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signed editions
Luncheon of the Boating Party, Signed 1st Edition by Susan Vreeland
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FEATURED INTERVIEW
 Darkly funny, sharply observant, Flight lays bare the experience of a teenaged outsider circa 2007. Alternately heartbreaking and wondrous, Sherman Alexie's first novel in ten years tells the story of an orphan careening through foster homes until finally, not long after we meet him, he walks into a bank and comes unstuck in time. Gritty, intense, and especially timely, it's a lightning-fast read besides. Alexie stopped by Powell's to discuss his new novel, plus slobbering on Stephen King, potlatch culture, pile-of-crap novels, and more.
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HARDCOVER
The former vice president, who won an Oscar for last year's documentary An Inconvenient Truth, presents a visionary analysis of how the politics of fear, secrecy, cronyism, and blind faith of the Bush-led radical Right has combined with the degradation of the public sphere to create an environment dangerously hostile to reason. Get The Assault on Reason from Powells.com and save 30% off the cover price!
Winner of three Academy Awards, Pan's Labyrinth is the extraordinary fairy tale for adults by Guillermo del Toro. Set in the bloody postwar repression of Franco's Spain, this is the spellbinding tale of Ofelia, a young girl who escapes her life of unimaginable cruelty in a mysterious labyrinth where she meets a faun who sets her on a path to saving herself and her ailing mother. The Village Voice hails Pan's Labyrinth as "a rich, daring mix of fantasy and politics." And all DVDs ship for free!
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PAPERBACK
Alan Furst, "the greatest living writer of espionage fiction" (Houston Chronicle) returns with his most suspenseful and stylish novel yet, in which an international news correspondent's secret life leads him to become a target for assassination. "[A] gripping historical thriller with echoes of Graham Greene," raves Publishers Weekly. Save 30% off the cover price of The Foreign Correspondent.
If you were black in America at the start of the Revolutionary War, which side would you want to win? Tens of thousands of blacks in America at the start of the Revolutionary War escaped from farms, plantations, and cities to reach the British who offered the promise of emancipation in return for military service. In Rough Crossings, acclaimed historian Simon Schama follows their odyssey through the war and into inhospitable Nova Scotia, where thousands were betrayed. Get Rough Crossings at 30% off the retail price.
New in eBook: Whether you're an overworked employee or an entrepreneur trapped in your own business, Timothy Ferriss's The Four-Hour Workweek is the compass for a new and revolutionary world. If your dream is escaping the rat race, high-end world travel, monthly five-figure income with zero management, or just living more and working less, this book is the blueprint.
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Dear Brockman,
My friends all love this highly acclaimed novel (that shall go unnamed) but I think it stinks! I barely got halfway before I gave up and sold it back to Powells.com. Now my friends want to know what I think — what should I tell them? I don't want to look dumb.
—Beaten by a Book
Dear Beaten,
Ask your friends what they thought, then repeat those sentiments back to them, substituting various synonyms for their adjectives. Most people only ask someone else's opinion as an invitation to share their own, so open that door and stand aside. If you're asked for your opinion first, use key phrases like "evocative prose," "challenging and courageous," and "voice of a generation." They probably aren't listening to you anyway.
Dear Brockman,
Why would I come to you for advice? You don't seem to have your act together. What makes you such a flim-flammin' expert?
—Skeptical of a Lit-Blogger
Dear Skeptical,
I have a diploma from the Institute for Lit-Blog Advice Givers presented by the Lit-Blog University, an online correspondence school that I just made up. Which gives me bona fides. Have you got bona fides? Didn't think so. Next!
Dear Brockman,
I'm finally hosting my own Memorial Day barbecue for friends and family at my very first house — so exciting! Right now I'm grilling chicken, but I can't remember: should the meat be white or pink? Please help — and hurry!
—Meaty and Needy
Dear Meaty,
If the chicken is white, that means it's cooked all the way through. Here's hoping you didn't go with pink and poison everyone in your home.
Questions, comments, advice for the lovelorn? Send 'em to brockman@powells.com.
TREVOR CORSON: ORIGINAL ESSAY
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The Zen of Fish
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LEE CHILD: ORIGINAL ESSAY AND SIGNED FIRST OFFER
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Bad Luck and Trouble, Signed 1st Edition and The Hard Way, Signed Mass Market
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SHIRA BOSS: ORIGINAL ESSAY
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Green with Envy
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MARSHALL KARP: GUEST BLOGGER
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Bloodthirsty
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SAMARA O'SHEA: GUEST BLOGGER
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For the Love of Letters
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1. The Assault on Reason by Al Gore (Politics)
2. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Literature)
3. The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Literature)
4. No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July (Literature)
5. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and Camille Kingsolver and Steven L. Hopp (Cooking and Food)
6. Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child (Mystery)
7. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Travel Writing)
8. Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky (Literature)
9. After Dark by Haruki Murakami (Literature)
10. The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon (Literature)
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JUNE 5: Joyce Carol Oates
JUNE 5: A Retrospective of the Trailblazers' Championship Season
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Chess, Chesterton, Chesil... The cats have decided to rebrand Chester. A new home deserves a fresh start, they agree. And he doesn't quite look like a Chester, anyway.
"Chet?" Bear suggests, but right away he retracts it. "Too prep school," he complains.
Whatever his name is about to become, Chester cannot quite believe the attention they're giving him. He's flattered, practically dumbfounded that they would even care. Not just about a newcomer, but about a dog.
Hopefully they're not making fun of him. That remains a distinct possibility.
"Chennewick Mutt."
"Che Guevara."
They must be making fun of him.
"Chesty?" proposes Bagheera.
"Sounds like a girl," Oreo counters.
Or, could it be possible these cats are simply very, very bored?
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