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Interviews | July 4, 2009
By Jill Owens
 Luis Alberto Urrea is a poet, novelist, journalist, and essayist who has been writing about the relationship between the United States and Mexico,...
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 The Academy Awards are over. The musical montages are (thankfully) finished, the endless acceptance speeches have finally wrapped up, and all the golden statues have been handed out — and we feel a touch unfulfilled. Maybe we should hand out our own awards! The Award for Best Interview for This Newsletter goes to Lauren Groff, whose novel The Monsters of Templeton is earning more raves than we could engrave onto one little statue. Best Original Essay is a tie between Ed Begley, Jr., ( Living Like Ed) and Nick Taylor ( American-Made). We've given a statue each to INK Q&A contributors Kim Harrison ( The Outlaw Demon Wails), Tracy Chevalier ( Burning Bright), and Bart Ehrman ( God's Problem), because why can't there be a category with one nominee each? Best Guest Blogger was a tough one, but we handed it to Peter Barnes ( Climate Solutions) once we decided to create a category for Best Next Guest Blogger for Donald Ray Pollock ( Knockemstiff). We would never presume to create a Best Newsletter Award, but we feel honored to accept the award for Best Newsletter-Award-Makers on behalf of everyone at Powells.com.
signed editions
 "Lauren Groff hits a home run in her first at-bat, with a novel that is intriguingly constructed and compulsively readable," marvels the Denver Post. Booklist promises, The Monsters of Templeton is "a fantastically fun read." And Entertainment Weekly gives Groff's debut top marks (Grade: A): "Lauren Groff's multilayered saga...both thrills and delights with its poignant, breathtaking prose." Order signed first editions while they last.
 more signed editions
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FEATURED INTERVIEW
 Lauren Groff needed four drafts and several years to discover her novel's ultimate voice and structure — a pastiche of letters and diaries, traditional first-person narrative, dramatic monologue, genealogical charts, old photographs and newspapers, even a Greek chorus. The Monsters of Templeton contains multitudes: literary mystery, academic comedy, ghost story, romance... Which only makes it more impressive how seamlessly the pieces fit together, and what a pleasure the novel is to read. Groff spoke about growing up in Cooperstown and reinventing the town in her marvelous, bestselling debut.
more author interviews |
NEW ARRIVALS
HARDCOVER
 The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature by Jonathan Rosen
Powell's Beth Lyons hails: "The Life of the Skies is at once a history of bird-watching in America, a meditation on changes in our views about killing animals, and a deeply personal book about the transforming qualities of a life spent observing the natural world. It is a book to treasure." Publishers Weekly concurs: "This beautifully written book is an elegy to the human condition at a time when wilderness is becoming a thing of the past."
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Sale $16.80 | Hardcover
List Price: $24.00 (You Save: $7.20) |
 The Reserve by Russell Banks
Moving from the secluded beauty of the Adirondack wilderness to the skies above war-torn Spain and Fascist Germany, The Reserve is a clever, incisive, and passionately romantic novel of suspense that adds a new dimension to Russell Banks's extraordinary repertoire. The latest novel from the author of Cloudsplitter and The Sweet Hereafter is "a pleasure well worth savoring" (Scott Turow, Publishers Weekly).
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Sale $17.46 | Hardcover
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 Gone Baby Gone
Based on the acclaimed novel by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River) and featuring an unforgettable performance by Oscar nominee Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone is a harrowing, critically acclaimed thriller about two detectives searching for a missing child in the mean streets of South Boston. Starring Casey Affleck, Morgan Freeman, and Ed Harris, the directorial debut of Ben Affleck has been praised as a "superior police procedural, and something more — a study in devious human nature" (Roger Ebert). All DVDs ship for free from Powells.com.
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Sale $26.28 | DVD
List Price: $29.99 (You Save: $3.71) |
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PAPERBACK
 The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring by Richard Preston
From Richard Preston, the bestselling author of The Hot Zone, comes an amazing account of scientific and spiritual passion for the tallest trees in the world, the startling biosystem of the canopy, and those who are committed to the preservation of this astonishing and largely unknown world. "Wild Trees owned me almost from the start," raves Larry Sears in the Christian Science Monitor. "This is a journey that I encourage you to take."
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Sale $11.20 | Trade Paper
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 Oil! by Upton Sinclair
With the success of the acclaimed film adaptation There Will Be Blood, for which star Daniel Day-Lewis won a well-deserved Oscar, countless readers are rediscovering Upton Sinclair's classic Oil! If you've never read it, now is a perfect time to catch up with this epic account of the development of the oil industry in Southern California, featuring an unforgettable cast of senators, oil magnates, a Hollywood film star, and a crusading evangelist.
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Sale $10.50 | Trade Paper
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 To Catch a Highlander by Karen Hawkins
In Karen Hawkins's To Catch a Highlander, the third book in the delightful New York Times-bestselling Regency series, a beautiful, headstrong heiress must defend her home from the dangerously wicked Dougal MacLean.
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New $5.53 | Microsoft eBook |
Also in eBooks: don't miss your chance to find your ideal romance match on the Harlequin Love-O-Meter!
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Recent guest blogger Trevor Paglen, author of I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed by Me, specializes in dissecting the patches and badges of CIA projects known by peculiar names and illustrated with occult symbols and cartoons, to reveal a secret world of military imagery and jargon. In this post, armchair symbologists and would-be spies are invited to do a little interpreting of their own...
February 21, 2008:
Black Hats and Black Mantas
Engineers working in the "black world" of classified military projects are often referred to in military circles as "black hats." There are a lot of jokes about the difference between "white hats" and their spooky counterparts.
The image below isn't a patch per se. It's a memorial coin whose purpose remains a little bit of a mystery to me. Anyone who's spent some time with my book should be able to decode most of the symbols in the coin below, except one. The crescent-like shape above the cloud is a mystery. Anyone have any theories?
Below is a patch from a black project that I don't know anything about. Rumors have long held that the Air Force built an aircraft nicknamed the "Black Manta" sometime in the 1980s as a companion plane to the F-117A stealth fighter. Supposedly, it flew missions in tandem with F-117As during the first Gulf War, providing laser-targeting information from a very high altitude. The "Black Manta" story, however, is just a rumor, and there isn't very good evidence that the airplane ever existed. On the other hand, there isn't very good evidence for most things going on in the "black world." I'd love to hear any theories about the symbology in the patch below.
If you've got an idea, share it with our blog readers and Trevor. We'll pick our favorite interpretation on Monday, March 3, and send the winner a free copy of I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed by Me!
| From the Authors |
SAVE 30% |
ED BEGLEY, JR.: ORIGINAL ESSAY
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"There is no reason for us to use the world's resources like we're having a going-out-of-business sale," proclaims actor Ed Begley, Jr., in this original essay for Powells.com. In Living Like Ed, Hollywood's It man for all things green offers large and small ways to live a greener, better life. Packed with eco-ideas from standard to quirky to ingenious, this guide also comes with workbook pages to record one's progress. Read the rest of Begley's essay and conserve 30% of the cover price when you order Living Like Ed from Powells.com. |
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Living Like Ed: A Guide to the Eco-Friendly Life
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Trade Paper
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NICK TAYLOR: ORIGINAL ESSAY
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"Writers wind up in a lot of the places they wind up entirely by accident," writes Nick Taylor in this original essay for Powells.com that describes how a visit to Oregon's historic Timberline Lodge helped fuel the writing of his latest book. Timed to coincide with the 75th anniversary of FDR's New Deal, American-Made is the first comprehensive look at one of the most controversial, humane, and enduring programs ever: the Works Progress Administration, which put more than eight million Americans back to work after the Great Depression. Read the rest of Taylor's essay and get American-Made at 30% off the publisher's price. |
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American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA: When FDR Put the Nation to Work
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Hardcover
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KIM HARRISON: INK Q&A
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In The Outlaw Demon Wails, the riveting new tale in Kim Harrison's bestselling Hollows series, vampire and bounty hunter extraordinaire Rachel Morgan must play a dangerous game in which the prize is her immortal soul. In this INK Q&A, Harrison shares her vision of the ideal life, describes why she writes, and more. Save 30% off the cover price when you order The Outlaw Demon Wails from Powells.com, and don't miss Kim Harrison's reading at Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing on Wednesday, March 5. |
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The Outlaw Demon Wails
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Hardcover
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TRACY CHEVALIER: INK Q&A
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Now in paperback: the bestselling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring returns with Burning Bright, a brilliantly rendered, sweeping, and thoroughly engaging story about William Blake's London. With her fine eye for historical detail, Tracy Chevalier composes a "wonderfully vivid portrait of 18th-century London" (Time Out London). In this INK Q&A, Chevalier explains why cats rule, how she ended up sorting pickled snakes one summer, and more. Save 30% on Burning Bright, and don't miss Tracy Chevalier's reading at the City of Books on Sunday, March 2. |
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Burning Bright
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Trade Paper
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DONALD RAY POLLOCK: GUEST BLOGGER
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The stories in Donald Ray Pollock's collection Knockemstiff feature a cast of recurring characters who are woebegone, baffled, and depraved — but irresistibly, undeniably real. With artistic sensibilities reminiscent of Flannery O'Connor, Pollock offers a powerful work of fiction in the classic American vein. We're thrilled to welcome Pollock as next week's guest blogger. Order Knockemstiff for 30% off all week long, and check out the Powells.com blog to read what you're missing! |
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Knockemstiff
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Hardcover
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in our stores
IN OUR NEXT EDITION:
When Bear wanders outside to get some fresh air, Zooey fills in the missing pieces: "Bear was toreador-cool in those days," the ninety-pound Lab tells Oreo, Bagheera, and Chester. "Dogs or cats, regardless, he practically dared you to charge."
Zooey feels a hundred years old, remembering. To run for hours and hardly tire. Sneaking into a hotel one time, he climbed eighteen flights of stairs! That same year, he met Fup and Bear. The others weren't even alive.
"I'm not sure Bear had ever been dumped," Zooey says.
Fup had been gone two or three days when Bear found himself in front of the Tech store, not for any particular reason. Routine. Two blocks north, he spotted Jason approaching on the rebuilt ten-speed he'd salvaged from a yard sale the previous summer.
What would Powell's staff think of Bear hanging around the store? Was he welcome without Fup? Would he make them uncomfortable? Or was he being ridiculous?
Jason swung a leg over the crossbar and coasted coolly toward the stoop, one sneaker on a pedal and the other alongside, dangling above the sidewalk. Maybe he didn't notice Bear by the parking meter. Maybe he pretended not to. Bear couldn't tell.
How much did they know?
Bear sat perfectly still while Jason chained his bike to the rack. He couldn't stay, didn't want to face these people, wouldn't let them pity him if he had any say in the matter — Fup was gone, and he wasn't sure why. But she was gone.
Send questions, comments, suggestions, and secret badges full of bizarre symbols and codes to newsletter@powells.com.
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