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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
William T Hathaway has commented on (7) products
Eternal Life Inc.: Book One of the King of the Dead Trilogy
by
James Burkard
William T Hathaway
, January 26, 2015
A new novelist of great promise It's a rare delight to discover a new science fiction writer with a gripping story to tell and the skilled craft to bring it alive. Thank you, James Burkard, for livening up the genre with your fresh talent. Eternal Life Inc. is overflowing with creative energy, characters we believe in and care about, a satisfyingly complex plot full of surprising twists and turns, powerful narrative momentum, authentic emotion, convincing detail, a vividly created world we visit with delight but hope we never live in, all of this in the service of a grand theme: the losing battle each of us must wage against death. Burkard's richly imaginative writing engages all of our senses as well as our mind, and he has a particular gift for ending chapters with a hook that draws us on. And best of all, Eternal Life Inc. is just the beginning. It's book one of the King of the Dead trilogy. Don't keep us waiting too long, Mr. Burkard.
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Masculinities
by
R W Connell
William T Hathaway
, July 09, 2014
Thanks, I needed this book. It was a great help to me in understanding and overcoming the murderous masculinity I was indoctrinated with in the Green Berets, a bizarrely gendered world loaded with sexualized violence. Connell makes it clear that the military is just an extreme example of a pathology that permeates our culture. She dissects patriarchal capitalism with writing that is both passionate and scholarly, always centered in that revolutionary point where the personal and the social converge. I recommend the book highly.
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Crisis and Change Today: Basic Questions of Marxist Sociology
by
Peter Knapp and Alan Spector
William T Hathaway
, April 07, 2014
Knapp and Spector have written a superb introduction to Marxist thought, a much-needed one, since reading Marx can be a daunting task. The grand old man's prose is often ponderous, abstract, and complex, so many readers can't discern his full meaning. Crisis and Change Today is a lucid presentation of Marx's ideas, explaining his views on history, economics, politics, and philosophy in a way that makes them understandable and also does justice to their complexity. The book's clear, well-organized prose conveys the sweep of Marx's vision, the efforts his followers have made to actualize it, and the resistance they have encountered. In pointing out both the achievements and failures of the attempts to build socialism, the authors avoid sectarian judgments, and they analyze the reactionary tendencies of our time without succumbing to defeatism. Their tone is never strident or proselytizing, and the book is helpful even for those trying to refute Marx's ideas. Both authors are professors of sociology, so the book is academically sound but still "reader friendly." The section on the failure of socialism in the Soviet Union is particularly outstanding, going well beyond the simplistic rubber-stamp of "Stalinism" and analyzing the complex problems the new nation faced and the limited options they had to solve them. It presents convincing arguments that humanity can learn from those mistakes and do better this time. The authors use the Socratic method of raising questions and exploring various answers. For example, to the question, "What are the capitalists' political resources under capitalism?" they respond in part: "The fundamental message and ideology -- the thing which is built into the rules of the game -- is 'being out for number one.' Racism, sexism, ethnicity, religious bigotry, regionalism, and a host of other ideologies translate selfishness into the systematic atomization of the society. In addition, groups are separated physically and occupationally and given different privileges. The result is that the whole society is pulverized and people are split apart. This increases the control of those at the top. Capitalists are not omnipotent, but their political resources are formidable. Wherever one looks for a force which might serve as a counter to capitalist interests -- in unions, in political parties, in religion, in voluntary associations, etc. -- one usually finds direct capitalist influence. One certainly finds various kinds of indirect influence in which groups are shaped by prevailing ideas and institutions. This is why Marx argued that 'the executive of the modern State is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole Bourgeoisie.'" About our present dilemma they write: "As temporary remedies falter, economic crisis intensifies. Neither private credit, nor Keynesian economic policies, nor imperialism can permanently solve capitalism's problems. As a result, the capitalists must intensify their drive to squeeze extra profits from the working class. Mergers increase. Social services are cut back. Cities, bridges, and infrastructure decay. There is de-industrialization. Unemployment grows, tuition is hiked; jobs become temporary.... Maintaining a viable temperature or a viable ocean environment are not priorities. Superexploitation and segmentation intensifies and takes new and brutal forms. While some sections of workers could previously eliminate some of their problems by reform struggles, this becomes less true. While capitalists could previously give in to some demands, now they have little choice, and conditions worsen for most members of the working class and for many supervisors, managers, and professionals as well." Crisis and Change Today enables readers to understand the crises that are sweeping over us with ever-increasing frequency and damage and the changes required to solve them. It's an excellent resource, not only the best introduction to Marx I've found but also a useful guide to overcoming our current plight.
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From Postmodernism to Postsecularism: Re-Emerging Islamic Civilization
by
Eric Walberg
William T Hathaway
, February 05, 2014
Most western Middle East experts see Islam as a problem for the West -- a source of terrorism, religious fanaticism, unwanted immigrants -- and they see their job as helping to change the Middle East so it's no longer a problem for us. Eric Walberg, however, recognizes that this is another instance of the Big Lie. The actual problem is the multifaceted aggression the West has been inflicting on the Middle East for decades and is determined to continue, no matter what the cost to them and us will be. His books and articles present the empirical evidence for this with scholarly precision and compassionate concern for the human damage done by our imperialism. His latest book, From Postmodernism to Postsecularism: Re-emerging Islamic Civilization, is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand our ongoing war on the Muslim world -- from Libya to the Philippines, from growing beleaguered communities scattered across North America and Europe to South Africa and Australia -- from the perspective of those on the receiving end of America's violence today. It is a compelling representation of both the breathtaking sweep of fourteen centuries of Islamic civilization and the current state of the Muslim world. In this sequel to his impressive Postmodern Imperialism (2011), Walberg attempts to bridge the East-West gap, "not through a reconciliatory discourse, but through a critical reading of history," according to the Palestinian-American writer Ramzy Baroud. Walberg looks at Islam as both religion and ideology, tracing it both via a methodological and an epistemological critique, and takes it seriously as a civilizational alternative to our present bankrupt secular imperialist order. Our politicians and media have created an image of fiendish Muslim terrorists who "hate us for our freedom." But they really hate us for subjugating them, for overthrowing their governments, dominating their economies, and undermining their way of life. Since we started the aggression, the attacks won't end until we leave their countries. Walberg asks the logical question: What can replace the neocolonial order so ruthlessly and cleverly put in place by the imperial powers in the Middle East over the past century? He explores many alternative answers ranging from "more of the same" to radical transformation. What does Islam have to say about economics, politics, community, relations with Nature? Walberg charts a wealth of experience from the past fourteen centuries. Islam was the first world order to unite people on the basis of genuine equality, in a truly multicultural way. It never created empires like the Romans, the Christian heirs to the Romans, and most recently the British and Americans. Why? Who are the great Muslim thinkers, and how do they differ from western thinkers of the time? How do the Prophet Muhammad's efforts to enact the revelations of the Quran in the seventh century compare with the teachings of Marx about how to create a world order without the depredations of capitalism? These are some of the questions Walberg addresses, trying to bring together the two main opponents of imperialism today: Islamists and socialists. Our foe is the entire Western corporate juggernaut, of which Israel is only a part. To survive, we must set aside our religious and political differences and form a united front. Shias, Sunnis, secularists, and socialists need to work together to defeat our common enemy. As Samir Amin wrote, "To bring the militarist project of the United States to defeat has become the primary task, the major responsibility, for everyone." If we join in solidarity, we can win. Otherwise the imperialists will continue to divide and rule. But it is essential for socialists to take Islamists seriously, and vice versa, for both sides to understand the various currents in the common resistance to imperialism, and to forge alliances that will be lasting. So far, Islam has been at best tolerated by socialists, at worst, dismissed and opposed. At the same time, Islamists have been suspicious of the socialist reaction to imperialism, in a sense, wishing a pox on both houses. Leftists are quick to condemn Islamists as strategically obtuse, or worse craven, willing to collaborate with imperialists (Saudis from the start, Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950s�"60s against Nasserists), and to take CIA money (Afghanistan). There are those who denounce Hamas as an Israeli creation. Walberg looks closely at these arguments, based on his analysis of imperialist strategies during the past two centuries. That Hamas possibly got support from Israeli sources is part of the age-old imperialist use of Islamists, but it has backfired. Hamas didn't sell out. Fatah/PLO discredited themselves over decades and are now empty shells. The role of Hamas in exposing PLO hypocrisy and "holding the fort" against Israel has been proved decisively since it came to power in democratic elections in 2006. From Postmodernism to Postsecularism: Re-emerging Islamic Civilization is a gripping and informative wake-up call to both sides of the anti-imperial equation, pulling together the many threads that can unite us, from Foucault's "political spirituality," to the Egyptian revolutionaries' solidarity with America's 99%, to the American Muslims' support for the peace and ecology movements. Review originally published in Intrepid Report.
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I Call Myself Earth Girl
by
Jan Greene
William T Hathaway
, August 20, 2013
She's 46. She just found out she's three months pregnant. Her husband has been away, and she hasn't had sex in six months. Who or what is the father? And how is she going to explain this to her husband? No wonder Gloria Geist is bewildered and frightened. Could her pregnancy have anything to do with a recurrent nightmare she's been having? Or is it not a dream but a past-life memory ... or a telepathic communication? Whatever it is, it's horrifying, a 12-year-old girl undergoing a devastating ordeal of war and rape. The girl, Earth Girl, is pregnant from being savaged by a barbarian warrior. Gloria has the intuition that Earth Girl exists in another dimension and is using her as a surrogate mother to bear the child. But with a father like that, what sort of a child would it be? Would she bring the horror of her past with her? Or has she overcome it, gained spiritual power, and is now bringing a message of healing for our violent species and our abused planet? Or could it be ...? The surprising answer emerges out of the twists and turns of a well-structured plot that leaves the characters, the world, and the reader much changed. In fact, these lines of William Butler Yeats sum up the book: "All changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born." The novel blends ecology, mystic wisdom, and the many facets of family love into a satisfying whole. Jan Krause Green is very good at developing and resolving conflicts among her characters, and she has a gift for making the bizarre believable. I Call Myself Earth Girl is her first novel, but it begs for a sequel.
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Lily Pad Roll
by
Gaither Stewart
William T Hathaway
, December 19, 2012
Shattering Myths Can Be Dangerous Gaither Stewart is a shatterer of myths. In The Trojan Spy, volume one of the Europe Trilogy, he shattered the myth that the USA is fighting terrorism and showed instead how our government works in a symbiotic relationship with the so-called terrorists. Now in Lily Pad Roll, volume two of the trilogy, he shatters the myth that America is invading countries and building foreign bases in order to defend the homeland and secure oil supplies. He shows instead that the deeper motive for this slaughter of hundreds of thousands of our fellow human beings and the resulting near-bankruptcy of our country is brutal geopolitics: the desire of our ruling elite to weaken their chief rivals, Russia and China, and to prepare for war with Iran. Stewart's artistic skills make this case more convincingly than a dozen academic analyses could. The lily pads of the title are the new US bases now proliferating on the borders of Russia and extending towards China, allowing troops to hop quickly from one to the other in strategies of domination on the Eurasian chessboard. Some of Stewart's characters are seeking to expose and stop this aggression, some are determined to extend it by any means necessary, and others are trying just to stay alive in the crossfire. Most of them are deracinated internationals adrift in the New World Order but alienated from it: Cliff, ex-CIA operative who quit because he couldn't stand the ruthless killing. Haunted by his past, tormented by guilt, he seeks solace with Elizaveta, the painter who can see into others and capture them on canvas but who refuses to reveal herself. Masha, her mother, fragile and vulnerable after decades of trauma. Karl Heinz, who uses his cover as journalist to ferret out and expose military secrets but whose commitment to truth is also a way of escaping his self image as a rich dilettante. Katharina, needy of love but unable to give it. The erotically lush Antonia of the German body and Slavic soul. Günther, the well-connected German businessman who can arrange entry into the secret bases ... but at what cost? Ilya, survivor of the NATO terror bombing of Serbia, witness to his country's dismemberment, whose sense of justice has been tempered into a sword by these geopolitical atrocities. Elmer, MIT dropout turned military electronics specialist whose conscience overcomes his cynicism and turns him into a dangerous whistleblower who must be eliminated. Raymond, agent entrepreneur, freelance spy, driven to take revenge on others for his personal misery. Their lives cross and interweave into a fabric of suspense that is ripped asunder at the end, leaving two of them dead and the world much changed. The story unfolds primarily in the Balkans, that crossroads of history, and Stewart renders the settings masterfully: Sophia and Belgrade, grand old cities now enduring the crass glitz of the new capitalism that has been hastily thrown over their hewn-stone mansions and communist-concrete highrises, filled with recently impoverished people disoriented from the lost security of socialism, trying to survive imperialist machinations from afar. The plot also takes us to Munich and Berlin, sleek citadels of empire; Moscow, capital of confusion; and Istanbul, the eternal. If all that wasn't enough, Sarah Edgar's cover for the novel is also superb: In a play on Foucault's panopticon, an all-seeing eye stares out at us from the center of the Pentagon. The image implies there's no place to hide from the empire. Stewart's story convinces us, however, that although shattering the empire's myths can be dangerous, it's morally necessary and can be achieved through courageous resistance. Lily Pad Roll is a book of hope. Shattering myths has also been dangerous for Gaither Stewart's career. The Europe Trilogy was shunned by mainstream publishers and review media because they are propagating the myths Stewart is shattering. The books are published by Punto Press, an independent house specializing in the literature of resistance.
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The Trojan Spy
by
Gaither Stewart
William T Hathaway
, May 09, 2012
Subverting the Genre Most spy thrillers are written from the assumption that we're the good guys who are under attack by bad guys so evil that we're justified in bending the rules to save ourselves from them. Lies, deceit, sabotage, even murder are sometimes necessary to defend peace, justice, and the American Way against (pick one, depending on when the book was written) Nazis, communists, or terrorists. Gaither Stewart offers no such patriotic platitudes in The Trojan Spy. The bad guys turn out to be us -- the US and its Western allies. Our intelligence agencies are revealed to be working in a symbiotic relationship with the terrorists, using the attacks to provide justification for wars of geopolitical and economic conquest. Stewart's subversive heresy guarantees that The Trojan Spy will be ignored by the propaganda machines of the corporate mass media. It's a dangerous book, and a very good one -- characters with complex personalities who act in unexpected ways, a well-structured story full of surprises, authentically rendered settings, and a direct but graceful narrative style. If Stewart had followed the conventions of the genre, reinforcing the myth that the West is the Best, The Trojan Spy could have been boosted by the media into a best seller. But it's a better book than that -- a book that tells the truth.
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