 |
| Welcome to
CHAPTERS: A Literary Bookstore. In our
21 years of selling books in downtown D.C. the most frequently
asked question has been, "What's a literary bookstore? Sounds
snooty and elitist. . . ." Well, cyber-reader, if you walked in our
doors you'd find our enormous poetry section right up front,
literary fiction old and new, and literature in foreign languages.
But you'll also find an array of offerings from Aristotle to Babar
to Churchill. We're very fond of spiritual matters, the culinary
arts, children's literature, natural history, travel writing, and
on and on. In short, we're both very selective and wide-ranging in
what we stock. We're a shop that caters to serious, uncommon
readers and inveterate browsers. If that describes you, then do
read on! The second most frequently asked question is about our
store motto, Littera Scripta Manet. Latinists among you know that
it's a quote from Horace that means the written word remains, a
notion to which we wholeheartedly subscribe, and especially in a
digital age. Here at CHAPTERS, the
written word not only remains, it flourishes! |
|
|
Mon. July
23 at 1 pm: Mystery Monday with Lauren Carr.
Wed. July 25 at noon: Le Dejeuner du Mercredi.
Thur. July 26 at 6:15 pm Poetry Happy Hour with DC Poets Brandon
Johnson & Brian Gilmore. At 7 pm: A Reading from their
collections, entitled respectively, Love's Skin and
Jungle Nights & Soda Fountain Rags.
Sat. July 28 at 1 pm: Cafe Philo.
Mon. July 30 at 1 pm: John Billheimer on Baseball & The
Blame Game.
Title of Event: DC Poets
Brandon Johnson & Brian Gilmore
When:
Thursday, July 26, 2007 7:00 PM
Description: Brandon Johnson's poems in his third
collection, Love's Skin, "seduce the reader with their
infectious originality, and depth of meaning," as Reuben Jackson
says. Our other reader tonight, Brian Gilmore, also comes highly
praised by Mr. Jackson for his Jungle Nights & Soda Fountain
Rags, and its "terse, rhythmically and thematically urgent
solos." Our poets join us for a POETRY HAPPY HOUR at 6 pm to
discuss the blues as muse for poetry, and local poetry
publishers.
(Read
More!)
|
|
|
| Le
Déjeuner du Mercredi, our weekly French conversation
group, will be reading and discussing, en francais, bien sur, the
2003 Priz Renaudot winning novel, Les Ames Grises, by
Philippe Claudel on Wed. Aug. 8 & 22, at noon. You may
recognize its English title, By a Slow River. Do join us!
(Read
More!) |
|
|
since
she's been gone, old habits line
my borders like mercenaries. I hide
under blankets, hoping she comes back
before they burn my health to the ground.
I draw pictures of her with cut fingers,
images slip away wearing red dresses,
telling men secrets that was once only for me.
can't read newspapers cause every blank page says
something 'bout her; blank spaces where
my name ought to be.
(Read
More!)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
There are 13 ways of
looking at an annual Chapters' membership, which is a small
investment in our 21 year old independent, locally owned bookshop,
and which replaces your tattered old Chapters Frequent Buyer
Card.
And here's No. 8: You second Howard Norman's opinion that "CHAPTERS
is an indispensable resource, an active monument on the cultural
landscape."
(Read
More!)
|
|
|
|
Come see our Recommended
Shelf in the store for more of our favorites! (Read
More!)
My
Dreams Out in the Street
by Addonizio,
Kim
Rita Jackson is a young woman on the skids, spending her time in
shelters and on the dot-com-drunk streets of late 1990s San
Francisco. She's a young woman haunted by the murder of her mother
when she was thirteen, and a young bride haunted by the
disappearance of her husband, Jimmy, who split after a nasty
argument more than a year earlier. Together Jimmy and Rita were
slipping into drugs and hard times. Rita is filled with feelings of
guilt and failure, and the hope that she will one day and Jimmy.
She doesn't know that he is still in the city, still in love with
her, waiting tables in an expensive restaurant while trying to get
a foothold in the straight life.
When Rita witnesses the aftermath of a murder, her own life is
endangered. She becomes involved with Gary Shepard, a married
criminal investigator drawn to the dark side of this young woman.
What unfolds is a story of three flawed people struggling with
themselves as much as with their circumstances, as each of them is
pulled more deeply and dangerously into the consequences of their
decisions. When a drunken night leads Jimmy to jeopardize his
second and last chance, it seems unlikely that these sweet, damaged
people will ever come to anything, let alone find and -- miracle of
miracles -- save one another.
But fate, in Addonizio's hands, works in strange and beautiful
geometries. And redemption, she tells us, is never impossible.
|
|
|
|
|
After 3 years here on 11th
St., some still ask: Is Chapters part of the Canadian chain?
Absolutely not! Chapters A Literary Bookstore was founded in 1985
by myself, Terri Merz, and a fellow French major from Georgetown
U., Robin Diener. . . . Where is Emma the Chapters cat? Emma is
happily retired from retail, and lives with Steve, who spoils her
with sardines at midnight. As you've noticed, we keep our
old-fashioned, historic storefront double doors open, and Emma
would be out! (Read
More!)
|
|
|
|
Unique and provocative
selections from a great diversity of voices...all personally
recommended by the independent booksellers of America. (Read
More!)
The
Lay of the Land
by Ford,
Richard
"Frank Bascombe returns (The Sportswriter and
Independence Day featured him in earlier novels) and faces a
difficult Thanksgiving day in his fifty-fifth year. Wry, wise,
funny, beautifully written and structured, I wanted to reread this
as soon as I finished but felt impelled to pass it on to other
readers. A masterpiece." --Mary Muller, Market Block Books,
Troy, NY |
|
|
