signed editions
Then We Came to the End, Signed 1st Edition by Joshua Ferris
Napoleon's Pyramids, Signed 1st Edition by William Dietrich
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featured interview
 Then We Came to the End tells the "savagely funny yet kind-hearted" (applauds the Observer) story of an ad agency in decline, circa 2001. Throughout, Joshua Ferris uses the first person plural to present the agency's collective voice in the midst of ongoing layoffs. It's an audacious narrative gimmick that could easily collapse, and yet it never does. Last week Ferris spoke to Powell's about the long process of getting that voice to work, as well as his influences, office life, chair-swapping, and more. |
HARDCOVER
The Bloodless Revolution is the story of how Western Christianity and Eastern philosophy merged to spawn a political movement that had the prohibition of meat at its core. Jill of Powells.com raves, "Engaging, surprising...and relevant...destined to become a classic cultural work."
In Poor People, 2005 National Book Award winner William Vollmann explores the inescapable and timeless social phenomenon of poverty. Complete with more than 100 powerfully affecting photographs, this series of vignettes and searing insights represents a tremendous step toward an understanding of this age-old social ill.
DVD
Winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, Martin Scorsese's The Departed stars Leonardo DiCaprio as an undercover cop deep in the ranks of a Boston mob boss (Jack Nicholson), who has his own mole (Matt Damon) in the police force. Also starring Alec Baldwin and Oscar nominee Mark Wahlberg, The Departed is "Scorsese's most purely enjoyable movie in years" (Newsweek).
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PAPERBACK
Manhunt is the riveting true story of the greatest manhunt in American history: the pursuit and capture of President Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth. "As gripping a page-turner as anything you'll find on the mystery shelf," raves Entertainment Weekly.
The Zinester's Guide to Portland is a comprehensive guide of things to do in Portland, featuring information on various neighborhoods, bridges, eateries, hangouts, bars, places that sell zines, and how to navigate the city.
Sarah Dunant's acclaimed bestseller is now in paperback! "[A] lush and intelligent piece of historical fiction," Booklist hails in its starred review.
EBOOK
From Robert Harris, the bestselling author of Fatherland and Pompeii, comes Imperium — the most provocative and brilliant novel of antiquity since I, Claudius — a cautionary tale of Cicero, the greatest orator of all time, and his extraordinary struggle for power in Rome.
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My favorite book:
Has a female character who is in excruciating pain, every minute of
every damn day. There is also a man in a well. Do you know what it is?
[Brockman's note: Readers are welcome to help me cheat by writing to brockman@powells.com.]
The last book I threw at the wall was:
101 Ways to Resist Gouging Out Your Eyes While Tom Cruise Expounds the Merits of Scientology
The last good book I threw at someone's head was:
I don't know if I've ever thrown a book at someone's head. Clearly I'm
missing out on something.
Did that person deserve to have a book thrown at his/her head?
Admittedly no. But putting them in a burlap bag and throwing them in the river would have taken too long.
Did said book cause any damage to the target's head?
Nah. His ego's too big. It's like a protective kevlar shell.
Do you regret throwing that book at the target's head?
No; she'd do the same for me.
If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?
The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury
And I'm especially fond of this one, which wasn't on the original questionnaire:
Describe yourself in one word.
Unable to follow instructions.
Thanks to all for the emails. I must confess, I'm slightly weak-kneed and trembly-chinned at the moment, awed and overwhelmed as I am to have so many unrepentantly vicious and creatively snarktastic readers. Just don't ever come to my house or I'm calling the police on the lot of you.
BILL MCKIBBEN: ORIGINAL ESSAY
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Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future
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DENNIS CASS: INK Q&A
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Head Case: How I Almost Lost My Mind Trying to Understand My Brain
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MIRANDA BEVERLY-WHITTEMORE: INK Q&A
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Set Me Free
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JOHN SELLERS: GUEST BLOGGER
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Perfect from Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life
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ELIZABETH DEWBERRY: GUEST BLOGGER
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His Lovely Wife
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1. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
2. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
3. Zinester's Guide to Portland 2007 by Shawn Granton and Nate Beaty
4. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
5. The Undercover Economist: Exposing Why the Rich Are Rich, Why the Poor Are Poor and Why You Can Never Buy a Decent Used Car! by Tim Harford
6. The Inheritance of Loss: A Novel by Kiran Desai
7. Un Lun Dun by China Miéville
8. The Devil of Nanking by Mo Hayder
9. The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier
10. Clown Girl: A Novel by Monica Drake |
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MAR 12: Joe Conason
MAR 14: Loggernaut Reading Series Anniversary
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"We were famous and underworked," began the manuscript. "We never lacked for kibble. At least those of us who read had something to look forward to after closing. Most of us liked most everyone, a few of us despaired of specific employees, one or two store cats in Portland loved everybody and everything, even the dark winter weeks drowned in rain. Those who did were shunned for months at a time, through the whole of our long wet season, when a chummy reminder that showers make flowers 'and worms and tasty bugs and so forth' — shut it! — could drive splinters into our scalp. Grant us our cabin fever! Paws off the hallowed gripes that mark our days."
Bear comes to the end of the passage and looks up from the page. Fup pretends she isn't waiting for his response. As if, lo, she's entirely forgotten that he's reading her memoir.
"Just a first draft," she reminds him.
"A bit derivative of Ferris, wouldn't you say?"
Fup corrects him: "The French would call it an homage. Read on."
We received a lot of great responses to last week's "taste of Powell's" challenge. It was hard to choose just one, but our favorite was: "Powells.com tastes just like the fifth dish Mario Batali makes on Iron Chef when the secret ingredient is chocolate." We admire the way it makes our mouths water, as well as the somewhat Pynchonesque quality of the sentence. (Thanks, Treva!)
Send questions, comments, and suggestions to newsletter@powells.com. And, since we can never have too much of a good thing, we'd love to know how you'd finish this sentence: "Powells.com reminds me of the first time I ever..."
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