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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 Burke has commented on (4) products
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life
by
William Finnegan
David Burke
, January 28, 2016
Barbarian Days is the book about surfing that thoughtful surfers have been waiting for, well, forever. Intelligent, poetic, spiritual and articulate are simply the first adjectives that spring to mind. Having emerged from the same soul surfing generation as Finnegan, I felt a deep intuitive connection to the author´s reflections on both surfing and ordinary life. For many of us the ocean was our greatest teacher. Good writing puts things into clear perspective. Great writing has the power to unlock profound insight and inspiration, regardless of your background. Barbarian Days - A Surfing Life is one of those rare literary works that fall into the latter category.
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Farther Away
by
Jonathan Franzen
David Burke
, July 27, 2012
While seeking a book to read for a recent long flight from Oslo's Rygge airport to Paphos, Cyprus, I happily discovered the last English copy of Jonanthan Franzen's book of essays, Farther Away, in a Horten, Norway bookstore. What caught my eye was the essay title, "The Ugly Mediterranean." I snapped it up and while paying, told the store clerk how Franzen's book "Freedom" had helped revive my marriage by teaching me the value of acceptance. "The Ugly Mediterranean" turned out to be Franzen's first-hand account of a recent bird-watching visit to Cyprus, which ended up with he and his activist colleagues being chased by violent local thugs for disrupting the illegal trapping of endangered migratory song birds. The story, which also embraced Malta and Italy, sheds light on the challenge of some Mediterranean country members of the European Union to adapt centuries-old traditions, such as the snaring of song birds, to prohibitive environmental directives set by the EU. The story transcends its specific topic to convey cultural insight into maybe why some EU countries are having such a difficult time balancing their fiscal budgets. Farther Away is much more than "The Ugly Mediterranean." This richly intelligent book also includes deeply personal essays about love, loss, solitude and growth, as well as Franzen's eloquent expression of grief over the death of his good friend, the author David Foster Wallace, who committed suicide in 2008. The title of the book derives from Franzen's journey to one of the world's most remote islands, Alejandro Selkirk, off the coast of Chile. Locals refer to the island by its original name, Masafuera, which translates from Spanish to English as "farther away."
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Farther Away
by
Jonathan Franzen
David Burke
, July 27, 2012
While seeking a book to read for a recent long flight from Oslo's Rygge airport to Paphos, Cyprus, I happily discovered the last English copy of Jonanthan Franzen's book of essays, Farther Away, in a Horten, Norway bookstore. What caught my eye was the essay title, "The Ugly Mediterranean." I snapped it up and while paying, told the store clerk how Franzen's book "Freedom" had helped revive my marriage by teaching me the value of acceptance. "The Ugly Mediterranean" turned out to be Franzen's first-hand account of a recent bird-watching visit to Cyprus, which ended up with he and his activist colleagues being chased by violent local thugs for disrupting the illegal trapping of endangered migratory song birds. The story, which also embraced Malta and Italy, sheds light on the challenge of some Mediterranean country members of the European Union to adapt centuries-old traditions, such as the snaring of song birds, to prohibitive environmental directives set by the EU. The story transcends its specific topic to convey cultural insight into maybe why some EU countries are having such a difficult time balancing their fiscal budgets. Farther Away is much more than "The Ugly Mediterranean." This richly intelligent book also includes deeply personal essays about love, loss, solitude and growth, as well as Franzen's eloquent expression of grief over the death of his good friend, the author David Foster Wallace, who committed suicide in 2008. The title of the book derives from Franzen's journey to one of the world's most remote islands, Alejandro Selkirk, off the coast of Chile. Locals refer to the island by its original name, Masafuera, which translates from Spanish to English as "farther away."
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Twilight In Djakarta
by
Mochtar Lubis
David Burke
, August 10, 2009
I stumbled on this novel about a writer living through the repressive Sukarno regime in Indonesia at Portland's Multnomah County Library in the 1970s. It made a huge impression on me. Exotic, evocative and disturbing, it introduced me to the complexities and very different realities of the developing world, to which I have traveled to many times since with work. I had the great fortune to meet an Indonesian journalist outside Oslo City Hall, the evening Al Gore received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, who had actually met Mr. Lubis. Twilight in Djakarta is, according to Wikipedia, the first Indonesian novel translated into English.
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