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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
Jennifer Balke has commented on (7) products
Crime & Punishment
by
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Zohar Lazar, Oliver Ready
Jennifer Balke
, August 04, 2015
I just finished reading Crime and Punishment for the first time, but I'm sure it won't be the last. What an incredible book! It left me with much to think about. I highly recommend it!
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Black Spider
by
Jeremias Gotthelf, Susan Bernofsky
Jennifer Balke
, April 09, 2015
I figured this would be a cool book based on the cover art, and I was definitely right! If you are a fan of gothic horror like Poe, you will like this. It's a little slow at the beginning as the frame narrative is being set up, but once the story within the story starts, it's hard to put down. Without telling too much, the book essentially tells the story of a village of peasants who, in trying to please their feudal lord, are confronted with making a deal with the devil and the repurcussions of their decision. If you are a total arachnophobe though, I would probably avoid this book as you can likely tell based on the title and the cover!
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Oryx and Crake (Maddaddam Trilogy #1)
by
Margaret Atwood
Jennifer Balke
, November 16, 2014
I've known about Margaret Atwood for a long time and even have The Handmaid's Tale but have never gotten around to reading it. After reading about her recently, I decided to check out some of her work again. I've read a couple of Atwood's recently-published short stories, but basically I started with Oryx and Crake. And - wow... I'm definitely hooked! Yes, it's another dystopian novel, but what makes it different (and a bit unsettling) is that it seems so possible and so true unlike some of the other popular dystopias. Perhaps slightly hyperbolic (but only perhaps) and maybe a bit heavy-handed for some people, it seems to be such a keen-eyed consideration of where our world could end up if we don't acknowledge our problems and try to make changes. On to book two of the trilogy!
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Life After Life
by
Kate Atkinson
Jennifer Balke
, March 19, 2014
I'm actually somewhat surprised how much I've enjoyed this book. I'm one of the few people who saw the movie Groundhog Day and thought that the main character's reliving the same day over and over was really tedious. However, Atkinson makes it work, perhaps partly because at some point in the book, Atkinson stopped going through Ursula's whole life again upon being reborn. Instead, she just picks up somewhere around the point where Ursula dies or else at some pivotal point in her life. I think early on I was interested to see how she was going to die next. As the book progresses though and as her character becomes more fleshed out, the reader gets to know her better, and, for me at least, it becomes easy to forget that she would probably die again at some point. I found it to really be an interesting concept - being able to continually hit the reset button until you get it right. What have you learned from your life and how can you make it better for both yourself and for those around you? This seemed to be the big question the book explores.
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Bel Canto
by
Ann Patchett
Jennifer Balke
, January 01, 2013
Wow, what an incredible story! I've heard people talk about this book for years, and now I know why.
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(1 of 4 readers found this comment helpful)
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Bel Canto
by
Ann Patchett
Jennifer Balke
, September 19, 2012
Wow... I had heard people talk about this book for a long time, so I finally bought it a couple of months ago when Powells was offering one of their special deals. I cannot really express how beautiful this story is. Although I like other things by Patchett, I see why people who have read Bel Canto always compare her later works to this one. Not only does it make me want to listen to and learn more about opera, Bel Canto tells such an incredible story about the nature of humanity.
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Night Circus
by
Erin Morgenstern
Jennifer Balke
, January 02, 2012
I'm not sure if this is a totally great comparison, but The Night Circus kind of reminded me of a cross between The Hunger Games and Something Wicked This Way Comes with its love story embedded into a fight to the finish and the supernatural circus. I can be easily distracted reading books (probably because I'm so busy during the school year), but I was totally sucked in with this book and couldn't put it down. For me the best part of this book was probably all the descriptions, especially of the different elements of the circus, that Morgenstern includes.
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