Chefs don't have time to write. While I was working on Smoke and Pickles, I was running a restaurant — a daily regimen of testing recipes,...
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Powell's Books operates four stores in Portland, Oregon, and one in nearby Beaverton.
We also have a number of warehouses and book sources locally, nationally, and internationally.
In Portland, call us at 503-228-4651. Or, call us toll-free at 800-878-7323.
Powell's City of Books (read more) Our flagship location with over one million books! 1005 W Burnside St. Portland, OR97209
(map/directions)
United States of AmericaWork 503 228 465145.52306687976776,
-122.68125772476196
[a href="http://www.powells.com/bookmachine"][img src="http://www.powells.com/images/bookmachine.jpg" alt="Espresso Book Machine" border=0][/a] The Espresso Book Machine® has arrived! Visit the Purple Room in the City of Books to publish your own book or print hard-to-find titles, all in the time it takes to make a cup of coffee. [a href="http://www.powells.com/bookmachine"]Learn more.[/a] [div align="center"]÷÷÷[/div] Get turn-by-turn directions to books — on your phone! Download the free Meridian app for iPhone and Android. [a href="http://www.powells.com/app"]Click here[/a] 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.
Powell's Books Bldg. 2 (read more)
40 NW 10th Ave. Portland, OR97209
(map/directions)
United States of AmericaWork 503 228 465145.523427687852305,
-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.
Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing (read more)
3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd. Beaverton, OR97005
(map/directions)
United States of AmericaWork 503 228 465145.49436771181202,
-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.
Powell's Books on Hawthorne (read more)
3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Portland, OR97214
(map/directions)
United States of AmericaWork 503 228 465145.51214382316533,
-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." --
Powell's Books for Home and Garden (read more)
3747 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Portland, OR97214
(map/directions)
United States of AmericaWork 503 228 465145.51236185397973,
-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.
Powell's Books at PDX (read more)
7000 NE Airport Way, Suite 2250 Portland, OR97218
(map/directions)
United States of AmericaWork 503 228 465145.588996160486325,
-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
Patricio Pron's "A Few Words on the Life Cycles of Frogs" appeared as one of the 22 selections featured in Granta's 2010 "The Best of Young Spanish Language Novelists" issue. The award-winning Argentine writer (though still a couple of years shy of his 40th birthday) has written five novels and three collections of short stories. My Fathers' Ghost Is Climbing in the Rain is the first of Pron's novels to be translated into English and is an excellent, often emotional work.
Like so many works of Argentine fiction, My Fathers' Ghost Is Climbing in the Rain has at its foundation the haunting legacy of the nation's Dirty War. Pron's novel finds its expatriate pill-popping journalist protagonist returning to Argentina in advance of his ailing father's death, only to discover his dad's obsession with an unsolved local murder. As Pron's narrator attempts to uncover the crime's details — as well as the reasons for his father's fascination and fixation — he must also confront the nature of his own upbringing and the indelible mark left by the failed revolution upon generations of Argentinians.
In the epilogue, Pron goes on to highlight the factual events that inspired his novel. "While the events told in this book are mostly true, some are the result of the demands of fiction, whose rules are different from the rules of such genres as testimony or autobiography; for that reason I would like to mention here what the Spanish writer Antonio Muñoz Molina once said, as a reminder and a warning: 'A drop of fiction taints everything as fictional.'" My Fathers' Ghost Is Climbing in the Rain is a terrific work of intrigue, memory, identity, and the myriad ways the haunting effects of the past forever shape all that is to follow.
Set in Leningrad during WWII, this is the story of two prisoners who get a chance to save themselves, but only if they can provide a dozen eggs for the wedding cake of the colonel's daughter. The entire city is starving and there is no food anywhere; people are eating the glue out of books and much, much worse... Benioff has written a perfect book, somehow both horrific and hilarious!
This heartbreaking story of a Confederate soldier is absolutely riveting. Although Inman is gravely wounded, he deserts the army and heads back home on foot, keenly aware that he has the slimmest chance of making it alive. Trying to elude bounty hunters, starvation, and fear, Inman's journey is both harrowing and beautiful.
The Song of Achilles revisits the sprawling story of the Trojan War but focuses on the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus. It is a love story so intensely searing, the brutal 10-year Trojan War somehow takes a backseat: the love they share means more than Helen, the war, and all of Greece put together. While Patroclus learns that he is much stronger than he ever imagined, Achilles learns, the hard way, about pride. Miller's take on this slice of Greek history is a passionate view of love amid disaster.
What a strange yet wonderful box of loveliness! Building stories is odd, sweet, sad, beautiful, and quixotic, yet that barely scratches the surface. Made up of what I can only guess are "chapters" in varied formats, with no true end or beginning, its sprawling size is a bit overwhelming straight out of the box. Yet the melancholy story of the tenants of an old building is fascinating despite (or maybe because of) the fact that it's a cartoon. It is an intimate look at the human condition; the stories of the old woman who owns the building, the constantly fighting couple, and the woman who lost her leg are close observations of human despair. Amazingly accurate in its depiction of interior monologue, each character is so complex, rich, and layered, the soul-crushing burden of their lives is keenly felt. Building Stories will make your heart ache for its characters, and it will make you realize that this tiny slice of life looks mighty familiar.
A modern day Huckleberry Finn with a twist of magical realism, Tom Wright's What Dies in Summer will leave you torn between page turning and savoring the luscious prose.
In the 1920s, married couple Jack and Mabel leave their home in Pennsylvania and travel to Alaska to homestead a farm. Still grieving the loss of their stillborn child years before, Jack and Mabel are faced with the inhospitable land and deadly weather of Alaska. Their marriage begins to unravel; Mable feels lost and alone, while Jack struggles under the unrelenting workload. In a rare moment of levity, on the night of the first snowfall, Jack and Mabel sculpt a snow child. The next morning they discover the statue destroyed and find footsteps leading away from the wreckage, but none to it. They slowly begin to realize just what they have set in motion, and both are terrified, yet hopeful, for the outcome. Both lyrical and magical, The Snow Child is a haunting, bittersweet, lovely read.
You can change your brain! Neuroplasticity is the new gospel for remapping your brain and making real changes to not only the way you think but how your brain is actually wired. Using this new science, medical conditions previously thought of as untreatable are cured, damaged sense organs are restored, and learning disorders are solved. If stroke patients can learn to walk and talk again in spite of damaged brains, then surely there is hope for the rest of us to manage our daily anxieties and undesirable behaviors. Dive into the future of neuroscience with this amazing book.
The great Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan writer and journalist, has spent some five decades in literary pursuit of restoring memory, veracity, and justice to their once-exalted heights. Resounding throughout his works are the amplified echoes of the forgotten, forsaken, silenced, and slandered. In giving voice to the voiceless, Galeano ensures that history's authorship shall not be entrusted solely to the wealthy, powerful, and victorious.
Children of the Days is composed of 366 of Galeano's trademark vignettes — one for every Gregorian calendar day of the year. Each of these entries, marked by both brevity and beauty, recounts or remembers an individual, moment, or era omitted from the official annals of yesteryear. In retrieving these stories from their historical exile, Galeano redeems their dignity and reanimates their tale. More than the mere act of commemoration alone, these vignettes illume the dark and disregarded corners of our collective past (and act, perhaps, as a bulwark against repeating its myriad misdeeds).
Like nearly all of Galeano's books, Children of the Days excoriates the excesses of war, religion, capitalism, and conquest. In reframing the historical narrative to be more inclusive and forthright, Galeano takes equal inspiration from politics, poetry, and the proletariat. Whether by revolution or revelation, many of the figures he chose to memorialize could be defined by their defiance, outspokenness, and dissatisfaction of the status quo. Galeano's longing for an equitable, verdant, and peaceable world has informed his writing since he began his career, and his commitment to engendering such a vision is one of the essential characteristics of his work.
Eduardo Galeano composes prose as resplendent as some of his subjects are sorrowful. With ever the eye for the neglected, distressed, oppressed, and maligned (spanning thousands of years), he creates beauty where once there was betrayal, and intrigue where ignorance once thrived. From the familiar to the obscure, Galeano masterfully recollects and rescues from amnesiac disregard those for whom history has never made room. Children of the Days is but the latest steadfast entry in Galeano's efforts to resist the erosive effects of time, revisionism, and selective memory. Obsessed with remembering lest the rest of us forget (and perhaps to help restore the enduring promise of the future), Galeano makes an offering of his art so that we may yet be reminded of the inherent brilliance, dignity, and wonder of a life consumed not by belligerence, fanaticism, and the shallow pursuit of wealth but one that is instead receptive to the voices of others and the world at large.
Children of the Days was rendered from Spanish by Mark Fried, Galeano's longtime English translator.
Marra's debut novel is fantastic. His beautifully written story so eloquently expresses the intricacies of human behavior involving love and sacrifice during a brutal war. It's hands down my favorite book of the year and one you must read!
The story of this 1940s and '50s drag-queen-turned-madam is a raucous read. Kenneth Marlowe has done it all — seminary school, hairdresser in a brothel, star of a burlesque show. This story is a glimpse into the pre-Stonewall life of a man who was too fabulous for one gender.
Awesome. Think John James Audubon prints in a more twisted and dark light. The title Pancha Tantra refers to an ancient Indian animal folktale book thought to be a precursor to Aesop's Fables. This has lots of sly wit and offhand comments interwoven with the artwork.
Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.