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Powell's Staff:
Five Book Friday: In Memoriam
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Every year, the booksellers at Powell’s submit their Top Fives: their five favorite books that were released in 2023. It’s a list that, when put together, shows just how varied and interesting the book tastes of Powell’s booksellers are. I highly recommend digging into the recommendations — we would never lead you astray — but today...
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Brontez Purnell:
Powell’s Q&A: Brontez Purnell, author of ‘Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt’
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Rachael P.:
Starter Pack: Where to Begin with Ursula K. Le Guin
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Customer Comments
EmilyEm has commented on (6) products
Go Set a Watchman
by
Harper Lee
EmilyEm
, July 19, 2015
Harper Lee’s so-called first book manuscript, which her editor helped her turn into To Kill a Mockingbird, was a book read by me to explore the roots of my favorite book of all time. I read a lot and enjoy other writer’s debut book efforts, but many times think they come up short in the end. Had this book been published as it was that would have been my assessment. The end, as one reviewer has said, is ‘a mess.’ Earlier in the book we’re treated to some of the coming-of-age in small town Alabama stories familiar in To Kill a Mockingbird. You sense Lee’s potential and savor her narrative. There’s a lot to like, too, about Scout’s 26-year-old self with more growing up to do. And, what’s not to like about the charming Henry Clinton. For me the book begs the question, can you go home again, especially after you’ve seen New York? Many of us who have moved from small towns share Scout’s feelings. And, now the Atticus revelation getting so much press. I like what another commenter has said about a view of our parents from a child’s or adult’s point of view. How often do our views change? Mine did. Thank goodness Harper Lee took her editor’s advice. I don’t necessarily recommend this book unless To Kill a Mockingbird is a book you’ve read and re-read. And, it’s also a good idea to review if even just at the Library of Congress or NAACP websites what all was happening in the Civil Rights era that was changing the South in many ways. Scout’s uncle has it right, it was another country. It may still be.
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Canada
by
Richard Ford
EmilyEm
, January 14, 2013
Dell Parsons, just 15 in 1960, along with twin sister Berner, are about to experience events that will color their views of life forever. Their parents rob a bank. To call this a coming-of-age book diminishes it. Ford makes you think about living your life whatever you’ve been handed. In his acknowledgments Ford calls out Wallace Stegner, the work of William Maxwell and Blake Morrison’s memoir 'And When Did You Last See Your Father' as work that inspired him. No wonder I got so much pleasure from his wonderful prose; those are some of my favorite authors. Highly recommended.
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The Tigers Wife
by
Téa Obreht
EmilyEm
, January 01, 2012
A doctor’s granddaughter explores the secrets of her grandfather’s life, why a copy of 'The Jungle Book' was always in his jacket pocket and the meaning of his lifelong passion for tigers. Two stories, the granddaughter’s set in a time after the recent conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and her grandfather’s early in the 20th century are woven seamlessly. Her characters and characterizations are richly drawn. It’s a book steeped in its time and place, lyrically written. An amazing first book.
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Lonely Polygamist
by
Brady Udall
EmilyEm
, January 02, 2011
We spend a year or so in the life of the Richards clan and experience their lives through three of the family—father Golden, #4 wife Trish and #5 son Rusty who is eleven and just needs some attention. Actually everyone in the family just needs some attention! It could seem that with four wives and 26 children a reader could get lost, but seeing these three in detail with others playing supporting roles, Udall keeps us rooted and rooting for this family in his saga of the American West! It’s certainly a look at a lifestyle, one of all kinds of coping, and a look at this part of America during the testing of nuclear devices and the many unintended consequences for this land of wide open spaces and its people. Some say this book has all the aspects of the Great American Novel and you hope he will be a Pulitzer nominee this year. Reviewers have compared it to winners like Jeffrey Eugenides’ 'Middlesex' or Jonathan Franzen’s 'The Corrections.' To me it reads much more like my favorite Ann Tyler books: 'Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant' and 'Saint Maybe' or a Nick Hornby book: 'How to Be Good.' Udall infuses his gentle losers with dark humor and lots of heart. Enjoy it.
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Book of William
by
Paul Collins
EmilyEm
, June 11, 2010
Wow! What an engaging book about a book! Collins follows the literary journey of the efforts, rivalries and gigantic personalities involved in collecting and publishing Shakespeare’s plays and the subsequent revisions and editions. Then, we follow the paths of these first folios take as they become the most collected books in the world to the current efforts to make books like it available digitally. Fascinating on so many levels—a must read for Shakespeare fans, book lovers and for those interested in the book trade. It’s truly a page turner.
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Evidence of Things Unseen
by
Marianne Wiggins
EmilyEm
, January 01, 2010
Fos, a soldier of the Great War, and Flash come home and enter the photography business in Nashville, each man having his own dreams and demons. Fos meets Opal and begins a marriage that is marked with such beauty, they could write the book on it. But, the Depression comes, the TVA and the Manhattan Project—and in the middle of all that, another love of their life, Lightfoot. Wiggins' writing is luminescent. Her blending of history, Fos’s fascination with radiation with life’s great themes, tied to the structure of Melville’s Moby-Dick is just amazing. This is better, if it could be, than her newer book The Shadow Catcher.
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