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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
Chelsey has commented on (3) products
Rez Life an Indians Journey Through Reservation Life
by
David Treuer
Chelsey
, January 20, 2013
Even as someone who grew up a mere 60 miles from the Minnesota town the author calls home (and writes much about here), and with a solidly passable knowledge of the history of American Indians' relationships with the U.S. nation, I was fully blown away by the amount of intimate historical detail and personal knowledge Treuer brings to these pages. Personal history (cleaning up after his grandfather's suicide, his mother's job as a tribal court judge, etc.) interweaves with firsthand narrative reporting (fishing on Mille Lacs with cousins and friends leads into a fascinating account of the fight for treaty rights) and deep history (the dirty military and legal maneuvers of the budding U.S. nation, the devastation of allotment, the birth of the Indian casino). But don't turn away thinking it's going to be a bummer. This book is so lively and fascinating, Treuer's tone generous to both his subjects and his audience, and the people he writes about so resilient and resourceful, that it torpedoes the stereotypes of reservations as downtrodden and hopeless lost causes. It's a terrific read. I'm grateful to this book and what it's given me--a new understanding of not only the region of the country I thought I knew so well, but of America's nation-building and the not-so-proud legacy it prefers to ignore. I hope that everyone who fell in love with "Neither Wolf Nor Dog" and other such sympathetic but ethically blurry books about Native Americans will pick this one up--Treuer uses actual, named, directly-quoted people, with no composite characters, and is very careful and transparent about acknowledging his process and his own limitations and subjectivity. This is the real deal.
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Little Minnesota: A Nostalgic Look at Minnesota's Smallest Towns
by
Jill A. Johnson
Chelsey
, January 27, 2012
I love this book even more than I predicted I would. The concept of it had me hooked--I'm from a small town in Minnesota, and have always been fascinated by the lives and stories that take place in small towns--but the book itself is even more interesting and beautifully presented than I'd hoped. Each town is a whole little universe of its own here, with fascinating history, specific anecdotes and stories of residents past and present, and humor, pathos, and depth in each profile. The author does not romanticize or sentimentalize small-town life (despite the "nostalgic" tag on the cover, the actual content is delivered with clear-eyed intelligence) but honors the struggles and highs and lows of each of these small towns, many of which are on their way to disappearing altogether. The amount of time and attention Johnson gives to each of these micro-communities is astonishing and yields rich results. The full-color photographs by Deane Johnson are also beautiful. Each town gets several pictures, some historical and many current ones. And the book is beautifully designed with a good balance of text and images, and clean, elegant layouts. The rare book that functions both as a coffee table book--lovely to look at--and as a book whose stories you want to pick up and lose yourself in again and again. I received this as a gift and expect I will end up buying several myself to give as gifts. And I'll never view those tiny one-stoplight towns I drive through on the way to somewhere else the same way again.
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Miss Lonelyhearts & the Day of the Locust
by
Nathanael West
Chelsey
, October 12, 2011
This pair of fabulously dark, witty, and concise novellas is a perfect match. Each goes down like a short, strong cocktail with spiked with a perfect bite of bitters. "MIss Lonelyhearts" is swift, comical, almost loopy at times, yet with prose so tight you could bounce a dime off it. "Day of the Locust" prowls the fringes of Hollywood, through the many species of desperate wannabe clinging to the edges of the film industry. Two scenes in particular--one where the main character crosses a film lot through an anachronistic jumble of set pieces, the other the book's astonishing and terrifying final scene--will stick with me forever. The New Directions edition is well-packaged with a cool zine-like cover and an insightful intro by Jonathan Lethem. Highly recommended.
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