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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
David Myers has commented on (7) products
The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy
by
David Graeber
David Myers
, March 20, 2015
If you are so tired of the mass media’s emphasis of personalities, spin, and dog-whistle politics in their superficial analyses of current events that you wish to understand the underlying forces driving today’s events, you'll find David Graeber’s Utopia of Rules provides insights that will stimulate not only your thinking but also promote your understanding. Graeber notes that bureaucracy has become so pervasive it is hardly discussed anymore. While the political right developed a consistent critique of bureaucracy, there is no such critique from the political left. Graeber’s book attempts to fix this imbalance. Graeber’s Utopia of Rules is a book that one can enjoy twice. On first reading, one enjoys the author’s broad perspective and his conversational tone as he reviews modern society from anthropologist’s perspective. On second reading one is amazed by how Graeber’s research and his personal experiences provide a solid foundation for the development of his sometimes controversial positions. No matter where one resides on the political spectrum, Graeber’s book will make you think. He provides stimulating perspectives not only into our mixed feelings about bureaucracy but also provides insights into the origins of the political divide and even into the superhero genre. Once you’ve read this book, you’ll never see the world the same way again.
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Genome The Autobiography Of A Species In 23 Chapters
by
Matt Ridley
David Myers
, December 17, 2014
This book is better than any textbook I have seen on the field of human genetics. This book sustains the interest of the casual reader and can provides a deep understanding by the careful reader. While this book was written 15 years ago and is focused on the rapidly developing area of human genetics, Genome, The Autobiography of a Species in 23 chapters is not only the clearest explanation of human genetics, its contents are still up to date. Since this book was written, science have uncovered more details on the environmental influences on the activation of genes, leading to the whole field of epigenetics. This book not only describes how genetics influences biology, this book was not only prescient but also is accurate in describing how genetics alone may not determine biological functions. If you need to read a single book to understand how genetics work, this is the book to read.
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Yoga Heals Your Back 10 Minute Routines That End Back & Neck Pain
by
Rita Trieger
David Myers
, October 03, 2014
Almost everyone over 50 will develop back problems--perhaps from injury, fatigue, poor posture, stress, or any of 1,000 other reasons. One wonders why their body that was fine one day can hurt so much the next. Many times the issue is that the muscles aren't holding everything in the right place anymore. This book provides simple morning stretches that helped me eliminate that tingling and weakness in my legs when I got out of bed. The book provides simple routines that help strengthen the muscles and get everything back in alignment. The brilliance of the book is that the exercises are broken down into manageable pieces, each of which works a different part of the body. By making the exercises into manageable pieces, no matter how tired you may be you can always summon enough energy to do at least one set a day--whether after the morning stretches, or just before dinner, or before bed. By doing all the chapters of the book, one gradually improves without overdoing. These exercises helped me get back into the activities of daily life that pain and spasms had prevented me from doing. This is a self-help physical therapy book that really works!
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History of the World in 100 Objects
by
Neil Macgregor
David Myers
, October 14, 2013
A History of the World in 100 Objects is a rare find and a delight to read. It provides a unique and wide-ranging perspective on the evolution of human societies across the entire world and across all the ages. Rather than taking the traditional approach of tracking a single nation, region, or people vertically through time Neil MacGregor of the British Museum takes horizontal slices through various eras to illustrate the parallel developments that occurred in widely separated societies. In providing the context for the selected objects, MacGregor provides an even-handed spotlight on issues that still confront us today. MacGregor selects 100 objects from the collection of the British Museum and accompanies each with a concise 5-page essay on each object. The essays provide new perspectives by putting each object in its larger context: whether the advent of farming; the growth of societies and the evolution of techniques for their administration; the struggle for power; the development of technology, mathematics, the sciences, architecture, economics, and art. Not only does the reader develop an appreciation for the significance of the objects, the reader also develops a broad and deeper understanding of the societies that created them. After reading these essays, one begins to understand why museums have so many display cases full of objects that seem mundane to the uninitiated but which come to life in MacGregor’s narrative. I will never visit a museum the same way again. A History of the World in 100 Objects is not your typical historical narrative. Instead, the book is a mosaic that when viewed in its entirety brings the reader to a greater appreciation our common humanity, our common achievements, and our continuing challenges.
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Johnson's Life of London: The People Who Made the City That Made the World
by
Boris Johnson
David Myers
, March 05, 2013
Boris Johnson’s The Life of London makes all those dreary documentaries of English history that you’ve seen on The History Channel or BBC America come alive with wit and perspective. Boris Johnson illustrates the history of England by examining the lives of key individuals from Roman times to the present day. The book is so cleverly written and so amusing and yet so historically accurate that I was sad when it ended and wished there had been even more to read.
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Asiatics
by
Frederic Prokosch
David Myers
, July 22, 2010
The Spanish talk of living a harmonious life as going with the flow “like a twig on the water.” The Asiatics by Frederic Prokosh describes the adventures of an American who travels from Beirut to China in the 1930s by adapting each day to new situations and new people. Prokosh originally wanted to be a poet and he can definitely put words together. For example: “The moon was growing clearer. A slant of moonlight fell suddenly, like a happy little sigh, upon a tuft of moss at my side. The shore grew close and confiding and the pebbles shone like silver.” Embedded in this beautifully written narrative are pithy observations about life, society, and sensuality as illustrated through encounters from peasants to criminals to terrorists to a Maharajah and his court. This book was endorsed by Albert Camus, Gore Vidal, and now by me. The plot and the wording take the reader along a journey of discover that flows effortlessly-- just like a twig on the water.
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Black Swan The Impact of the Highly Improbable
by
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
David Myers
, January 01, 2010
Leaves us no longer trapped in the 19th century probabilistic thinking and makes us aware of the discontinuous nature of human events.
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