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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
Jane Packer has commented on (3) products
Make Lemonade
by
Virginia Euwer Wolff
Jane Packer
, April 17, 2014
I first encountered Virginia Euwer Wolff when Make Lemonade was assigned to me in the seventh grade. I was so pleased to reencounter her, this time on a personal level, when she came to Brigham Young University to give a reading 10 years later. Wolff focused mainly on one of her charming, humane short stories, “The Dolls,” during the reading, but after meeting her and listening to more of her work, I wanted to revisit Make Lemonade. When I first read the book in middle school, I remember it opening my eyes to poverty and desperation, and hope, in ways that I had never imagined. It was gritty and haunting to me, but not disturbing because of the hope that prevails toward the end. The story does not have a “happy ending” per se, but rather takes a realistic approach to a terrible situation in a way that teaches, guides, and lifts. The first-person narrative is written in poetic stanzas with an almost stream-of-consciousness feel that puts the reader right into the life and perspective of LaVaughn. You can see and feel and smell how poverty affects LaVaughn and her single mother, but not nearly to the extent that you see and feel and smell the poverty that envelopes the life of 17-year-old Jolly and her two children. The reader discovers and feels along with LaVaughn as she copes with her limited but stable resources and grapples with her decision to help Jolly better her situation. Make Lemonade is enjoyable and enlarging: a quick read for adults looking for a wider perspective, and essential for young people learning to expand their horizons in all directions.
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Costly Habits
by
Peter Makuck
Jane Packer
, December 07, 2013
Although I’ve never set foot on the Carolina coast, Peter Makuck’s 2002 short story collection, Costly Habits, acquainted me all too well with its idyllic shoreline and the flawed people who inhabit it. Sometimes these characters were a little too flawed--harshly forcing themselves into my imagination and leaving a bad, brutally honest taste in my mouth; they made me dwell in places that I didn’t want to be. Other times, like in the collections later stories, “Junk Trade,” and “Yellow Tom,” there was a more palatable humanity, and always there was a need for connection to the surrounding humans. The broken relationships Makuck recounts between neighbors and in-laws, even between strangers, at times reflected such a nasty hate that I had to skip passages. But by the end of the story I could appreciate how the darkness in the character helped me understand the darkness in myself and see it in others. And usually they ended on a nicer note than they began, as in “The Price of Dining Out.” Redeemably, the Makuck’s marriage relationships were refreshingly strong. Husbands and wives, on the whole, relied on each other, were faithful to one another, and missed each other cripplingly when there was a loss. Also, the characters in some stories briefly interacted with the new characters in the next story. That was a fresh, fun discovery each time it happened. I didn’t realize when I picked up the collection that the stories would connect, and it felt like bumping into an old acquaintance when the characters grew beyond their own stories. On the whole, Costly Habits was painfully honest, realistic to a T, and sometimes unpleasantly introspective. Recommended especially if you know the Carolina coast and don’t mind a little dark introspection yourself.
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Love, an Index
by
Lindenberg, Rebecca
Jane Packer
, April 12, 2013
I highly recommend Lindberg’s debut collection of poetry for everyone--novice poets, avid readers of poetry, and especially those looking to increase their appreciation of the art form. I was first introduced to Rebecca Lindenberg when she came to BYU for a poetry reading. If I thought that I loved her after completing a preliminary reading assignment before she came, I absolutely adored her personality and her rich poetry after the incredibly human, downright charming reading. I was especially captivated by the repeated elements that tied some of her poems together. She mentioned her tall, tall man more than once, and she also used desire several times. Within “Love, An Index” the poem, for example, she could connect elements through her gloss medium by saying, “see also, Desire.” It was so clear through her poems that she was expressing, as she mentioned during the reading, love and grief in all of its forms. This is the first encounter that I’ve had with gloss poetry that really stands out to me. It makes a lot of sense that she employed the gloss form to tackle such an emotional subject. She mentioned that she used gloss because she could only point to her story, not tell it expressly. All is equally important and equally present in the now of the poem. I am so grateful that she was brave enough to use the tragic disappearance of her boyfriend, Craig Arnold, as inspiration to finish this incredible collection. I especially recommend “Which, If I Never Thought to Mention it Before, I Now Feel Compelled to Address,” “Illuminating,” “Catalogue of Ephemera,” and, of course, “Love, an Index.”
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