Cart
|
|
my account
|
wish list
|
help
|
800-878-7323
Hello, |
Login
MENU
Browse
New Arrivals
Bestsellers
Featured Preorders
Award Winners
Audio Books
See All Subjects
Used
Staff Picks
Staff Picks
Picks of the Month
Bookseller Displays
50 Books for 50 Years
25 Best 21st Century Sci-Fi & Fantasy
25 PNW Books to Read Before You Die
25 Books From the 21st Century
25 Memoirs to Read Before You Die
25 Global Books to Read Before You Die
25 Women to Read Before You Die
25 Books to Read Before You Die
Gifts
Gift Cards & eGift Cards
Powell's Souvenirs
Journals and Notebooks
socks
Games
Sell Books
Blog
Events
Find A Store
Don't Miss
Big Mood Sale
Teen Dream Sale
Portland Like a Pro Sale
Powell's Author Events
Oregon Battle of the Books
Audio Books
Get the Powell's newsletter
Visit Our Stores
Powell's Staff:
Five Book Friday: In Memoriam
(0 comment)
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...
Read More
»
Brontez Purnell:
Powell’s Q&A: Brontez Purnell, author of ‘Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt’
(0 comment)
Rachael P.:
Starter Pack: Where to Begin with Ursula K. Le Guin
(0 comment)
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
##LOC[Cancel]##
Customer Comments
Mattie has commented on (2) products
Almost Nearly Perfect People Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia
by
Michael Booth
Mattie
, September 08, 2017
So for a book by a talented wit very much worth reading, there is a troubling smugness here that missed a lot of what is going on in these nations that Michael Booth visited... maybe in what the academics and those who write the script for political parties had wished to keep covered up. Every writer has some kind of purpose, which here is some form of cultural study. In going to Norway, in trying to bring back the Spirit of the Land, how could the author miss what is awfully close to what developed in Germany in the 1930s, or like in arms-producing Sweden where the majority favored Hitler at the time? What is missing in the book, that few will notice, with the most casual of discussions about practically perfect people, is the genre of black metal musician which rarely goes without mention of anti-religious arson in Scandinavia? It is easy to mention the incident that world heard about in Anders Behring Breivik’s rampage, but how could Mr. Booth miss the creepiness in the danger in today's aspiring black metal musicians, in Finland, in Norway, in Scandinavia? Yeah, it is written that in Finland there “never was a feeling of being a victim.” So why the omission of the reasons behind the mention of the act in Finland by Kalle Holm in burning down the Povoo cathedral? What is never mentioned is that in mostly atheistic Finland, the Supreme Court of Finland saw fit to double the punishment for this 18-year old black metal musician. Mr. Booth never tells the reader that Holm is a “black metal” musician. There is no mention that in Norway, from 1992 to 1996, fans of the black metal scene as well as black metal musicians – in their own form of soccer hooliganism – took part in over 50 fires in Christian churches deemed arson, in a nation of five million. Read on your own about what happened to the Holmenkollen Chapel, and by whom. It is written elsewhere – not in this book – that “Burzum mastermind” Varg Vikernes was convicted of four church burnings, including that of the Fantoft Stave Church, an 11th-century Norwegian national landmark; the musical “artist” used a picture of the burned church later for the cover of his ‘Ash’ EP.” So what does happen when you arrive with formed ideas, in the land of conformity, with British worries about Muslim immigrants and integration, with mention of “an ever-diminishing role of Church,” talking only to academics and those who write the script for political parties while ignoring the next generation of your very own? In missing the undercurrent of some form of rage over the past, in the history that resulted, “wounds once buried for decades,” in the battle of modernism with old rural values, are the Vikings coming back? What is the real spirit in these lands? What is the reaction of the mob in these acts of violence, to all the self-imposed collective restrain? It is written that “You never really KNOW how someone else feels about the other, deep deep down;” that “Norwegians do not seem to need anyone else;” that the next generation of Swedes seem to lack the skills to deal with strong feelings, afraid of looking foolish, as children at an early age are forced NOT to be dependent on their mothers. So how do the young think about the spirit of their homeland., after living under all this creeping socialism? This is a good book– a book which could have been even better, foretelling where a society was really moving –that over time will be forgotten without mentioning the young people inScandinavia?
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
report this comment
Rather Be the Devil
by
Ian Rankin
Mattie
, June 28, 2017
In a story about an old rocker, an old cop, about suspects and victims, Rebus is back, now retired himself. Like so many old-timers, in a young person’s world, Rebus has taken home a cold case that he once worked on in 1978, except that he is a detective no more. When he now should be blending back into civilian life, becoming invisible over time, he is back tailing suspects, in his free time. Letting go? There is a very old murder, with one old-time rock musician still performing at casinos, who he wonders about. In a world where old-timers always have a hard time letting go, Rebus is the last one who sees a retired cop now working as a doorman’s job, part-time, before he is found murdered. Always the main character with his connection to the spirit in the land around Edinburgh, Rebus focuses on an old nemesis who also should be thinking of retiring from his prominence in organized crime. There is his former partner who feels administratively reduced – with high profile inquiries – to a support role for a federal police force, in an always changing world. And so the grumbling theme of old-timers, dealing with something taken away from them, like a way of life on the investigative team that Rebus never quite yet leaves, this is an excellent mystery meeting the same high standards that Ian Rankin has set for the detectives in Scotland’s capital city.
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
report this comment