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Powell's Staff:
Five Book Friday: In Memoriam
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Every year, the booksellers at Powell’s submit their Top Fives: their five favorite books that were released in 2023. It’s a list that, when put together, shows just how varied and interesting the book tastes of Powell’s booksellers are. I highly recommend digging into the recommendations — we would never lead you astray — but today...
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Brontez Purnell:
Powell’s Q&A: Brontez Purnell, author of ‘Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt’
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Rachael P.:
Starter Pack: Where to Begin with Ursula K. Le Guin
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Customer Comments
augmendoza has commented on (5) products
Testament
by
John Grisham
augmendoza
, February 10, 2008
This is yet another effort by Grisham to combine his globetrotting with his writing [along with The Broker and Playing for Pizza.] I don't mean this in a derogatory sense whatsoever - on the contrary, I love the deep and emotional descriptions of the places that Grisham has visited and obviously fell in love with. In my opinion, the journey into the Pantanl, the Texas-sized wetlands area of Brazil, is the story in The Testament. The story of a Virginia billionaire who dies leaving his vast fortune to his long, lost missionary daughter and screwing his cartoonishly-greedy remaining spawn is pretty entertaining itself, but the Brazilian backdrop held me enthralled. The billionaire's law firm sends a recovering alcoholic law partner to Brazil to venture deep, deep into the Pantanal to inform the newly minted heiress of her great fortune since she lives with the natives who exist in a world only seen on National Geographic accessible only by actual contact in a journey that takes weeks.
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Point of Impact: Bob Lee Swagger 1
by
Stephen Hunter
augmendoza
, February 10, 2008
For a technological detail-fetishist - like myself - this book will surely provide nourishment. The level of detail into the minutiae of gun calibers, bullets, bullet forging, and, especially, the intricate mechanics involved in murdering a human from 800 yards are laid on pretty thick [as with a Tom Clancy novel the author could be "making shit up" and I wouldn't know it but it feels good all the same to be absorbing an alphabet soup of acronyms and numbers.] I came across this book at a bargain book shop and was curious after I learned that this was the basis for the movie "The Shooter" starring Marky Mark Wahlburg. The movie wisely dispensed with the protagonist that is a fusion of Arkansas hillbilly and ante-bellum Southern Gentleman rolled over the skeleton of John Jay Rambo with a dash of Unibomber. Not a bad story if you can steel yourself to stomach the multitude of eye-rolling dialogue and implausible action sequences. At the pinnacle of its absurdity the protagonist and his obligatory mis-matched sidekick visit the Oklahoma ranch spread of an ancient gun wizard who has been-there-done-that in the world of shooting. The "Colonel" now sits all day long in his easy chair with a large six-shooter in his lap reading The New York Review of Books to marvel at "the folly of New York intellectuals" - I think the author meant to evoke an image of a sleek and learned but tough-as-nails Southern gentleman but all I saw was Foghorn Leghorn.
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Broker
by
John Grisham
augmendoza
, July 24, 2007
The book is a refreshing escape from the typical Grisham courtroom-centric fare. I got the idea that John Grisham took a lovely break in Italy and decided that it would make a great setting for a novel (and with his earnings what a break it must have been.) This was also evident in The Partner, set in a the remote western rain forests of Brazil. The Fodor's Travel Guide detail of Italy works well as a backdrop for the hiding of a federal parolee who needs to disappear as terms for his parole. The nasty devil-in-the-details is that his very early parole is due to the fact that the CIA wants to observe which of his many powerful enemies will step-up and whack him. As in his other novels Grisham unwinds a thoroughly entertaining yarn that makes you feel like you just watched a fun movie. It's certainly not his best but this is primo beach reading (I literally read this sitting on a hotel balcony overlooking the Gulf of Mexico in Galveston while sipping a Dos Equis.)
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Ignition
by
Kevin J Anderson
augmendoza
, July 24, 2007
The premise is intriguing: terrorists sneak into Cape Canaveral, booby-trap the space shuttle, and demand ransom. For those who enjoy technical details (ala Tom Clancy) regarding military/government hardware and operations, like myself, than this premise is indeed mouthwatering. Too bad the inane plot and mind-blowingly cliche characters poison the entire effort. The authors explain gravely [in the forward] that they had to "alter details" to not reveal any NASA security procedures . . . I sincerely hope - especially in the "post 9-11" world - that they were being grandiose. The average NASA enthusiast probably knew most of the technical details used as a backdrop for this novel, the authors' pedigrees suggested that an enjoyable primer on the finer details of the space shuttle was in store, however, most of their info can be found in some pamphlets picked up on a tour of the Johnson Space Center. The most horrible offense here was the characters. The plot was far-fetched, but most people still enjoy a good popcorn novel - and this one had that kind of potential. But you have to at least make the characters somewhat appealing or somehow connected to the average reader to make a far-fetched plot work. I found myself wishing that "Iceberg" Friese, the hero/badass/protagonist, would be killed because he is a disgustingly overblown maverick-type who shows up those "damn guv-ment bureeecrats" and saves the day. In the beginning he is destined to command the shuttle mission but a hot-dog stunt lands him with a broken ankle and off the mission. So he sneaks onto the grounds of Cape Canaveral (in one of many "WTF's") to watch the launch from the swamps so as to avoid the press. Then there are the villains. Wow. The arch-villain, to me, is described precisely like the smart bad-guy in The Princess Bride (Wallace Shawn). He is a little dapper man who lost his fortune on Wall Street and now holds the space shuttle hostage for . . . a briefcase full of JEWELS. His crew consists of a brother/sister team of assassins from France (viva la French-bashing) who are inexplicably engaged in an incestuous relationship. This felt very much like the authors read over the draft and decided they needed to add something else to revolt the reader to show that these were bad guys. The remainder of the crew consisted of cookie-cutter mercenary types who proved surprisingly inept. To round-out the cardboard-thick crew you have "Iceberg's" computer nerd brother who also works in the complex and he - yawn - performs his nerdy techno thing for the greater good (in the heat of the action he undergoes a Charles Atlas-esque transformation that spawns some very cheesy thought-dialog at the end.) In all, it seems that the authors borrowed heavily from the Bruce Willis repertoire not the least of which is Die Hard (the arch-villain's demise is straight from The Last Boy Scout.) If you need escapist hammock reading look elsewhere.
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Numbered Account
by
Christopher Reich
augmendoza
, July 15, 2007
The good guy: an ex-Marine recon with a Harvard MBA (he's not just a bad-ass, he's a smart bad-ass) whose character flaw is that he was dishonorably discharged for beating the shit out of a slimeball CIA operative who tried to maroon his recon unit after a secret assassination mission (like in Rambo II.) The bad guy: a diabolical little Turkish Muslim who has designs on World domination [at least Israel] and a penchant for pickling people in a pool of formaldehyde. The others: a zealous DEA agent who watched too many cowboy n' indian movies (think Chris Cooper), an amoral Soviet-era Army officer who auctions off Soviet-era weaponry for cash, and a fat-cat, greedy bank chairman. Reich's treatment of the women is particularly atrocious. One of the women, the bank chairman's personal secretary, is slavishly devoted to her man and seems to have once been a strumpet passed amongst the bank executives when the chairman was a young man (you may read it different, but Reich's narration often lacks clarity.) The main love interest of the story, Frau Sylvia, is a hard-charging block of ice who melts in the arms of the rogue GI Joe-turned-banker. Without giving away the story, our gal has no problem sleeping her way to the top. I thought Reich might have been trying to insert a morality tale about the glass ceiling for women but, nope. The dialog is often unintentionally funny - especially the sex scenes, Reich sounds like a refined meathead trying to write a Harlequin novel: " . . . her responding strut fired a bolt of hormonal lightning through his loins. Watching her remove the leather brassiere that supported her generous breasts, his mouth turned dry as the Gobi." (P. 321) AND "And her body took him to realms he had never before discovered." (P. 127.) Reich also has an irritating habit of inserting the characters' thoughts and mannerisms directly into the narration, as if that character suddenly took over the narration for a brief moment. All-in-all, I felt shortchanged by the advanced billing that this was some kind of peek into the world of secret Swiss banking. Beyond making wire transfers and storing documents the process of Swiss banking is largely uncovered by the novel. I truly believe that when he wrote this novel Reich was already thinking "screenplay." When you consider that this guy was paid $2 million upfront for this freshman effort you know that the publisher was already thinking as much. All chapters end with minor cliffhangers and suspense is built in a paint-by-the-numbers fashion. As our hero is limping from the field of battle after fighting the good fight his compadre turns to him and ends the scene with this line: "You know where we can get a good hamburger in this town?" - I've seen this movie ending before.
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