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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
Reading Fool has commented on (2) products
Searching For Tamsen Donner
by
Gabrielle Burton
Reading Fool
, January 09, 2011
Gabrielle Burton’s memoir, “Searching for Tamsen Donner,” puts a new twist on the American road trip. For over 30 years Burton was haunted by the scant information on Donner’s life. Finally she convinced herself, her husband, and their five daughters to retrace the footsteps and wagon tracks on the Oregon Trail of what became known as the Donner Party. As a young woman Tamsen Donner moved frequently along the eastern coast of America in search of teaching jobs. She taught school, married, then lost a son, a prematurely born daughter, and her husband within the space of months. Her second marriage took her to Missouri in 1946 where she and some 400 other wagons began their journey west. Seventeen letters survive from Tamsen’s life, only two of which were written during the months of travel across the plains, the deserts, and mountains that would eventually take her life. These tiny, fragile scraps of paper started Gabrielle Burton on her own decades-long journey, and gave us “The Search for Tamsen Donner,” a story of two stories, woven of one thread – the teacher, the writer, seeking connection. Burton’s unsentimental account of Tamsen Donner’s life makes a compelling read, never more so than in the last days, when, caught in heavy snows in the impenetrable terrain of the Sierra Nevadas, Tamsen relinquishes her children to strangers in the hopes they will survive where she will not. The Donner party’s fame rests on the gruesome details of survivors eating the dead. Burton struggles to come to grips with the role Tamsen Donner played in those last days. She reminds us how we need our heroes and heroines to be not only strong, but moral and of high principles. When faced with flawed heroines, we face ourselves. Tamsen Donner’s letters revealed her fears and hopes, but more importantly, that the source of her strength and courage came from contact and support of her sister, Elizabeth, to whom she wrote after losing her first family, “O my sister weep for me if you have tears to spare.” Donner’s life ended tragically. Hopefully Gabrielle Burton’s will be long and successful. I look forward to reading more of her work, and thank her for sharing her love for Tamsen Donner in this important contribution to American frontier literature. #
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Postmistress
by
Sarah Blake
Reading Fool
, January 01, 2011
When I don't want to get dressed in the morning because the book in my hands has swallowed me whole, I know I have found a winner. Blake's juxtaposition of life in small-town Massachussetts and life under the Blitz (World War II) in London is riveting. Her characters are flawed, and intensely human. I see, feel, hear, and breathe the air and all the emotions of love and loss that Blake has captured. We know from the title that "The Postmistress" will play a vital role in the story, but every character is charged with electricity, and Blake manages to surprise us with the turn of each page. I happened to pick up the large print edition from the library, but will happily buy the standard print version for my book shelf. It surprises me to put "The Postmistress" at the top of my reading list for 2010, and I shall look forward to reading her other books in 2011.
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