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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
contactjimc has commented on (2) products
Silk
by
Kiernan, Caitlin R.
contactjimc
, February 20, 2015
You just have to read the last 50 pages. I hated this book, even though she’s obviously a good writer. And I now know how books get blurbs on them by really good, famous authors -- they only read the last forty or fifty pages or so. I tried to like this book; I really did -- and I went back and forth with it for about the first half, trying to like it, and then I just decided I hated it, but by then I was halfway through it, so I choked it down. Knowing this was the first horror novel by this author, at first I thought, “Guh! Of course! What ELSE is a young, new horror author going to write about but goth girls in girl bands! How cliché!” And then I looked her up. I found out she’s a 50-something reputable and published scientist. And then I was impressed. I figured she must’ve researched her butt off to create this. Inspired and/or informed by a daughter, niece or some other young lady/ladies? I thought it was quite an achievement for her to nail the culture so closely (I mean, we’ve all known them, right?) even though she’s obviously never lived it. But it’s still cliché! And it wasn’t very interesting to this 40-something male who actually HAS had quite a few friends in that culture; I’ve seen it. But still, 300 pages worth of reading the petty problems of goths and their bands almost had me slitting my own wrists. I need to give her credit for something, though. She’s an absolute master of time. I’ve read well over a hundred horror novels, and seldom have I read someone who can so gracefully and effortlessly bounce around on a timeline, telling backstories, filling in what you missed, jumping ahead and leaving you wondering what happened, only to tell you later. But this skill should achieve something, shouldn’t it? Usually the thing timeline bouncing achieves is the slow-reveal, where all that back-telling slowly reveals to you some sort of big, profound, earth-shattering truth or, at the very least, something riveting and crucial to the characters and plot. It didn’t. There was nothing to reveal. The bouncing was a writing exercise and nothing more. The final fifty pages are atmospheric, lyrical, creepy and inventive (if not scary). The previous three hundred pages, which I suppose were intended to develop the characters and to get us to care about these people, did neither. Okay, those pages did develop the characters; you get to know who they are -- with all their various issues, flaws and eccentricities -- but all their facets end up being sort of irrelevant, and cookie-cutter to boot. Any character could be swapped with any other character and the book would still read the same. Read the final fifty pages and, when you read a new character’s name just [insert miscellaneous goth character here] and when you meet a new one [insert miscellaneous goth character here], and enjoy the unique finale of this book. This book would have made an excellent 60-page short story. It would make an excellent 90-minute, high-budget horror movie; that I’d go see on opening night.
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Floating Staircase
by
Ronald Malfi
contactjimc
, February 06, 2015
Lyrical, yet humble. Malfi weaves this rhythmically and poetically but without a hint of pretension. He refers to books being "honest" several times during this story and practices what he preaches. Slightly self-aware, and I wonder how much of his own experience is embedded within this, this is one of my favorite sub-genres of horror: An author haunted by ghosts from both within and without. Not only is this chilling in the true sense of the word (it raised the hairs on my arms more than once) but gasp-out-loud shocking in both frightening and heart-tuggingly poignant ways. This is one of those rare examples of graceful, unabusive horror, and Malfi treats his readers lovingly and fully rewards us at the end. I've never experienced anything like it -- never felt so good after reading a horror novel. Ronald Malfi is one of my new favorites, ranking right up there with Richard Matheson and Dan Simmons.
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