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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
grrlpup has commented on (14) products
The Dispossessed
by
Ursula K. Le Guin
grrlpup
, August 01, 2012
Can someone who feels alienated from two societies come to be a bridge between them? Ursula LeGuin's elegant writing and sympathetic main character pulled me along in this utopian-or-is-it novel. A book that studies the structure of societies is in danger of being static and boringly descriptive, but the structure of the book-- starting at a decision point, then alternately following the characters forward and going back to illuminate what led them to that decision-- kept things fresh. I'm glad I read it.
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Black Heart
by
Black, Holly
grrlpup
, May 19, 2012
This is my favorite (so far!) of the Curse Workers books. The cast of characters is smaller than in the first book (um, partly through attrition) and there's time to focus on Cassel as he faces pressure from all sides yet manages to take action in a big way and stay himself. There were enough surprises from other characters to keep the book feeling fresh, and the writing is solid with some humor in it. If you've read the first two, this one won't disappoint you. If you haven't, start with White Cat and know the best is yet to come.
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Please Ignore Vera Dietz
by
A S King
grrlpup
, April 20, 2012
Vera, her circumstances, her emotions, felt utterly real to me. I wanted to hang out and go on her pizza-delivery runs with her forever. The author takes some risks, switching point-of-view briefly to Vera's dad, a dead kid, and even the town landmark. But it never for one minute feels artificial or overly literary. One of the best books I've ever read, and definitely recommended for fans of Blythe Woolston's The Freak Observer (another working-class main character I cared about deeply) and E. Lockhart's The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (another explication of betrayal and the way society's machinery tries to grind you down).
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Feathers
by
Jacqueline Woodson
grrlpup
, April 13, 2012
Jacqueline Woodson's books for kids and young adults are firmly in the "literary fiction" genre. Characters and relationships take center stage, without a lot of plot twists or tightly wound suspense. Some of the descriptions are lovely, and evoke exactly what it's like to be a kid, seeing everything a little closer up and at a little different speed than the adult world. But the narration can get over-poetic, and doesn't fit well in the mouth of even the most contemplative sixth-grader. As an adult, non-religious reader, I didn't find this book as magical or interesting as some of her others (After Tupac and D Foster, for example, I loved). Its biggest weakness for me was that the characters had to talk everything over. For every incident in the plot, the narrator and sometimes one or two other characters would muse on what it meant about the nature of Jesus, or how another character felt about what was happening, or a connection with an event in someone's past or an Emily Dickinson poem. I think the book would be a lot stronger if images and events stood on their own, without the poetic commentary. The main character, Franny, has a Deaf brother, and I liked her descriptions of ASL as they sign together. His interactions in his family and community were one of the most interesting parts of the story for me. The 1972 setting wasn't overdone, but I did wonder about a transracial adoption that's key to the story-- it seems like it would have been very rare for two people of color to adopt a non-disabled white boy at the age of three. I wanted to hear more about that, but we never did.
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Trail of the Spellmans
by
Lisa Lutz
grrlpup
, April 05, 2012
I was thinking, "Is this going to be the Spellman book that doesn't make me laugh out loud?" It was engaging to the point that I didn't want to do anything but read it, but I hadn't laughed yet. Then I got to this, between Isabel and her dad: "I'd love to talk about the Slayter case." "I think we should talk about your feelings instead." "I feel sad that you don't trust me with work-related information." "I meant we should talk about Henry." and it was just like old times! I miss Rae's outrageous behavior of old, and maybe Isabel's too, but all the slightly-older characterizations felt real and I liked the low-key way everything fit together. If you're not familiar with the series, you'll probably want to start with the first book, The Spellman Files, so that you'll be in on all the gossip and back-stories. But you won't be lost if you start with this one and back-fill with the others later.
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Children Of The Company Company 6
by
Kage Baker
grrlpup
, April 04, 2012
I enjoyed this installment in Kage Baker's saga of The Company because it filled in some plots and characterizations I'd been wondering about. It had the pleasure of good gossip, though not about Mendoza or Joseph, the characters I cared most about in other books in the series. This novel feels like several set pieces with only a few threads holding them to each other, but each is well written and engaging. If you're new to the series, don't start with this one! Go back to the first novel, In the Garden of Iden.
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Lips Touch Three Times
by
Taylor, Laini
grrlpup
, March 25, 2012
(I listened to the audiobook version of Lips Touch Three Times, so haven't seen the drawings that are in the print version.) Of the three stories, only the third and longest one felt to me like an original and fully realized work. "Hatchling" kept me intrigued as it moved back and forth in time, with each twist revealing more about what I had just heard. My sympathy expanded to characters I'd thought were flat evil, and I loved the fantastical winter landscapes. The first and second stories seemed trapped in stereotyped versions of Romani and colonized Indian cultures, which made me uncomfortable (the overdone Indian accent the narrator put on for the audio version didn't help). The first story, especially given its contemporary setting, seemed overwritten. I wanted the author to stop with the evocative language and description and get on with it; it was as though she'd been told to Use All Five Senses in her writing and was cramming them all in long after we'd gotten the point. I enjoyed the fairy-tale rhythm of the second story more, but it didn't expand or examine anything beyond its stock fairy-tale outline. In conclusion, if you start this book and it's not clicking for you, don't give up before trying the third story.
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Paranormalcy 01
by
Kiersten White
grrlpup
, March 24, 2012
I picked up this book and within the first few pages I knew I'd found a good read. The quality of the writing made all the difference-- snappy, but not brittle. There's more going on than just flipness and sass: the main character had teenage attitude, but there was a real person behind it. The romance was sweet and wholesome, and there were enough plot twists to keep the story from getting predictable (until the very ending, which I didn't think held many surprises). I especially liked Evie questioning things she'd been brought up with, and coming to her own conclusions that had room for nuance. The weakest element was probably the fairy antagonists, who were fairly stock characters if you've read even a little urban fantasy. But five stars anyway, for a thoroughly pleasurable reading experience.
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Generation A
by
Douglas Coupland
grrlpup
, March 16, 2012
The first half of this book was compelling and funny. Five young adults in different corners of the world are stung by honeybees, long after everyone thought the bees were extinct. The five characters are distinct and interesting, and the book's indirect commentary on the state of the world is funny, disquieting, and sad. However, starting at about page 200, I began having trouble remembering who the narrator of each section was, and had to flip back and look. The voices blended together and the events were less keenly observed. The characters started telling stories within the story; these were readable, but didn't add up to much other than general themes they all shared. The "big reveal" at the end frankly didn't make a lot of sense to me, and I felt the novel had been shoehorned into a preconceived plot that didn't do justice to the characters. I'm not sorry I picked up this book, but like the author's previous novel _Microserfs_, it started with an outstanding set-up and then overreached, ending in a muddle.
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Pregnancy Project
by
Gaby Rodriguez
grrlpup
, March 11, 2012
I was disappointed by this book. I remember the news stories when Gaby revealed her non-pregnancy, and I hoped for juicy stories about her experience and thoughtful reflection on her project. However, the ghostwriting seemed to leave almost nothing of a teenage or unique voice in the prose. The narrative was broken up by info-paragraphs and statistics (maybe from the report portion of her project?) that felt impersonal and out of place. The part that did feel like a teenager's writing was Gaby giving her opinions on alcoholism, abortion, and how various family members treated each other, which came off a little judgmental and ungrounded. This premise could have made a good novel, but the storytelling and insight in this ghostwritten memoir are inadequate.
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Marrying The Mistress
by
Joanna Trollope
grrlpup
, March 05, 2012
I find Joanna Trollope's books compulsively readable, though they don't have brilliant sentences like Anne Tyler's novels. They're solid domestic family dramas-- in this case, documenting the aftermath of an affair gone public, and how the shockwaves ripple through an English family. The point of view switches often: the book is examining the family as a whole more than any one character's perspective. I liked seeing all the different dynamics in play, even though I would have liked to follow the judge-and-mistress couple more closely. There was one big flaw, and that was the vilification of the ex-wife. I felt the author was trying too hard to shunt her into any category but "most injured victim," and did it by making her unsympathetic and nearly delusional. Unfair, and that move also put the rest of the characters into an "oh well, these things happen, move on!" stance by contrast. That kept the book from truly examining what had been going on for the last seven years while this affair was conducted, and blocked off rich material like regret, guilt, and deceit. The mistress, in particular, never suffered a qualm, nor did the other characters seem to think she should. The teenage children sometimes seemed too precocious and understanding of the adults' problems, but they were drawn well enough that they weren't annoying like so many children in adult books. Overall the book was a great weekend read.
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Zora and Me
by
Victoria Bond and T. R. Simon
grrlpup
, March 05, 2012
The lively language and lovingly drawn settings of Eatonville, Florida, place this book closer to middle-grade literary novels like The Higher Power of Lucky than to girl-detective books like Sammy Keyes. The story kept my interest as it unfolded, but the "mystery" was secondary to the portraits of the town and of Zora. The authors were clearly so enamored of Zora that the narrator, Carrie, sometimes got short shrift, her motives explained in a perfunctory way but not really coming to life. I could sense that the authors' admiration and attention were all about Zora, in a way that wasn't quite true to the narrative from the inside. Still, the way the story ended and the issues of passing and community have stuck with me, and I closed the book wanting to read Zora's own writings.
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Small as an Elephant
by
Jennifer Jacobson
grrlpup
, February 16, 2012
Kids will like the nuts and bolts of this book. How Jack escapes detection, finds food, gets information without attracting too much adult attention, travels through the state. His emotions seem real, up and down as the events unfold. The turnaround at the end, however, happens more or less in a vacuum, and too quickly. Jack's change of heart about some people who are close to him happens all in his head, when it would have been much more powerful to see it worked out in conversation or action with those people. One jarring note-- there's an adult character I found really strange. Jack meets him in a bar. The guy, who clearly spends a lot of time there and knows all the staff by name, is all "Hey, yeah, my name is Jack tooooo!" and is super-nice to him. He says Jack's finger is broken, but he can splint it because he "helps kids who need it." Then apparently, through the rest of the book he is sort of tracking Jack, looking for him in cooperation with the police...who tell him everything going on with the case. He briefly hides Jack from the police and drives him substantial distances in his truck. To me this is all very creepy, but nothing like that seems to cross the minds of any of the characters in the book. I'm actually glad there weren't any run-ins with creepy or abusive adults in the book, but the Big Jack character and others' reactions to him did not ring true.
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Are You There, Vodka? Its Me, Chelsea
by
Chelsea Handler
grrlpup
, June 09, 2010
I got distracted by the mention on the first page of the excerpt of a 1967 Yugo. Yugos weren't sold in the US until the mid-1980s. Later in the excerpt, Handler says that she hadn't done her homework because she was watching the season premiere of Charles in Charge. The scene was set in December 1984, but Charles in Charge premiered in October of that year. It was cancelled after one season and didn't get popular until it came back in 1987. Factual inaccuracy might not matter to most people looking for a funny book to read, but if you're a pedant like me, try a few pages first.
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(2 of 4 readers found this comment helpful)
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