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
Creatives on Creating Sale
Spotlight Sale
Picture Book 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
Tara McDaniel has commented on (14) products
Prestige
by
Priest, Christopher
Tara McDaniel
, January 25, 2010
Forget the movie. Read the book instead! It's gothic and emerging modern science put together. Loved the narrative strands, the old time magic, the portals and seances and card trickery. There's some trickery in the narrative, too. I was totally surprised (and delighted) at the end. The story will keep you guessing.
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
(6 of 11 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
Keep
by
Jennifer Egan
Tara McDaniel
, January 25, 2010
I had no interest in this book when I first saw it at the bookstore, and in fact picked it up and put it down, checked it out from the library later and couldn't read it and returned it, only to buy it again later on the advice of someone whose reading loves I shared. Turns out, I loved this book! It's a little bit weird, a little bit magical, a little bit slice of life. The narrative voice is incredible and I really liked what Egan did in terms of playing around with narrative conventions and frames. I was surprised and hooked all the way to the end. Really glad I decided to finally pick this one up for good.
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
(3 of 7 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
As Simple as Snow
by
Gregory Galloway
Tara McDaniel
, January 25, 2010
This book was really just fantastic. You never learn the narrator's name (although there is a clue in there, did anyone figure it out?) and the whole book is a mystery...but a beautiful one! It's like there's a physical mystery driving the plot of the book, but the real mystery is spiritual, or somewhere in the narrator's heart. I was equal parts entertained and breathless. A little heart-wrenching, but lovely, I think.
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
(5 of 9 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
Ovenman
by
Parker, Jeff
Tara McDaniel
, January 25, 2010
I had so much fun reading this book. It's a kind of wacky, quick read that is totally compelling. The first person narrative voice is so true and believable--something that's pretty hard to pull off for such a quirky persona. But Parker did it, and whatever When Thingfinger has to say about his life is great and hilarious to me. In all, a very enjoyable reading experience that made me shake my head and laugh out loud: way better than watching a movie.
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
(4 of 8 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
Fingersmith
by
Sarah Waters
Tara McDaniel
, January 25, 2010
Hands down, this is the best book I've ever read. The pacing of the book is perfect, and once you reach the middle point, the plot twists and turns in completely unexpected ways. Waters' writing of this book is lush, the dialogue is spot-on, and the characters are intriguing to say the least. There's drama and betrayal in this book, and a bit of darkness. A highly compelling and captivating read.
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
(4 of 7 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction
by
Tara L Masih
Tara McDaniel
, January 25, 2010
I found this book to be one of the finest resources of writing fiction in any genre I’ve ever worked through. I’d been curious about flash fiction for some time, having read several anthologies and individual chapbooks of flash, but always got a little stuck when I tried my hand at the form. The Field Guide offers a comprehensive yet entertaining historic overview of flash written by its editor, Tara L. Masih, a yummy (and extensive) reading and further resources list, and 25 wholly unique essays. I love how many different perspectives are in this book as well as all the little tidbits of helpful advice given in the essays. I was inspired by the exercises enough to actually do them, even though I’ve not had much success with the form before. I came away feeling like I could work with the form now that I’d grasped the central elements of flash. The book is like a smorgasbord of ideas and I’ve got a notebook of drafts to play with now. I also learned a little something about how to write better fictions in general—a nice added benefit, I think, of working through this resource.
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
(2 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
Fingersmith
by
Waters, Sarah
Tara McDaniel
, January 03, 2010
The best book I've read in a decade? Nay. The best book I've read in my life! Water's writing is lush, moody and provocative, and the plot has one twist after another, leading you to the perfectly surprising ending. I lost sleep for days reading this book. I haven't found another to surpass it--yet.
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
(3 of 5 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
Slaughterhouse Five Or the Childrens Crusade a Duty Dance with Death
by
Kurt Vonnegut
Tara McDaniel
, June 01, 2009
I pretty much thought this book was brilliant--I've read it twice now and I shall read it again. It is difficult to write about, and read about, a subject of horror. Because, c'mon, that's what it is. If the earth in Dresden becomes a veritable tomb for stinking, rotting corpses, and the few survivors have to spray fire into the holes to incinerate the rot because it is physically impossible to smell and touch the rot without hacking all your guts out...well, that's horrific. Yet Vonnegut mangag...more I pretty much thought this book was brilliant--I've read it twice now and I shall read it again. It is difficult to write about, and read about, a subject of horror. Because, c'mon, that's what it is. If the earth in Dresden becomes a veritable tomb for stinking, rotting corpses, and the few survivors have to spray fire into the holes to incinerate the rot because it is physically impossible to smell and touch the rot without hacking all your guts out...well, that's horrific. Yet Vonnegut mangages to write about such experiences with a certain degree of humor; he can look straight at a subject but give the reader enough breathing space and entertainment that he or she does not have to throw the book aside in total disgust. Vonnegut can get you to think, not by standing on a soapbox, but by placing an object before you and saying, "Well--here it is." And then, sliding his hands in his pockets, "What do you think of it?"
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
(11 of 16 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
Our Post-Soviet History Unfolds: Poems
by
Eleanor Lerman
Tara McDaniel
, June 01, 2009
Lerman is awesome. Her poems are conversational, like she's talking right to you. Maybe over pie and coffee, maybe in black boots, stillettos. She's one smart, somewhat brash, and very funny woman: "Liquid metal debris, alien hieroglyphics, ranch hands threatened by the goverment--/I love it all! I love Area 51!" (We're Ready in Roswell). So when you read the poems, you feel as if you've joined one heck of a discussion, and Lerman is not afraid to challenge you, either ("Where are You?" Lerman demands in "Why we Need to Start a Dialogue"). I loved how sassy this narrator is, but also how unflinching: "and yes, that sure is/ my little dog walking a hard road in hard boots. And/ just wait until you see my girl, chomping on the chains/ of fate with her mouth full of jagged steel. She's damn/ ready and so am I" (That Sure is My Little Dog). My favorite poems were about science, where Lerman got fanciful and--dare I say it?--spiritual: "And this is true: You are a stardust person" (Muons are Passing Through You). This poet is a hard-hitter but there's no navel-gazing here, she makes the things she thinks about Universal...and they are. I didn't give this book 5 stars because I had to be honest. If I had grown up in the 50s, 60s, or 70s, I'm sure I would have connected to this book 100%. But I was born in 1980 in Los Angeles, so Nintendo, beaches, and the Simpsons make more sense to me than New York Jews, the Red Menace, and old Russian ladies. That's entirely personal and subjective, though. The book is highly recommended.
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
(2 of 4 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
A Temporary Sort of Peace: A Memoir of Vietnam
by
Jim McGarrah
Tara McDaniel
, June 01, 2009
This was one of the best memoirs I’ve read yet. Memoir is not my first pick among reads because, in general, I find them tedious and long-winded—what will do in 100 pages is instead done in 300 or 350. I’d rather read a novel and be entertained. However, McGarrah’s memoir not only reads like a novel and jaunts along quickly to its end (there are many page-turning stories in this book), but it has the added benefit of a real-life-narrator admitting vulnerabilities and sharing hard-won wisdom with his reader throughout. McGarrah begins his story in the present moment, as a Vietnam veteran arriving at the VA Clinic. The reader is quickly introduced to the lasting effects of the narrator’s experience as a soldier in Vietnam. McGarrah juxtaposes the realities of physical and psychological treatment for war veterans in America with visceral flashbacks of combat. It is a little unnerving but McGarrah swiftly brings the reader back in time to his childhood in Indiana, where we get the beginnings of her story but also a healthy dose of humor. In this way McGarrah balances the horrors of his story with laughter and a sense of shared experienced between reader and writer. This is a hallmark of the entire book and one of the reasons why it was so enjoyable to read. The first quarter of the book highlights the main developments in the writer’s life prior to Vietnam. The mid-section is life in Vietnam—a well-plotted string of stories about the smells and tastes of a new culture, life at camp, frightfully real action scenes of combat, and the psychological tolls that were taken upon the men and women struggling to survive on both sides. Here McGarrah shows his prowess as a poet as well as a man of humor. Describing his mess hall food as “some kind of roasted pseudo-beef with huge globs of mashed potatoes drowned in a dark brown gelatinous substance labeled gravy” offers a necessary respite from the terror of combat and violent death. But even in these scenes, McGarrah manages to make his prose beautiful, as if to contain the gore and violence in a digestible format for the reader: “The trees dipped and swirled with the monsoon breeze. The bamboo played a tango so hypnotic and hallow I hardly noticed another whistle, the harsh hiss of a RPG ripping through the melody like off-key fusion jazz. Sheep must have heard it, though, because he opened his arms wide and embraced the rocket. It entered him and became him, sending all unnecessary attachments in different directions. Arms flew east and west and his head shot skyward as if it were a basketball some referee had tossed for the opening jump. Damp grit splattered my fatigues and face.” In the final quarter of the book, McGarrah relates his experience in the Tet Offensive and his resulting wounds. He also shares his time in the hospital with other wounded vets, exploring the psychological impact of war, and his return to American life. What is so striking about the last part of the book, though, is when McGarrah returns to Vietnam in 2005. Here he meets the honored Vietnamese poet Vo Que, and together they create a new relationship based on peace, respect, and understanding. The photographs in this book are outstanding, and the last scene in the book will make you gasp.
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
(2 of 3 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
Unscrambled Eggs
by
Nadia Brown
Tara McDaniel
, June 01, 2009
Overall, a satisfying first collection that will no doubt grab the hearts and minds of readers who are looking for clean, simple lines of poetry that speak of soul growth, natural wonders, inspiration in the everyday, and the process of transforming loss into understanding. These poems are wise—and often short, straightforward in their use of language and image—as they reflect on the speaker’s life experiences, people she has known, her cultural ancestry, and the soul lessons she has learned. The poems in Unscrambled Eggs remind me of the poetry of Lucille Clifton for their tautness, their focus on ordinary life and experience. In her poem, “Liquid Muse,” Brown describes well her approach to writing the poem: “tell me what do your imageries speak/ what good are handsome metaphors/ when profoundness eludes your pen/ I have no fancy rhymes/ my poetry will not boast of windmill autumns/…but at least I offer more than words.” She is writing for every man and woman, without pretention or pretense. She writes from her Being, hard and true about what she sees (and knows) in her life. For example, in “The Writer,” Brown writes of an adolescent girl living in poverty who dreams of being a writer: “You seem beyond your fifteen years/ quite older than the strawberry jam girl you are/ but underneath your myth of make believe stars/ you are like every one else/ trying to figure their place to dam a need/ along this stretch of creation/ where days are no longer trusted/ and nights don’t care much for anyone.” There is also a musical quality to these poems that remind me of song. Take, for example, “Only a Girl,” the lines in the final stanza: “If only I followed you with earnest/ I would not shake like December limbs/ or fetter my wings with snow,” or the first lines of “There Were No Bells”: “She said there were no bells/ only her clam hands/ and fretful feet rattled in the eve.” Beautiful imagery, a somewhat unusual syntax that marks Brown as an original voice, and a lovely rhythm that moves like spoken song. Only a handful poems in this collection fall short of their full potential, such as “Sea of Poor,” where the speaker is onto something right and true, yet the words are possibly too abstract to create strong feeling: “In a country of gold and ledger/ lives a sea of poor/ living in calamity/ and discontentment.” However, I think this collection will be a welcome and loved edition to a reader’s bookshelf, especially outside academia and among “ordinary” readers—people just like you and me.
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
(2 of 4 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
Night Watch
by
Sarah Waters
Tara McDaniel
, May 05, 2009
Well, well--another beautiful novel by Sarah Waters. I'm actually on the crack between giving the book a 4 or a 5; if you would have asked me what I thought for the first half, I would have said 3.5, but by the end I thought 4.5. Like, almost perfect, but somehow boring in some places. I really really loved Duncan and his whole story, but for whatever reason, Mickey and Kay were less interesting. Maybe because in Tipping the Velvet there were characters so similar that I couldn't help but "feel" that book in this book. I was confused half the time between the female characters of Helen, Viv, Julia. They just didn't seem all that different (except that I kept reminding myself that Viv had dark hair, and was with Reggie). So all this sounds pretty bad, right, why would I give the novel a 4.5? Well, it certainly made me want to keep reading it, I wanted desperately to know how everything was connected at the end. I really liked the backwards telling, actually, and the little things that were kept out of the story. The dialogue and descriptions in this story are *amazing*. And the end--wow. Wow! It's like "pow pow pow!" and that made it all worth it to me. Even the boring parts. And I finally did get everybody sorted out in the end, and that made everything that came before it brilliant. I can say that in retrospect, I guess. An enjoyable read
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
(3 of 9 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
Cathedral
by
Raymond Carver
Tara McDaniel
, May 05, 2009
Maybe cliche, but seriously one of my favorite short-story authors (and authors of all time), and this is one of my favorite short story collections (of all time). It's indeliably connected in my mind with Joyce's "Dubliners" for some reason, probably because of Carver's title story, "Cathedral" (my all time favorite short story next to "The Dead"). It's writing and reading at its best--the narrators who, even though down in hard times and blue-color ordinary Joes (and Marges), tell stories with a strange vigor, an emphatic enthusiasm, as if a friend were telling you, quite seriously, right at your kitchen table "Now, you wouldn't believe what she said to me!" as you both pass around the whiskey bottle another time. I also love a good epiphany, a nice moment of clarity or turn-around in a story. All of Carver's stories in this collection have that. It makes ending each story deeply satisfying. That doesn't always happen in a short story, so it's wonderful to get that from first to last.
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
(5 of 13 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
Skull Session
by
Daniel Hecht
Tara McDaniel
, May 05, 2009
Bottom line: this book is great. I don't usually read thrillers because sometimes they're not well written. Hecht's book, however, struck the perfect balance between fine writing and page-turning action suspense. The characters were all real and believable--even funny, sad, fascinating. I loved Paul's and Mo's close-third narrative; what wonderful, interesting minds! This narrative quality coupled with the book's exploration of abnormal psychology and anatomical science makes it compulsively readable. It might not be 'literature' but it'll probably keep you up at night. You'll *have* to read just one...more...chapter!
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
(2 of 3 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment