PowellsBooks.news

Subscribe here!
Your email: (privacy policy) Shop now using PayPal
As we wind down from the build-up to the final Harry Potter book, we're pleased to recall that there are actually great books worth reading that don't involve young wizards. Legendary sportswriter Frank Deford scores a homerun with his interview and signed editions of his baseball novel The Entitled. We have original essays from Christine Kenneally (The First Word) and Justin Taylor (The Apocalypse Reader) alongside Q&As with Gerd Gigerenzer (Gut Feelings) and Kate Blackwell (You Won't Remember This). And don't forget our guest bloggers, Ian Jackman (Eat This!) and the creator of Too Much Coffee Man, Shannon Wheeler (Screw Heaven, When I Die I'm Going to Mars)!
signed editions
The Entitled: Signed Edition"I wish it were longer," Terry Pluto marveled in the Washington Post. Meanwhile, Library Journal praised Deford's "richly textured understanding of baseball and, no less, of estrangement, ambition, mendacity, and the search for one's destiny." And Sports Illustrated assured its readers that Frank Deford's new novel is "more than a terrific baseball book. It's a terrific book, period." Order signed editions of The Entitled while they last.



Add to Cart New: $24.95 | Hardcover

more signed editions

FEATURED INTERVIEW
Frank DefordGQ has called Frank Deford "the world's greatest sportswriter," which just about says it all. Six times, he's been voted Sportswriter of the Year by his peers. He has won an Emmy, a Peabody Award, a National Magazine Award — and the list goes on. Every week, his voice can be heard on National Public Radio. And yet, can you think of Deford without imagining his dapper clothes and suave mustache? At Powell's to introduce a great new novel, The Entitled, one of America's most celebrated journalists reflected upon Red Auerbach's earth tones, Red Barber's writing, Red Sox slugger Tony Conigliaro's truncated career, and plenty of non-Red-related subjects, in addition.

more author interviews

Sell us your books   Buy 2 Get One Free: Oxford Very Short Introductions
Sell us your books!   Buy two books and get the third book free!
NEW ARRIVALS
HARDCOVER
Shadow of the Silk RoadShadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron

Shadow of the Silk Road records a journey along the greatest land route on earth. Acclaimed travel writer Colin Thubron follows the fabled route that connected central China with the Mediterranean Coast, passing through several former Soviet republics, as well as trouble spots in Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey, and explores its colorful history in this "illuminating account of a breathtaking journey" (Booklist).

add to cart Sale $18.16 | Hardcover
List Price: $25.95 (You Save: $7.79)
The Tin Roof Blowdown The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke

Acclaimed author James Lee Burke's The Tin Roof Blowdown is set in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, as lawman Dave Robicheaux attempts to hunt down two serial rapists, a morphine-addicted priest, and a vigilante who may be more dangerous than the criminals looting the city, while wading through the devastating aftermath of a storm with greater impact than the bomb that struck Hiroshima. Booklist calls The Tin Roof Blowdown a kind of perfect storm brought together by the confluence of fictional and nonfictional realms."

add to cart Sale $18.20 | Hardcover
List Price: $26.00 (You Save: $7.80)
DVD
Extras: The Complete Second Season Extras: Complete Second Season

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, creators of the original U.K. The Office, are back with season two of their latest hilarious series, Extras. What happens when an unknown actor who can't catch a break actually catches one? For Andy Millman (Gervais), who's just broken through with a TV sitcom, celebrity doesn't necessarily mean happiness — it just means your follies and faux pas get that much more attention. Get the second season of Extras, complete with outtakes and extra features — and remember, shipping on all DVDs is free at Powells.com!

add to cart Sale $27.36 | DVD
List Price: $29.98 (You Save: $2.62)
PAPERBACK
Consider the LobsterConsider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace

Now in paperback, Consider the Lobster is the brilliant and hilarious new collection of essays from David Foster Wallace, the award-winning author of the bestselling Infinite Jest. Powell's own Dave Weich calls Wallace "arguably the most accessible, intelligent, versatile writer working today," while Kirkus Reviews calls Lobster savory, hard-thinking, wildly imaginative."

add to cart Sale $10.49 | Trade Paper
List Price: $14.99 (You Save: $4.50)
The Whole World OverThe Whole World Over by Julia Glass

The bestselling author of Three Junes returns with The Whole World Over, now in paperback, a rich and commanding story about the accidents, both grand and small, that determine our choices in love and marriage. The Oregonian calls it "a wise book, with breadth as well as depth."

add to cart Sale $10.46 | Trade Paper
List Price: $14.95 (You Save: $4.49)
A Dangerous ManA Dangerous Man by Candace Camp

In Candace Camp's A Dangerous Man, Eleanor Scarborough, dubbed "the bossy American" by most of London society, has been appointed trustee of her late husband's estate. Convinced that the young widow is nothing but a manipulative beauty, Lord Anthony Neale is wary of Eleanor, but he can't help but be drawn to her. "Four stars!" hails the Romantic Times. For a limited time, save 40% on A Dangerous Man, and on other featured titles in our special selection from Harlequin!

add to cart Sale $3.21 | Microsoft eBook
List Price: $6.30 (You Save: $3.09)

Intermission.

9:31 pm, July 20, 2007:

Yes, this is how I spend my Friday nights. And why not? I'm not ashamed.

I'm at the flagship Powell's store, the City of Books in drizzly downtown Portland (yes, even in late July — it's Oregon, people) for the release of the final Harry Potter book. This promises to be the biggest — and last — event of its kind in the bookselling world.

The line started last night, when a couple of people asked to camp out in front of the store; they even brought tents, this being Oregon, and Oregon being what it is (yes, even in late July). By now there are TONS of people, many in costume, all awaiting the moment "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" finally goes on sale at 12:01 a.m. tonight.

Witchy

I will bring you updates the whole time.

En route to the store I passed the park blocks and got my first glimpses of Harry Potter-mania: a group of enthusiasts in costume performing what I can only imagine are authentic medieval folk dances. Because what else could they possibly be?

Coming up the street I encountered a six-and-a-half-foot-tall witch who was retrieving blankets from the car for her kids. They'd been waiting all day.

Why she didn't just cast a warmth spell, I suppose muggles like myself aren't supposed to understand....

Click here to read more about Friday's Harry Potter festivities.

From the Authors: SAVE 30%
CHRISTINE KENNEALLY: ORIGINAL ESSAY
Christine Kenneally The First Word is a compelling look at the quest for the origins of human language from accomplished linguist Christine Kenneally. Sure to appeal to fans of Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct and Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel, Kenneally's book is set to join them as a seminal account of human history. Read Kenneally's original essay and save 30% when you buy The First Word from Powells.com.
The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language
The First Word Sale $18.86 | Hardcover
List Price: $26.95
You Save: $8.09
Add to Cart
JUSTIN TAYLOR: ORIGINAL ESSAY
Justin Taylor These are the ways the world ends. Edited by Justin Taylor, The Apocalypse Reader offers 34 new and selected doomsday scenarios: an enthralling collection of work by canonical literary figures, contemporary masters, and a few rising stars (including respectively Joyce Carol Oates, Michael Moorcock, and Neil Gaiman), all of whom have looked into the future and found it missing. Read Justin Taylor's original essay for Powells.com and get The Apocalypse Reader at 30% off. And don't miss Taylor at Powell's City of Books on July 29.
The Apocalypse Reader
The Apocalypse Reader Sale $11.16 | Trade Paper
List Price: $15.95
You Save: $4.79
Add to Cart
GERD GIGERENZER: INK Q&A
Gerd Gigerenzer In the tradition of Blink and Freakonomics, Gut Feelings is an exploration of the myriad influences and factors (nature and nurture) that affect how the mind works, grounded in cutting-edge research and conveyed through compelling real-life examples. Read our INK Q&A with Gerd Gigerenzer and save 30% off the cover price of Gut Feelings.
Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious
Gut Feelings Sale $18.16 | Hardcover
List Price: $25.95
You Save: $7.79
Add to Cart
KATE BLACKWELL: INK Q&A
Kate Blackwell The twelve stories in Kate Blackwell's debut collection, You Won't Remember This, illuminate the lives of men and women who appear as unremarkable as your next-door neighbor until their stories explode quietly on the page. Read our INK Q&A with Kate Blackwell and get You Won't Remember This at an unforgettable 30% off the publisher's price!
You Won't Remember This: Stories
You Won't Remember This Sale $15.75 | Hardcover
List Price: $22.50
You Save: $6.75
Add to Cart
IAN JACKMAN: GUEST BLOGGER
Ian Jackman From coast to coast, Ian Jackman's Eat This! is a fun and fulfilling survey of the best foods around. Jackman wants readers to escape the guilt and anxiety propagated by a diet-obsessed society and instead indulge their taste buds with foods they absolutely must eat. This week we're pleased to have Ian Jackman as the guest on the Powell's blog. Check out Jackman's blog posts and save 30% all week when you buy Eat This! from Powells.com.
Eat This!: 1,001 Things to Eat Before You Diet
Eat This! Sale $10.46 | Trade Paper
List Price: $14.95
You Save: $4.49
Add to Cart
SHANNON WHEELER: GUEST BLOGGER
Shannon Wheeler In his latest collection of short cartoons, Screw Heaven, When I Die I'm Going to Mars, Shannon Wheeler, the creator of Too Much Coffee Man, takes a step back from his usual scrutiny of mundane pettiness and embraces a somewhat sweeter look at life's bigger issues. The result is the funniest, most sharply executed collection of Wheeler's comics ever. Next week we're thrilled to present Shannon Wheeler as our guest blogger. Order your copy of Screw Heaven at 30% off the publisher's price and check out Shannon Wheeler's guest posts.
Screw Heaven, When I Die I'm Going to Mars
Screw Heaven, When I Die I'm Going to Mars Sale $9.06 | Hardcover
List Price: $12.95
You Save: $3.89
Add to Cart
 
Save 30% on select Martin Cruz Smith mysteries.   Support environmentally friendly publishing!
in our stores
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling (Children's)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows "[A] triumph. Its weaknesses become a source of strength, like the scar on Harry's forehead, and the seventh and last novel in J.K. Rowling's series turns out to be the best one." The Oregonian
(read more)
2.  Pottery Barn Home by Pottery Barn (Interior Design)
3.  Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling (Children's)
4.  Giraffes? Giraffes! by Dr. Doris Haggis-On-Whey (Humor)
5.  A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Literature)
6. Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone by J. K. Rowling (Children's)
7.  Worldchanging by Alex Steffen (Environmental Studies)
8.  Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen (Literature)
9.  Lord of the Flies by William Golding (Literature)
10.  Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (Cooking and Food)
JULY 30: Lisa See
Peony in Love In Peony in Love, the new novel from the bestselling author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, three women in seventeenth-century China become obsessed with a famous opera called The Peony Pavilion, which was thought to cause lovesickness and even death. Publishers Weekly raves, "Peony's vibrant voice, perfectly pitched...carries her story beautifully — in life and afterlife."

JULY 31: Matt Ruff
Bad Monkeys In Bad Monkeys, acclaimed author and cult favorite Matt Ruff (Fool on the Hill) recasts the age-old rivalry between good and evil as a futuristic psychological thriller full of jolting shocks and existential showdowns. "The fiendishly clever plot twists...only add to the mind-bending experience," praises Booklist (starred review).

view all events
preorder signed editions by authors coming to Powell's

IN OUR NEXT EDITION:
An interview with Alan Weisman and signed first editions of The World without Us
An original essay from Matt Ruff (Bad Monkeys)
An INK Q&A with Kimberlee Auerbach (The Devil, the Lovers, and Me)
Fup.  Store Cat.

Dogs and car windows: what gives? Four cats occupy the rear of the station wagon, conjecturing. Chester and Zooey share the middle bench seat behind driver and passenger, one to a side.

"It's an olfactory frenzy," Bear wagers. "Complete immersion. Like IMAX, but for noses."

The dogs are in heaven; that much is clear.

"Explain the appeal," Fup shouts over the seat-back. The dogs only gulp more air.

Bagheera confides, "We should be so content. Look at them."

"There's a wide world beyond our sense of smell," Bear offers. "Scents we can't begin to imagine."

Oreo agrees. "Like when people say this or that tastes like chicken, because really their palates can't tell the difference? That's what I think sometimes about my nose. Everything smells like chicken, which is to say that nothing smells like anything."

Silence. Reflection. Zooey's ears flap in the wind.

Send questions, comments, suggestions, and your favorite magic spells to newsletter@powells.com.

PowellsBooks.news
by Bolton and Dave