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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
Eric Hamell has commented on (31) products
Asimov's Guide to the Bible: The New Testament
by
Isaac Asimov
Eric Hamell
, December 12, 2014
I read only part of this book, since it was in function of responding to someone's challenge that I read the Gospel, and I had a lot of other things on my mental to-read list. So I have only read the chapters concerned with the Jewish Apocrypha, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It was very helpful in putting the Gospels in their historical context; I know a good deal more about the period than I did before. I also had my attention drawn to particular patterns and discrepancies I might not have noticed otherwise, which helped deepen my understanding of Christianity's evolution from a Jewish sect to a Gentile religion. I recommend it to anyone planning to read the Jewish or Christian Bible.
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The Phantom Tollbooth
by
Juster, Norton
Eric Hamell
, August 06, 2014
The first sizable book I ever read at age eight. Excellent for exciting an interest in learning because it converts abstractions that might otherwise bore a young mind into vivid concretes.
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The Handmaid's Tale
by
Margaret Atwood
Eric Hamell
, August 05, 2014
I found it a very compelling story.
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Rights Of Man
by
Thomas Paine
Eric Hamell
, April 10, 2014
I read this a number of years ago and found it very interesting and engaging. As an early brief for democracy, addressing some arguments that are no longer commonly remembered (particularly those of Edmund Burke), it provides fascinating food for thought. There are also some formulations that can be argued to make the case for more advanced positions than Paine himself took, including ones that are still considered radical today. Apropos here is this quote (a favorite of mine) condemning slavish obedience to arrangements bequeathed by generations past: "There is no form of tyranny more outrageous than an attempt to rule from beyond the grave."
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Change of Heart What Psychology Can Teach Us about Creating Social Change
by
Nick Cooney
Eric Hamell
, September 29, 2013
I changed my plans on short notice when I learned of a launch party for this book. To the best of my knowledge, it's the first time someone has provided a survey of all the findings of experimental psychology pertaining specifically to persuasion, and tailored to the needs of progressive activists. It appears quite comprehensive and includes a lot of ideas that can be implemented easily even by small organizations to increase their effectiveness.
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Girl In Movement A Memoir
by
Eva Kollisch
Eric Hamell
, April 12, 2013
I had a personal interest in reading this because the group Kollisch was involved with in her youth was closely akin to the one my parents joined a few years later. Having been involved with it during my own adolescence -- yet not realizing till years later that it was already turning into a cult at that point -- I wondered what it was like at the time of my parents' involvement. Earlier, when I hadn't yet recognized the cultic aspect of my own experience, I read a review of this book and was intrigued by the all-too-terse mention, near the end, that the author had eventually left the group because she no longer had the psychological needs it had fulfilled. On reading the book myself, I saw that this was a distorted view, perhaps reflecting similar issues the reviewer wasn't quite ready to confront. Kollisch's account makes clear that there were problematic features to the group, some of which are typical of cults or groups that may be evolving in a cultic direction. One in particular was the high tension associated with factional struggles, arising from the sense that these might lead to splits. These situations were emotionally fraught because of the exaggerated self-importance the group had about its role in history. While Kollisch's group had open disputes and so was far from totalistic, their fraught character was predictive of splits on the one hand, and a circle-the-wagons mentality on the other, both of which can point a group down the road toward totalism.
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Bound & Gagged Pornography & The Politic
by
Laura Kipnis
Eric Hamell
, March 25, 2013
It's been several years since I read this book, so my recollection of it is a bit vague now. But what I recall clearly is that I found it quite thought-provoking and original. Something brought it to mind the other day and I'm belatedly adding it to my Powell Partner Bookshelf.
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S Word A Short History of an American Tradition Socialism
by
John Nichols
Eric Hamell
, February 18, 2013
This is an excellent introduction for anyone who's been miseducated into thinking that socialism is a "foreign" or even "un-American" idea. Even for those of us who know otherwise, it contains a lot of surprising facts, revealing how differently it was viewed just a few generations ago.
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The Phantom Tollbooth
by
Norton Juster
Eric Hamell
, December 02, 2012
This was the first sizable book I ever read, at age eight. It definitely helped stimulate my intellect, probably because by concretizing abstractions, it made it easier to think about them.
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Recovery From Cults Help For Victims Of
by
Michael D Langone
Eric Hamell
, July 17, 2010
Michael Langone is editor of this anthology, not author of the book as a whole as suggested here. The chapter on teen Satansim is by Rob Tucker, M.Ed.
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Recovery From Cults Help For Victims Of
by
Michael D Langone
Eric Hamell
, July 17, 2010
This book, which I purchased at a cultic studies conference a couple years ago, contains a lot of interesting and still-relevant material. Some parts make for disturbing and difficult reading, at least for an "ex-member" like myself. The descriptions of mind control and its effects may "trigger" someone who's experienced it before. There a couple places where the research may not have been deep enough. In the chapter on teen Satanism, the author embarrasses himself somewhat by writing, "Another paperback often used by teens is the Necronomicon, apparently written by the 'Mad Arab' Abdul Alhazred (1977). The book supposedly teaches readers how to invoke demons." While the description of the contents fits the Necronomicon I've heard of, I'm sure that's not the author's real name. Before it was anything else, that title belonged to a fictitious tome mentioned in the science fiction/horror stories written by H.P. Lovecraft in the 1920s and '30s. It was described as having been written some thousand years ago by the same "mad Arab." The author of the book cited here evidently wanted to cash in by using the same title and pseudonym.
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Crewel Lye: A Caustic Yarn: Xanth 8
by
Piers Anthony
Eric Hamell
, July 04, 2010
Lots of awful puns, with a dash of sexism. A guilty pleasure.
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Underground Woman: My Four Years as a New York City Subway Conductor (Labor & Social Change)
by
Paula Rayman
Eric Hamell
, February 21, 2010
Very absorbing. Takes you inside another world.
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Superpower Syndrome Americas Apocalyptic Confrontation with the World
by
Robert Jay Lifton
Eric Hamell
, February 19, 2010
This is the first book by Lifton I read and not a bad place to start. Taking current events as the point of departure, it introduces all the major themes of his work.
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Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of 'brainwashing' in China
by
Robert Jay Lifton
Eric Hamell
, February 19, 2010
By comparing the accounts of a number of people of varying backgrounds who were subjected to Maoist "thought reform" in the early Fifties, Lifton develops much insight into the processes and mechanisms by which coercive persuasion is attempted and sometimes accomplished, as well as some ideas about the possible motives of the reformers (including non-rational motives) and the kind of historical context that can give rise to such practices. It was interesting to read about the personal backgrounds of some of the subjects and recognize similarities to elements of my own early life. This provided some insight into why I have had some susceptibility to totalism, as well as successful resistance to its most destructive potentialities. And I became quite engaged by the concluding discussion outlining his idea of "open personal change," as contrasted with the totalistic sort. This seemed very relevant to my own current struggle to find a comfortable balance between engagement and autonomy. I wish Lifton could have gone into greater detail on this topic; perhaps he's done so in subsequent writings.
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Political Mind Why You Cant Understand 21st Century American Politics with an 18th Century Brain
by
George Lakoff
Eric Hamell
, January 14, 2010
Vital reading for progressive activists who want to be more effective. If you hope to change the way people think, you'd better understand the whys of how they currently think. The cognitive science on which this book is based is relevant regardless of how much or little of Lakoff's politics you share.
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Inside Out A Memoir Of Entering & Brea
by
Alexandra Stein
Eric Hamell
, October 15, 2009
As a survivor of a political cult myself, I was very interested in reading another one's story. Although our groups were different, there was enough fundamental similarity to make it gripping reading -- sometimes in ways that might not apply to a non-survivor. Nonetheless I think anyone who has an interest in biography will find it engaging as well as educational.
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The Trickster and the Paranormal
by
George P. Hansen
Eric Hamell
, October 03, 2009
This book was sometimes fascinating, frequently maddening. On the up side, the author proposes a number of correlations to exist between paranormal beliefs and experiences on one hand, and seemingly unrelated cultural factors on the other. Some of these have also been posited by more skeptical writers. On the down side, he never proves rigorously that these purported correlations actually exist. Hansen assumes that they can only be understood in terms of an acausal "trickster constellation," but ignores the fact that more down-to-earth social and cognitive psychology can often be invoked to explain them. He takes for granted that the paranormal is real, rather than actually trying to prove it. In fact, Hansen actually asserts that the paranormal by its nature can't be scientifically proven, and the book sometimes comes off as one long apologia for this fact. Particularly frustrating is the way he periodically cites some confusing or elusive quality of paranormal claims as "hinting" at something about "the nature of the paranormal," yet never comes out and says what he thinks that is. Some of the most interesting material in the book for me was unrelated to alleged paranormal phenomena, such as the section concerning the socially provocative origins of the school of research called ethnomethodology.
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Bound & Gagged Pornography & The Politic
by
Kipnis, Laura
Eric Hamell
, August 09, 2009
Fascinating and scary. I'm adding it to my Bookshelf.
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Lovemaps: Clinical Concepts of Sexual/Erotic Health and Pathology, Paraphilia, and Gender Transposition in Childhood, Adolescenc
by
John Money
Eric Hamell
, March 21, 2009
I read this book a long time ago and it had a considerable, and continuing, impact on me. John Money has done a good deal of research, stemming from his clinical experience as a pediatric sexologist, demonstrating the role sexually repressive upbringings have in contributing to various psychosexual pathologies. Clinical observations, for instance, suggest that violent erotic fixations, such as those typically motivating serial killers, arise from violent adult reactions to children's expressions of sexuality such as masturbation. It's unfortunate that many people seem to remember Money only for a misguided experiment in which an infant who'd lost its penis to a surgical mishap was, on his recommendation, raised as a girl -- only to develop serious gender dysphoria and ultimately become a transman. But it's clear that he learned from his mistake, as this book represents a decisive repudiation of the sort of cultural reductionism that prompted it. Money is not quite as radical here as I would like, however, in that he still thinks intersex children need to be raised with a gender. I frankly see no reason for this. In fact, if children in general were raised without having any gender imposed on them, it would surely preclude gender dysphoria and many other problems as well. Could homophobia, for instance, persist in a world where men's identities weren't tied to seeing themselves as different from women in socially prescribed ways?
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Squizzy the Black Squirrel a Fabulous
by
Chuck Stone
Eric Hamell
, March 17, 2009
I just read this book aloud for a book-on-tape, and the ending was moving. Strictly speaking, I could fault the book for the fact that the viewpoint character describes himself as black even though he's really brown -- unlike the title character, who really is black. But since Squizzy can't understand what the word "black" even means, that distinction might have been difficult to fit into the story -- whose point is that such distinctions don't matter.
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Sewer Gas & Electric The Public Works Tr
by
Matt Ruff
Eric Hamell
, February 18, 2009
This book was a lot of fun.
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Mystery Method How to Get Beautiful Women Into Bed
by
Mystery, Chris Odom
Eric Hamell
, February 11, 2009
I'd like to add a couple things to my previous comment. First, I don't know what the heck the reviewer meant by "potty humor." I don't care for that myself and I think I would remember if I'd seen any in the book. Second, Mystery's sometimes arrogant tone should perhaps be considered in light of the fact that his first profession -- by which he still identifies himself -- is as a magician. Self-aggrandizement sort of comes with the territory there.
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Clash of Fundamentalisms Crusades Jihads & Modernity
by
Tariq Ali
Eric Hamell
, February 11, 2009
This is an excellent, fascinating, engaging book. Ali is a writer of enormous talent, and his work here is informed not only by an incredible intellect, but by personal knowledge deriving from his background in one of Punjab's "old families." Freethinkers will get a special kick out of the first chapter, "An Atheist Childhood."
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Mystery Method How to Get Beautiful Women Into Bed
by
Mystery, Chris Odom
Eric Hamell
, January 25, 2009
Very interesting and fairly persuasive. I read it only after noticing that credentialed scientists such as Helen Fisher were vouching for its having some validity. While he may come off as a little arrogant at times, he puts it all in the framework of principles of social psychology and evolutionary theory with which I was already familiar, giving me a good deal of confidence in its utility.
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Life and Debt (Full Screen)
by
Stephanie Black
Eric Hamell
, January 17, 2009
This is a great educational film. It's colorful and musical while giving a good primer on the way neoliberalism creates poverty and economic dependence in developing countries.
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Its Perfectly Normal A Book about Changing Bodies Growing Up Sex & Sexual Health
by
Robie H Harris
Eric Hamell
, December 11, 2007
An excellent book, which I recently read so I could make an informed response to a local attempt at censoring it. It's straightforward, fully informative, and balanced -- which, of course, is why some people want to censor it.
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Curse Of Chalion Chalion 01
by
Lois M Bujold
Eric Hamell
, December 04, 2007
How much did I like this book? Well, enough to inspire a filk song!
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Influence The Psychology of Persuasion
by
Cialdini, Robert B., PhD
Eric Hamell
, November 28, 2007
This is a fascinating book, and I expect to find it very helpful in my work as a political activist/organizer.
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Dying to Live: Near Death Experiences
by
Susan J. Blackmore
Eric Hamell
, September 07, 2007
Fascinating. What I particularly like about Blackmore is that, unless like some other skeptics, she has a real sympathetic interest in anomalous experience and why it can mean so much to people. She demonstrates that it's possible to explore such experiences without either interpreting them in a naive and literal fashion, or simply dismissing them. She models this, for instance, in her frank and unapologetic explanation that it was an out-of-body experience that she had while using a mind-altering substance that actually initiated her interest in parapsychology.
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Black and White Styles in Conflict
by
Thomas Kochman
Eric Hamell
, September 01, 2007
This book was recommended to me by a couple of fellow political activists who swear by its value for building multi-"racial" coalitions. I heartily concur. It contains many insights that help clear up misunderstandings or, better yet, prevent them. I would add that it could be of value wherever "blacks" and "whites" are attempting to understand one another, even in matters unrelated to politics. "You don't know what you don't know" -- i.e., you may have no idea what *kinds* of things you don't know, until you read this. P.S. I'm going to be putting this on my Powell's bookshelf!
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