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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
Susmita has commented on (18) products
M Train
by
Patti Smith
Susmita
, October 08, 2015
Yes, Patti Smith's new book M Train is in fact as good as all the glowing reviews say it is. And thank you Powells, for having it on my doorstep on the day it was released in stores! Unlike Just Kids, which was written in a chronological narrative more typical of a memoir, in M Train the reader travels with Smith back and forth through her life, with memories of her father, and even more so her late husband. Patti Smith's prose is at types poetic, often moving, and surprisingly funny at times. Read it slowly to savor the experience.
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It's Only Slow Food Until You Try to Eat It: Misadventures of a Suburban Hunter-Gatherer
by
Bill Heavey
Susmita
, October 05, 2015
Bill Heavey is a sportswriter who has written a very entertaining book about certain aspects of the "slow food" movement. Rather than focusing on elite chefs and wealthy diners, he chooses to find oddball characters who are on the front lines of sustainable eating. For example, the feisty woman who forages for fruits and greens in the woods along the Potomac River in Washington, DC. Or the crawfish guys in New Orleans who like to go "frogging," and fry up their take. Heavey is at his self-deprecating best when writing about his exploits with these experts, although somewhat weaker at writing about the romantic relationship he develops with a fellow forager he meets while writing this book.
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Near and Far: Recipes Inspired by Home and Travel
by
Heidi Swanson
Susmita
, September 29, 2015
Another gem of a cookbook from Heidi Swanson, of 101cookbooks.com. This book contains recipes from her home base of San Francisco as well as from her travels to Europe, North Africa, and Asia. All the recipes are vegetarian, although Swanson is not evangelical about her vegetarianism, and include things like soba noodles, cucumber salad, and nori granola, as well as desserts and drinks (like an Indian-inspired gin cocktail). As always, the photographs (of the food and of her travels) are as inspiring as the recipes.
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Girl in a Band
by
Kim Gordon
Susmita
, April 30, 2015
In some ways, Girl in a Band can be viewed as a sequel to Patti Smith's Just Kids, since it picks up in the 1980s New York City alternative music scene. Kim Gordon's book is a very personal account of the people and scene of the music industry -- and of going from an unknown to a big name. She knows lots and lots of interesting people in the music and art world, and drops names with abandon. She is also not afraid to cast a critical eye, referring to Courtney Love, for example, as manipulative and disturbed. Overall, this is an entertaining look into a world of interesting and creative people.
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Carsick John Waters Hitchhikes Across America
by
John Waters
Susmita
, February 08, 2015
A fun read for true John Waters' fans. Waters' premise is hitchhiking from his Baltimore home to his San Francisco home, and his tales of the folks who gave him rides along the way is entertaining and good-humored. He truly enjoys people in all their eccentricities, and that sincere appreciation of the world around him comes through. I deducted one star for the first two sections of the book -- "novellas" describing first the best way in which he imagines his trip will turn out, and then the worst. Both The "best way" and the "worst way" involve typical Watersian humor, sexual and scatological, with many references to his films. It is quite possible to skip these two sections and move on to his actual trip, but if you are a real Waters fan, take the time to read them.
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Snow Leopard
by
Peter Matthiessen
Susmita
, December 10, 2014
This is an extremely interesting account of Matthiessen's journey in a remote corner of Tibet in the early 1970s. That account on its own would make this an excellent book. Matthiessen accompanies a biologist friend who is searching for Himalayan blue sheep and the elusive snow leopard. However, this book really goes to the next level with the author's discussions of his Zen Buddhist faith and the story, woven in delicately, of his wife's recent death. Ostensibly a travel/ nature book, this is really a story of an intelligent, sensitive, and flawed man's search for meaning in a difficult world.
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Plenty More
by
Yotam Ottolenghi
Susmita
, November 10, 2014
Yes, the photos are beautiful, but buy this book for the interesting and varied vegetarian recipes. You will not be sorry. Ottolenghi dips into vegetarian cuisines from different parts of the world to create some beautiful dishes that can either stand alone or serve as accompaniments to meat or fish. That is really the beauty of this book -- it is not just a cookbook for vegetarians. Note that he frequently uses eggs, which may limit the book's utility for vegans.
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Stone Mattress Nine Tales
by
Margaret Atwood
Susmita
, November 01, 2014
Very compelling short story collection by Margaret Atwood. The first three stories are among the best, a trilogy about a set of aging literary types and their loves and losses. Overall, the stories have a rather dark bent to them, but are often very funny as well. "The Dead Hand Loves You" is a good example of this -- told by a writer who many years ago wrote a pulp fiction thriller that became a pop culture classic, it's a story within a story that is well-crafted and readable.
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Visible City
by
Tova Mirvis
Susmita
, October 25, 2014
Tova Mirvis' novel centers around a young woman named Nina who has left a lucrative legal career to be a stay-at-home mom two her two young children, but the story is really about the interrelationships among various people in the "visible city" of New York, where privacy is hard to come by and lives are lived to some extent in the open. Mirvis' story is reminiscent of Colum McCann's entwining together story lines in Let The Great World Spin (another great NYC novel), although it is set in modern times, rather than McCann's city of the 1970s. I read this entire book in a single very enjoyable evening.
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Harnessing Peacocks
by
Mary Wesley
Susmita
, October 23, 2014
Just finished reading this ultimately delightful novel by Mary Wesley, which tracks a young woman who has been disowned by her family due to a mysterious pregnancy. Hebe, the young woman, makes her way in the world and works as a cook and a highly-paid call girl in order to raise and educate her young son. A large cast of characters is eventually tied together with various strands of the often funny narrative, including the aging philanderer Bernard and several of his now-elderly former conquests, and Hebe's clients (from both her professions). Wesley manages to tie all the characters' stories and loose ends together at the end of the novel in a satisfying and warm-hearted ending.
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Up at the Villa
by
W Somerset Maugham
Susmita
, October 23, 2014
A fast-paced novella about a young and beautiful widow who is on the verge of a brilliant engagement to an older English officer who has long been in love with her. Maugham develops Mary's character even in this short novel from what initially seems like a fairly simple sketch of an eligible young widow about to enter into a priveleged lifestlye, into an interesting and complicated woman with her own plans and desires. Ultimately, Mary is faced with a choice between respectability and youthful exuberance, security and sensuality. A really fun and absorbing read. Was made into the 2000 film of the same name, starring Kristin Scott Thomas.
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Where the Indus Is Young: A Winter in Baltistan
by
Dervla Murphy
Susmita
, October 16, 2014
Excellent travelogue describing Ms. Murphy's trip to a little-known area West of Tibet in the 1970s, with her six-year old daughter, Rachel. Murphy is a travel writer of the traditional British genre, and surveys her surroundings and the people she encounters with a friendly and discerning eye. Her trip is truly extraordinary given the time, the lack of technology, and her six-year old companion. A great armchair adventure.
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The Snow Queen
by
Michael Cunningham
Susmita
, September 08, 2014
While not as good as The Hours, Michael Cunningham's latest effort is a beautifully written, somewhat ethereal novel about the lives of its three main characters. Moving back and forth between the childhood and adult lives of two very different brothers, the book's most compelling character turns out to be the elder brother's seriously ill wife, Sara. Her story is really the one that ended up resonating with this reader.
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Life Is a Wheel
by
Bruce Weber
Susmita
, July 23, 2014
Part travelogue, part memoir, part bicycle-geek narrative, this book catalogues Weber's cross-country bike trip from Oregon to NYC. Weber's writing style is casual and engaging, making this a very easy and pleasant read. One interesting aspect is his description of how social media affected his trip, in comparison to a similar trip he took almost 20 years earlier. As a regular bicycle-commuter, I found myself feeling on the one hand that this would be such a great trip to take, and on the other hand wondering why anyone would take on such a challenge!
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Testament of Mary
by
Colm Toibin
Susmita
, December 15, 2012
Haunting, lovely novella describing the events preceding the Crucifixion from Mary's perspective as a mother of a son, not as the mother of the Son of God.
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Lost In The City
by
Edward P Jones
Susmita
, April 12, 2010
There's been a renewed interest in Washington, DC, with the Obamas moving here last year. If you want to read about the real DC, and the people who actually live here, this is a terrific start. Edward P. Jones was born and raised in DC, and writes about the mostly African-American residents in a way that portrays the beauty and sorrow of even an "ordinary" life. Interestingly, Jones' second book of short stories (All Aunt Hagar's Children) was written as a companion to this book. In an interview with the Washington Post, Jones -- who is notoriously reclusive -- said that the sequence of stories in his second collection mirrored the sequence in the first, so that readers should really read the first story in Lost in the City, then the first story in All Aunt Hagar's children, etc.
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Homer & Langley
by
E L Doctorow
Susmita
, November 24, 2009
Having never read E.L. Doctorow before, I didn't know what to expect. Fortunately, this is an excellent book. It's surprisingly funny, given that it is based on a true story about two aging brothers who become increasingly paranoid and claustrophobic as they live in their parents' Upper West Side mansion. Told from Homer's perspective, the book describes his brother Langley's efforts to care for him while shutting out the outside world more and more over the years. Entertaining, funny, and sad, all at the same time.
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Palace Council
by
Stephen L Carter
Susmita
, August 04, 2008
Do not, I repeat, do not begin this book if you have other pressing matters you must attend to. You will not be able to put this down! Stephen Carter has written the perfect smart summer read. His main character is a rising Harlem literary star in the 1950s who stumbles onto political intrigue that extends into the Watergate years. This book manages to be a real page-turner, without ever being trashy or sensationalistic.
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(4 of 5 readers found this comment helpful)
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