PowellsBooks.Blog
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This year, as we celebrate the holidays remotely to help stem the surge of COVID-19, my thoughts can't help but turn to the subject of family. Thanksgiving often evokes disparate images: of the warm family gathering and the contentious afternoon stuffing down mounds of mashed potatoes to keep from blurting what you really want to say to Uncle Ralph. But whether you miss them like crazy or will enjoy a little holiday quiet this year, our families — biological and created — are the foundations of our lives. In honor of that, here are some favorite books that celebrate what it means to be part of a family, in various, often hilarious, ways...

To: My kid cousins, who more than deserve to go on adventures with characters who look like them
From: Jordan Ifueko, author of Raybearer

To: All my friends who care about the future, and how we can gently, and with compassion for each other, reconcile with the past to create a better world...

This year, perhaps especially, it is easy to see just how small and interconnected our world really is. 2020, despite its myriad challenges, dramas, heartaches, tragedies, and hard-won battles, has proven to be one when historically marginalized voices received the wider attention, amplification, and critical ear they have always deserved (and have had to fight so vehemently for). So it is with books, too. Increasingly, readers are turning to tomes written by authors who share backgrounds, perspectives, and stories different from their own.

Research from psychologists has shown a link between reading literary fiction and the deepening of a reader’s capacity for empathy, as it allows us to better understand other human beings — as well as what it may be like for them to navigate our shared world...

Emma Donoghue's luminous story of three days in an Irish maternity ward at the height of the Great Flu is a tale of death and life, of history, of feminism, of determination, of all kinds of love, painted in gorgeous prose that at times made me stop to copy down passages — not just because of their beauty but because of the heart-in-the-throat feeling of being reminded that, in the midst of such brutal reality, can be stunning moments of joy...

In 2020, the year of endless doomscrolling (and doom-reading), it is sometimes easy to despair. Through that lens, the theme that encapsulates the best nonfiction books of the year is “ending”: The end of the human epoch via global warming. The end of privacy via invasive tech. The end of our country via autocracy, oligarchy, racism and white supremacy, and economic inequality. The final end of the universe. But there is also a less cynical thread running through these books: they can represent turning points. These books inform us, they give us the sometimes-uncomfortable knowledge necessary to understand our past, inform our present, and actively create our future...

It’s almost All Hallows’ Eve: Light some candles, play some mood music, and summon your inner Willow for a deep communion with the history and practices of witchcraft. From green witchcraft to colonial history to friendship charms for underage spell-casters, these books demonstrate that witchcraft is smart, feminist, green, fun, and not wearing a pointy black hat.

Both a memoir and a survey of witchcraft, Grossman guides the reader through the ways witches have been received throughout history and portrayed in modern popular culture. A great introduction for folks seeking to expand their own spiritual practice...

Whether you opt for poetry, horror, fantasy, environmental nonfiction, or folklore, the 14 new books below will expand and enrich your understanding of the diverse Native communities in the United States, and introduce you to phenomenal writers whose work is art, activism, and wholly astonishing.

Bookseller Tove H. insists that sharing too much of the plot will spoil this deliciously creepy novel, but we’ll say this: Four Native men are being stalked by an ancient entity bent on punishing them for a childhood infraction against hunting traditions...