 Don't Miss
More at Powell's
Find Books
Read the City
Win Free Books!
PowellsBooks.news
Technica
PowellsBooks.kids
Powell's Q&A, Q&A | June 21, 2009
By Adam Schell
"As a husband who often lies to his wife, or tries to (small stuff, nothing scandalous — believe me), I can tell you first-hand that no married man I know can lie effectively to his wife"
Continue »
-
 |
Add Us to Your Address Book!
Starting next issue, PowellsBooks.news will be coming from a new address. To ensure that you continue to receive PowellsBooks.news, make sure to add newsletter@email.powells.com to your address book.
For the season finale of PowellsBooks.news, we've assembled a sterling lineup of guest stars. From an interview with Sherman Alexie ( Flight) to signed first editions of Susan Vreeland's Luncheon of the Boating Party, we're bringing new faces even as we tie up a season's worth of dramatic storylines. Will Dave successfully return Ian McEwan's pebbles to Chesil Beach? Find out in our first Out of the Book film featuring McEwan's On Chesil Beach! Then join Trevor Corson ( The Zen of Fish) and Shira Boss ( Green with Envy) for the wedding of the year — if Lee Child ( Bad Luck and Trouble) and guest blogger Marshall Karp ( Bloodthirsty) can protect them from the forces of evil! This is the one you don't want to miss... and join us in two weeks for the new season premiere! (Unlike TV shows, we never rest.) 
signed editions
 Bestselling author Susan Vreeland (Girl in Hyacinth Blue) returns with a vivid exploration of one of the most beloved Renoir paintings in the world. Narrated by Renoir and seven of the models, The Luncheon of the Boating Party illuminates the gusto, hedonism, and art of the era and is "amazingly engrossing" (Booklist, starred review). Get your signed first editions now!
 more signed editions
|
|
|
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.
more author interviews |
NEW ARRIVALS
HARDCOVER
 The Assault on Reason by Al Gore
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!
 |
Sale $18.16 | Hardcover
List Price: $25.95 (You Save: $7.79) |
 A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Khaled Hosseini follows up his acclaimed blockbuster The Kite Runner with a haunting novel that confirms his place as one of the most important literary writers today. Hailed as "another artistic triumph, and surefire bestseller, for this fearless writer" by Kirkus Reviews, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once an incredible chronicle of 30 years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, and faith. Save 30% off the publisher's price when you order from Powells.com.
|
Sale $18.16 | Hardcover
List Price: $25.95 (You Save: $7.79) |
 Pan's Labyrinth
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!
|
Sale $29.75 | DVD
List Price: $34.99 (You Save: $5.24) |
|
|
|
PAPERBACK
 The Foreign Correspondent by Alan Furst
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.
|
Sale $9.76 | Trade Paper
List Price: $13.95 (You Save: $4.19) |
 Rough Crossings by Simon Schama
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.
|
Sale $11.86 | Trade Paper
List Price: $16.95 (You Save: $5.09) |
 The Four-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
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.
|
Sale $15.26 | Microsoft eBook
List Price: $17.95 (You Save: $2.69) |
|
And now, another dip into the Brockman Reader Mailbag.
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.
From the Authors: SAVE 30%
TREVOR CORSON: ORIGINAL ESSAY
 |
|
In his richly reported new book, The Zen of Fish, Trevor Corson (author of The Secret Life of Lobsters) shadows several American sushi novices as well as a master Japanese chef to give readers an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the elusive art of cooking without cooking. In his original essay for Powells.com, Corson describes the process that brought him from lobsters to sushi. Read the essay and save 30% on The Zen of Fish when you order from Powells.com.
| |
|
The Zen of Fish
 |
|
Sale $17.46 | Hardcover
List Price: $24.95
You Save: $7.49
 |
|
SHIRA BOSS: ORIGINAL ESSAY
 |
|
In her myth-shattering book, Green with Envy, Shira Boss, a leading business journalist, exposes the shocking gap between personal finance and public image, and reveals how Americans are caught in the trap of living beyond their means. Check out Boss's original essay for Powells.com, in which she examines the myth of large book advances, and get Green with Envy at 30% off the publisher's price.
|
|
|
Green with Envy
 |
|
Sale $9.79 | Trade Paper
List Price: $13.99
You Save: $4.20
|
|
MARSHALL KARP: GUEST BLOGGER
 |
|
Fast-paced, razor-sharp, and intensely funny, Marshall Karp's newest novel, Bloodthirsty, reunites detectives Lomax and Biggs — the mystery genre's new dynamic duo, heroes of The Rabbit Factory — as they try to discover who is killing Hollywood hotshots. We're pleased to welcome Marshall Karp as our guest blogger every day this week. Get Bloodthirsty for 30% off the cover price and check out our blog to read what Karp has to say.
|
|
|
Bloodthirsty
 |
|
Sale $18.20 | Hardcover
List Price: $26.00
You Save: $7.80
|
|
SAMARA O'SHEA: GUEST BLOGGER
 |
|
Next week we're thrilled to welcome Samara O'Shea, author of For the Love of Letters, an anecdotal primer on letter writing, with tips on how to write all types of notes: love letters, break-up letters, apology letters, thank-you letters, erotic letters (oh, yes!), and more. Save 30% when you buy your copy of For the Love of Letters from Powells.com — and check out Samara O'Shea's blog entries all next week.
|
|
|
For the Love of Letters
 |
|
Sale $13.96 | Hardcover
List Price: $19.95
You Save: $5.99
|
|
 
in our stores
 |
|
"[T]his isn't a campaign book....It's a deep public remonstrance, inspired a little by Tom Paine's Common Sense....Gore is no Paine, but he argues persuasively that Bush's tenure is no longer a constitutional presidency." Boston Globe (read more) |
3. The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Literature)
|
|
|
JUNE 5: Joyce Carol Oates
 |
|
In The Gravedigger's Daughter, one of the greatest literary forces of our time has created a masterpiece of domestic yet mythic realism, at once emotionally engaging and intellectually provocative, an intimately observed testimony to the resilience of the individual to set beside such predecessors as The Falls, Blonde, and We Were the Mulvaneys. "Oates is supremely atmospheric, erotic, and suspenseful in this virtuoso novel of identity, power, and moral reckoning," praises Booklist (starred review). |
JUNE 5: A Retrospective of the Trailblazers' Championship Season
 |
|
On June 5, 1977, the Portland Trail Blazers defeated the Philadelphia 76ers to win their first and only NBA championship. Matt Love's new book Red Hot and Rollin' celebrates that legendary season and the Blazermania that resulted, offering over 50 previously unpublished photographs, a DVD of a long-unseen 1978 documentary of the team, and more! This event will be a multimedia presentation in which Love will be joined by contributors Gina Ochsner and Brian Doyle, as well as a surprise Blazer guest. |
view all events
preorder signed editions by authors coming to Powell's |
| |
|
|
|
IN OUR NEXT EDITION:
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?
Send questions, comments, suggestions, and your absolutely favorite kind of sushi to newsletter@powells.com.
PowellsBooks.news
by Bolton and Dave
Copyright 2007 Powells.com
|
