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While we were irresistibly fascinated by interview subject Alan Weisman's book The World without Us, we must confess we find the idea of a world without authors or books completely depressing. That means there would be no riveting original essays by Matt Ruff (Bad Monkeys), Jonathan Selwood (The Pinball Theory of Apocalypse), or Nancy Horan (Loving Frank) or INK Q&As from Kimberlee Auerbach (The Devil, the Lovers, and Me). The very thought makes us want to rush over and hug our entire bookshelf.
signed editions
The World without Us, Signed 1st Edition"I don't think I've read a better non-fiction book this year," raved Lev Grossman, Time magazine's book critic. "He writes like Malcolm Gladwell and John McPhee mashed together and set on fast-forward." According to the Boston Globe, The World without Us is "extraordinarily farsighted. A beautiful and passionate jeremiad against deforestation, climate change, and pollution." Order signed first editions while they last.
add to cart The World Without Us New $24.95 | Hardcover

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FEATURED INTERVIEW
Alan Weisman"Let us try a creative experiment," Alan Weisman proposes on page three of The World without Us: If humans disappeared from earth, what would happen? To your home, for example — how long would take for water damage, sun exposure, or hungry critters to start breaking it down? What would happen to our cities, farms, and oceans? Or to the animals that remain? Weisman leads readers from the alpine moors of Kenya to an underground city in Central Turkey, looking back past ice ages and previous extinctions, and then plotting ahead through the unending half-lives of our nuclear waste. A week after the book's publication, Weisman discussed the view from our moon, Al Gore's environmental training, armadillos the size of Volkswagens, the once and future rivers of Manhattan, and more.

more author interviews

Buy 2 Get One Free: Oxford Very Short Introductions   Save 30% on select titles by Martin Cruz Smith
Buy two books and get the third book free!   Save 30% on select Martin Cruz Smith mysteries.
NEW ARRIVALS
HARDCOVER
In EuropeIn Europe: Travels through the Twentieth Century by Geert Mak

Already a bestseller throughout Europe, In Europe is Dutch journalist and historian Geert Mak's rich and intimate work of modern history. Mak chronicles key events and weaves them through individual experiences in order to provide readers with an eyewitness perspective on the past. "Sweeping in scope, brimming with luxurious and telling detail, electric in prose style, and deeply comprehending," hails Booklist in its starred review.

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Crooked Little Vein Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis

In Crooked Little Vein, a burned-out private detective is enlisted by an army of presidential goons to retrieve the U.S. Constitution... the real one. Packed with mind-bending style and a wild cast of characters, this surprisingly surreal novel from bestselling comic book writer Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan) infuses Robert B. Parker with Kurt Vonnegut and the madness of the graphic novel world.

add to cart Crooked Little Vein Sale $15.36 | Hardcover
List Price: $21.95 (You Save: $6.59)
DVD
Zodiac Zodiac

Based on the actual case files of one of the most intriguing unsolved crimes in the nation's history, Zodiac is a thriller from director David Fincher (Seven, Panic Room) that dramatically depicts the hunt for a serial killer who terrifies the San Francisco Bay Area and taunts the police and press with his ciphers and letters. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey, Jr., Zodiac is a "vastly intricate and dazzling drama" (Entertainment Weekly) destined to be one of the year's best films.

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PAPERBACK
Sharp ObjectsSharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

After eight years, the murders of two preteen girls — timed nearly a year apart — bring reporter Camille Preaker reluctantly back to her hometown in Gillian Flynn's debut novel, Sharp Objects. As she works to uncover the truth about these violent crimes, Camille finds herself forced to unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past. Kirkus Reviews raves, "Flynn delivers a great whodunit....Piercingly effective and genuinely terrifying."

add to cart Sharp Objects Sale $9.80 | Trade Paper
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The RuinsThe Ruins by Scott Smith

In Scott Smith's national bestseller The Ruins, now in paperback, a group of friends trapped in the Mexican jungle stumble upon a creeping horror unlike anything they've ever known. No less an authority than Stephen King called The Ruins "A long scream of horror. It does for Mexican vacations what Jaws did for New England beaches." Plus: read last summer's Powells.com interview with Scott Smith.

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Immortal RemainsImmortal Remains by Steve Niles and Jeff Mariotte

Based on the acclaimed graphic novel series "30 Days of Night" by Steve Niles (soon to be a major motion picture), Immortal Remains follows a terrifying serial killer as he stalks the residential streets of Savannah, Georgia. But there's more than meets the eye behind the savage killings — a truth that has dire implications for the very future of the mortal world.

add to cart Immortal Remains Sale $5.94 | Microsoft eBook
List Price: $6.99 (You Save: $1.05)

Intermission.

Last week's guest blogger, Too Much Coffee Man creator Shannon Wheeler, came to us fresh from the San Diego Comic Convention. He hadn't yet recovered.

Over the last 5 days I've been at the San Diego Comic-Con. I thought I would be able to surf the hotel's wifi and blog at the end of each day. It turns out that every waking moment was stolen by working at my tiny booth at the giant comic book convention. I also went to my opera and I tried to make business connections (i.e. drinking in hotel rooms until 4 in the morning). Also, there was a hot tub at the hotel that was open 24/7. The hot tub did not help my work ethic.

Right now I'm driving back from San Diego. I'll stay in L.A. for a couple of days seeing various friends. Then I'm driving to Berkeley for another week of friends, food, and "networking." Then I'm fated for a 12-hour drive back to Portland with my twin 9-year-old boys. I'm not typing while driving (although I'm pretty sure that I saw someone emailing on their iPhone near the Ventura Blvd. exit). I'm talking into a tiny tape recorder, which is 10% safer.

L.A. is unique because it is different. The United States is becoming homogenous. Southerners are losing their accents because children learn to talk, not from their parents, but from TV; TV that's being made in L.A. I can't help but think behavior, morals, attitudes, lifestyles, prejudices, and obviously, the compulsion to consume, are insinuating themselves along with language. It's as if the world's identity is sculpted by Tivo....

Read the rest of Shannon's post and visit the Powells.com blog every day for book reviews, guest bloggers, Brockman's Book News, and more!

From the Authors: SAVE 30%
MATT RUFF: ORIGINAL ESSAY
Matt Ruff Jane Charlotte claims to be a member of a secret organization — the Bad Monkeys — devoted to ridding the world of especially evil people. As Jane's tale grows increasingly bizarre, a psychiatrist tries to sort truth from lies. Is she lying or crazy, or is her tale unbelievably true? Bad Monkeys is the latest spellbinding novel from cult favorite Matt Ruff (Set This House in Order), "a thriller that is familiar enough to be comforting and new enough to offer genuine surprise" (The Oregonian). Read Ruff's original essay and save 30% when you buy Bad Monkeys from Powells.com.
Bad Monkeys
Bad Monkeys Sale $14.00 | Trade Paper
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JONATHAN SELWOOD: ORIGINAL ESSAY
Jonathan Selwood In The Pinball Theory of Apocalypse, Jonathan Selwood's "laugh-out-loud madcap debut" (Booklist), involves a painter who suddenly makes it big (even as her sleazy gallery owner has posted nude photos of her on the Internet), her boyfriend who's sleeping with a Latina teenage diva, and her physicist father who has done the math that proves the planets in our solar system will start crashing into one another in 2049. Read the original essay by Selwood and get The Pinball Theory of Apocalypse at 30% off the cover price.
The Pinball Theory of Apocalypse
The Pinball Theory of Apocalypse Sale $9.76 | Trade Paper
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NANCY HORAN: ORIGINAL ESSAY
Nancy Horan Fact and fiction are brilliantly blended in Loving Frank, Nancy Horan's compelling debut novel about the relationship between legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Cheney, the wife of a couple whose home Wright built in 1904. "[E]ngrossing, provocative reading," hails Scott Turow, author of Presumed Innocent. Read this original essay from Nancy Horan and save 30% on Loving Frank.
Loving Frank
Loving Frank Sale $16.76 | Hardcover
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KIMBERLEE AUERBACH: INK Q&A
Kimberlee Auerbach Kimberlee Auerbach's one-woman show, "Tarot Reading," sold out in New York, prompting rave reviews from such notable writers and social critics as Naomi Wolf, Wendy Shanker, and Dr. Robin Stern. Now Auerbach brings her utterly original humor to her unforgettable memoir, The Devil, the Lovers, and Me: My Life in Tarot. Read Auerbach's INK Q&A and pick up your copy of The Devil, the Lovers, and Me at 30% off the publisher's price!
The Devil, the Lovers, and Me: My Life in Tarot
The Devil, the Lovers, and Me Sale $17.46 | Hardcover
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MICHELLE WILDGEN: GUEST BLOGGER
Michelle Wildgen Michelle Wildgen's deeply affecting novel, You're Not You, tells the story of Bec, a college student whose complacency in life begins to lift when she cares for Kate, a 36-year-old woman who has been immobilized by ALS. But when Kate's marriage veers into dangerous territory, Bec will have to choose between the values of her old life and the allure of an entirely new one. This week we're pleased to feature Michelle Wildgen as our guest blogger. Pick up a copy of You're Not You for 30% off the cover price and read Michelle's blog posts.
You're Not You
You're Not You Sale $9.80 | Trade Paper
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You Save: $4.20
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JOE ANDOE: GUEST BLOGGER
Joe Andoe From internationally exhibited painter Joe Andoe — whose work has been hailed as "cowboy noir with a fashionista twist" (The New Yorker) — comes Jubilee City, a raw, vivid, and unique memoir, told in discrete snapshots that unfold into a remarkable story of despair, resilience, creativity, and hope. Next week we're thrilled to welcome Joe Andoe to our Powells.com blog. Get your copy of Jubilee City at 30% off all week long and check out our blog to read what you're missing!
Jubilee City
Jubilee City Sale $16.06 | Hardcover
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Review-a-Day guest for August: The Wilson Quarterly   Save on new and used textbooks!
We welcome Wilson Quarterly as our August guest.   New! Search for textbooks by university.
in our stores
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling (Children's)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows The seeds planted throughout the series bear fruit in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. You will find all the answers here. This is the finest book in the series; the writing is excellent and action and emotion come together seamlessly. Harry emerges from the pages as an adult, confident and grim.
Recommended by Beth, Powells.com
(read more)
2. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (Environmental Studies)
3. The Alchemyst, Signed Edition by Michael Scott (Children's)
4. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling (Children's)
5. The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Literature)
6. The Olive Harvest by Carol Drinkwater (Travel Writing)
7. The World without Us by Alan Weisman (Environmental Studies)
8. Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace (Literature)
9. HarperCollins Study Bible by HarperCollins (Bibles)
10. Undaunted Courage by Stephen E. Ambrose (Pacific Northwest)
AUGUST 9: Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq
Fiasco The definitive military chronicle of the Iraq war — and a searing judgment on the strategic blindness with which America has conducted it — Thomas Ricks's bestselling Fiasco, now in paperback, draws on the accounts of senior military officers giving voice to their anger for the first time. "[A]bsolutely essential reading," insists the New York Times.

AUGUST 15: Fighting for Paradise: A Military History of the Pacific Northwest
Fighting for Paradise While most Americans identify our military history in the Eastern United States, the vast, resource-rich Pacific Northwest endured a series of battles and wars over the course of the 19th century that were of regional and national importance. Kurt Nelson's Fighting for Paradise: A Military History of the Pacific Northwest provides insight into an area of American military history, rich in drama, that is not generally known.

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

IN OUR NEXT EDITION:
An interview with William Gibson (Spook Country)
Signed first editions of Wesley Stace's By George
An original essay from Thrity Umrigar (If Today Be Sweet)
An INK Q&A from Amy Bloom (Away)
Fup.  Store Cat.

Oreo calls from outside the window.

Fup stirs. "Does he not sleep?"

"He must be locked out of his house."

Of course Oreo knows that Lisa or Ryan — someone — will arrive to open the store later this morning, but he suspects that Fup and Bear are inside. He waits two minutes and calls again.

"Let him in," Fup groans. The cat door around back is latched.

"Must... not... open... my... eyes," Bear replies.

Time to escalate, Oreo figures. They hear his paws work the window pane. When they fail to react, Oreo counters with his signature strategy: Wait just long enough to lull them back to sleep, and then call even louder than before.

"I let him in last time," Fup says, but to Bear it sounds like, "I let him win Pastime" — it's hard to make out the words over Oreo's scratching.

What's Pastime? Some game Bear's forgotten? He pictures dapper old cats in sepia tones, walking canes and monocles, and horse-drawn buggies rolling past lush milk ponds. In the middle of the pasture, a large dog wearing dentures barks at the sky, where — listen — hundreds of seagulls squawk in thick Latin accents...

But then Oreo calls again, and Bear wakes from his dream.

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