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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
brazilvideo has commented on (12) products
Decline & Fall of the British Empire 1781 1997
by
Piers Brendon
brazilvideo
, September 17, 2011
For a person of priveledge,the one-time Keeper of the Churchill Archives,the author should show more respect.In order to pander to politically correct opinion he characterises the British Empire as some drunken racist louts in search of the better chance.This is how he handles Richard Burton,not the actor,the real Burton,the explorer and linguist:"richard Burton,who discovered Lake Tanganyika (with Speke ) in 1858 had even less faith in European efforts to better the lot of Africans." Burton learned the tribal languages,ate their food,made real friens and mortal enemies,and survived the worst that 19th C Africa could throw at him.The author would not have survived any of this.Burton had a spear thrown at him that traversed his face. He argues that the BBC promoted Imperialism:"With epics such as the Bengal Lancers" Was actually my favorite show on TV.THe BBC filled the nations homes with military parades...giving weight to the Imperial message,intimating that the accent of the EStablishment was the voice of objectivity." Well! talk about biting the hand...PBS 70 years later still borrows much of its cultural programming from BBC,all narrated with an Establishment accent,is PBS promoting British Imperialism? The saving grace is the section on India,which is scholarly,original,and sometimes funny.
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Point to Point Navigation A Memoir 1964 to 2006
by
Gore Vidal
brazilvideo
, September 16, 2011
" A few years ago the BBC...it is only British television that wants to do interesting projects on our native land."Gore Vidal Gove Vidal and Norman Mailer agreed that there was no news media in America that could be trusted. This is one of his excuses for living abroad.If that was the only message one learned from this book it would be worth the price many times over. "Graham Green spoke for culture,a perfect fifteen minute speech without a note.When admiringly,I remarked on this to Norman Mailer,he said,"everry Englishman can talk for 15 min on any subject without a note." There are very few people still alive who have Vidal's understanding of American history or who can get away with saying anything.When Vidal comes to a local La Jolla bookstore to speak,he does as much to contribute to elevating the cultural level as the previous 6 months of events. At one point he quotes Solzhenitsyn to the effect that:"The press has become the greatest power within the Western countries,more powerful than the legislature,the executive,anf the judiciary." The book includes a number of vitriolic exchanges with other celebrity authors which Vidal obviously relished. Including trading insults with people he never met. He says the most enjoyment he has got from life is movies and that while ateenager he sometimes saw 4 a day.
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Stanley Kubrick The Complete Films
by
Paul Duncan
brazilvideo
, September 16, 2011
In all of San Diego there is only 1 book about Stanley Kubrick,this one.Could not help but notice that the covers displayed here are different,the one I found has a photo from the movie Lolita. One of the most popular videos on YouTube is about a Kubrick researcher who finds 1000 boxes of research material at the 600 acre Kubrick estate in England. He spent years making a documentary based on this vast reseach material and the first image is the same as the book:Lolita. On the chapter "How Stanley Kubrick gained independence" is reads:" In the year that Kubrick spent directing Spartacus, Lolita sold almost 300,000 copies in America and it went on to sell more than 14 million copies worldwide." The relevance of all this is that not only did Kubrick get in inflation adjusted $s $15 million for the screenplay,but an additional 50% of the profits.You have 2 of the greatest artistic geniuses of the 2oth C.,Vladimir Nabokov and Stanley Kubrick who finally achieve financial independence from Lolita. On p.4 is says:" Critic David Denby once compared Kubrick to the monolith from his film 2001:A Space Odyssey,calling him 'a force of supernatural intelligence,appearing at great intervals amid high-pitched schrieks,who gives the world a violent kick up the next evolutionary ladder." This book is hevily illustrated and a very good value.
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National Geographic 10 Best of Everything Passport to He Best An Ultimate Guide for Travelers
by
Nathaniel Lande
brazilvideo
, September 16, 2011
$20 and now for even less. It is part of National Geographic books. Imagine that you had been given a credit card by Time and spent your life traveling and now could summarize your life experience as advise on the 10 best of Everything. Full disclosure, I have had a similar experience and my choices coincide very closely with the authors. This is not Frommers or Lonely PLanet. They cover African Safaris, sailing on private yacht, and Golf Holidays in Scotland in which you travel in your own restored 1920s Pullman car. For a $20 book they cover Luxury resorts more than chain Hotels. The reason I mention Roger Ebert is that the 2 areas of reviews and articles most influence by ads are Movies and TRavel, so if you find a genuinely independent writer who is knowledgeable, that is rare. In the Introduction he relates the experience of having left behind many items at a hotel in Paris, he returns six months later: "I opened my armoire and there, starched crisp and fresh, was my correspondents kit, now lavender scented. My shoes gleamed like mirrors. For me that experience embodies the governing philosophy of this book. "As it happens, this is the exact experience that seduced me into spending 20 years living in French Hotels. I had left behind a whole suitcase full of items which, when I returned 1 year later to the Sofitel, were washed and ironed and spread out. On the Queen Mary 2 "If you long to relive the days when people 'crossed the pond' on a proper ocean liner, find a different ship... more floating resort than liner or cruise ship." On the beach at Vina del Mar, Chile's best beach resort: ...good nightlife (though the water is often murky or even muddy) On the best destination restaurants: The Herfarm, Woodinville, Wahington, The French Laundry, Yountville, California, Chez Panisse, berkeley, California, El Bully, Girona Spain. This is rather daring, to list Chez Panisse ahead of El Bully but for either foodies or chefs it is right. Mostly they tell you what the word of mouth is that the official story. Covers everything. Best Travel Book for the money ever.
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Graham Greene Fragments Of Autobiography
by
Graham Greene
brazilvideo
, November 30, 2008
At any given time Graham Green was being unfaithful to at least 2 women. For most of his adult life,Green was doing proganda work on behalf of some intelligence agency other that the British. Green was a successful version of KIm Philby.He was open about his infidelities,in fact this was the basis of his fiction.His wife,together with the rest of the world,could read all the details of his affairs in his books. Similarly,his superiors at British Intelligence were welcome to read some of the best anti-American propaganda ever written.On other days Green was a Catholic author.
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Among The Believers An Islamic Journey
by
V S Naipaul
brazilvideo
, November 23, 2008
Naipaul's protege,Paul Theroux,in "Vida's Shaddow" gave many reasons why Naipaul would never win the Nobel. Only a couple years later,in 2001,he did in fact receive the Nobel.Theroux was Naipaul's travel partner in Uganda,where he witnessed "Vida" warning Indians that they should flee.Naipaul saw that Idi Amin would confiscate Indian property,a daring position to take. Similarly,"Among the Believers" was not well received but proved prophetic in his warning of Moslem fundamentalism. Being a good writer is one thing,risking your life and reputation by warning of real evils is rare.
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Political Brain The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation
by
Drew Westen
brazilvideo
, October 25, 2008
This book concludes that Republican campaigns have unique characteristics: choice of themes by think tanks,absolute coordination of message,use of very specific words and not others,use of subliminal images and words,and tricky word associations. In March 1982 Covert Action published an article based on 10 years of reseach into CIA propaganda techniques in Chile,Jamaica and Nicaragua which came to similar conclusions:"THe combined effects of word associations(derived from CIA funded semantic differential)with subliminal imbeds is so strong that it displaces any other message. The real Urban Legend is not that subliminal messages work,but the opposite.The author and his team show endless experiments where subliminal ideas and images work and that Republicans regularly use them. The most effective visual used by Bill Mahr is to show clips on the same day showing Fox News,Republicans,and right wing think tanks parroting exactly the same words. Apart from the perfect coordination,why only these words? Because they have subliminal emotional associations.
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U.S. Covert Actions by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Chile (Including the Assassination of Salvador Allende) 1963 to 1973. the Church Commi
by
N. a.
brazilvideo
, October 22, 2008
This report is substantially based on a Ph.D dissertation,"Psychological Warfare and Media Operations in Chile:1970-1973".Every thursday a little bus went to CIA headquarters with a new request for documents and to pick up the batch from last week.Richard Helm set up new incinerator just to burn all the documents related to Chile,but he missed all the copies in the finance department. The only reason this report saw the light of day is because the Senate investigators had 3 former CIA officers on the staff who knew exactly where at CIA to look .It was also relevant that FRank Church felt that Richard Helms had lied in his testimony about Chile,and this was the proof.
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Veil: The Secret Wars of the Cia, 1981-1987
by
Bob Woodward
brazilvideo
, October 22, 2008
Some young people have no respect for Elvis,untill you tell the that before him there was no Rock and Roll.There are very few genuine investigative reporters any longer at major US newspapeers,and Woodward was one of the pioneers.Before Veil,nobody had access to CIA Director Casey.Nobody really knew for sure what REagan's role was in the Iran-Contra affair. We should all be so lucky as to not only survive exposing the CIA,Nixon and Bush,but make over 100 million (mostly movie rights) in the process.
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All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome
by
Kathy Hoopmann
brazilvideo
, October 22, 2008
Imagine a topic that affects millions,was discovered in 1940,but about which no books appeared in the US untill recently. After buying this book,I got 15 more on Autism or Aspergers.THere is no other subject which has forced me to so completely rethink what I though I understood.If you suspect someone near and dear has this symptom,this book is the perfect way to gently introduce the topic.
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Stanley Kubrick
by
Paul Duncan
brazilvideo
, October 22, 2008
This is the best intro to Kubrick.Having read 10 others,the size of War and Peace,you need something short and sweet to get an overview.Since Kubrick is marketed to the Film crowd,some of the prices can be over the top,which makes $10 very attractive. The choice of cover,unfortunately,deepends my supicion that Kubrick and Nabokov will be remembered as names on a poster for the movie "Lolita"
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Creation of Doctor B A Biography of Bruno Bettelheim
by
Bettelheim, Pollak
brazilvideo
, October 22, 2008
This book has unleashed a torrent of commentary by both patients and co-workers.Bettelheim was a monster straight out of Grendel.You would have to go back to the Middle Ages to find a field of knowledge so dominated by 1 fabricator. As far back as the 60's Bettelheim was regarded with suspicion by other autism researchers,but nobody suspected that he had fabricated his background and plagiarized his books,
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