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Powell's City of Books
1005 W Burnside
Portland,
OR
97209
United States of America
Work 503 228 4651
45.52306687976776,
-122.68125772476196
[a href='/app/'][img src='/images/meridian_app_promo.jpg' class='left' style='border:0' /][/a]Get turn-by-turn directions to books -- on your phone! Download the free Meridian app for iPhone and Android. Click here to learn more. Powell's City of Books is a book lover's paradise, the largest used and new bookstore in the world. Located in downtown Portland, Oregon, and occupying an entire city block, the City stocks more than a million new and used books. Nine color coded rooms house over 3,500 different sections, offering something for every interest, including an incredible selection of out-of-print and hard-to-find titles. Each month, the Basil Hallward Gallery (located upstairs in the Pearl Room) hosts a new art exhibit, as well as dozens of author events featuring acclaimed writers, artists, and thinkers such as Roddy Doyle, Joyce Carol Oates, Michael Chabon, Annie Leibovitz, and President Jimmy Carter. The City's Rare Book Room gathers autographed first editions and other collectible volumes for readers in search of a one-of-a-kind treasure. And the City's newest addition (October 2010) is Powell's Books Bldg. 2, a relocation of Powell's Technical Books, brings mathematics, sciences, computing, engineering, construction, and transportation sections closer to visitors at the flagship store. Bldg. 2 is located across the street from the City of Books on the corner of NW 10th and Couch. Every day at our buyers' counter in the Orange Room we purchase thousands of used books from the public. Powell's purchases special collections, libraries, and bookstore inventories as well. A few facts about the City of Books: • 68,000 square feet packed with books. • We buy 3,000 used books over the counter every day. • Approximately 3,000 people walk in and buy something every day. • Another 3,000 people just browse and drink coffee. • We stock 122 major subject areas and more than 3,500 subsections. • You'll find more than 1,000,000 volumes on our shelves. • Approximately 80,000 book lovers browse the City's shelves every day in Portland and via the Internet. So is our mother ship the world's largest bookstore? Heck, it may be bigger than your whole town. The Washington Post called Powell's "perhaps the best bookstore in the world." You can also browse our store map online in .PDF format. If you've already placed an order for a book via our website and would like to check on its status, please email the internet office at help@powells.com.
map and directions
Daily: 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Book buying hours:
Daily: 9:00 a.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Rare Book Room:
Saturday - Sunday: 11:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Bldg. 2 hours:
Daily: 9:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Powell's Books Bldg. 2
40 NW 10th Avenue
Portland,
OR
97209
United States of America
Work 503 228 4651
45.523427687852305,
-122.68149375915527
Powell's Technical Books is now Powell's Books Bldg. 2, on the corner of 10th and Couch, across the street from Powell's City of Books. The new space brings our mathematics, sciences, computing, engineering, construction, and transportation sections closer to our flagship store. Once again, Powell's Books is proud to announce the annual Springer Yellow Sale. Nearly 150 mathematics titles from the world's leading science and technology publisher are offered at discounts up to 50% off regular price. You don't need a complicated equation to arrive at the correct conclusion: that's a great deal.
map and directions
Daily: 9:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing
3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd.
Beaverton,
OR
97005
United States of America
Work 503 228 4651
45.49436771181202,
-122.81029343605042
Powell's Books has served Beaverton, Oregon, with a west-side location since 1984. In November 2006, Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing opened, confirming the company's commitment to Beaverton customers. The new store location with 32,500 square feet is more than double the space of the previous Cascade Plaza location and rivals the City of Books in downtown Portland. (Okay, we may be pushing it with that statement since the Burnside location is over 68,000 square feet of retail space!) With over half a million used, new, rare, and hard-to-find titles, it's very easy to get lost in the aisles of Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing. "I think we take the best elements of all the Powell's stores and roll them into one," says store manager Paul Smailes. "We have the big store feel of the City of Books, a very large technical book selection to serve our neighbors like Tektronix, Intel, and Nike, along with the largest children's book section of any book store on the West Coast." An expanded author events space and upgraded amenities bring more best-selling authors and children's events to Cedar Hills Crossing. Each month the store hosts authors such as Mirielle Guiliano, Erik Larson, Nick Bantok, and Christopher Kimball. The funky atmosphere of a Powell's Bookstore and a knowledgeable book-loving staff complete this biblio paradise in Portland's western suburbs. The entirety of the Cedar Hills Crossing mall is Wi-Fi enabled, so you can connect your laptop to the wireless network from anywhere in our store.
map and directions
Monday - Saturday: 10:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Sunday: 11:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Book buying hours:
Monday - Saturday: 10:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Sunday: 11:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Powell's Books on Hawthorne
3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
Portland,
OR
97214
United States of America
Work 503 228 4651
45.51214382316533,
-122.62604981660843
From appropriately funky beginnings in a slightly funky neighborhood, Powell's on Hawthorne has grown into the largest used and new bookstore on Portland's east side. Located in a vibrant, diverse, and highly desirable neighborhood, Powell's on Hawthorne now covers more than 10,000 square feet of retail space and offers more than 200,000 used and new books. The atmosphere is relaxed, but the store is big enough to warrant a map. Not as extensive as the labyrinth at the City of Books, Powell's on Hawthorne is divided into just three rooms, each named for a neighborhood landmark: Madison, Hawthorne, and Tabor. The latter is named for Mt. Tabor, the world's only extinct volcano residing within city limits. Powell's on Hawthorne hosts lively and interesting author readings several times each week in its Tabor Room. Adjacent to the reading space, readers congregate in The Fresh Pot, an inviting corner of the store serving delicious homemade pastries and other sweet delights, along with some of the best coffee in a town that really knows its coffee. Judy Jewell says, "My favorite thing about working at the Hawthorne store is the lively feeling of community I get from my co-workers and customers. I think next best is the great used books we see here. You just never know what's going to turn up or who's going to turn up to buy it. Like the other day, we got in this copy of Huber the Tuber, a book about tuberculosis. We thought it was goofy and charming so we put it in the front window. That same afternoon, a customer snatched it up, saying it was her first book. Her father had been a lung doctor, and the book had come out when she was a toddler. She was way thrilled and we were all pretty tickled about it." --
map and directions
Monday - Thursday: 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Friday - Saturday: 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Sunday: 9:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Book buying hours:
Daily: 9:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Powell's Books for Home and Garden
3747 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
Portland,
OR
97214
United States of America
Work 503 228 4651
45.51236185397973,
-122.62664794921875
Whether it's instructions for home and garden projects, inspiration for decorating and remodeling, or books on cooking and entertaining, Powell's Books for Home and Garden carries the latest to help enhance your nest. In addition to ideas to transform your space, we stock a wide range of books on crafts like knitting, jewelry making, and woodworking, as well as information on the latest approach to landscape design and gardening. Here you'll also find a unique selection of items from around the world: cooking utensils, tablecloths, garden tools and accessories, antique prints, quality dishware, and more. Plus, Powell's Books for Home and Garden is only two doors down from Powell's on Hawthorne, a quintessential general bookstore and hangout. About the Neighborhood The Hawthorne District lies across the Willamette River from downtown and is home to funky shops, restaurants, coffee houses, and pubs. Of Portland's neighborhoods, Hawthorne is "the bohemian." It reflects an urban niche where alternative is considered mainstream, and tie-dyes aren't a thing of the past. Here a hint of patchouli drifts from stores; a flower vendor brightens the sidewalk scenery; "art car" sightings are commonplace (cars decorated hood to trunk with treasures ranging from high-heeled shoes to bowling trophies); and trendsetters shop in hip used-clothing boutiques. On any given evening, live music spills from the open doors of pubs, bibliophiles linger at Powell's, and sidewalk tables host many a brew enthusiast. Brews, that is, as in beer and coffee.
map and directions
Monday - Saturday: 9:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Sunday: 9:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Book buying hours:
Sell your books just down the street at Powell's on Hawthorne.
Powell's Books at PDX
7000 NE Airport Way - Suite 2250
Portland,
OR
97218
United States of America
Work 503 228 4651
45.588996160486325,
-122.59589910507202
Powell's currently has three locations at Portland International Airport, our main store in the Oregon Market with satellite stores in the C and D concourses. Within all three branches, Powell's PDX offers an eclectic mix of the latest bestsellers, popular fiction and non-fiction, choice used books, games, toys and a wide range of gifts. Travelers usually don't expect to find a used bookstore in an airport, but book loving wanderers have made Powell's Books PDX a primary destination since 1988. We're not a magazine stand that carries a few books: we're a full-service bookstore offering all the amenities and services found at other Powell's locations. Our friendly and knowledgeable staff offers quick, on-the-mark recommendations for long flights, all-day business trips, vacation reading, journeys involving long hours with restless children, or any other combinations of factors involving your travel plans. Even Powell's airport locations buy used books. Sellers can drop off books to sell at any of the three airport locations. Here, these buying transactions require one or two days. After the books are assessed our buyer notifies the seller so that they can return to pick up either the books or their used book payout. PDX is voted the seventh best airport in the world for airport shopping! Read the story at the Huffington Post
map and directions
Oregon Market location:
Daily: 6:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Concourse C location:
Daily: 5:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Concourse D location:
Daily: 5:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
and 8:00 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.
Hours subject to change without notice.
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Dana Stabenow
In Dana Stabenow's Restless in the Grave (Minotaur), she teams up two of her most beloved characters for the first time, Aleut private investigator Kate Shugak and Alaska state trooper Liam Campbell. Alaska aviation entrepreneur Finn Grant has been killed in a fiery crash, and virtually everyone in southwestern Alaska has a motive, including his betrayed wife, his bullied children, and even Liam Campbell's wife. With few places to turn, Liam asks his former mentor Sergeant Jim Chopin for help, and Jim quickly brings Kate in on the case. What starts with a murder quickly expands into a much larger conspiracy, revealing treason and the darkest of family secrets.
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Arthur Goldwag
Arthur Goldwag's The New Hate: A History of Fear and Loathing on the Populist Right (Pantheon) is a fascinating history of the role that organized hatred has played in American politics from the Colonial Era to our own. From the "Truthers" to the "Birthers," extremism in this country is increasingly becoming a mainstay of American life. Tracing the economic and social forces that have contributed to the current popularity of extremist ideas, Goldwag shows how deeply rooted they are in our history, and how, in fact, the only thing new about them is how mainstream they've become.
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Nathan Englander
The author of For the Relief of Unbearable Urges returns with a commanding new collection of short stories that grapple with the great questions of modern life. Beautiful and courageous, funny and achingly sad, Nathan Englander's What We Talk About When We Talk about Anne Frank (Knopf) displays a gifted young author with a command of language and with a depth of imagination that place him at the very forefront of contemporary American fiction. "Put him alongside Singer, Carver, and Munro. Englander is, quite simply, one of the very best we have" (Colum McCann).
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Kids' Storytime
Join us every Saturday for storytime. Today, we're reading John, Paul, George, and Ben by Lane Smith. Children of all ages welcome.
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Alexandra Day
In Alexandra Day's The Fairy Dogfather (Green Tiger), young Hector has trouble differentiating the letters d and g. Therefore, when he wrote a request to the universe for a fairy godfather, he shouldn't have been surprised when the Fairy Dogfather arrived instead. Like Carl in Day's classic Good Dog, Carl series, Hector's Fairy Dogfather is an emblem of mischievous but responsible caretaking. In Day's capable hands, he is also a unique character that will entertain children old and young.
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Patrick deWitt
With The Sisters Brothers (Ecco), Patrick deWitt transforms the classic Western into an unforgettable comic tour de force. Filled with a remarkable cast of characters — losers, cheaters, and ne'er-do-wells of all stripes — and told by a complex and compelling narrator, The Sisters Brothers is a violent, lustful odyssey through the underbelly of the 1850s frontier that beautifully captures the humor, melancholy, and grit of the Old West.
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Monday, February 20th @ 7:00PM
Newmark Theater
1111 SW Broadway (503) 248-4335
The Alzheimer's Prevention Program
The only "cure" for Alzheimer's is prevention, and The Alzheimer's Prevention Program (Workman), by Gary Small and his wife, Gigi Vorgan, shows the reader how to take control. An easy-to-follow regimen based on the latest Alzheimer's research and with an emphasis on the connection between lifestyle and susceptibility, this science-based breakthrough program can add years of brain health and mental clarity to a person's life. Please note: This event kicks off the OHSU Brain Awareness Lecture Series at the Newmark Theater (1111 SW Broadway). Tickets are available at TicketsWest.com or by phone at 800-992-8499.
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The Non-Toxic Avenger CANCELLED
After learning that the autism and cancer that had impacted her family were most likely the result of environmental toxins, Deanna Duke, author of the acclaimed environmental blog TheCrunchyChicken.com, undertook a mission to dramatically reduce her family's chemical exposure. The Non-Toxic Avenger: What You Don't Know Can Hurt You (New Society) follows Duke's journey as she uncovers how insidious and invasive environmental toxins are. Learn about the chemicals the average American is exposed to every day, the implications for your health, and what you can do about it.
We're sorry to report that this event has been cancelled.
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Carolyn Turgeon
Carolyn Turgeon has a gift for imagining magical worlds. Her new novel for teens, The Next Full Moon (Dowtown Bookworks), begins as 12-year-old Ava is looking forward to a lazy summer. And everything is going beautifully — until Ava begins to grow feathers. Horrified, she hides out in her bedroom, clad in a hoodie, longing for her dead mother, and worrying about her freakish life. Then, Ava discovers an other-worldly place that belongs to the Swan Maidens, one of whom is Ava's mother.
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The End of Money
The age of paper dollars and metal coins is coming to a close. In The End of Money: Counterfeiters, Preachers, Techies, Dreamers — and the Coming Cashless Society (Da Capo Press), David Wolman introduces the people, technologies, and trends that are powering this shakeup and takes the reader on a tour through the hotspots of the cashless revolution. Along the way, he examines the implications of next-generation payment innovations, investigates alternative and virtual currencies, and showcases the boom in mobile-phone banking. As cash gets pushed toward extinction, now is the time to explore its effect on our wallets and on our lives.
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Lysley Tenorio
In stories structured around tense, fascinating dichotomies, Lysley Tenorio reveals the lives of people on the outside looking in with rare skill, humor, and understanding. Breathtakingly original, Monstress (Ecco) marks the arrival of a bold new voice in American fiction who explores the clash and meld of disparate cultures with heart and style.
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Amy Hatvany
Outside the Lines (Washington Square Press) is Amy Hatvany's gripping new novel about a woman who sets out to find her father but ends up discovering herself. When Eden was 10 years old, she found her father, David, on the bathroom floor. The suicide attempt led to her parents' divorce, and David all but vanished from Eden's life. Twenty years later, Eden decides it's time to find her father, to forgive him at last, and to move forward with her own life. Her search takes her to a downtown Seattle homeless shelter, to Jack Baker, its handsome and charming director, and, finally, to the painful truths Eden must face if she is ever to move forward.
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Rachel Lloyd CANCELLED
With the power and verity of First They Killed My Father and A Long Way Gone, Rachel Lloyd's riveting memoir, Girls Like Us (Harper Perennial), is about her hard-won escape from the commercial sex industry and her subsequent determination to help other young girls escape "the life." This unflinchingly honest and powerful story is one of deep pain, enduring hope, and, ultimately, the promise of redemption. "Never again will you look at young girls on the street as one of 'those' women — you will only see little girls that are girls just like us" (Demi Moore, actress and activist).
We're sorry to report that this event has been cancelled.
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Ismet Prcic
Shards (Grove Press) is the provocative and energetic debut novel by Ismet Prcic about a young Bosnian, also named Ismet Prcic, who has fled his war-torn homeland and is now struggling to reconcile his past with his present life in California. A harrowing war story, Shards is also a stunningly inventive coming-of-age novel and a heartbreaking saga of a splintered family.
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Kevin Fox
For Sean Corrigan, the past is unimportant; it's simply what happened yesterday. But on his 21st birthday, he is given a journal that belonged to his father's brother Michael, a man he didn't even know existed. Left behind when his uncle fled to Ireland to escape prosecution for a murder he didn't commit, the journal sends Sean on a search for answers. Like The Time Traveler 's Wife and the classic Time and Again, Kevin Fox's Until Next Time (Algonquin) is a romance cloaked in a mystery. It's also a remarkable story that shows how ancient myths affect everything from what we believe to who we love.
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Kids' Storytime
Join us every Saturday for storytime. Today, we're reading And Then It's Spring by Julie Fogliano. Children of all ages welcome.
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Tim Dorsey
In Pineapple Grenade (William Morrow), the latest comic thriller from Tim Dorsey, Serge Storms has finagled his way into a job as a spy for the president of a banana republic. Will he still have time for a cocktail before Homeland Security brings him down? To learn the answer, put on your favorite pink-flamingo shirt and join us.
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Tupelo Hassman
With her debut novel, Girlchild (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux), Tupelo Hassman tells the story of young Rory Hendrix, who is determined to get out of the Reno trailer park where she lives with her bartender mother and prove she's not the feeble-minded imbecile she's been labeled. Brash, sassy, vulnerable, wise, and terrified, she struggles with her mother's habit of trusting the wrong men, and the mixed blessing of being too smart for her own good. From diary entries, social workers' reports, half-recalled memories, story problems, arrest records, family lore, Supreme Court opinions, and her grandmother's letters, Rory crafts a devastating collage that paints a vivid picture of her world — while she searches for a way out of it.
Monday the 27th, 7:30pm / Powell's City of Books
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Joanne Fluke
When amateur sleuth Hannah Swensen hears that the Cinnamon Roll Six jazz band will be playing at a festival in Lake Eden, Minnesota, she bakes up a supply of their namesake confection to welcome them. But tragedy strikes when their tour bus overturns on its way into town. And keyboardist Buddy Neiman's minor injuries turn deadly serious when someone plunges surgical scissors into his chest. With Cinnamon Roll Murder (Kensington), Joanne Fluke "continues to delight cozy mystery readers with superb characters, inventive storylines, and the best recipes in the genre" (Library Journal).
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Gail Carriger
In Timeless (Orbit), the final novel of Gail Carriger's bestselling Parasol Protectorate series, Lady Maccon, and her werewolf husband are mysteriously summoned to Egypt. But Egypt may hold more mysteries than even the indomitable Lady Maccon can handle. What does the vampire queen of the Alexandria Hive really want from her? Why is the God-Breaker Plague suddenly spreading? And how has Ivy Tunstell suddenly become the most popular actress in all the British Empire? Find out!
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The Illustrated Practical Guide to Gardening for Seniors
Tending gardens is a lifelong pleasure, but, as we age, our energy and physical abilities become more limited. Packed with projects, garden plans, and step-by-step sequences designed for older gardeners, Patty Cassidy's The Illustrated Practical Guide to Gardening for Seniors (Annes Publishing) will appeal to active gardeners in their early retirement as well as seniors with more limited abilities and will show how the joy of gardening can remain undiminished for years to come.
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First Thursday: Jess Bronk & Jonny Silva
This month, we display the work of local painters Jess Bronk and Jonny Silva. Jess Bronk's elegantly ethereal images play off the landscape of her Wisconsin childhood and mark a powerful contrast with Silva's intricately detailed portraits, which are heavily influenced by American painter Thomas Hart Benton.
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Janet Lee Carey
Wilde Island is not at peace. The kingdom mourns the dead Pendragon king and awaits the return of his heir; the uneasy pact between dragons, fairies, and humans is strained; and the regent is funding a bloodthirsty witch hunt, hoping to rid the island of half-fey maidens. Accused of witchcraft, young Tess is forced to flee but is given shelter by the handsome and enigmatic Garth Huntsman. But Garth is the younger prince in disguise, and soon the pair is at the center of an exciting, romantic adventure and an ancient prophecy that will bring about peace between dragons, humans, and fairies. A "dark fantasy illuminated by piercing flashes of hope" (Kirkus Reviews), Dragonswood (Dial) is a worthy sequel to Janet Lee Carey's popular young-adult novel Dragon's Keep.
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Tobias S. Buckell
In Tobias S. Buckell's new science-fiction novel, Arctic Rising (Tor), global warming has transformed the Earth, and it's about to get even hotter. The Arctic Ice Cap has all but melted, and the international community is racing desperately to claim the massive amounts of oil beneath the newly accessible ocean. Enter the Gaia Corporation. Its two founders have come up with a plan to roll back global warming. They plan to terraform Earth to save it from itself
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Blake Nelson
In Dream School (Figment), Andrea Marr, the heroine of Blake Nelson's teen novel Girl, is back — and she's headed to college. Imagining a typical "J. Crew catalog" experience, Andrea leaves Portland to attend prestigious Wellington College in Connecticut. Surrounded by the best and the brightest, she works hard to adjust and keep up. But Andrea has a way of finding her own people: not the well-heeled and well-scrubbed, but the weird, the wild, and the brilliant. It isn't long before her college career veers wildly off course. Suddenly her entire future is in question. But in her darkest hour, Andrea will find the key to her destiny.
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Kids' Storytime
Join us every Saturday for storytime. Today, we're reading Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie dePaola. Children of all ages welcome.
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The Lorax Pop-Up!
Dr. Seuss's bestselling ecological parable, The Lorax, is as timely today as it was when it was first published in 1971. Now, this classic has been transformed into an elaborate pop-up book by master paper engineer David A. Carter. With the dynamic spreads in The Lorax Pop-Up! (Random House), Carter has enhanced Seuss's powerful message and brought to life the Lorax, the Bar-ba-loots, the Truffula Tree Tufts, and all the rest for a new generation.
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Poets Dan Raphael & James Grabil
Over the past 18 months, Dan Raphael has released a retrospective of his work, Impulse and Warp: The Selected 20th Century Poems; a live poetry and jazz recording with Rich and Carson Halley, Children of the Blue Supermarket; and a new collection of poems, The State I'm In: New Poems. Joining Dan Raphael will be James Grabil, author of a dozen books of poetry and creative nonfiction. He also teaches sustainability at Clackamas Community College.
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Oregon History Comics
Portland Mercury reporter Sarah Mirk and the Dill Pickle Club proudly present a boxed set of 10 short comic books that each tells a little-known story from Oregon's past. From women's suffrage in Oregon to the tragic Vanport Flood to the legendary X-Ray Café, Oregon History Comics takes presumably dry topics and makes them exciting and accessible through the bold illustrations of some of Portland's best comics illustrators. Whether you're a history buff or a comics reader, you'll enjoy this innovative blend of historical detail and pop culture.
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Mattilda Sycamore
Gay culture has become obsessed with consumerism. Whatever happened to gender liberation? As backrooms are shut down to make way for wedding chapels, and gay sexual culture morphs into "straight-acting dudes hangin' out," what happened to the defiant faggotry that challenged the assimilationist norms of a corporate-cozy lifestyle? Edited by Mattilda Sycamore, the essays in Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots? (AK Press) reinvoke the anger, flamboyance, and subversion that once thrived in the gay subculture in order to inspire a debate about the perils of assimilation — and a new vision for change. Sycamore will be joined at the event by contributor Ezra RedEagle Whitman.
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Turing's Cathedral
"It is possible to invent a single machine which can be used to compute any computable sequence," 24-year-old Alan Turing announced in 1936. In Turing's Cathedral (Pantheon), legendary historian and philosopher of science George Dyson focuses on the small group of men and women who realized Alan Turing's vision of a Universal Machine by building one of the first computers. Their work broke down the distinction between numbers that mean things and numbers that do things — and our universe will never be the same. How did code take over the world? In retracing how Alan Turing's one-dimensional model became John von Neumann's two-dimensional implementation, Turing's Cathedral offers a series of provocative suggestions as to where the digital universe, now fully three-dimensional, may be heading next.
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Melanie Rawn
With Touchstone (Tor), Melanie Rawn returns to high fantasy with an engaging tale about a young playwright who combines the talents of Merlin, Shakespeare, and John Lennon. Cayden Silversun is part Elven, part Fae, part human Wizard — and all rebel. His aristocratic mother would have him follow his father to the Royal Court to make a high-society living off the scraps of kings. But Cade lives and breathes for the theater, and he's good, very, very good. With his company, he'll enter the highest reaches of society and power as an honored artist — or die trying. A wholly charming character in a remarkably original fantasy world created by a master of the art.
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Deadly Diversions Book Group
The month our mystery book group meets to discuss A Walk in the Dark by Gianrico Carofiglio. Join us!
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Kim Harrison
In the 10th book in Kim Harrison's Hollows series, A Perfect Blood (Harper Voyager), ritually murdered corpses are appearing across Cincinnati. Pulled in to help investigate by the FIB, former witch turned day-walking demon Rachel Morgan soon realizes a horrifying truth: A would-be creator is determined to make his (or her) own demons — but it can't be done without Rachel's blood. As a bounty hunter, she has battled vampires, witches, werewolves, demons, and more. But humanity itself might be her toughest challenge yet.
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The 1975 Portland Timbers
Rediscover the magic of the Portland Timbers 1975 season and the birth of Soccer City, USA. Michael Orr's The 1975 Portland Timbers (History Press) is the story of 17 players and two coaches who came from different clubs and different countries to form a team — just days before their inaugural game. Orr weaves together player interviews, news coverage, and game statistics to capture the Timbers single-season journey from expansion team to championship contender, a few short months that won the hearts of Portlanders and left an indelible stamp on the Rose City's sporting landscape. The author will be joined by Timbers players Willie Anderson, Roger Goldingay, and Mick Hoban.
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Book Fan Friday
Book Fan Friday is a workshop for 10- to 18-year-olds who love to write. This month, Ruth Tenzer Feldman (Blue Thread) and Michelle R. McCann (Luba) present a workshop titled Down the Rabbit Hole: Writing Time Travel and Fantasy that will help young writers to design their own fantastical trip to another time.
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Maxine Hong Kingston
A poignant and beautiful memoir-in-verse, I Love a Broad Margin to My Life (Vintage) captures the singular voice of Maxine Hong Kingston as she reflects on her 65 years. Circling from present to past and back, from lunch with a writer friend to the funeral of a Vietnam veteran, from her long marriage to her arrest at a peace march in Washington, Kingston presents an American life of great purpose and joy and the tonic wisdom of a writer we have come to cherish.
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Kids' Storytime
Join us every Saturday for storytime. Today, we're reading Johnny Appleseed by Reeve Lindbergh. Children of all ages welcome.
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Poetry Out Loud
Join high school students from around Oregon for the regional finals of Poetry Out Loud, a poetry recitation contest sponsored by the Oregon Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Poetry Foundation. Students recite the words of classic and contemporary poets and compete for spots at the state championship!
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Poets Julian T. Brolaski & Judith Goldman
Julian T. Brolaski's Gowanus Atropolis (Ugly Duckling Press) attempts to reconcile the toxicity of the titular Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn and the east river in "Manahatta" with the poet's search for the pastoral in New York City. The concatenated series of poems in Judith Goldman's L. B.; or, Catenaries charts the narratives formed by texts of uniform density hanging freely from two fixed readings not in the same semantic line.
Sunday the 11th, 4pm / Powell's on Hawthorne
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Smallpressapalooza
Powell's celebrates Small Press Month with the fifth annual Smallpressapalooza. This four-hour-marathon reading features some of the best small press authors from Portland and beyond. Readers include:
6:00 Randy Blazak (Mission of the Sacred Heart)
6:15 Ryan Chin (Without Rain There Can Be No Rainbows)
6:30 Elly Blue (PDX by Bike, Bikenomics)
6:45 (break)
7:00 Adam Gnade (Heat and the Hot Earth)
7:15 Daniel Libman (Married But Looking)
7:30 Martha Grover (One More for the People)
7:45 (break)
8:00 Joseph Riippi (The Orange Suitcase, A Cloth House)
8:15 Anonymous (Love Is Not Constantly Wondering If You're Not Making...)
8:30 Lisa Wells (Beast, Yeah. No. Totally.)
8:45 (break)
9:00 Sierra Nelson (I Take Back the Sponge Cake)
9:15 Diana Salier (Wikipedia Says It Will Pass)
9:30 Brian S. Ellis (Yesterday Won't Goodbye)
9:45 (the end)
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Trading Manny
Baseball's ongoing steroids/performance-enhancing-drug scandal has impacted even the game's youngest fans. In December 2007, just as Jim Gullo's young son Joe was beginning to develop a true passion for the game, the bombshell news of players' steroid use made it clear that America's pastime wasn't what it claimed to be. Gullo's Trading Manny (Da Capo Press) is the moving story of how a father and his young son recaptured their love of baseball — a winning testament to why the game matters and how it can still bring us together in spite of itself.
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Science Fiction Book Group
This month we meet to discuss The Door to Lost Pages by Claude Lalumiere, with the author in attendance. Join us!s
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The Wrecking Crew
If you listened to radio in the 1960s and '70s, you listened to the Wrecking Crew. On hit record after hit record by everyone from the Byrds to the Beach Boys, Phil Spector, Simon and Garfunkel, the Fifth Dimension, and Frank Sinatra, this motley group of West-Coast studio musicians established themselves as the driving force of the pop music industry. In The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret (Thomas Dunne Books), industry insider Kent Hartman tells the behind-the-scenes stories of the artists who dominated the sounds of Top 40 radio during the most creative era in American music culture. Lyle Ritz, a bassist in the Wrecking Crew and "father of the jazz ukulele," will join Hartman with his ukulele.
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Joy the Baker
Joy Wilson approaches baking with inspiration, heart, and humor — and she can write, which might explain how she's able to both run an extremely successful Los Angeles catering company and write one of the best cooking blogs on the Internet: JoyTheBaker.com won Saveur's 2011 Best Baking and Dessert Blog award. Now, in Joy the Baker (Hyperion), she presents the best of her incredibly delicious recipes for all kinds of sweets — pancakes, cupcakes, cookies, brownies, cakes, and more — with the same warmth, humor, and irreverence that have already won her so many fans.
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Hari Kunzru
Jaz and Lisa Matharu are plunged into a surreal public hell after their son, Raj, vanishes during a family vacation in the California desert. However, the Mojave is a place of strange power, and, by the time Raj reappears, inexplicably unharmed, the fate of this young family will have echoed the stories of all those who have traveled before them. Hari Kunzru's new novel is full of big ideas, but it's also built around a cast of flesh-and-blood characters, who all converge at a strange town in the shadow of a rock formation called the Pinnacles. Viscerally gripping and intellectually engaging, Gods without Men (Knopf) is, above all, a heartfelt exploration of the search for pattern and meaning in a chaotic universe.
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David Rothkopf
The rise of private power may be the most important and least understood trend of our time. David Rothkopf's Power, Inc.: The Epic Rivalry between Big Business and Government — and the Reckoning That Lies Ahead (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux) provides a fresh, timely look at how, today, thousands of companies have amassed greater power than all but a handful of states. A fast-paced tale in which champions of liberty are revealed to be paid pamphleteers of moneyed interests, and greedy scoundrels trigger changes that lift billions from deprivation, Power, Inc. traces the brutal jockeying for influence that has led to the current financial crisis, the rapid increase in inequality, the breakdown of international institutions, and the raging battle over the proper relationship between governments and markets.
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Jackie Hooper
Based on the popular blog The Things You Would Have Said, this extraordinary collection of letters brings together the inspiring stories of ordinary people, showcasing a remarkable range of voices and subjects. From the indignant young boy urging his bully to become "a better man" to the woman apologizing to the girl she picked on in high school to a man thanking the woman who protected his family from Nazis, The Things You Would Have Said (Hudson Street Press) brings together an outpouring of emotion that is as compelling as it is cathartic.
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Raymond Bonner
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Raymond Bonner's Anatomy of Injustice (Knopf) is an impassioned investigation into the shortcomings of our justice system that were brought to light by a mishandled murder case in South Carolina. In 1982, a 23-year-old black man named Edward Lee Elmore was arrested after the brutally beaten body of a white widow was found in the closet of her home. Though Elmore was an unlikely killer — he was mentally retarded and gentle and loving by nature — and his connection to the victim was tenuous, barely 90 days after the victim's body was found, he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. Raymond Bonner reveals many specific injustices in Elmore's trial — the blunt racism, the misconduct of the prosecution, the ineptitude of the defense — and makes clear that every year similar tragedies play out in courts across the country. Bonner is joined by pro-death-penalty Oregon prosecutor Josh Marquis for a conversation on executions.
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Kids' Storytime
Join us every Saturday for storytime. Today, we're reading St. Patrick's Day by Gail Gibbons. Children of all ages welcome.
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Hannah Pittard
Sixteen-year-old Nora Lindell is missing. As the days and years pile up, the mystery of her disappearance refracts kaleidoscopically. A collection of rumors, divergent suspicions, and tantalizing what-ifs, Nora's story becomes the shadowy projection of teenage lust, friendship, reverence, and regret, embodied in the fantasies of the neighborhood boys she's left behind and who still long for her. Hannah Pittard's The Fates Will Find Their Way (Ecco) is a haunting literary debut that shines a light into the dream-filled space between childhood and all that follows.
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Ellen Ullman
San Francisco in the 1970s. A disgraced professor takes an office in a downtown tower, one with very thin walls. His neighbor, a psychologist, has one patient who has refused the white-noise machine, and soon the professor is eavesdropping on her sessions. He becomes obsessed with her story — her female lover, her conflicts with her adoptive family, and, finally, her quest to track down her birth mother, which ultimately uncovers some dark secrets indeed. With ferocious intelligence and enthralling prose, Ellen Ullman's By Blood (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux) is a dark, intensely personal novel, an ambitious work that establishes her as a major writer.
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Sara Benincasa
From Sara Benincasa, the comedian Newsweek called "freaking hilarious," comes a funny, raw, and poignant account of her battle with agoraphobia. Relatable, unpretentious, and unsentimental, Agorafabulous! (William Morrow) recounts how a terrified young woman, literally trapped by her own imagination, evolved into a (relatively) high-functioning professional smartass.
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Esi Edugyan
Esi Edugyan's novel Half-Blood Blues (Picador), a finalist for the 2011 Man Booker Prize, is the story of Hieronymus Falk, a now legendary black trumpet player who was disappeared in Paris during WWII, as told by Sid Griffiths, an African American musician living in Baltimore in the '50s. From the smoky bars of pre-war Berlin to the salons of Paris, Sid leads the reader through a fascinating, little-known world as he describes the friendships, love affairs, and treacheries that led to Falk's incarceration in Sachsenhausen. Half-Blood Blues is a story about music and race, love and loyalty, and the sacrifices we ask of ourselves — and demand of others — in the name of art.
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Cheryl Strayed
At 22, Cheryl Strayed lost her mother, her family, and her marriage. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made an impulsive decision: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, from the Mojave Desert through California, Oregon, and Washington — alone. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker. The plan was little more than "an idea, vague and outlandish and full of promise." But that promise, of reconstructing her undone life, helped her to face down rattlesnakes, black bears, intense heat, and record snowfalls and to discover both the beauty and loneliness of the trail. Told with great suspense, style, and humor, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (Knopf) vividly captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.
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Sarah Bowen Shea
Since the publication of their first book, Run Like a Mother, Sarah Bowen Shea and Dimity McDowell have built a vibrant community of women runners — more than 10,000 fans on Facebook and an average of 2,500 daily visitors to their website, AnotherMotherRunner.com — all of whom have been clamoring for another book. Well, here it is. Geared to both beginners and experienced runners, Train Like a Mother (Andrews McMeel) provides everything busy women need to know to train for a race, including training plans for various race distances, pre- and post-race nutrition, strength training, injury prevention (and rehab), and much more, all presented with the same wit, empathy, and practicality that have won the pair so many avid fans. Please note: Only Sarah Bowen Shea will attend the event.
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Jennifer duBois
Certain she has inherited Huntington's disease — the same cruel illness that ended her father's life — English lecturer Irina Ellison struggles to find a sense of purpose. When she finds a photocopy of a decades-old letter her father wrote to a young Russian chess champion, she makes a fateful decision. Her father had asked the prodigy a profound question — How does one proceed against a lost cause? — but never received an adequate reply. Leaving everything behind, Irina travels to Russia to get an answer for her father, and for herself. Spanning two continents and the dramatic sweep of 20th-century history, Jennifer duBois's mesmerizing and exquisitely rendered debut novel, A Partial History of Lost Causes (Dial Press), reveals the stubbornness and splendor of the human will even in the most trying of times.
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Kids' Storytime
Join us every Saturday for storytime. Today, we're reading Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig. Children of all ages welcome.
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The Ellington Century
Breaking down walls between musical genres that are usually discussed separately — classical, jazz, and popular — David Schiff's The Ellington Century (Univ. of California Press) offers a compellingly integrated view of 20th-century music. Placing Duke Ellington at the center of the story, Schiff, a professor of music at Reed College, explores music written during the composer's lifetime, while demonstrating how Ellington's work is as vital to musical modernism as anything by Stravinsky, more influential than anything by Schoenberg, and has had a lasting impact on jazz and pop that reaches from Gershwin to contemporary R&B.
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The Dressmaker of Khair Khana
When the Taliban seized control of Kabul, the life Kamila Sidiqi had known changed overnight. Though she had received a teaching degree during the civil war — a rare achievement for any Afghan woman — Kamila was banned from school and confined to her home. When her father and brother were forced to flee the city, she became the sole breadwinner for her five siblings. Armed only with grit and determination, she picked up a needle and thread and not only created a thriving business of her own, she mobilized an entire community. In The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, now in paperback, former ABC News reporter Gayle Tzemach Lemmon tells the incredible true story of this unlikely entrepreneur.
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Classics Book Group
This month we meet to discuss Lancelot by Walker Percy. Join us!
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Bill Press
In his book Toxic Talk, radio talk show host and political commentator Bill Press presented the ways in which the right-wing media has done an end run around the American voting populace. In his new book, The Obama Hate Machine (Thomas Dunne), Press returns to present his thoughts on how the Right has taken rhetoric to slanderous new levels in attacking the nation's 44th president. In his characteristic style, Press shows how the peculiar nature of Obama-hating subverts issue-driven debate and threatens not only the outcome of the 2012 election but the future of the American democratic system.
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Krishna in the Sky with Diamonds
Praised not only by Indians but also by prominent modern thinkers such as Aldous Huxley and Albert Einstein, the Bhagavad Gita is one of the most analyzed books of all time. Yet, one aspect has never before been examined: Arjuna's psychedelic soma experience with his guru Krishna. With Krishna in the Sky with Diamonds (Inner Traditions), Scott Teitsworth explains how the Bhagavad Gita provides guidelines for the spiritual use of entheogens. Uncovering new depths to this revered manual of spiritual instruction, Teitsworth reveals psychedelic experience to be an ancient path that will bring realization in the prepared student, turn theory into direct experience, and bring the written teachings to life.
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Friday, March 30th @ 7:00PM
Bagdad Theater
3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd. (503) 236-9234
Anne Lamott
Anne Lamott burst onto the literary scene in 1993 with Operating Instructions. This now-classic memoir of her son Sam's first year of life endeared her to single mothers, parents, and even non-parents across the country. With her new book, Some Assembly Required (Riverhead), she is set to do the same for grandparenthood. Stunned to learn that Sam, now 19, is about to become a father, Lamott begins a journal about the first year of her grandson Jax's life, recalling her own experiences with Sam when she was a single mother. Over the course of the year, the rhythms of life, death, family, and friends unfold in surprising and joyful ways. Please note: This ticketed event takes place at the Bagdad Theater, 3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Tickets, $26.95, include admission and a copy of Some Assembly Required and are available at the Bagdad Theater, the Crystal Ballroom, CascadeTickets.com, or by phone at 855-227-8499. Books distributed at event.
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David Javerbaum
Over the course of his long and distinguished career, God has literally seen everything and done everything. Now, as the earth he has godded so magnificently draws to a Mayan-induced close, God breaks his 1,400-year literary silence with his final masterpiece, The Last Testament. As dictated to his mortal amanuensis, 11-time Emmy Award-winning comedy writer David Javerbaum, God looks back with unprecedented candor on his time in the public sector. It's the ultimate celebrity autobiography, sure to appeal not only to hardcore God fans, but to anyone who's ever had total omnipotence. If you place complete faith in the literal truth of one book written by God, make it The Last Testament.
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Kids' Storytime
Join us every Saturday for storytime. Today, we're reading The Thingamabob by Il Sung Na. Children of all ages welcome.
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