbach
Title of Book:
Bridget Jones' Diary (order)
Author of Book: Helen
Fielding
"Sunday 26
February
126 lbs., alcohol units 5 (drowning sorrows), cigarettes 23 (fumigating
sorrows), calories 3856 (smothering sorrows in fat duvet)." –
From Bridget Jones' Diary
It's not fluff. It's fun. There's a difference. Bridget Jones' Diary is pure fun. Helen Fielding is a terrific writer and this time her vehicle is in diary form, i.e., daily entries by Bridget--her lovable, funny, chaotic, "singleton" character. A quick read, Bridget Jones is "v." charming and downright hysterical. Get to know Bridget and her pals, then read the sequel, Edge of Reason. Hurrah!
Author of Book: Petra Mathers
O, Herbie, unlikely hero, unappreciated poet! "A: Artie chews, Artie swallows, artichokes! … Listen to these cookies shout, open up! Let us out!" In Petra Mathers’ sweet, beautifully illustrated childrens book, Herbie the duck enters a local poetry contest and is quickly, before he can make his way through his poetic version of the alphabet, heckled off the stage. Embarrassed and generally down and out, Herbie hides by a dumpster behind a restaurant (where he, no doubt, contemplates his future, artistic worth, and choices in general!), when the chef (a mouse) arrives on the scene. "Hey, look you guys, this is Herbie. I found him sitting on the curbie." Kindred spirits! Herbie is invited in where he meets more friendly faces, like "…sweaty Betty…" who, with a colander on her head, tells him he "…looks like he needs some spaghetti." Herbie is nourished and newly inspired. Although the book states age appropriateness as being four to eight, my three-year-old niece and I have it memorized and quote Herbie’s poetry to each other every chance we get! It’s in my library next to Mathers’ other masterpieces: Lottie’s New Beach Towel and Lottie’s new Friend. All three titles explore life’s challenges, friendship and fun. My niece and I, along with other Lottie and Herbie fans, anxiously await Mathers’ fourth offering!
Title of Book:
Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush (order)
Author of Book: Molly
Ivins
"Villainy wears
many masks, none so dangerous as the mask of virtue." – W. Irving
"We must complain.
Yes, plain, blunt complaint, ceaseless agitation, unfailing exposure of
dishonesty and wrong -- this is the ancient, unerring way to liberty,
and we must follow it." – W. E. B. DuBois
I thought about reading it last fall. I was sure that I would. When it
became evident that the "Short …political life" part was no longer true,
I decided I’d hold off. I didn’t think that I could process that much
bad news at one time without damaging the book. Then it arrived in the
mail disguised as a Christmas present gift from a friend who works on
the hill in D. C. –a friend who knows my politics and my love for political
writer/humorist Molly Ivins. Ah, fair cruelty. Well, whatever your politics,
Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush by Molly
Ivins and Lou Dubose is a great read. Ivins will enlighten any audience
about Dubya’s political versus governing skills. Her inimitable wit and
wealth of knowledge, especially about the politics of her native state
captivates with colorful Texan language. Though it serves up some distasteful
information (and it’s all facts, folks), it’s easier to swallow when Molly’s
the chef. As aware and informed as she is, if she’s still laughing, so
can we. After all, "Life is too important to be taken seriously." Oscar
Wilde said that. And, ah… "Rarely is the questions asked: Is our children
learning?" George W. Bush said that. Sigh. Pass the pepto-bismol.
Title of Book:
Prodigal Summer (order)
Author of Book: Barbara
Kingsolver
"But solitude is only
a human presumption. Every quiet step is thunder to beetle life underfoot;
every choice is a world made new for the chosen. All secrets are witnessed."
Thus begins and ends Barbara Kingslover's latest novel. Prodigal Summer
is a sensuous celebration of life set in the Appalachian mountains and
surrounding small farms. Like any object of strong desire, Prodigal
Summer is easily, eagerly devoured, yet parting with it is difficult.
Heighten your senses--Prodigal Summer is sure to awaken all of
them--begging you to follow your instincts.
Read what Barbara Kingsolver has to say about independent booksellers.
Title of Book:
The Way Forward is With a Broken Heart (order)
Author of Book: Alice
Walker
This quote from Alice
Walker's newest book gives a sense of what the book is about, and is,
I think, in and of itself, a lovely piece.
"You do not talk to me now, a fate I could not have imagined... . Love does not accept barriers of any kind. Not even that of Time itself... . I miss you. We were good people. And together we were good. Allies and friends. Too good to have those years stolen from us, even by our grief."
Authors of Book: Dave Freeman and Neil Teplica
This is a fabulous guide to festivals and events from around the world. Everything from Mardi Gras in New Orleans to Marathon des Sables in Morocco is covered by this duo. Each event has a list of icons depicting what to expect. For example, a roll of toilet paper suggests that this is going to be "down and dirty," whereas a flying $ is a "shoppertunity." All the pertinent information is provided such as dates, locations, what to expect, etc. To top it all off, it is also an enjoyable read. These guys have great senses of humor.
Authors of Book: Robert Levine, Meredith Hamilton Illustrator
The Story of the Orchestra takes us on a fabulous tour of the orchestra and the type of music it plays. Levine covers everyone from Vivaldi and Baroque music to Gershwin and Modern music. After learning about these people and groups, we learn about the sections of the orchestra and the various instruments in each section. Excitingly, this is all accompanied by a CD that has excerpts from pieces that exemplify each topic. For example, while reading about the cello, you can listen to Rossini's William Tell Overture, which has a beautiful cello introduction. I highly recommend this for anyone who has a child just starting in music, or to parents who want to spark a musical interest for a child.
Author of Book: Greg Tang, Harry Briggs (Illustrator)
This is a brand new book to our shelves and is absolutely wonderful. It is found in the children's gift section. Grapes Of Math is a counting book that shows children different methods of counting. Each exercise is set up as a poetic riddle which gives you hints on how to count such things as camel humps without having to count each individual one. The title itself should give you a fairly good idea of the ingenious humor that goes into this one. It is a refreshing way for adults and children alike to look at math.
Author of Book: Jennifer Bennett
As stated by Blue Crow, a local poet, this is "...a collection of lyric poems that speak from the intimate and transforming truths of being a womyn 'alive and awake in (her) wild life...dancing to a heart song played by Mother Earth." This collection is exhilarating, refreshing and encouraging...not to mention written by a local author. It is poetry that has touched my heart.
Title of Book:
Galileo's Daughter (order)
Author of Book: Dava
Sobel
My love of math and
science are no hidden secret here at the bookstore. So, naturally I was
drawn to this book. I put off reading it (for no reason, really) until
I found out it was going to be the book for Grass Roots book group's December
reading. As I read, I was pulled into the personal lives of Galileo and
his family. Galileo suddenly became a witty and charming man, whereas
before he was merely another historical figure. Sobel's book reads as
a novel with eloquent phrasing and page-turning events that keep the reader
enchanted and wanting more.
Title of Book:
Undertow (order)
Author of Book: Amy
Schutzer
This is the most recent
book published by Calyx. Written in a surrealistic dream quality, Schutzer
carries the reader from beginning to end on clouds of color and with twists
of passion.
Author of Book: Hawk Madrone
Madrone shares her very personal account of living in virtual solitude through poignant essays and poetry that will make you laugh and cry. This is a beautiful life journey that has been exquisitely written and photographed.
Author of Book: Arturo Perez-Reverte
The Fencing Master is set in Spain in the late 1860s, a time when the sword was being replaced by the gun (or rather, the pistol) and duels were going out of style. The fencing master himself is much like Cyrano de Bergerac, an idealist upholding a set of internal principles he has come to regard as totally his own., since they are no longer observed in the society around him. Contrary to these principles, the "master" is drawn into dangerous political intrigues when a woman becomes his pupil. But what makes this novel really fine is that it is, finally, a novel of character, and the character is clear, strong, and unusual.
Title of Book:
Chez Panisse Café Cookbook (order)
Author of Book: Alice
Waters
A collection of irresistible
recipes from Berkeley's legendary Chez Panisse Restaurant, the bastion
of fresh food cookery.
Title of Book:
Force of Character and the Lasting Life (order)
Author of Book: James
Hillman
In a followup to his
bestselling Soul's Code, pioneering Jungian analyst Hillman argues that
the changes brought about by old age have purposes and values intended
by the psyche. As we grow older, our true nature more fully emerges.
Author of Book: Erik Larson
This is forecast to become the big nature adventure story of the season. The title's storm happened in turn of the century Galveston - a hurricane of devastating proportions. At the center of the story is Isaac Cline, an overconfident man of misdirected genius who convinced the town of the small likelihood that the storm would hit Galveston.
Author of Book: Pam Houston
Author of two fiction collections, Cowboys Are My Weakness and Waltzing the Cat, this is Pam Houston's first book of essays. In these personal writings, the author searches for personal and global balance as she travels the world looking for home.
Author of Book: Richard Bach
Bach's first new book in six years begins as the author searches for a hard to find part for his beloved Piper Cub airplane. His journey leads him to discover a parallel universe where he learns of the world of astonishing possibilities at our disposal.
Author of Book: Diane Ackerman
Diane Ackerman's new collection of essays might be a fitting echo to Joseph Campbell's oft-repeated commandment to "follow your bliss." Like Csikszentmihalyi's Flow of a couple years back, Deep Play explores the moments in which we are fully alive, transcendence Ackerman calls "deep play". Wherever we encounter moments of deep play, all our senses engaged, there our lives are enriched, whether the causal activity be artistic, athletic or spiritual. "Deep play," she writes, "is a fascinating hallmark of being human; it reveals our need to seek a special brand of transcendence, with a passion that makes thrill-seeking explicable, creativity possible, and religion inevitable."
Author of Book: Melissa Banks
While this book's title might lead a browser to expect a Girl Scouts' wilderness primer, a quick read will reveal Melissa Banks' first book as a novel with great potential. Like last year's Bridget Jones' Diary, Girls' Guide explores with great humor the territory of human relationships. What sets the books apart is Banks' tendency for more sophistication and gravity in her book's proceedings. Each chapter reads like a separate story, held together by the narrator's presence (at different ages from chapter to chapter) and her lifelong quest to understand what brings love into a relationship. The most on-target portrayal is that which opens Girls' Guide, in which a 14 year old Jane Rosenal, wise beyond her years, watches her older brother and his new girlfriend for clues on how to fall in love.
Author of Book: by Patricia Hampl
Like Annie Dillard or Nancy Mairs, Patiricia Hampl's collections of essays extend the everyday into the realm of abiding truth. Her followup to Romantic Education and Virgin Time is a memoir about memoirs - reflections on memory. For certain, the short essays which populate this book are far more engaging than this description promises. Writes poet Mark Doty, "Patricia Hampl is simply one of our best: a stylist of uncommon grace, a writer of absolute clarity, and a thinker whose unfailing intelligence is always informed by feeling. This book looks so deeply into the relation between memory and imagination as to become a guide, for both writers and readers, to what Virginia Woolf called "life-writing." I Could Tell You Stories is about the work of becoming oneself on the page - the pages one writes and the pages one reads."
Author of Book: by John Leonard
John Leonard is of the rare breed of literary critic accessible to the average educated reader. He is a writer who regards the revered names of our contemporary literary pantheon - Pynchon, Delillo, Morrison, Garcia Marquez, etc. - through the haze of popular culture, establishing a dialog which illumines both worlds. Not just book reviews, not just cultural critique, but an enlightening, engaging, even funny hybrid of the above. Kurt Vonnegut himself raves, "it is as though I, while simply looking for the men's room, blundered into a lecture by the smartest man who ever lived."
Author of Book: by Ray Suarez
Here is a fascinating exploration of the restlessness of the American soul by the seemingly all-knowing host of NPR's Talk of the Nation. With his perfect ear for the voice of today's everyman, Suarez records the thoughts of current and departed city dwellers to puzzle out the fate of our urban centers in light of the recent flight from our great cities. Crime, racial division and poor schools have drained many urban centers of their people resources. What will be the effect on the wellbeing of the city? A superbly capable man has drawn in Old Neighborhood a compassionate and graceful hymn to a threatened American way of life.
Author of Book: by Robert Bly, editor
This annual is always eagerly awaited by poetic sorts. While most names included in the millennium's end edition are familiar enough to even the part time poetry reader, there is no better way to find new poets to peruse than to spend some time in Best American Poetry.
Author of Book: by Alex Shoumatoff
New Yorker Shoumatoff writes an insightful and sympathetic portrait of the American Southwest. From Mormons to myths, the book is built from short and eloquent blocks of memoir, travelogue and environmental study.
Author of Book: by Simon Winchester
1998's surprise holiday bestseller. The tale of the obsessions of two men who contributed to the ambitious bringing to life of the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. As the overseeing committee for the OED discovers, the most prolific contributor to the dictionary, somehow never able to actually visit Oxford, is an inmate at an asylum.
Author of Book: by Yitta Halberstam & Judith Leventhal
The third book in the celebrated Small Miracles series. This one, subtitled, "Remarkable Coincidences of Warmth and Devotion," highlights stories which describe the strong bonds of love and friendship.
Author of Book: by Susan Fox Rogers
Susan Fox Rogers' latest anthology brings together original essays in an effort to represent the unexplored territory in modern lesbian life. The result is a compelling argument for a clarification of lesbian identity, outside of sex or romance... . and a few you might have missed.
Author of Book: by Nicole Mones
This Portland writer's first novel spans an appealing literary space across the realms of mystery, cultural exchange and love story. Alice Mannegan has come to China to lose herself from her father, and finds work with an American archaeologist as a translator. As the narrator, the archaeologist, and a guide move forward in their quest to find the bones of the Peking Man, they are forced to reckon with their pasts. Each, it seems, has an ulterior reason for being where they are and doing what they do, reasons which are gradually revealed in a sublte play of personalities, motivations, and misunderstandings.
Author of Book: by Tona Pearce Myers, editor
Human creativity is as diverse as the collection of artists and writers Myers has assembled for this rewarding book. Diane Ackerman, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Riane Eisler, Eric Maisel, SARK, Kent Nerburn - all resoundingly successful artists, each contributes a personal story about creativity in their life. The essays are brought together in five chapters, which mark the stages of creativity: Brush with Inspiration, The Creative Process, The Dark Side, The Healing Power, and The Spiritual Practice.
Author of Book: by Clemens Starck
Oregon's blue collar poet and author of Journeyman's Wages recounts in prose and poetry his preoccupation with learning the Russian language and culture. Starck's last collection merited him both the Oregon Book Award and the William Stafford Memorial Poetry Award, as well as a reading on Garrison Keillor's "Writers' Almanac" on Public Radio.
