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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
Jackie Cornwell has commented on (5) products
Help
by
Kathryn Stockett
Jackie Cornwell
, January 01, 2012
I was immediately caught up in the story and the characters' lives and found "The Help" to be a wonderful book full of truth, humor, sadness, and wonder.
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Tarot for Writers
by
Corrine Kenner
Jackie Cornwell
, August 08, 2009
Brilliant tool for creating characters, backgrounds and stories and breaking through writer’s block. It’s a natural. The history of the tarot cards is as a story, the fool’s journey through the world and life. With all the varied interpretations and artwork available in tarot decks, the possibilities and combinations are endless. I use the Gilded Tarot and use my reference book along with “Tarot for Writers” for a combined point of view. Corinne Kenner uses the Universal Tarot deck based on the Rider-Waite and, for novices, it is best to use that deck, but any deck will work. “Tarot for Writers” begins with “Tarot 101”: history, reading the cards and classic spreads and layouts. There is no hard or fast rule here. Once you understand the fundamentals, it’s easy to find what works best for you, and Kenner allows for that. In the second part of “Tarot for Writers,” Kenner breaks down the basics of creating stories: Characterization, background, story lines and plots, setting and description and journeys. The chapter on tips for breaking through writer’s block includes great suggestions and exercises. The entire book is an invitation the muse cannot resist, breathing inspiration with every page. The third part contains the history, meanings, symbols and attributes of each card in the deck with handy exercises to tempt the muse. There are two flaws. The book should be offered together with a deck of tarot cards for novices. The other problem is that the very mention of tarot cards makes some writers nervous because of the connotation of the occult. Nervous writers should take a deep breath and plunge in. They won’t be sorry. Corrine Kenner has written a fantastic tool for writers in “Tarot for Writers” and it should be on every writer’s reference shelf. It’s a wonder someone didn’t figure the connection sooner, but I am glad Kenner saw the possibilities and used her clear and no nonsense prose to stimulate the muse and give writers a tool that will keep them writing for decades. I’ve suggested it to all my writer friends as the best tool available.
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Real Messiah The Throne of St Mark & the True Origins of Christianity
by
Stephen Huller
Jackie Cornwell
, May 25, 2009
One man’s 20-year journey to discover the true origins of Christianity. From the beginning of time, there have been men who were larger than life and upon whom the pivot of history turned. To find these men, one need only look. Their deeds are preserved in monument, story and song: Julius Caesar, Plato, Archimedes, Akhenaton, Moses, Abraham, Jacob, Muhammad, Hitler, Charlemagne, King Richard the Lion-heart, King John, Leonardo da Vinci and Jesus, to name a few. Two thousand years ago, one man changed the face of religion and the course of history by his death and resurrection. His teachings endured in spite of Rome’s pogroms to stamp out the slave religion. Roman emperor Constantine embraced those beliefs, organized and built the most powerful religion on Earth, one that still endures. That man was Jesus, son of Mary and Joseph, a simple carpenter. Every year at Easter Christians celebrate his triumph over the grave, but did the Roman Catholic Church get it wrong? Did the church fathers tamper with history and create a god out of the messenger sent to pave the way for the true Jewish Messiah? Stephan Huller spent twenty years of his life traveling, researching and consulting with historians, linguists and theologians in his search for the truth. The Real Messiah is the culmination of that search; the evidence it contains fills in the gaps that theologians and Christian apologists have sought to reconcile over for nearly twenty centuries. According to the prophecies, “[t]he intended [Jewish] Messiah had to be a king—not simply in a spiritual sense, but also in a political sense, [whose] arrival would alter Judaism forever. It would mean an abandonment of the Laws of Moses and a completely new Covenant with God that would be so all-encompassing that the very Temple of Jerusalem would be abolished and ultimately destroyed.” With that beginning to his story, Huller lays the groundwork and details the life and times of The Real Messiah Marcus Julius Agrippa, last king of the Jews, a contemporary of Jesus, and the author of the four gospels of the new testament, also known as St. Mark. The proof begins with a small throne carved in one piece from alabaster in Alexandria in Egypt and now housed in Venice. In what amounts to heresy, Huller boldly breaks down the myths and legends surrounding the story of Jesus and unfolds a story full of intrigue, mystery, “…incest, one of the most famous love affairs of its time, and a genius for power-play and influence that any dictator or monarch would have admired.” The Real Messiah is a fascinating, carefully researched, complex puzzle built on solid scholarship and grounded in Jewish mysticism. The truth is not out there, it is here.
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The Drowning Pool (Five Star Expressions)
by
Jacqueline Seewald
Jackie Cornwell
, May 25, 2009
Modern relationships, murder and mystery in a moderately over written story with guts and heart. A body found floating in the pool at the La Reine Gardens apartment complex brings police lieutenant, Mike Gardner, and his new, and often belligerent partner, Bert St. Croix to investigate. Mike is going to need Kim Reynolds’ insight and sensitivity to emotions to solve this one, which gives him one more reason to spend time with the gun-shy librarian. Mike has two problems: solving the murder and convincing Kim to marry him. Kim has other plans, and so, it seems, does the murderer. Just to make things interesting, Jacqueline Seewald takes a simple murder and turns it into a commentary on relationships, love, loyalty and greed in The Drowning Pool. This second mystery for Kim Reynolds and Detective Mike Gardner is layered with lies, subterfuge, nightmares, violence, dysfunctional relationships and fear of intimacy. Among the darker elements, are the relationships between Mike, his daughters and Kim that contain the most believable elements of the story. The mystery is not contrived nor is the investigation lacking in any way, but one red herring seems to have been tossed in to make the book longer without adding anything tangible to the solution of the mystery or unmasking the murderer. This particular plot point is based on a husband and wife refusing to talk to each other, and there is quite a lot of that going around with most of the couples implicated in the murder. One thing is certain, Seewald knows how to write dysfunctional relationships and she has loaded The Drowning Pool with several. Aside from the obligatory red herrings and a bit of scenery chewing, The Drowning Pool is well plotted and fast paced with enough conflict and sexual tension to fuel more outings for Kim and Mike. The chemistry and emotional push-pull between the main characters kicks the heat up a few notches and gives what would be an otherwise garden-variety mystery depth, texture and heart.
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Honeymoon in Tehran
by
Azadeh Moaveni
Jackie Cornwell
, March 15, 2009
First and foremost, Azadeh Moaveni's book is a memoir, a history of her more recent time in Iran before and after her marriage. The honeymoon part of the book is not just about her marriage, which comprises the last one-third of the book, but about her relationship with Iran, its customs, political climate and people. In many ways, Moaveni's honeymoon was part of a continuing cycle in an abusive relationship with Iran, and that relationship, as well as the relationship of most Iranians with their country and its government, is abusive. What else would you call it when the government goes through periods of crackdowns on satellite dishes and dress codes and then ignore those same things just to crack down on them again when the unsuspecting citizens lapse into a feeling of safety and marginal freedom just to be plunged back into terror, fear and paranoia? The government jams the Internet and satellite television all the time, but having a satellite dish is against the law, and yet millions of Iranians have them, pointing out that in the past when government workers came to kick down the dishes they were rude to the doormen and the families and now they politely march up to the roof and kick down the dishes and take them away. It's the plaintive claim of any abused person who does their best to find something good about the relationship they either cannot leave or are afraid to leave, and it is Moaveni's reaction as well. Iranians know they are breaking the law by having satellite dishes, but they keep buying more dishes and putting them back up in order to have a little freedom and a chance to see something other than the heavy-handed religious and state operated channels they are allowed. It is the same for dress codes. The chador, a traditional shapeless black, sometimes patterned, garment that covers from head to toe and held together by the hand or teeth, is worn by extremely religious women. The manteau is a long coat that must be worn when a woman is in public, although modern Iranian women who are more secular and less religious wear shorter and tighter manteaus when the government police and Basiji (members of a volunteer paramilitary organization, or civilian militia, mostly populated by young people from poorer sections of the country and Tehran) are less vigilant. And it is the same thing for head scarves. When the government is on a crusade to fine and imprison any Iranian woman not wearing an opaque and voluminous head scarf, women wear sheer and colorful head scarves. The problem is that no one knows when the government will change its tone and mood, but secular Iranians have learned to cope, just as Moaveni learned to cope, dancing along a dangerous razor's edge line between the cycle of rage and honeymoon with the government and with her homeland. Despite what the Western world believes about educated and modern Iranians' devotion and belief in Ahmadinejad, the truth is very different. Ahmadinejad is hated by most Iranians, except for those in the religious right, and suffer under his rule. They are ashamed of his ranting and raging against the Western world and his stance on Israel, but the cannot do anything about it since he is the figurehead chosen by the mullahs (religious leaders) to govern the secular government. During his tenure, Iranians have watched their marginal economy take a nose dive as Ahmadinejad and the mullahs drive the country deeper and deeper into debt by funding Hamas and Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations while antagonizing the West by continuing work on nuclear weapons instead of focusing on providing clean and safe electricity as publicly stated. Just after Ahmadinejad was elected, Moaveni interviewed a mullah and asked why the people, who wanted a secular government, voted for a man "...who considers cemeteries decorative." He responded, "Do you think the people who voted for him even knew that? He spoke only about jobs and the economy. Eight years of failed political reform disappointed people. It made them indifferent to politics. [T]hey figured that if they could not have real freedom, they might as well have more manageable rent, better jobs." Arising from obscurity, Ahmadinejad's "...campaign slogn, 'We Can and We Will' implied fighting corruption, not building the Bomb..." Despite his belligerent attitude and his naïveté and amateurish fiscal policies that resulted in the further ruin of the economy, many Iranians applauded him -- at first. Iranians know the government is on a dangerous course that may well put the people in harm's way, but those who have no other options stay and stick it out, praying that they will continue to weather the dangerous swings in domestic policy while educated Iranians leave the country in droves, creating a brain drain that cripples Iran and drives the economy further into the dust beneath Ahmadinejad's and the mullahs' feet. Iranians admired Bill Clinton, "...who had managed to charm them...without taking steps to undo the two countries' long enmity.". Approval of America reached a high of 79% in 2001, but "Iranians, by and large, disliked George W. Bush for all the same reasons as much of the rest of the world did: his administration's failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, its arrogant manner of addressing the world, and its inflexible rejection of Iran's right to nuclear power." Despite the "...cozy regard [for America that] had evaporated under President Bush...no one appreciated Ahmadinejad's party ridiculous, party insulting letter [to President Bush and considered it] embarrassing to Iran and Iranians." And yet Moaveni assured a friend in California, who wanted to come to her wedding that "...[i]t's safe! People love Americans here. You'll get marriage proposals in the street, probably." Interspersed with the darker side of Iran is the beauty of its culture and the reminiscent glory of its past before the arrival of Islam into the Persia of ancient days and fame. Moaveni's descriptions of her extended family and the world they inhabit make Iran sound like a paradise, or at least dwindling pockets of paradise in a toxic world where people become ill and die from the pollution or take their lives in their hands when they go shopping for food or go for a stroll with their children. Fruit sellers notice when their patrons are buying less fruit because of the economy and tuck a few extra pieces of fruit in their patrons' bags. Western stores glitter for a brief moment before censors black out objectionable illustrations and words. Uneven sidewalks trip and harm the unwary while in poor neighborhoods gangs of Basiji thugs harass women not sufficiently or modestly dressed and covered. In the distance on days when the pollution isn't a thick smoke-filled haze, the distant mountains glisten with snow and families trapped in ugly cement buildings cut into apartments escape to family estates in nearby rural communities where fountains cool the air of walled gardens and children laugh and play with their families. Iran is a world of conflicting views, modern urban sensibilities and unstable government pulled by secular and religious concerns and Azadeh Moaveni's Honeymoon in Tehran an attempt to breach the gap between Western ideas of Iran and the realities of its beauty and dangers. Even among her extended family in Iran, Moaveni's Western education and sensibilities and rose-colored view of her grandmother's beloved homeland are naive and overly romantic. As a journalist, Moaveni is competent, but careful in what she says and how she says it to protect herself from the torture and imprisonment that would surely follow if she stripped away the veil and showed Iran as it truly is. She admittedly spins her stories and articles to please the government and that makes much of what she writes questionable, something to be taken with a grain of salt. In the wake of harassment and the fear of imprisonment and worse, Moaveni becomes a soft journalist, shying away from hot topics and writing what she considers neutral stories, discovering along the way "...that there were no 'neutral stories.' [T]here was no avoiding mention of the regime's flaws." When finishing Lipstick Jihad, she "...confessed to Lily, my publisher friend, that despite all my efforts it ended sorrowfully. 'I want so badly not to write a grim Iran book. Why is it turning out this way?" "It's not your fault," [Lily] said with a knowing smile. "you can't write the sadness out of Iran's story." In the end, for all its faults and flaws, Honeymoon in Tehran is a closer look into an Iran most of the West has never seen and would not otherwise know and for that reason Azadeh Moaveni's views of Tehran are well worth reading. The view through cracked rose-colored glasses of a sadder by wiser woman is a view worth experiencing. Moaveni's memoir is a revealing odyssey of the heart and soul.
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