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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
jeffreyralford has commented on (10) products
All That Is
by
James Salter
jeffreyralford
, June 27, 2015
This is a gem of a novel by one of the most unsung and under-decorated novelists of our generation. All That Is (Salter's first novel after a gap of thirty-five years) tells the story of Philip Bowman, ex-naval officer turned New York publisher. In episodic, painstakingly precise prose, Salter tells Bowman's story through a familiar trajectory of Great American achievement and does so in a way that really sings despite its apparent understatement. James Salter writes like Updike and Roth without being cluttered by ego or religion: he's one of the best and it's a shame we won't get any more. He died last week at age 90 to little public dismay. He should be missed, and surely will be by me.
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Notes from a Dead House
by
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Richard Pevear, Larissa Volokhonsky
jeffreyralford
, May 31, 2015
Pevear and Volokhonsky continue their methodical translation project of all the Russian greats. We're sort of a strange point in their career, as they've already done classics like The Brother Karamazov and War & Peace, and there's not a whole lot of major works left to check off their list. Notes from a Dead House is certainly not essential Dostoevsky: it's an early work that recounts the author's four years spent at a prison camp in Siberia in the 1850s. Russia's prisons were populated with a strange split of political prisoners and more aggressive, violent lawbreakers. Dostoevsky was the former (arrested for his involvement with the Petrashevsky Circle), and much of Notes from a Dead House addresses the rift between "prison nobility" like Dostoevsky and the common criminals. Dostoevsky strives to see everyone as equals, but the inherent class system of the era is an unavoidable complication. Pevear and Volokhonsky's translation is clunky at times, and its probably best to trust that their decisions are in step with the original Russian: otherwise you might get stuck wondering endlessly why it was necessary to change the title from "House of the Dead" to a "Dead House", and so on. Still, a deeply illuminating read that ushers in the author's philosophical, psychological novels like Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment, and The Brothers Karamazov.
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Green Road
by
Anne Enright
jeffreyralford
, May 12, 2015
While the story here is nothing new, Anne Enright tells it well: the matriarch of an Irish family has her children back for one last Christmas dinner before the family home is put on the market. The Madigan children are all ambitious, independent adults who have spent the better part of their adult lives trying to distance themselves from their mother (and each other), but upon returning home find they have much more in common than they ever thought. Enright pays careful attention to moment of quiet calm, and is able to imbue a somewhat predictable premise with grace and ingenuity. A lovely, simple read.
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Last Stories and Other Stories
by
William T Vollmann
jeffreyralford
, April 21, 2015
Don't be daunted by the page count or seemingly impenetrable prose: the ghost stories in William T. Vollmann's Last Stories and Other Stories are some of the finest works in all of contemporary literature. These works feel lost in time, as if Vollmann's transcribing tales that have been passed on orally for generations. They'll creep over you in a fevered seep and change how you think about writing. This is the best book of 2014, hands down, and it's too bad critics let their deadlines force them into rushing past the collection. Spend a year reading Last Stories. The stories need to breathe, seethe, and metastasize.
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Children Act
by
Ian McEwan
jeffreyralford
, April 08, 2015
THE CHILDREN ACT shows a return to form for McEwan, back to the early morality tales the author produced before his breakout with ATONEMENT. THE CHILDREN ACT follows a female judge and an ethical dilemma: should a 17-year-old patient's religious beliefs overrule a doctor's recommendations for a blood transfusion? "The Children Act" stipulates that she could rule against the boy's wishes on account of him being under eighteen. Or, should she try him has an adult, and let him die in the name of his religion? A complicated quandary and one that readers will be immersed in long after the novel's close.
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Umbrella
by
Will Self
jeffreyralford
, April 05, 2015
Will Self's UMBRELLA is an absolute triumph, and it makes me deeply sad that not enough people noticed it or gave it a good chance. Umbrella features three stream-of-consciousness threads from three different timelines. Self actually jumps between threads in mid-sentence. And better yet, Self teaches his readers how to follow this wild concept. Joyce would be proud.
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Letter to a Future Lover: Marginalia, Errata, Secrets, Inscriptions, and Other Ephemera Found in Libraries
by
Monson, Ander
jeffreyralford
, March 21, 2015
I cannot recommend this book enough. Monson is an under-appreciated literary genius and Letter to a Future Lover should be read by any serious reader -- those readers who can't *not* be reading something, who lead a double life inside a book and out. Monson uses library marginalia to delve into questions about why we read, why we write, and how our private relationship with books can connect us all.
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Trigger Warning Short Fictions & Disturbances
by
Neil Gaiman
jeffreyralford
, March 19, 2015
There's some very good stories in here but I feel it's largely filler. There are standouts like "The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains" but a lot more quick throwaway stories with a spooky last sentence that read like a cheap horror movie jump-cut. One for the Gaiman completest, I suppose!
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Kitten Clone: Inside Alcatel-Lucent
by
Douglas Coupland
jeffreyralford
, March 17, 2015
Kitten Clone came out a bit under the radar last year, but Visual Editions have another hit with their "Writers in Residence" series. In Kitten Clone, Douglas Coupland brings his unique brand of techno-mania into a journalistic investigation of the world Alcatel-Lucent. They're a French telecommunications giant connected to more of our day-to-day digital experience than we can really comprehend. Coupland showcases the peculiar old-world simplicity of Alca-Loo's personality by balancing it against contemporary culture's rampant grabbiness for technology and connectivity. An enthralling text and physically quite a well-designed book, too.
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Satin Island
by
Tom Mccarthy
jeffreyralford
, March 15, 2015
This is an outstanding book about the state of anthropology in the 21st century. Will make you want to find some texts by Levi-Strauss just to stay in the protagonist's head.
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