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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
Constant Reader has commented on (8) products
Curious Sofa A Pornographic Work by Ogdred Weary
by
Edward Gorey
Constant Reader
, March 21, 2015
Only Edward Gorey could have come up with this delightful book. Rather than the dark, gloomy, deserted landscapes and spooky houses that usually populate his work, this is a cheery tale of various sexcapades among a group of people (and one dog) at a country manor. Nothing is shown or stated outright, but the imagination will certainly fill in the gaps! (No dirty joke intended there.)
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Hell House
by
Richard Matheson
Constant Reader
, October 23, 2014
Very few horror novels truly scare, especially these days. Matheson's work is the exception. Four investigators set out just before Christmas to document the supernatural occurrences of a legendarily haunted house, lured by an offer of $100,000 each to "clear" the house. One of the investigators, a well-known psychic, took part in a similar endeavor twenty years earlier, and he was the only one to escape uninjured and sane. With this background, how can the story miss? It doesn't. Christmas is anything but merry for these investigators.
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House On The Strand
by
Daphne Du Maurier
Constant Reader
, July 29, 2012
One of the best novels ever written! Du Maurier is most famous - and deservedly so - for her novel "Rebecca". Thirty years (and a great many novels and short stories) later, she came out with this masterpiece. "The House on the Strand" weaves fact with fiction to stunning effect; Du Maurier's own house, Kilmarth (the dower house for Menabilly, which provided the background for "Rebecca") is the setting. Richard Young, a man going through a midlife crisis, acts as guinea pig for his brilliant scientist friend, Magnus. Magnus has stumbled across a potent drug that enables Richard to see and hear the events that occurred in Kilmarth and the surrounding area in the 14th century. Research proves that Richard is, indeed, witnessing real actions by real people, not experiencing hallucinations. The people, though, are so interesting, that Richard becomes an entirely different kind of drug addict, lying to his wife and stepsons and sneaking out of the house to get his "fix". A fascinating read with an unexpected ending.
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Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
by
Susanna Clarke
Constant Reader
, September 01, 2011
And I don't even LIKE fantasy! I'd read glowing reviews of this book, but I hesitated for a long time due to the fact that it's fantasy, which is not my genre. Finally, I gave in and bought it - and am I glad I did! Clarke sets her novel in the early years of the 19th century, during the Napoleonic Wars, and even uses the spelling of that time. The story follows the title characters, two magicians (in Clarke's fantasy world, being a magician is a profession like any other) who are, at first, master and student, then rivals. The book is filled with fictional footnotes, and juggles multiple story threads with ease. The characters are human and flawed; the situations are fascinating; the names have a distinct ring of Dickens. As a matter of fact, if Dickens had written fantasy, it might well have been something like this.
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Frenchmans Creek
by
Daphne Du Maurier
Constant Reader
, February 18, 2011
Daphne du Maurier loved Cornwall, and often wrote of it, as she does here. This is the tale of 17th-century English noblewoman Dona St. Columb, who has tired of life in London (which du Maurier describes vividly; footpads in the night streets, evenings at the theatre where Dona is the only wife amidst a score of mistresses, dust and the stench of garbage in the streets). Dona, on impulse, leaves London with her children and their nurse, headed for her husband's Cornwall estate. We discover that her husband, Harry, is as in love with her as he can be, but he is also a simpleton who is incapable of knowing what Dona really needs and wants from him; small wonder, then, that she insisted he remain in London. Dona revels in the freedom of the estate, playing with her children, and paying scant attention to local talk of a French pirate in the area. She soon finds, however, that the pirate is much closer to home than she thought. Dona is one of the best female characters du Maurier - or anyone else - ever created. Intelligent, perceptive, sharply witty and independent, she chafes under the yoke of an unsuitable marriage, and finds herself and unexpected love in Cornwall. Her dialog alone is worth reading, but the book is a wonderful adventure tale, as well. Quite possibly, du Maurier was writing of her own wish to escape. Whatever the reason, the book is well worth reading again and again.
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A Night to Remember
by
Walter Lord
Constant Reader
, November 05, 2010
A highly detailed description of the events that occurred the night the Titanic went down in the North Atlantic, with stories of what happened to the survivors later. This truly is THE book for anyone interested in the sinking of the "unsinkable" grand ocean liner, just two years before the outbreak of World War I.
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Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
by
Susanna Clarke
Constant Reader
, August 25, 2010
If you can imagine Dickens writing fantasy, that's what this book is like. Clarke has truly immersed herself in the early 19th century to create a perfect atmosphere for her novel, in which the practice of magic is a trade like any other. One of the title characters, Mr. Norrell, makes a name for himself, first in York, then in London, as a skilled magician who helps the government fight the French. Jonathan Strange, a younger man who chooses the profession of magic, and finds himself so adept at it that he becomes Mr. Norrell's pupil and, eventually, his rival. Ranging from England to Spain to Italy, taking in parts of a country called Faerie, and mentioning a land that lies on the far side of Hell, the book is consistently gripping. Parts of it had me gasping with delight at the plot twists. I was also pleased by the names of some of the characters, which are also reminiscent of Dickens' names: Greysteel, Childermass, Uskglass, Drawlight. I can even forgive Clarke for including real historical figures (such as King George III and the Duke of Wellington) in her narrative, something I do only rarely. This book is almost a thousand pages long, and the interest never wavers.
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Leave It To Psmith
by
P G Wodehouse
Constant Reader
, May 15, 2010
This is the best novel of Wodehouse's startlingly large output. The title character takes full advantage of a situation that would have most of us running for cover - posing as a poet in a castle in order to steal a valuable diamond necklace, which involves fighting a pair of professional burglars, dodging the suspicions of the castle secretary, and courting the young lady of his dreams. Wodehouse has created one of the funniest and most eccentric characters in English literature; Psmith might be called the comic version of Sherlock Holmes. This is Wodehouse in peak form!
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(5 of 9 readers found this comment helpful)
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