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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
Malcolm Campbell has commented on (9) products
Suicide Supper Club
by
Rhett DeVane
Malcolm Campbell
, March 01, 2014
Rhett DeVane ("Cathead Crazy") brings her trademark sparkling prose and deep insights into human nature to this story of the darkness and light in the lives of Abby, Loiscell, Sheila and "Choo-choo." The lives of these kindred spirits play out in the Florida Panhandle between Chattahoochee, a small town with a main street dominated by a mental institution, and Tallahassee, the state capital, 44 miles away. Most of the festering family secrets, declining health, estrangement and physical abuse live and breathe in Chattahoochee for Abby, Loiscell, Sheila and Choo-choo. Tallahassee is for shopping, fine dining, cancer treatments and a prospective appointment with a hit man. Suicide and humor seamlessly merge through DeVane's inventive plot, fully realized characters, knowledge of Southern life and customs, and sense of place. The light in "Suicide Supper Club" comes from the great love and esteem the four women have for each other and the ways they find for coping with the Florida heat and the crap. When it comes to Chattahoochee and Tallahassee and the people who live there, Rhett DeVane gets it right.
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Goatsong
by
Patricia Damery
Malcolm Campbell
, January 01, 2013
A wonderful story about the power of women, the wisdom of nature, and the company of sheep--a true coming of age story.
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Casual Vacancy
by
J K Rowling
Malcolm Campbell
, October 16, 2012
Winesburg, Spoon River, Grover's Corners and Peyton Place reside so powerfully in the consciousness of readers as accurately rendered representations of small town life that their people, town squares, relationships and secrets are forever in our memory almost crossing the boundary from fiction into reality. The English village of Pagford in J. K. Rowling's "The Casual Vacancy" belongs on this list. City council member Barry Fairbrother dies at the beginning of the novel. While the novel's interwoven storylines unfold via Rowling's expertly handled omniscient narrative style, Fairbrother is a strongly present though physically absent protagonist. Who he was, the issues he championed, and how his suddenly empty seat (a "casual vacancy") on the council will be filled are the catalysts for the thoughts and actions of the thirty other characters. If the novel's middle class characters could step outside their fictional world, they might claim a girl of the projects named Krystal Weedon is the antagonist because she's everything they despise in a teenager. However, the true antagonists might alternatively be seen as those who want to put a stop to everything Barry Fairbrother lived for. The Harry Potter books feature a mythic, larger-than-life battle between good and evil. "The Casual Vacancy" features the more diffuse interactions between the middle class and those who live in the projects. Fairbrother, who transformed himself from a child of the projects to a respected, mainstream society adult, carried with him a practical "can do" attitude about the prospects of those in Pagford's subsistence living neighborhood "The Fields," including drug users fighting their addiction at the village's Bellchapel clinic. In life, he was both a pillar of the middle class community and an advocate and friend of the poor. His views, however, were not universally shared by Pagford's middle class from merchants to council members to students. Fairbrother's death and the subsequent election to fill his council vacancy, present many conflict points within Rowling's complex and highly detailed story. If the election goes one way, the town will spin off The Fields to a nearby larger town and close the clinic. If the election goes the other way, Fairbrother's work will continue. Every character in this novel has a covert or an overt opinion about Fairbrother, The Fields, Bellchapel, Krystal Weedon, the election, the candidates, the family squabbles disseminated through gossip and everyone outside his or her middle class or poverty class environment. Rowling, who has known poverty and--through her teaching--the children of poverty, has created a novel with many bridges between the haves and the have nots. These bridges, both strong and failing, give Rowling a stable and realistic infrastructure for The Casual Vacancy's plot. Rowling's superb portrait of an English small town is moving, thought provoking and often a darkly comic masterpiece of storytelling with three-dimensional characters, a carefully constructed plot and multiple escalating conflicts that move like a tsunami through the world of Pagford, the town that no reader will ever forget.
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Night Circus
by
Erin Morgenstern
Malcolm Campbell
, January 01, 2012
A marvelous and inventive story about magic, storytelling and the illusory stability of reality.
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Madam
by
Julianna Baggott
Malcolm Campbell
, January 11, 2010
Julianna Baggott's spartan, poetic prose weaves an off-kilter and dramatic story suggested by her own family's legends. In the acknowledgments, Baggott thanks her grandmother "who was raised with show people, nuns, hustlers and whores" for sharing the the facts of a very unusual life. It's not for us to know how truth and fiction combine in this well-told tale with its careful, yet intricate plot seasoned--some will say--with Southern Gothic flavoring, and overflowing with blunt-edged emotions and a no-nonsense view of life's trials and toil. But the atmosphere from beginning to end is relentless and cruel and deeply wonderful because Baggott loved her protagonist, and the show people, nuns, hustlers and whores enough to show their world of lint and coal dust and sex as almost sacred.
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Now Is the Time to Do What You Love: How to Make the Career Move That Will Change Your Life
by
Nancy Whitney-Reiter
Malcolm Campbell
, January 11, 2010
Or picture this: Joyce, who lives in Decatur, Illinois, has always loved children. She's wondered for years whether to become a teacher or open a daycare center once her own children leave the nest. But she keeps waiting for some future moment when her world is more settled, ensuring that "what night have been" will remain "what never was." Dreams, some say, will take up as much space as we allow. According to Nancy Whitney-Reiter, most of us spend our careers trying to achieve success as it's defined by others rather than proactively following our dreams and doing what we love. Yet, "Now is the time to do what you love" makes clear that ill-defined career-change goals may remain pipe dreams if we take no action or may become nightmares when we fail to consider realities and create a comprehensive plan. Immensely well organized and practical, "Now is the time to do what you love" is the perfect companion for anyone who is dissatisfied with their current career and/or who is considering a second career after they retire from the first. To become viable realities, dreams require work. Whitney-Reiter's experience, research and interviews show those ready to take the journey the important milestones to leaving a job that's just a job and entering a fulfilling career doing that makes them personally feel successful and happy. The book is a very wise dream catcher.
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(1 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
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Faust: My Soul Be Damned for the World: Volume I
by
E. A. Bucchianeri
Malcolm Campbell
, February 16, 2009
E. A. Bucchianeri describes her two-volume work on the back cover as "a comprehensive exploration of Dr. Faust, the man who sold his soul to the devil, and those who lived to tell his tale." "Comprehensive" is almost an understatement, for the scope and scholarship of this two-volume, large-format "Faust - My soul be damned for the world" is astonishing. Bucchianeri traces the evolution of the Faust legends and literature from the historical individual who called himself "Faustus" (c1466 - c1538) through early folktales and Christopher Marlowe's drama "The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus" (1604) to Goethe's closet drama "Faust: The Tragedy Part One" (1829) and "Faust: The Tragedy Part Two" (1832). Clearly, the Faustian literature evolved with the times, and at each stage, Bucchianeri shows how the influences of the church, state, society and the education, upbringing and life experiences of the of the principal authors and commentators changed the intent and flavor of the legend. The Faust story, as Joseph L. Henderson notes in "Man and his Symbols" (Carl Jung, Ed.) dramatizes man's battle with the dark or negative side of his personality, the "'shadow' figure that Goethe describes as 'part of that power which, willing evil, finds the good.'" One of the greatest strengths of Bucchianeri's work is in its heavily documented presentation of the vast symbolism found throughout the multiple versions of the legend. The historical Dr. Faustus, Faust books and folk tales, Marlowe's drama with its "A and B texts," the puppet plays, and Lessing's unfinished drama comprise Volume I. At the outset, Bucchianeri writes, "Faust, the notorious reprobate who willingly forfeited his immortal soul to the devil in exchange of the fleeting illusory pleasures of the world as recounted in famous works of drama, literature, drama and music did not originate as the imaginary brainchild of a literary genius. A historical figure named 'Faust' did exist." Separating the historical personage from the folklore that quickly arose in letters, pamphlets and that individual's own circulated exaggerations of his "powers"" requires careful research. "Faustus," was the title/pseudonym used by Georg Helmstetter who was born in or near Heidelberg, Germany in the mid-1400s. He was an educated man and, according to reports, an accurate astrologer. His self-aggrandizing claims of dark-side occult powers and an association with the Devil gave rise to the initial folklore and popular Faust books. Bucchianeri brings order to the documented facts about Christopher Marlowe's contribution to the Faust legend during Elizabethan times. She writes that the poet and dramatist "recognized in the character of Faustus his personal cynicism in regard to the subject of religion and his ardent desire to accomplish great deeds in the world." Here, as with the Goethe material, the author ostensibly presents readers with a miniature biography of the dramatist as a means of demonstrating important themes in the resulting play. Marlowe's difficult route to a college degree and his rebellious views and lifestyle play into his version of "Faust." Goethe worked on "Faust" throughout his lifetime. Like Marlowe, Goethe had deep and basic questions about religion. He brought to "Faust" his youthful, manic-depressive mood swings and a wealth of study into subjects including the greater and lesser mysteries, alchemy and freemasons as Bucchianeri shows in Volume II. Written in an academic style, "Faust - My soul be damned for the world," will be of especial interest to scholars as well as serious students of the Faust legends, Marlowe, and Goethe. The scope of work and impeccable research may, in fact, be definitive insofar as the development of the literary Faust is concerned. Some readers will find the biographical detail about Marlowe and Goethe to be too lengthy, far exceeding that which is required to illustrate how their personalities and their lives and studies influenced their Faust dramas. If a second edition of "Faust - My soul be damned for the world" is released, the work will be greatly strengthened by the addition of an introduction that explains how this work differs from earlier Faust literature, concise chapter summaries and additional subheads and sidebars to break up the ponderous sections of straight text, a biography showing the author's credentials for writing the book, and a comprehensive index. That said, this work is a labor of love that greatly adds to our understanding of the literary Faust as he grew with the changing times. --Malcolm R. Campbell
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Rose Labyrinth Uk Edition
by
Titania Hardie
Malcolm Campbell
, January 24, 2009
Titania Hardie's inventive novel "The Rose Labyrinth" places Alex and Lucy on a dangerous quest to find the long-buried secrets of Elizabethan astrologer and alchemist John Dee. While Alex's mother intuitively understood the import of the Sterling family secrets before she died, no one ever knew where they were hidden, much less what they were. When Alex's brother Will starts looking for the manuscripts and artifacts, he discovers that researchers of evil intent have a head start; in fact, they have been watching the family for years and now are on a short timetable to retrieve the secrets at any cost. Students of esoteric philosophy and Christian symbolism will find much to like in Hardie's well-researched story. The characters are well-drawn and the dangerous quest to find the hidden treasure is intricate and compelling. Unfortunately, "The Rose Labyrinth" struggles with the same structural problems as "The Da Vinci Code." Like Brown's characters, Hardie's characters are secondary to the philosophical riddle they must solve. While discussions about the philosophy advance the plot, they are a wordy device for instructing readers about the meaning of it all. The precise synchronicity of Alex and Lucy with Dee's secrets is contrived and the broad-scope indictment of fundamentalist Christianity is unnecessary. Readers who enjoyed "The Da Vinci Code" may find more than enough in "The Rose Labyrinth" to make it an interesting journey in spite of the large holes in Hardie's tapestry. In that regard, it can be very cautiously recommended.
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Fortune Tellers Daughter
by
Lila Shaara
Malcolm Campbell
, January 02, 2009
While Harry Sterling is an alcoholic, he has redeeming qualities, among them a former investigative reporter's sense of what makes a good story. When he hears second hand that a local psychic claimed famed physicist Charles Ziegart didn't actually discover the "Ziegart Effect," Sterling has a prospective new focus for his blocked writing career. And, as a junior member of the faculty at a north Florida university, he is highly conscious of the publish-or-perish rules of academia. Unfortunately, Ziegart and the other potential sources for Sterling's investigation are dead or may soon be dead as he begins to ask powerful people unsettling questions. Sterling, who met the withdrawn Maggie Roth--the fortune teller's niece--while he was drunkenly throwing up on her front porch--believes she holds keys to the story and possibly his heart. Shaara has drawn a haunting romantic mystery out of the piney wood woods of north Florida where she grew up. Her characters are three-dimensional, believable and delightfully diverse. This slightly Southern Gothic tale is an addictive, well-written page turner, otherwise known as a good story.
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