tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77220074919224016632009-01-06T18:55:45.720-05:00Olsson's is a locally Owned & Operated, Independent chain of six book and recorded music stores in the Washington, D.C. area, started by John Olsson in 1972. Andrew Getman is a D.C. kid and fierce Olsson's loyalist who after 8 years of teaching, felt a need to return his first love - literature.Webmasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07176000412260440921noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7722007491922401663.post-28690924852305033042009-01-06T11:13:00.011-05:002009-01-06T18:55:12.955-05:00

Denis Dutton has made a significant contribution to the field of art appreciation and interpretation, which is accessible to the novice, but will provide important and provocative discussion material for the expert. By weaving together philosophy and aesthetics, cognitive anthropology and human development, ideas about cultural relativism and standards of beauty, he leads the reader on a

Andrew Getmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11860313595608509492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7722007491922401663.post-75690394901212475892008-06-11T11:00:00.011-04:002008-07-08T10:41:46.409-04:00

Just a brief update from last week, until I finish my current stack of books. They may also meet your needs for Father's Day appreciation. Scott McClellan's book What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and What's Wrong with Washington is back in our stores. Call now if your Dad needs one on his breakfast tray Sunday morning. On sale with 10% off for $25.16. Another that your Dad may

Andrew Getmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11860313595608509492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7722007491922401663.post-7203064436026698442008-06-04T11:00:00.010-04:002008-06-13T01:46:47.112-04:00

It's a big week for new book releases. Scott McClellan's expose, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and What's Wrong with Washington no sooner hit the shelves than we were sold out. The publisher assures us the new print run will arrive soon, but we recommend reserving a copy if you want one. Also, out now, in case you didn't know, are new books by Alan Furst, Chuck Palahniuk, and David

Andrew Getmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11860313595608509492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7722007491922401663.post-33513070291737512022008-05-08T11:00:00.014-04:002008-06-05T09:44:37.003-04:00

Older fans of Harry Potter have found their next big thing! Young adults and adults who are young at heart have discovered the magic and thrill of Stephenie Meyer and her new book The Host has just hit the stores, providing everything that her readers have grown to love! This is a stand alone story (and possibly a new series?), but it is no less enthralling as we wait for the fourth installment

Andrew Getmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11860313595608509492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7722007491922401663.post-64086589819218838802008-04-09T11:00:00.014-04:002008-05-08T10:32:37.249-04:00

This is the second notable novel that has appeared within the last six months about a white slave catcher and an escaped slave woman. The first was Soul Catcher by Michael White, which I wrote about in my October blog on American Journeys. Each of these sagas has its unique contribution to understanding the time and the people of this era of history. While the first focused on an educated and

Andrew Getmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11860313595608509492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7722007491922401663.post-60172456293074638422008-04-03T11:00:00.013-04:002008-04-04T02:13:58.823-04:00

I know many readers prefer a novel because it allows them to enter into an author's world and vision more deeply and experience the story for a longer time. It may seem that a short story just gets started when it's over, and the reader must begin again with other characters. And generally, I share this desire for what one might describe as a completely realized experience, and understand the

Andrew Getmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11860313595608509492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7722007491922401663.post-49183359872449412372008-03-20T11:00:00.010-04:002008-03-28T00:53:59.484-04:00

It is peculiar perhaps to name a book for a character who is no longer present. The new PEN/Faulkner Award-winning novel by Kate Christensen begins with a New York Times obituary. Oscar Feldman, The Great Man of the title, has just passed away, and while the book is apparently about the race for two biographers to complete their studies of the life and relationships of the deceased artist,

Andrew Getmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11860313595608509492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7722007491922401663.post-74294168100079608572008-03-13T11:00:00.010-04:002008-03-28T15:02:57.771-04:00

Susan Choi previously has put herself on the literary radar screen with The Foreign Student and American Woman, both books which approach the concept of people who are social outsiders, through their own perception and behavior and the viewpoint of others. However, she also makes the point that her characters are uniquely and perhaps even prototypically American, although in ways that we might

Andrew Getmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11860313595608509492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7722007491922401663.post-89009370922148315302008-03-06T11:00:00.006-05:002008-04-03T00:32:20.616-04:00

I've begun working through a stack of books sharing in common the theme of personal secrets which lead to or conceal political disturbances, with violent repercussions. Peter Carey's His Illegal Self traces the path of a little boy born to radicals in 1965, but "rescued" by his grandmother who wishes to raise him respectably. When he's seven, his mother shows up, takes him back, and leads

Andrew Getmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11860313595608509492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7722007491922401663.post-475529388120125772008-02-28T11:00:00.002-05:002008-02-28T10:32:37.412-05:00

I found the perfect book to get me through the rainy winter doldrums now that the hype of the Oscar season is over. So you've already read the books that inspired the Academy Award winners - No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy; Oil! (the basis for There Will Be Blood) by Upton Sinclair; Atonement by Ian McEwan; Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi; and listened to Edith Piaf CDs as well as the

Andrew Getmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11860313595608509492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7722007491922401663.post-8759639274570276922008-02-14T06:00:00.010-05:002008-02-16T11:13:44.851-05:00

Last night I was fortunate enough to catch the sole United States exhibition of Japanese performance artist Mari Natsuki in her new piece "The Impressionist - Vol. 8" during The Kennedy Center's Japan! Culture + Hyperculture event. This was the best performance art I've seen in a long time. Weird, beautiful, emotive, musically rich, visually powerful. It included elements of the John Lennon

Andrew Getmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11860313595608509492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7722007491922401663.post-53139351740733464952008-02-06T11:00:00.008-05:002008-02-15T19:51:43.779-05:00

Since I’m a book nut, I don’t generally rave about CDs as there are plenty of others more articulate about this format who work for Olsson's, but I know what I like, and I am excited about the new KD Lang release Watershed. This is her latest since 2004 when she recorded Hymns of the 49th Parallel, her covers of songs by Canadian artists, and once again she maintains her exacting studio work,

Andrew Getmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11860313595608509492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7722007491922401663.post-87348372643207770132008-01-31T11:00:00.000-05:002008-01-31T11:19:53.541-05:00

And I don't mean the Super Bowl or Super (Fat) Tuesday (or "Mardi Gras et Super!" for the Francophones among us). It's the Other Big Day, when St. Valentine was shot by arrows for his faith, and everyone for centuries after got him confused with one of Cupid's targets. (I still don't understand the connection; when I'm done with this column, I think a Google search is in order.) So two novels

Andrew Getmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11860313595608509492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7722007491922401663.post-3759373494181650182008-01-24T11:00:00.000-05:002008-01-24T11:19:04.730-05:00

Okay it’s not new, but I just have to get back in gear with the New Year, and what better way than to look at books that face crises and new beginnings head on, without (many) backwards glances, trying not to harbor bitterness or guilt, instead nurturing and maintaining a fresh and positive look at life. Why not? It could do us all good! I myself have been facing a few crises and new starts

Andrew Getmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11860313595608509492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7722007491922401663.post-2086977071754425062007-12-13T11:00:00.000-05:002007-12-13T09:34:51.814-05:00

Sometimes there is that person you care a lot about, who is just so particular, or smart, or well-read that it is impossible to give them something original. Never fear! Olsson's can help you with this daunting problem... Because our intrepid bookstockers are here for you! But first, a few suggestions if you exchange gifts at Hanukah, belated, simply because we had restocking issues with the

Andrew Getmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11860313595608509492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7722007491922401663.post-26754756154431651562007-12-06T11:00:00.000-05:002007-12-06T11:17:38.131-05:00

A school librarian friend in Minneapolis and her relatives in Arlington have informed me of an e-mail campaign that is being waged against yet another fantasy movie for young adults and the books that inspired it. The heat has even reached the level that the website for debunking fraudulent rumors - Snopes.com - has devoted an article about the veracity of the claims. Well, the power and

Andrew Getmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11860313595608509492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7722007491922401663.post-84762810004347587362007-11-29T11:00:00.000-05:002007-11-29T10:12:26.548-05:00

It bears repeating that we are excited about our Holiday Gift Selections for 2007 so please click on the link and browse through them while online to learn which books, movies, and CDs our staff carefully chose as some of the best new gifts available this year. The print copy will be reaching the stores soon. In addition, I suggest two other books of essays you won't want to miss - The New Kings

Andrew Getmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11860313595608509492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7722007491922401663.post-73626194074430781342007-11-15T11:00:00.001-05:002008-02-16T10:45:51.076-05:00

I realize I'm not going to be able to do these books justice in the time allotted, but I'll see what I can offer in brief. With the Olympics in Beijing next year, the superpower is in the forefront of more people's minds. Jonathan Spence, one of the pre-eminent historians of China writing for an English audience has contributed another book to his formative and formidable body of historical

Andrew Getmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11860313595608509492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7722007491922401663.post-81960571486651546732007-11-01T11:00:00.000-04:002008-04-16T01:29:12.066-04:00

Min Jin Lee, author of Free Food for Millionaires, one of my favorite books this year, will be appearing at U.S.-Korea Institute of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) next week, and Olsson’s will be supplying the books. You can attend, and here is why you should. . . Min Jin Lee’s first novel Free Food for Millionaires (Warner Books) has received glowing reviews

Andrew Getmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11860313595608509492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7722007491922401663.post-18375032780254282152007-10-25T11:00:00.000-04:002007-10-25T09:41:17.929-04:00

The fall is the season for great little anthologies of essays, research, short stories, and poems culled from magazines and excerpted from longer literary works and popular non-fiction. The most successful line, both in sales and in selection, is Houghton Mifflin’s Best American Series, which is published yearly and has just arrived, in large quantities, in our stores. Part of the genius of the

Webmasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07176000412260440921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7722007491922401663.post-9778103969436984992007-10-16T11:00:00.005-04:002008-02-16T10:46:50.748-05:00

Remember the controversy surrounding A Million Little Pieces and the revelation that James Frey was not entirely factual about the circumstances he "experienced"? Or Life of Pi that won the Booker Prize and Yann Martel's subsequent disclosure that he had been "inspired" by Moacyr Scliar's Max and the Cats? Both of these are extraordinary works of extremely creative writing in spite of the reader

Andrew Getmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11860313595608509492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7722007491922401663.post-25493910274980778902007-10-11T11:00:00.003-04:002008-02-16T10:50:19.715-05:00

Hello, my name is Andrew Getman, and I'm a new contributor to this column on Recommended Reads, which Elizabeth has been writing. I have worked for Olsson's for a little over four years in four stores, most recently managing the National Airport location since August 2006. I also recently joined the Olsson's Book Buyers' Circle so I am gleaning a little extra insight into the upcoming releases

Andrew Getmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11860313595608509492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7722007491922401663.post-14711538084039693492007-05-31T11:00:00.006-04:002008-02-15T19:40:54.143-05:00

Occasionally we come across books that remind us that we as Americans are no longer who we once were. Don DeLillo's "Falling Man" makes explicit reference to this change in our worldview, allows us to step momentarily out of our absorption with the current wartime preoccupations and reflect on the shock that set this all in motion. Sherman Alexie's Flight is another in this vein, and is worthy

Andrew Getmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11860313595608509492noreply@blogger.com0