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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
Taylor Thorne has commented on (7) products
A Brief History of Seven Killings
by
Marlon James
Taylor Thorne
, October 24, 2014
In a year filled with great books, Marlon James’ outstanding “A Brief History of Seven Killings” looms. Sprung from the December 1976 assassination attempt of Bob Marley in Kingston, Jamaica, the novel careens and soars across two decades to 1990s gangster-ridden New York. Told through the eyes of several characters that speak in varying degrees of pidgin and patois, this book’s language takes some getting used to. But a few chapters in and you can’t put it down. As the world of the story spreads out around you, you’re treated to gangsters and spies, journalists, lovers, and politicians, all of whom converge at “the Singer’s” house and carom off from there. Though not a beach read, it’s intense and suspenseful. “Brief History…” is a stunning work that I expect will stick with me for quite some time.
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The Orphan Masters Son
by
Adam Johnson
Taylor Thorne
, January 01, 2013
If you Google North Korea, you'll find a blank outline of border and nothing else. Adam Johnson fills in this landscape with his wonderfully original "The Orphan Master's Son." Part romance, part spy story, and entirely subversive, this is a book that holds high the power of storytelling, the art of the lie, and the manipulation of the outcome of "Casablanca". I mean, what can you even begin to say about a book where Kim Jong Il gets all the funniest lines (and oh boy is he funny!), except, of course he does, it's North Korea. This is a great big twisted comedic thriller, a book I think back to often, and look forward to reading again.
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Winter Journal
by
Paul Auster
Taylor Thorne
, October 13, 2012
Like all of the books by Paul Auster that I've read, this book slowly sucks you in. An atypically-styled memoir written through the winter of 2010-2011, Mr. Auster spends the months pondering his life and what it means to be 64 years old. Mostly single paragraph entries (some many pages long), with the occasional perfectly beautiful pages-long run-on-sentence, these journal entries are written in the second person, which adds a depth of scorn, compassion, and insight into himself that few memoirs actually plum. This book made me laugh many times, and cry a few times, and frequently sit back in jaw-dropped awe both at his perception and his utterly subtle skill. (This happens every time you read a Paul Auster book, so no surprise... but I was surprised anyways.) From childhood incidents, to deaths of parents, to recounting a movie he watches one night when he can't sleep and how that movie speaks to him, each entry is more brilliant than the last. Possibly the best book I read this year.
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Beautiful Ruins
by
Jess Walter
Taylor Thorne
, August 18, 2012
"Beautiful Ruins" is what's wrong with publishing today. While dreck like "50 Shades of Crap" gets foisted on the unassuming public, gems like Jess Walter's book receive virtually no press or encouragement. Is it because his view of Hollywood, as represented by heartless and narcissistic producer Michael Deane in the book, is spot on? It shouldn't matter. This is a book that spans 50 years of adventure, with classic romance and star crossed lovers, artistic angst and creative genius, and the Donner Party! What more could you want? Well, that's probably in here too. Not perfect, but well put together, this is a book that takes some stylistic risks and pulls them off. It is full to brimming with wonderful characters (including a cameo from Richard Burton--the actor not the explorer). It's a page-turner that you want to slow your reading down but can't, which means you might miss some great detail, humor, perspective... oh well, guess I'll have to read it again.
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Dare Me A Novel
by
Megan Abbott
Taylor Thorne
, August 11, 2012
What a delightful nasty pleasure this book is! Megan Abbott's tight Noir has come through early 20th century classic settings into its own as it focuses on the contemporary rituals and manias of... High School Cheerleaders. In Abbott's hands this is a treacherous world, rife with narcissism and bubble gum scents, teamwork and treachery, and adroitly drawn vicious little things like the coach, the captain, and the object of both their manipulations, our narrator Addy. Or is it Addy who's making the moves and using them all? This book is tightly spun, and darkly cheekily drawn. It's the kind of book you ope, with a sense of naughty excitement at what you're going to find in each coming chapter. With a subtle driving suspense and a quietly reaching scope that taps you on the shoulder to get you to turn around smiling only to get slapped in the face, this book is the most fun reading I've had this year.
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Psychopath Test A Journey Through the Madness Industry
by
Jon Ronson
Taylor Thorne
, August 04, 2012
Perfectly pitched humor about the wacky world of psychiatry. Are you a psychopath? I don't know, but you'd be crazy to not read this laugh out loud book.
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Train Dreams
by
Denis Johnson
Taylor Thorne
, January 02, 2012
Though short in length, this work is best read slowly, savored over days, as you experience the life of Robert Grainer, a day laborer in the American West at the start of the twentieth century. Johnson mixes reportage of the era with conjecture, absurdity, and a sense of terrible magic on the horizon. Pitch perfect in it's irony, confident in it's seemingly random scape of events, this book will stay with you for weeks after, like your own best mostly lucid dreams.
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