Cart
|
|
my account
|
wish list
|
help
|
800-878-7323
Hello, |
Login
MENU
Browse
New Arrivals
Bestsellers
Featured Preorders
Award Winners
Audio Books
See All Subjects
Used
Staff Picks
Staff Picks
Picks of the Month
Bookseller Displays
50 Books for 50 Years
25 Best 21st Century Sci-Fi & Fantasy
25 PNW Books to Read Before You Die
25 Books From the 21st Century
25 Memoirs to Read Before You Die
25 Global Books to Read Before You Die
25 Women to Read Before You Die
25 Books to Read Before You Die
Gifts
Gift Cards & eGift Cards
Powell's Souvenirs
Journals and Notebooks
socks
Games
Sell Books
Blog
Events
Find A Store
Don't Miss
15% off new books on Powells.com!*
Spring Sale
Big Mood Sale
Teen Dream Sale
Powell's Author Events
Oregon Battle of the Books
Audio Books
Get the Powell's newsletter
Visit Our Stores
Powell's Staff:
Five Book Friday: In Memoriam
(0 comment)
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...
Read More
»
Brontez Purnell:
Powell’s Q&A: Brontez Purnell, author of ‘Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt’
(0 comment)
Rachael P.:
Starter Pack: Where to Begin with Ursula K. Le Guin
(0 comment)
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
##LOC[Cancel]##
Customer Comments
M Kassapa has commented on (11) products
To Be a Man Stories
by
Nicole Krauss
M Kassapa
, February 15, 2021
I have finished To Be A Man, a book of short stories by Nicole Krauss, and the stories, each so different from each other, each written as if every word was intentionally put just here to explore the depths of human feeling. Is it the gorgeous writing, the sensitivity of the subject matter, or the depth of the human heart that draws me in and stays with me? I can't imagine reading anything this good ever again, and I hope I am wrong. There's an unmistakable intimacy here than cannot be unfelt.
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
report this comment
The Last Romantics: A Read with Jenna Pick
by
Tara Conklin
M Kassapa
, February 18, 2019
This gorgeously written family saga is spawned from the underground seismic death of small town dentist, Dr. Skinner. This is a coming of age story for an entire family and its story will touch into all the joys and fears of childhood especially when one parent dies and the other parent, disillusioned by her assumptions of what her marriage really was, finds a way to cope with loss. Each loss in the family, the death of a father, the absentee mother who cannot cope (for a few years) with the loss of who her husband really was and correspondingly who she was in her own marriage, becomes the children's roller coaster ride of emotional ups and downs. Each child assumes a role in the family order, largely based on age, perceived strengths and weaknesses, to help each other member of the family navigate their way out of childhood into their adult lives. It's a book that lives far beyond the end of its pages.
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
report this comment
Red White Blue
by
Lea Carpenter
M Kassapa
, August 21, 2018
What Do You Know? Picture yourself, it's mid week, and now, after dinner you decide it's time to start the book all your friends have been raving about. Unless you're willing to not get any sleep this mid week night it might be better to wait for a rainy afternoon in which at the worst you'll have to call your boss and tell her that you'll be a little late the next morning. Red, White, Blue is that kind of book. Reading the first few pages you notice a certain crispness about the writing, very straightforward and yet sucking you into its intriguing vortex of two simultaneous stories: one of a person applying to work in counterintelligence for the CIA and the training that they go through and the other story of a daughter of an agent and what she knows and doesn't know and how it impacts her life. What is it like to have a spy for a father? What can you believe about someone you love and who loves you who lies for a living? You may be able to put the book down for some hours before you finish it but it will stay with you like an insect buzzing around you that only can hear. And when you finish it, the book will live with you a bit longer until you're ready to move on with your life. For the spy genre, this book holds your attention from the first few pages to the end and beyond. If you enjoy being consumed by a book, this book, Red, White, Blue is for you.
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
report this comment
Nothing Right
by
Antonya Nelson
M Kassapa
, November 08, 2012
A couple of weeks ago, I heard Antonya Nelson read, her words like sweet desserts dreamily oozing luscious lip-smacking creamy fillings. I am reading NOTHING RIGHT, a book of short stories. Some stories are too rich even to be written on a page, her language so seductively creating images you can’t get out of your head that days later, a line or a phrase or a scene comes out of its hiding place and tries to insinuate itself into conversation as if you were speaking from personal experience rather than bowing before the altar of imprinted memory. I dare anyone to read this book and try to erase it from your memory or conversation.
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
(1 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
Forgotten Waltz
by
Anne Enright
M Kassapa
, March 14, 2012
Anne Enright, Irish author of The Forgotten Waltz, writes about a love affair. It's a book with thick pages, literally heavy, weighted paper. The print is big, almost like you could walk between the spaces of the words or in a tight squeeze you could slip between the letters of the words. Roughly 260 pages. It seems like I should have finished the book in a few hours but it's taking longer. The sentences and style are very simple, almost like a childhood primer. Anne is expressive, articulate, and yet the story dawdles. Is this intentional? Is this love affair written in such a way that one can't hurry through it without feeling its sleight of hand beginnings, its evolution, and its consequences? I have considered abandoning it at times, as if the story was moving too slowly, and I couldn't get through the doorway into the next room of the next paragraph on the next page into the next chapter. Now, with less than a third of the book to go, I am invested in finishing it, in finding out what happens, in figuring out how she writes with a thickness, thicker than weighted paper, that keeps me slogging through each doorway into the next room and into the next scene to feel my life, as I feel the lives of the characters.
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
(3 of 6 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
Everyday People
by
Albert Goldbarth
M Kassapa
, February 02, 2012
If you are not familiar with the poetry of Albert Goldbarth, you are in for a treat. In Everyday People, his newest volume of poetry, each poem is a swirling concoction of tangling the past, present, and future into a tasty brew. The poems here are shorter than in other volumes, the longest only being a few pages, whereas in previous volumes a poem may seem like a never-ending carnival ride. Either way, his poetry is accessible with a bit of humor, history, philosophy, and humanity in every poem. The mundane married to the sublime ending in a smile. It is a book not to be missed.
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
(2 of 3 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
Widows Story A Memoir
by
Joyce Carol Oates
M Kassapa
, January 20, 2012
You've read memoirs but never a book this intimate. Death denial is so widespread that you'd never imagine that a woman who has written nearly a hundred books (including many plays and novels), who is happily married to a man she has spent nearly every day of the last forty-seven years, could live in a world where she thought this would never happen to her. This book is intimate in ways that it's hard to talk about. So well written, so honest, not only do you feel like you're right there with her, you feel as if you are her. No separation. I lingered with every word, every emotion I felt. Her life will never be the same and neither will mine for having read her book.
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
(2 of 3 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
Widows Story A Memoir
by
Joyce Carol Oates
M Kassapa
, December 01, 2011
In contrast to Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking, Joyce Carol Oates' memoir about the death of her husband explores every avenue of grief. Her style is so intimate that you feel right there in the room with her, right in her heart and mind as she explores loss. How well did she really know her husband? Do the cats really hold her accountable for his death? She explores every aspect of both knowing her husband and knowing herself as a widow. It is a courageous book that will touch your heart.
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
(1 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
Chocolate Cake Sutra Ingredients for a Sweet Life
by
Geri Larkin
M Kassapa
, March 30, 2011
If you love no one, not even yourself, read this book and you will love yourself and it will put a smile on your face. This book, subtitled "Ingredients for a Sweet Life", will widen the circle of your heart. Geri Larkin's honest and quirky self will bring Zen spirituality home with a mixture of wisdom and hilarity. I have lent my copy to friends who have read it not once but twice in succession. No higher compliment is necessary.
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog & Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrists Notebook What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us about Loss Love &
by
Bruce Perry
M Kassapa
, February 24, 2011
When I try to tell my friends about this book, when I just tell them the title, they're already backing away from my words. Why would anyone want to read the horror stories of traumatized children? Don't we have enough news that turns our stomachs already? Well, now I tell my friends that I found a book that takes the traumatic headlines that deal with children and opens our hearts. This book is written by a very compassionate psychiatrist, and we get to watch his learning curve as he patiently deals with traumatized kids by looking at the stage of their cerebral development when they received the trauma and what kind of nurturing therapy would be appropriate to restore balance that these children have lost and give them a chance to recover and lead normal lives. One of the losses in our fast and competitive society is neglecting to give our children all the love and attention they need as our most vulnerable citizens rather than simply pushing into the fast lane before they're old enough to ask for their basic needs to be met. This book will forever inspire you to treat children with the love and respect they deserve.
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
(2 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
Great House
by
Nicole Krauss
M Kassapa
, January 25, 2011
This book is written so well and has captured me so completely that I have to walk away from it; I have to make breakfast, write in my journal, compose letters to friends in between the sentences I am reading. It’s too intimate, like being with a lover for the first time who lets you in further than her body, further than how her best friends know her, and further than you can open to in that moment despite the fact that you can’t do anything but stay as present as you are capable. Interior monologue rendered exquisitely, each word a treasure, and yet as you lift one from the tangle of a paragraph, its singular beauty is part of a larger beauty that, even with panoramic vision, you cannot fully take in. I could read it over and over and feel like I’ve only scratched the surface. The story is like a mobius strip, tangling and untangling itself, all the while taking you deeper into the story and into yourself. And yet whether I have stepped away into the kitchen to make breakfast or at my desk composing a letter to a friend, the story stays with me, it won’t let go, and I don’t want it to, I just want to step back far enough to see what I see, feel what I feel without being swallowed up by the whale of words that I am pursuing like Ahab.
Was this comment helpful? |
Yes
|
No
(3 of 3 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment