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Something has happened. You can always tell. You come to and find wreckage: a smashed lamp, a devastated human face that shivers on the verge of being recognizable. Occasionally someone in uniform: a paramedic, a nurse. A hand extended with a pill. Or poised to insert a needle.

From the first paragraph of Alice LaPlante's debut novel, Turn of Mind, we were hooked (Jill and Heidi both finished it in one evening). It's true that it's a literary mystery, a devastatingly poetic depiction of Alzheimer's, and a family drama, but as the New York Times Book Review says,

[T]o call Turn of Mind a thriller -- or a chronicle of illness, or a saga of friendship for that matter -- would confine it to a genre it transcends. This is a portrait of an unstable mind, an expansive, expertly wrought imagining of memory's failures and potential....[H]aunting and original.

In choosing Turn of Mind, we once again had the pleasure of working with independent publisher Grove/Atlantic (who you may remember published Matterhorn, from volume 17) to present to you this incredibly unique and moving novel in an Indiespensable-exclusive slipcase.

And, with the long, hot days of summer upon us (well, maybe not us, since we in the Pacific Northwest still can't seem to break 80° for more than five minutes), it's officially grilling season. We'd been thinking about grilling all spring long, and then we thought, Dulcet!

Dulcet Cuisine, a local sauce and spice company, uses beautiful, pure ingredients, or as they say, "100% natural everything." We've been cooking with their products for a while and thought we'd share with subscribers what we already know to be great. So, inside you'll find Dulcet's Moroccan Cooking Spice and Rub, to amplify your meats, fish, vegetables, or tofu, along with three recipe cards to give you some ideas!

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A collective of high muckamucks, the Panjandrums largely spend their time in competitive Bananagram duels and negotiations regarding Pie Friday — not to mention painstakingly designing each installment of Powell's subscription club, Indiespensable, with the help of independent publishers and local merchants. From time to time, they find it entertaining to give you a look at the hows and whys behind the what. But, if you're yearning for more, send questions, suggestions, and random anecdotes to indiespensable@powells.com. (They especially like stories about pets, babies, and pie fillings.)

Books mentioned in this post