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Beware the Ides of March:
powells.com interviews: ian rankin
signed first editions: fleshmarket alley
great deals
from the author: amy krouse rosenthal
from the author: robert thurman
from the author: nina simonds
writer's almanac
ebooks
calendar of events
fup. store cat.
weekly bestsellers
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We'd planned an extravagant St. Patrick's Day party: invitations to U2 and the Posies to provide the music; Liam Neeson, Pierce Brosnan, Peter O'Toole, and Gabriel Byrne were lined up to read works by Joyce, Yeats, and Roddy Doyle; and a giant marble fountain would have Michael Collins pouring an endless stream of Bushmills. Alas, things didn't quite work out as we'd hoped, so we'll have to settle for green beer and a rousing sing-along of "Danny Boy."
 POWELLS.COM INTERVIEWS: IAN RANKIN
According to Ian Rankin, "People think that crime fiction is very structured, that it has the puzzle element, that it has got a very strong sense of beginning, middle and end. But an awful lot of crime writers make it up as they go along." In an interview with Georgie Lewis of Powells.com, the award-winning author of the Inspector Rebus series, most recently Fleshmarket Alley, discusses Scottish writers, Leonard Cohen, and making his novels up as he goes along: "I always say, 'If I knew what was going to happen, why would I need to write the book?'"
 SIGNED FIRST EDITIONS: FLESHMARKET ALLEY
In the latest Inspector Rebus novel — which Powells.com's Georgie calls "complex, humane, and utterly compelling" — the discovery of the bones of a woman and child in the basement of a newly renovated bar situated in the notorious Fleshmarket Alley launches Inspector John Rebus on a race to stop a killer. Ian Rankin's Fleshmarket Alley is "a pivotal entry in a uniformly fascinating series" (Booklist, starred review). Get your signed first editions before they disappear.
 GREAT DEALS ON GREAT BOOKS
The smash bestseller
America (the Book) by Jon Stewart and the writers of The Daily Show offers a side-splitting satire of high school textbooks, American
history, and just about everything else. In his first novel,
You Shall Know Our Velocity!, Dave Eggers has written a moving and
hilarious tale of two friends who fly around the world trying to give away
money and free themselves from a profound loss ("There is genius here," muses Time magazine). Eric Alterman's
What Liberal Media? is a must-read for any citizen interested in the health of our news media, or in the current battles between Right and Left. Get these and other great books at up to 60% off the cover price.
 FROM THE AUTHOR: AMY KROUSE ROSENTHAL
Powells.com's Dave Weich calls Amy Krouse Rosenthal's debut, Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, "one of the most entertaining, compulsively readable memoirs in recent memory." In this amusing essay — with illustrations — for Powells.com, the author explains why she presented her life in encyclopedic form: "[T]his format made such perfect sense to me (on many levels) that it was more like 'of course this is how my book will operate' versus 'boy, I'm really doing something zany here with the structure.'" Save 30% on Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life.
 FROM THE AUTHOR: ROBERT THURMAN
In this illuminating essay for Powells.com, Robert Thurman, author of The Jewel Tree of Tibet (and the first Westerner ordained by the Dalai Lama himself), addresses how to transcend one's fears of the life beyond this one: "The whole 'you' as a continuity is immortal! It lives and dies, changes and feels. The question is not really whether or not you continue, but rather are you going to enjoy it?" For a limited time, enjoy 30% off the cover price of The Jewel Tree of Tibet.
 FROM THE AUTHOR: NINA SIMONDS
In a delicious essay prepared especially for Powells.com, award-winning author Nina Simonds discusses the Asian idea of "food as medicine": "In Asia (unlike in this country), even the 'healthy' dishes taste delicious and give pleasure." In her latest book, Spices of Life, Simonds hopes "to seduce the reader with food that is prepared simply with fresh seasonal ingredients enhanced with vibrant herbs and seasonings that provide satisfaction as well as sustenance. Like many, I am a busy, working mother so most of the recipes are designed for convenience and simplicity." Savor Spices of Life at 30% off the publisher's price.
FUP'S FACTOID:
March 15 the anniversary of Julius Caesar's murder in 44 B.C. Feline historians have discovered a plausible reason Caesar failed to heed the warning "Beware the Ides of March!" — he had fifteen cats, each named Ide. So rather than fearing the 15th day of the month, he misunderstood and kept his cats under armed guard even as assassins cut him down. He also had a dog named Brutus, who may have licked his wounds, prompting the now famous, "Et tu, Brute?"
 WRITER'S ALMANAC
Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac offers a mixture of history and literary notes each day on NPR and Powells.com: "Wednesday, March 9, is the anniversary of the 1913 delivery of Virginia Woolf's first novel, The Voyage Out, to the Duckworth Publishing House. By 1912, she had written five drafts, including two she worked on simultaneously, yet she rewrote the entire novel one more time from December 1912 to March 1913, typing 600 pages in two months. The book was accepted, but the process of rewriting led to a nervous breakdown, from which Woolf spent two years recovering. The Voyage Out was finally published in 1915, but it took fifteen years to sell 2,000 copies. While the novel is considered a minor work, Woolf wrote her classic Mrs. Dalloway (1927) based on one of the characters from The Voyage Out." For more birthdays (including crime novelist Mickey Spillane) and historical anniversaries, visit our Writer's Almanac page here.
 eBOOKS
New in eBook format: National Book Award nominee Francine Prose (The Blue Angel) returns with A Changed Man, a masterfully plotted, darkly comic novel about a reformed neo-Nazi who claims he wants to save guys like him from becoming guys like him. In Taking Heat, former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer goes behind the scenes as he recalls his experiences in the West Wing. And Peter Robinson's Strange Affair puts his hero, Detective Inspector Alan Banks, on the trail of his own missing brother.
In our next edition:
An interview with Geraldine Brooks; an essay from Powell's own Kevin Sampsell (The Insomniac Reader); our INK Q&A with Christopher Rice; and the annual Springer Physics sale.
 CALENDAR OF EVENTS
An early spring brings unexpected blossoms and a bevy of authors to our neighborhood. From Geraldine Brooks, author of the international bestseller Year of Wonders, comes March, a powerful novel set against the catastrophe of the Civil War. Matt Love's The Far Out Story of Vortex I documents the 1970 rock festival that brought 100,000 revelers to Portland — and kept the police at bay. In Light before Day, Christopher Rice pens a riveting and complex story of an elusive serial killer and a labyrinth of revenge and sexual obsession. With the trademark wisdom, humor, and honesty that made Traveling Mercies a runaway bestseller, Anne Lamott's Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith is a spiritual antidote to anxiety and despair in increasingly fraught times. And a brilliant satire of the twisted world of comedians, Seth Greenland's The Bones is a debut novel that reveals, in all its hilarity and ache, the dark heart of comedy.
FUP. STORE CAT.
By mid-afternoon, though no one can quite believe it, the heat is such that Fup and Bear seek a spot in the shade beside the walking path. And only March yet!
The Park Blocks host a scene straight out of summer: Frisbees flying; strollers rolling; sunbathers basking on benches. In the adjacent playground, three sets of parents chat while their daughters circle directly from the bottom of the slide back to its ladder, one rushing to catch up with the next.
Fup and Bear spend ten or twenty or who knows how many minutes in the cool grass, trying to pick birds' voices apart without looking.
Until a Siamese cat passes. On a leash.
"No," Bear protests.
Fup tries to hold in the laugh. A giggle escapes despite her efforts.
Before they realize what's happening, the Siamese lunges, white claws reaching, sharp teeth gleaming, all four paws off the ground in a forceful, flat-out leap. Then (they will be talking about it for days, trying to imitate the sound for friends) the Siamese seems to bark.
The next girl in line for the slide turns to watch. Her friends clog the ladder below.
The leash goes taut. The cat's collar strains against his throat, though still his rear paws thrust forward with the momentum, a few inches short of Fup yet when — finally, and just as Fup's come to her senses — a sharp tug pulls the whole body back onto the paved lane.
"And now, if you'll excuse me," Fup announces, "I think I am going to faint."
TOP TEN BESTSELLERS
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We welcome all kinds of feedback, from suggestions, comments, and questions to historical notes. Email newsletter@powells.com — and tread carefully around soothsayers on March 15.
PowellsBooks.news
by Bolton
and Dave
Copyright
2005 Powells.com
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