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In bloom:
powells.com interviews: daniel gilbert (stumbling on happiness)
preorder signed books!
ink q&a: julia alvarez (saving the world)
ink q&a: christopher moore (a dirty job)
sebastian junger contest
giant microbes
live wire broadcast
springer physics and statistics sale
guest bloggers: danielle trussoni and sam walker
new in stores
dvds
ebooks
calendar of events
fup. store cat.
bestsellers
Well, another vernal equinox has come and gone. Here
in the Northern Hemisphere, we tried to test the theory that the first day of
spring is the one day of the year when an egg can be balanced on its end. It
took eighteen and a half hours, six pots of coffee, and twelve changes of clothes
before we discovered... it's true! The egg stood on its end! Sadly, a friend
informs us that an egg can be balanced on any day of the year, with enough patience
(and eggs, of course). We think that's a myth.
Perhaps no one knows better than Daniel Gilbert that when Stumbling
on
Happiness achieves bestseller status across the country and it will,
just wait he won't feel quite as ecstatic about the accomplishment as
he might have hoped. But the irony goes deeper: Gilbert will take real pleasure
from his own lackluster response. See, the Harvard psychologist has pioneered
a field of research he calls "affective forecasting," which is a fancy way of
saying that he wants to know why people consistently overestimate the emotional
impact of events. "This is a brilliant book," Seth Godin raved, "a useful book,
and a book that could quite possibly change the way you look at just about everything.
And as a bonus, Gilbert writes like a cross between Malcolm
Gladwell and David
Sedaris."
Don't you hate it when you get the Powells.com newsletter and go to buy a signed
first edition of a highly praised new book from a beloved author... and they're
already sold out? Well, now you can preorder signed copies from authors who are
visiting our stores! Check out what is currently on offer here.
Julia Alvarez describes her latest novel, Saving
the World: "[A]s the Seamus Heaney poem says, hope and history can sometimes
be made to 'rhyme.' This novel is about two women, one contemporary and one historical,
who want desperately for this rhyme to happen." Read the INK Q&A to find out
which fictional character Alvarez would like to date, her favorite passage from
another writer, the last good book she read, and other juicy tidbits. And save
30% now when you buy Saving the World.
Just as unexpected as you would expect from the author of The
Stupidest Angel, Christopher Moore's INK Q&A reveals his crush on Jasper
Fford's Thursday Next, explains why he'd like to live inside The Three Little Pigs (hint: chinny-chin-chin sizzles oh so deliciously in a frying pan), and
describes his latest novel, A
Dirty Job, as "the story of what happens when a beta male, a single father
who owns a thrift store in San Francisco, gets the job of being Death. High jinks
ensue." Read the rest of the Q&A and save 30% on A Dirty Job.
Win an evening of food and conversation with Sebastian Junger, the critically
acclaimed author of The Perfect
Storm. If your name is selected, you and a guest will join Mr. Junger after
his reading for coffee, dessert, and conversation. The contest winner and guest
will each also receive a copy of Junger's latest, A
Death in Belmont. Enter by April 20 for your chance to win!
This edition of PowellsBooks.news is brought to you
in part by the ellipsis, also known as the ellipse, or the colloquial "dot-dot-dot." Friends,
are you having trouble making those pesky quotations fit your needs? Why settle
for the truth when you can use the ellipsis to turn "the year's best reason not
to read a book" into "the year's best...book"? And if your dialogue needs a little
time to rest, insert a convenient pause... with three taps of a plastic key!
The ellipsis turns an ordinary sentence... into... a great sentence!
We can't decide which is cuter, Bad
Breath or Gonorrhea...
but nothing is as cuddly and adorable as Mad
Cow! We're referring, of course, to the new Giant
Microbes: stuffed animals that look like tiny microbes a million times
their actual size! Each plush doll comes with an image of the real microbe it
represents, as well as information about the microbe, so kids (and, um, adults)
won't even realize they're learning as they're having fun. Best of all, each
is under $8! Share the gift of Sleeping
Sickness, Polio, E.
coli, Athlete's Foot,
or Flesh Eating Disease with
someone you love.
Head honcho Michael
Powell appeared on the second anniversary episode of Live Wire, the public
radio show performed live right here in Portland. In case you missed seeing it
at the Aladdin Theatre, the show which also features author Whitney Otto
(How to Make an American Quilt),
musician M. Ward, and more will air on OPB on March 31 at 8:00 p.m., and
will also be available as a podcast on the Live Wire website.
Right now, at this very moment, you are not reading today's entry on the Powell's
blog by guest blogger Danielle Trussoni, author of the acclaimed memoir Falling
through the Earth. That's okay, because there's a lot more newsletter to
read... but as soon as you're finished here, make sure you check out what Danielle has to say. Next week, we're pleased to welcome Sam Walker, author of Fantasyland: A Season on Baseball's Lunatic Fringe.
With The Da Vinci Code finally
coming to paperback (in both trade paper and mass market editions) on March 28,
we want to remind our readers that Dan Brown's blockbuster isn't the only new
book to hit our stores. In Abide
with Me, Elizabeth Strout welcomes readers back to the archetypal, lovely
landscape of northern New England, where the events of her first novel, Amy
and Isabelle, unfolded. The author of American
Dynasty, Kevin Phillips, returns with American
Theocracy, an explosive examination of the axis of religion, politics, and
borrowed money that threatens to destroy the United States.
Two of the holiday season's biggest blockbusters make their way to DVD. Harry
Potter and the Goblet of Fire brings J. K. Rowling's immortal creation to
the big screen in a film the Hollywood Reporter calls "the best one yet." Peter
Jackson's astonishing remake of King Kong ("One of the year's best films," according
to Roger Ebert) is available in both a slimmed-down
DVD that offers the film and a handful of extras, and in a two-disc
special edition that includes Peter Jackson's production diaries, an examination
of 1930s New York, and a featurette that explores Skull Island. These and all
other DVDs ship for free!

New in eBook: legendary comedy writer Carl Reiner, who created The Dick Van Dyke Show and went on to direct Steve Martin's The
Jerk, ventures into novel-writing with NNNNN,
a "humorous romp through the psyche of an endearingly kooky author" (Booklist,
starred review). If that's not enough to slake your thirst for laughter, gulp
down Monty Python alum (and winner of the Tony Award for Spamalot) Eric Idle's The
Greedy Bastard Diary: A Comic Tour of America "a very funny book," assures
the Washington Post.

Current guest blogger Danielle
Trussoni appears at Powell's to promote her memoir, Falling
through the Earth, which Kirkus says "flows like the best fiction
but...has the punch of real life." Temple
Grandin merges a lifetime of study with her extraordinary perceptions as
an autistic person in Animals
in Translation, a groundbreaking book that revolutionizes the understanding
of how animals think and feel. In Field
Notes from a Catastrophe, recent guest blogger Elizabeth
Kolbert presents an argument for the urgent danger of global warming in a
book that has earned comparisons to Rachel Carson's Silent
Spring. Christopher Moore offers
his hilarious latest, A Dirty
Job. And, Mark Kurlansky,
the bestselling author of Salt and Cod,
returns with The Big Oyster,
the fascinating history of the oyster's influence on four centuries of cultural,
economic, and culinary trends with recipes throughout. For these and other
events, consult our calendar.

They call her ambitious. Fup doesn't see it that way.
"You walked to Kahani."
"I wanted to go. And friends helped."
"But you did it. You did!"
People, cats, dogs... you could probably say the same for ostriches, Fup suspects,
though she's never met one so can't be sure often the only thing keeping
them from their dreams is fear. Which makes sense. It's what scares them that
she doesn't understand: change, surprise, failure. How do you grow without change?
Surprise is good! You can't fail at what you never try, but where's the solace
in that?
"You're famous!"
"Because of where I live."
"No, because of who you are."
Who is she? Who exactly do they think?
And what do ostriches dream of, anyway? Flying, Fup bets.
<>
Send questions, comments, suggestions, and the first flowers of spring to newsletter@powells.com.
PowellsBooks.news
by Bolton and Dave
Copyright 2006 Powells.com
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