March 2011 5 Saturday, March 5, 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 15, 7 p.m. 15 Saturday, March 26, 6 p.m. Mar 11 Charles King Michael Farquhar Mar 11 26Mar 11 Odessa Behind The Palace Doors Unfamiliar Fishes (W.W. Norton, $27.95) (Random House, $15) (Riverhead, $25.95) The great port city on the Black Sea was founded From the author of The Treasury of Royal Vowell’s latest tour of American social history in 1794 and by 1940 had survived plagues and Scandals and The Treasury of Foolishly Forgotten takes her to . With her trademark dry wars to become a thriving cosmopolitan metropo- Americans, this profile of British royalty from the wit Vowell, author of and lis with a large Jewish population. But by 1944 Tudors to the Windsors presents the follies, pas- a contributing editor for public radio’s This only a few dozen Jews remained there. In charting sions, and ambitions of a long line of monarchs American Life, retraces the steps of the 19th-cen- Odessa’s dramatic rise and fall, King focuses on the brilliant figures, and consorts. tury missionaries who tried to turn the islands such as Isaac Babel and Sergei Eisenstein, who made it what it was. into another New England. 16 Wednesday, March 16, 7 p.m. Sunday, March 6, 5 p.m. Mar 11 David Brooks Sunday, March 27, 1 p.m. Tom Shroder The Social Animal Mark Richard 27Mar 11 Oct6 10 Fire On The Horizon (Random House, $27) House Of Prayer No. 2 (HarperCollins, $27.99) Harold and Erica are a paradigm of success: (Nan A. Talese, $23.95) The oil rig that exploded on April 20, happily married, materially well off, careers on The author of Fishboy grew up as a special needs 2010, had been constructed in South Korea in track. In Brooks’s inventive narrative, the story child; his congenital problems were compounded by 2000 and cost half a billion dollars. Shroder, a of his protagonists is also the story of current clumsy medical treatment. Leaving his native South longtime Washington Post journalist, and John advances in cognitive science, psychology, and for New York City, Richard initially led a rough life, Konrad, an experienced oil rig captain, give a sociology, all of which suggest that people are less involved with crime, drugs, and sketchy compan- detailed account of the Deepwater Horizon from its start to its disas- self-determined than they think. ions. But he kept writing. His memoir is a powerful and unconventional trous finish, including a look at its engineering, crew, and owners. bildungsroman.

7 Monday, March 7, 7 p.m. Sunday, March 27, 5 p.m. Mar 11 Spring Member Sale Steven Goldman and Contributors 27Mar 11 Greg Myre And Jennifer Griffin Baseball Prospectus March 18-20 The Burning Land (John Wiley, $24.95) During the Politics & Prose Spring Member Sale, (John Wiley, $25.95) Plaaay ball!! Well—almost. First, join your fel- members receive 20% o almost all our current book Myre and Griffin, reporters for The New York inventory and 15% o our DVDs and CDs low fans and baseball’s leading analysts to discuss Times and Fox News, respectively, present the the upcoming season. With prescient statistical Year-Round Membership Bene ts Israeli-Palestinian conflict as an asymmetrical war. predictions and entertaining articles, Baseball • 20% off all titles in our monthly events calendar Through interviews with extremists on both sides, Prospectus has become the ultimate guide to baseball players and teams. • 20% off hardcover fiction and nonfiction bestsellers informants, settlers, and ordinary farmers, the • Store-wide discounts during four annual members sales authors show how and why this long-running conflict has eluded tra- Tuesday, March 8, 7 p.m. ditional routes to peace.

Walter Mosley Mar8 11 Friday, March 18, 7 p.m. When The Thrill Is Gone 18Mar 11 Julie Orringer Monday, March 28, 7 p.m.

(Riverhead, $26.95) The Invisible Bridge Téa Obreht 28Mar 11 The third Leonid McGill mystery opens in clas- (Vintage, $15.95) The Tiger’s Wife sic fashion: the beguiling Chrystal Tyler walks In her second book and first novel, this P&P (Random House, $25) into the private-eye’s office. She suspects her bil- favorite charted the lives and loves of Hungarians Obreht was chosen by The New Yorker as one of its lionaire husband is plotting to kill her, and she’ll in Paris in the 1930s in such a fresh and compel- 20 young writers to watch, and her first novel is a pay very well if McGill can help her. He takes the ling way that it made the certainties of World haunting and powerful narrative, rich in myth and case. War II surprise readers almost as much as they folklore. Set in a Balkan village, it follows a young did the characters. Join us for the paperback doctor struggling to help orphans and to heal her 9 Wednesday, March 9, 7 p.m. release of this vivid and accomplished book. own grief at the death of her grandfather. Unexplained occurrences Mar 11 Jonathan Evison around her lead her back to memories, and to stories both told and West Of Here Saturday, March 19, 6 p.m. untold. (Algonquin, $24.95) Alan Paul This second novel by the author of All about Big In China 19Mar 11 Tuesday, March 29, 7 p.m.

Lulu tells the epic story of the Olympic (HarperCollins, $25.99) 29Mar 11 Tina Rosenberg Peninsula. A century after its landscape was Combining the American dreams Join The Club defaced by a dam, people want to restore the of rock stardom and life in an exotic country, (W.W. Norton, $25.95) original grandeur, and the story interweaves Paul, an erstwhile music and baseball journalist, The idea of going along to get along may be a key 21st-century thinking about nature and econom- moved to China when his wife took an assign- to positive social change. Rosenberg, a Pulitzer ics with the gung-ho attitudes of the first European settlers. ment there; he teamed up with Woodie Wu to Prize-winning journalist, has drawn examples form the band Woodie Alan. How this came from around the world of how groups have Thursday, March 10, 7 p.m. 10 about is part of his entertaining memoir, which exerted pressure to improve education, promote Sara Wheeler Mar 11 also includes a tour of today’s booming China. more healthful behavior, and even overthrow dictators. The Magnetic North (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $26) Sunday, March 20, 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 30, 7 p.m. 30 Ten years ago Wheeler’s Terra Incognita recounted 20Mar 11 Jaimy Gordon John Darnton Mar 11 her trip to the Antarctic. Her new book charts a Lord Of Misrule Almost A Family visit to the opposite Pole. During her circuit of (McPherson, $25) (Knopf, $27.95) the Arctic, Wheeler joins the crew of a Russian Winner of the 2010 National Book Award for Darnton was eleven months old when his father icebreaker and teams up with Lapps herding rein- fiction, Gordon’s sixth book is set at Indian died; he grew up knowing him only from stories deer. The lands she visits are not pristine wild country but are haunted Mound Downs, a small West Virginia racetrack, about his life and his career as a reporter during by the terrors of the Gulag and rife with the effects of pollution and in the 1970s. With a flair for language that’s World War II. Decades later, a journalist himself, climate change. as lyrical as it is colloquial, and a cast of vivid Darnton wanted a fuller understanding of the man characters who harbor pasts as turbulent as their who so deeply influenced his life, and this memoir 11 Friday, March 11, 7 p.m. futures are bleak, Gordon tells a tough and moving story. of his search takes him around the world, ending on a beach in Papua Mar 11 Jeff Greenfield New Guinea. Then Everything Changed Monday, March 21, 7 p.m. (Putnam, $26.95) Andre Dubus III 21 Thursday, March 31, 7 p.m. Mar 11 31 After his account of The Real Campaign Townie Mar 11 Joseph Lelyveld Greenfield, CBS News reporter and commenta- (W.W. Norton, $25.95) Great Soul tor, turns to the fantasy of “what if ” for this Unsparing and frank, Dubus tells the (Knopf, $28.95) alternative take on recent American history. riveting story of how he went from a youth of Lelyveld’s biography looks at Mahatma Gandhi What if JFK had been assassinated before taking drugs, street fighting, and bitterness to writing the from the unusual perspective of its subject’s short- office? What if Robert Kennedy had lived and bestselling House of Sand and Fog. Abandoned falls rather than his achievements. The author of been elected president? As in the best fiction, these imagined scenari- by his father, the writer Andre Dubus, when he Move Your Shadow notes that during Gandhi’s os shed new light on the actual events. was twelve, Dubus fils grew up angry and impov- two decades in South Africa, he failed to work erished. But he was also strong and determined, and turned his life for the rights of its black population. Back in India, Gandhi sought Saturday, March 12, 6 p.m. around. to end the caste system and reconcile Hindus and Muslims but wasn’t Meryle Secrest 12Mar 11 able to do so. Despite these disappointments, Lelyved confirms Modigliani Tuesday, March 22, 7 p.m. Gandhi as a powerful, admirable man. (Knopf, $35) 22Mar 11 Del Quinten Wilber The veteran biographer of cultural figures includ- Rawhide Down ing Frank Lloyd Wright, Duveen, and Stephen (Holt, $27) Sondheim, Secrest portrays Modigliani not as On March 31, 1981, John Hinckley, Jr., shot a dissolute Bohemian but as a serious Modern President Reagan and his press secretary, James Children and Teens’ Department artist. Grounded in extensive research, this Brady, outside the Washington Hilton. Wilber, life shows the lengths Modigliani went to hide his tuberculosis and with the sharp skills of a police-beat reporter, cements his status as a major painter. reconstructs that event, including new details Tuesday, March 1, 10:30 a.m. 1 gleaned from extensive interviews with the security personnel, police, Tom Lichtenheld Mar 11 Sunday, March 13, 1 p.m. and doctors involved that day. Cloudette Rabbi Arthur Waskow & 13Mar 11 (Holt, $16.99) Rabbi Phyllis Berman Wednesday, March 23, 7 p.m. This enchanting book from the best- Freedom Journeys Colin Thubron 23Mar 11 selling illustrator of Duck! Rabbit! and (Jewish Lights, $24.99) To A Mountain In Tibet Shark vs. Train features Cloudette, a What does the Biblical story of the Exodus have (HarperCollins, $24.99) smaller than average cloud who longs to offer modern readers? Plenty. The co-authors Having lost the last member of his imme- to grow bigger and throw lightning, show off rainbows, and make big of A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven sur- diate family, Thubron, author of the acclaimed storms. One day she discovers a world that needs just enough rain vey past readings and find contemporary paral- Shadow of the Silk Road, set out for Tibet to put and she turns a mud puddle into a pond, to the delight of the resident lels for the enslavement, plagues, and, finally, his life in perspective. This account of his trek frogs. Ages 3-6 liberation recounted in the archetypal Book. from Nepal to Mount Kailas, “holy to one fifth of the earth’s people,” is at once richly descriptive Monday, March 14, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, March 13, 5 p.m. travel writing, a primer on Tibetan Buddhism, a social history of the 14Mar 11 Cal Ripken, Jr. Alan Cheuse 13Mar 11 region, and a personal meditation on meaning. Hothead Song Of Slaves In The Desert (Hyperion, $16.99) (Sourcebooks Landmark, $25.99) 24 Thursday, March 24, 7 p.m. Connor is an all-star shortstop, but he can’t From Timbuktu to South Carolina, the new Mar 11 James Gleick control his temper. Threatened by the possibility historical novel from the George Mason profes- The Information that the school paper will run a story about his sor and NPR book commentator dramatizes the (Pantheon, $29.95) behavior, Connor has to learn to control himself. legacy of slavery over the course of several genera- We live in the Information Age—but what This is a story told from the heart about doing tions. Cheuse skillfully juxtaposes the terrible exactly does that mean? Gleick, author of Chaos your best and striving to be a credit to your team. Ages 8-12 brutality of plantation life with the passions of a and Genius, looks back to the earliest informa- forbidden love. tion technologies, tracing the route from talking Thursday, March 17, 10:30 a.m. drums to alphabets, Morse code to computer Kekla Magoon 17Mar 11 14 Monday, March 14 , 7 p.m. languages, punch cards to the Internet. Along the way he profiles Camo Girl Mar 11 Sixth & I Historic Synagogue the inventors and visionaries involved and charts how the various (Aladdin, $15.99) Joshua Foer machines have altered human consciousness itself. Ella and Zachary have been friends since before Moonwalking With Einstein kindergarten; they love to play fantasy games (Penguin Press, $26.95) Friday, March 25, 7 p.m. 25 together. Then Bailey moves to town and Ella Foer’s wide-ranging primer on memory looks Ian Rankin Mar 11 is no longer the only African-American at her back to ancient mnemonic techniques, such as The Complaints school. Bailey, athletic, popular, and good-looking, the memory palace, and presents today’s cutting- (Reagan Arthur, $24.99) falls for Ella. Can Ella remain loyal to Zachary, who many think is edge cognitive research on how we remember. In his latest crime novel the Scottish creator of weird, and also be close to Bailey and join the popular crowd? Ages In between, he profiles both prodigious memo- John Rebus introduces a new hero: Malcolm Fox, 10-14 rizers and victims of severe amnesia, and offers an inside look at the an Edinburgh cop. Fox’s beat is the police force National Memory Championships. Two tickets free with book purchase, itself, and he must be on the trail of something or $10 each. big, because his colleagues are conspiring to frame him, and his only ally is a detective suspected of selling child porn.

O An audio edition of this title is available to be ordered. L A large-print edition of this title is available to be ordered.

20% off P&P Hardcover Bestsellers and all Event Titles for Members throughout March 2011 5015 Connecticut Ave NW Washington, DC 20008 Presorted First-Class Mail US Postage PAID 202.364-1919 Washington, DC 800.722-0790 202.966-7532 (fax) Permit No. 2072 email: books @ politics-prose.com web: www.politics-prose.com twitter: @politics_prose

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Store Hours: Monday–Saturday 9 a.m. – 10 p.m. March 2011 Sunday 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. Owner: Barbara Meade Events Calendar Founding Owner: Carla Cohen 1936-2010 March 2011

Monday, March 14, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 16, 7 p.m. Monday, March 14, 7 p.m. Monday, March 21, 7 p.m. Friday, March 25, 7 p.m. Cal Ripken, Jr. David Brooks Joshua Foer Andre Dubus III Ian Rankin

Friday, March 18, 7 p.m. Saturday, March 26, 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 8, 7 p.m. Monday, March 28, 7 p.m. Julie Orringer Sarah Vowell Walter Mosley Téa Obreht

Tuesday, March 1, 7 p.m. Thursday, March 3, 7 p.m. Book Groups Sophy Burnham Mar1 11 Mar3 11 Linda Pastan P & P book groups meet monthly, and are free and open to the public. The Art Of Intuition Traveling Light Book group titles are 20% off for attendees. Read the book and join us! (Tarcher, $24.95) (W.W. Norton, $24.95) Don’t ignore that sudden feeling that some- Pastan’s poems are impeccably crafted gems that • Capital James Joyce Club (1st Thursday, 7:30 p.m.) thing is about to happen—chances are it’s your capture the rich complexity of their subjects. 3/3: The Divine Comedy, trans. by Musa intuition trying to get your attention. From the In her thirteenth collection, the former Poet • Classics (1st Monday, 7:30 p.m.) author of A Book of Angels, this primer on the Laureate of Maryland and two-time National 3/7: The Kalevala, trans by Lonnrot, Bosley, and Lord “intuitive heart” offers a way to tap into your Book Award nominee celebrates the daily • Daytime (3rd Wednesday, 12:30 p.m.) own overlooked powers of insight. pleasures of domesticity, while also considering 3/16: Mrs. Dalloway, by Woolf events “against which there is no planning,” and the old stand-bys, • Evening Fiction (2nd Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.) 2 Wednesday, March 2, 7 p.m. Hope and Luck. 3/8: Orlando, by Woolf Mar 11 David Kirp • Fascinating History (4th Thursday, 7:30 p.m.) Kids First 3/24: Dark Sun, by Rhodes (PublicAffairs, $24.99) Friday, March 4, 7 p.m. Mar4 11 • Futurist (1st Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.) While childcare, healthcare, and educa- Carla L. Peterson 3/2: The Climate Fix, by Pielke tion costs have steadily risen, since 1960 the Black Gotham • Graphic Novel (4th Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.) portion of the federal budget devoted to children (Yale Univ., $32) 3/23: Market Day, by Sturm has fallen 22 %. Kirp, professor at the Goldman Knowing only “scraps” about her ancestors, • Legacies of American Exceptionalism (3rd Monday 7:30) School of Public Policy, member of President Peterson, author of Doers of the Word, has traced 3/21: The Street, by Petry Obama’s transition team, and author of several her family back to the 1820s. As she reconstructs • Poetry (4th Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.) books on education policy, presents five cradle-to-college initiatives the lives of her relatives, free blacks in New York, 3/22: English Victorian Poetry: An Anthology designed to support families and ensure that all children get a qual- Peterson tells the cultural and social story of • Public Affairs (4th Monday, 7:30 p.m.) ity education. African-American contributions to the city. 3/28: The Fourth Turning, by Strauss and Howe Co-sponsored by House of Mercy’s Rosemount Center. More information at • Science Fiction & Fantasy (2nd Thurs., 7:30 p.m.) www.rosemountcenter.com 5 Saturday, March 5, 1 p.m. 3/10: Palimpsest, by Valent Mar 11 Benjamin Wittes • Spanish Language (3rd Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.) Detention And Denial 3/15: El porvenir de mi pasado, by Benedetti (Brookings, $22.95) • Spirituality (3rd Sunday, 6 p.m.) In his study of U.S. detention practices, 3/20: The Meaning of Life, by the Dalai Lama Author Photo Credits Wittes, senior fellow in Governance Studies at • Teen (4th Sunday, 3:30 p.m.) Julie Orringer - Christa Parravani Brookings and author of Law and the Long War, 3/27: TBD David Brooks - David Burnett finds that Guantánamo and other military-run Joshua Foer - Lisa Gross • Travel (1st Tuesday, 7 p.m.) Tea Obreht - Beowulf Sheehan detention centers are operated without any 3/1: Cape Cod, by Thoreau Sarah Vowell - Bennett Miller coherent policy. Wittes argues for a more hon- • Women’s Biography (2nd Monday, 7:30 p.m.) Walter Mosley - David Burnett est, consistent, and sustainable application of preventive detention. 3/14: Vera, by Schiff

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 10:30 a.m. 2 7 p.m. 3 7 p.m. 4 7 p.m. 5 1 p.m. Tom Lichtenheld David Kirp Linda Pastan Carla L. Peterson Benjamin Wittes Cloudette Kids First Traveling Light Black Gotham Detention And Denial

7 p.m. 6 p.m. March 2011 Sophy Burnham Charles King The Art Of Intuition Odessa

6 5 p.m. 7 7 p.m. 8 7 p.m. 9 7 p.m. 10 7 p.m. 11 7 p.m. 12 6 p.m. Tom Shroder Steven Goldman & contributors Walter Mosley Jonathan Evison Sara Wheeler Jeff Greenfield Meryle Secrest Fire On The Horizon Baseball Prospectus When The Thrill Is Gone West Of Here The Magnetic North Then Everything Changed Modigliani

13 1 p.m. 14 7 p.m. 15 7 p.m. 16 7 p.m. 17 10:30 a.m. 18 7 p.m. 19 6 p.m. Rabbi Arthur Waskow & Sixth & I Historic Synagogue Michael Farquhar David Brooks Kekla Magoon Julie Orringer Alan Paul Rabbi Phyllis Berman Joshua Foer Behind The Palace Doors The Social Animal Camo Girl The Invisible Bridge Big In China Freedom Journeys Moonwalking With Einstein

5 p.m. 7:30 p.m. Alan Cheuse Cal Ripken, Jr. Song Of Slaves In The Desert Hothead Spring Member Sale Spring Member Sale 20 5 p.m. 21 7 p.m. 22 7 p.m. 23 7 p.m. 24 7 p.m. 25 7 p.m. 26 6 p.m. Jaimy Gordon Andre Dubus III Del Quinten Wilber Colin Thubron James Gleick Ian Rankin Sarah Vowell Lord Of Misrule Townie Rawhide Down To A Mountain In Tibet The Information The Complaints Unfamiliar Fishes

Spring Member Sale 27 1 p.m. 28 7 p.m. 29 7 p.m. 30 7 p.m. 31 7 p.m. Mark Richard Téa Obreht Tina Rosenberg John Darnton Joseph Lelyveld House Of Prayer No. 2 The Tiger’s Wife Join The Club Almost A Family Great Soul 20% off P&P Hardcover Bestsellers

5 p.m. and all Event Titles for Members Greg Myre and Jennifer Griffin The Burning Land throughout March